Still pondering what to get for that expat or future expat on your Christmas list? I thought I’d have some fun with the run-up to Christmas and one of my favorite Christmas ditties. Between now and December 25, I’ll bring you the 12 days of Christmas, shopping-for-expats style.

Each day we’ll focus on one aspect of expat or plan-to-be-expat life.

Ready?

On the Second Day of Christmas, my expat gave to me. . .
Two Blogging Books
And a website for to earn some money.

Book #1: How to Become a Successful Freelance Blogger

Don’t want to maintain your own blog but still want to earn money blogging? Freelance blogging is the answer, and this guide by my friend Paul Cunningham will show you how. Here’s my review.

Learn More about How to Become a Successful Freelance Blogger here.

Book #2: 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, Revised and updated for 2012

If you plan to blog as part or all of your expat portable career, get a jump start with the new, revised and enlarged 31-day plan. Here’s my review of the new version and the original book.

For dramatically better results from your blog, I highly recommend this ebook program. It worked for me! Learn more about it here.

On the Third Day of Christmas. . .

On the third day of Christmas, my expat gave to me
Three Premium Blog Themes,
Two Blogging Books
And a website for to earn some money.

If you plan to support yourself overseas using a blog, you need to do it professionally and that means using a premium theme. I work regularly with themes from three companies, and I recommend them highly. They all make gorgeous, useful, functional themes.

Whether you plan on offering your services, selling products, offering updated news or displaying your portfolio, you’ll find themes that will work for you from these vendors.

All of them also offer excellent customer support.

Genesis Theme Framework and Child Themes by Studio Press

This is a rock-solid theme framework. That’s really all I need to say about that. . . In addition to the framework, you need a “Child Theme.” That provides the decoration, the look and feel you want for your blog.

Future Expats runs on the Genesis Framework with the Prose Child Theme, in case you were wondering.

See all the Genesis themes here.

Elegant Themes

I’ve built several sites using Elegant Themes. (You can see them here and here if you’re interested. There’s another one in progress here.)

If you’re just starting out or not very technical, an Elegant Theme might be easier to work with than Genesis.

See all the Elegant Themes here.

Woo themes

Woo themes are extremely versatile, and they have the best e-commerce functionality of the three I’m recommending here. So if you’re planning to sell products, this is the theme designer you should be looking at.

They also offer a Full range of pages for any style of website. (Here’s an example of one that’s launching shortly.)

See all the Woo Themes here.

Are you getting some ideas about what to get the expat blogger in your life for Christmas? Leave a comment!