How to Maintain your Blog during Vacation

BY Ben Lang Dec. 24, 2009 51 Comments

One major dilemma that small bloggers encounter is vacation. A critical aspect of blogging is supplying content and continuing to maintain the blog. What should a “one man” blogger do during that time to keep up? If no new content is posted and the blogger stops maintaining the site, traffic will go down.However, I think it’s also important for bloggers to take breaks from their blog in order to rejuvanate and come up with new ideas.

Some solutions:

Door #1: invite guest bloggers to post in your absence.
Door #2: prepare content beforehand and post it quickly during vacation whenever you catch some WiFi time. *Some commenters reminded me that you could schedule posts, which is another solution.
Door #3: set aside a portion of your vacation to blog.
Door #4: pay somebody to maintain your blog.
Door #5: leave your blog without content and watch it lose readers, value and traffic.

My own solution:

Since I’d rather not entirely rely on guest bloggers, and I don’t intend to spend my vacation online, and I want to keep my blog’s readers and value, I’ll go with Door #2. I’ve prepared a few posts that will be ready to quickly post at different points of my vacation and I could schedule them if I know I won’t have WiFi.

Online Business

http://www.glosonblog.com Gloson

Great post, Ben!

About Door #2, you can actually schedule your blog posts to be posted at a later date in WordPress.

And it won’t appear until then. So you don’t need to find any WiFi access to post your posts .

http://fwebde.com/ Eric B.

That’s what I love about WordPress. Unfortunately, that has stopped working for me (and many others) in version 2.9. I guess I’ll have to wait for version 2.9.1

http://ben-lang.com Ben Lang

Oh thats unfortunate, I guess you’ll just have to stick with door number 2 for now if scheduled posts don’t work for you.

http://ben-lang.com Ben Lang

Hey Gloson,
Hah I actually forgot about that! Thanks for the tip. By the way I’m off skiing for a few days so I won’t be able to interview you for a bit. Best regards.

http://shirleyszone.com Shirley

Yup, Gloson is right, you can schedule your posts with WordPress without needing internet access again to post it.

So for me I would go with Door #2 and schedule my posts with WordPress but won’t need internet access to post it .

Great post, Ben.
.-= Shirley´s last blog post: Wishing You All A Merry Christmas And A Happy New Year! =-.

http://ben-lang.com Ben Lang

Yeah he is right, I guess the reason that I don’t do that is because I like to see the posts for real (not in preview mode) and double check everything, and then tweet and share the post that way its more effective. Happy holidays and thanks!

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Karl Foxley

Scheduled posting is the way to go Ben. Happy holidays.
.-= Karl Foxley´s last blog post: How To Mask Your Affiliate Links Using PHP =-.

http://ben-lang.com Ben Lang

Yeah I added that in (forgot about it) As I said above though I’m not into it because I like to double check when it goes live and share it soon after to make it affective.. Happy holidays to you too!

Karl Foxley

That’s cool, we all have our systems and ways of doing things that work for us. I have my posts set to auto-tweet, just easier for me.
.-= Karl Foxley´s last blog post: Possibly The Greatest CommentLuv Update To Date =-.

http://ben-lang.com Ben Lang

Yeah, I had that and it stopped working… Some people (like you) are just more effecient than others lol

http://internetjobscams.blogspot.com chandan

Hi Ben I wish you Merry Christmas and prosperous new year. Hope you are enjoying today.
.-= chandan´s last blog post: Wish you Merry Christmas =-.

http://ben-lang.com Ben Lang

Hi Chandan, happy holidays to you too, enjoy!

http://starton.us/ Start On

I schedule posts too, but i can’t resist the temptation of posting, so in a long vacation, i tend to end up on the cyber cafes or my laptop, typing new posts
.-= Start On´s last blog post: Top Searched Keywords For 2009 =-.

http://ben-lang.com Ben Lang

Hi, I guess we fall into the same category Scheduling posts can be great for some people but seeing the post live, sharing it, and doublechecking is so tempting which is why I do the same thing as you.

http://WarrenContreras.com Warren Contreras

I take my NetBook with me and almost all my vacations are within the condo system we own and come with WII-FI included. Anything outside, I check for access as part of the decision process to go there, which is why I don’t take cruises anymore. ($4 a day plus 75 cents a minute is gouging)
.-= Warren Contreras´s last blog post: Image Juice from Retweets =-.

http://ben-lang.com Ben Lang

That’s funny because right now I am on a netbook in a condo replying to comments and checking up on my blog. Thanks for commenting Warren, and happy holidays!

http://entrepreneurenclave.com Matt

Hey Ben, good post. I think I’m with you on Door #2, with scheduled posts. That’s strange they’ve broken for some people, though, hopefully that get’s resolved.

PS. Netbooks are cool, I’ve been using mine a lot too.
.-= Matt´s last blog post: @MatthewNeer, The Skateboardin’ Entrepreneur =-.

http://ben-lang.com Ben Lang

Hey Matt, cool. Yeah netbooks are amazing

http://whatawebsite.org/ Will

Hi Ben,

Hope you’re enjoying the holidays – you’ve put forward some pretty sensible and convincing arguments here … but so has Denis!

I follow Alexa rankings pretty closely ( your BlogEngage guess looks a good one to me)and am very interested to see whether some of those beginning to suffer from current non-activity will bounce back quickly or not. I suspect they will.

Post scheduling obvously makes sense at this time of year – and I think commenters understand a lack of response … for at least a week or so.

Christmas Cheers to you & yours
Will
P.S: Cool & positive video idea in your sidebar
.-= Will´s last blog post: Brianwave – The Alexa Ranking Contest =-.

http://ben-lang.com Ben Lang

Hey Will,
I am enjoying the holidays! We’ll definitely see about Alexa, suprisingly mine keeps going down by a lot Thanks for your take also.

Happy holidays to you too!

http://www.directsaleswebmarketing.com/send-me-your-best-articles-ill-send-you-my-best-traffic/ Dennis Edell

And what of all the miffed commenters all annoyed at no replies to their comments?

Honestly, I see hundreds of these posts, especially this time of year and I’m here to say…

You should suffer absolutely NO long term effects whatsoever, assuming you were somewhat popular to begin with.

Since I’ve started seriously blogging, I’ve been hospitalized twice for 2+months each time. The ONLY thing I “lost” was some day to day traffic due to me not blog commenting daily as I normally do.

Subscribers actually went up boith times; don’t ask me how on that one, but I’m just sayin’ LOL

I’m not saying MONTHS is a good idea, especially not to do it on purpose, but I am saying – vacation, relax, recoup, and rejoin.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog post: The Final “Official” Post For DSWM! =-.

http://ben-lang.com Ben Lang

Thanks for your take, well for me when I post my traffic spikes up and when I dont have any new content my traffic dies down. Which is why I dont like not having new content.

As I said above though I understand that taking a break, relaxing etc. is very important, thats what I’m doing right now As Gary Vaynerchuk says family is the more important than blogging, business, social media… Which I definitely agree with. Thanks again Dennis.

http://www.directsaleswebmarketing.com/send-me-your-best-articles-ill-send-you-my-best-traffic/ Dennis Edell

I understand all that, and of course (unless you’re a ninja with SEO) your traffic is going to dip when you’re not there, that just makes sense.

What I’m basicallt saying is…and? so? Just pick up where you left off and it will pick right back up again.

I’m convinced that one of the biggest reasons bloggers burn out early is “worries” like this.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog post: Again – Pick My New Domain Names With A chance To Win $10! =-.

http://ben-lang.com Ben Lang

Ok I guess I understand, I am a “new” blogger so I have yet to learn about these types of “worries”… Thanks for your advice though I’m really going to take it into hand.

http://www.directsaleswebmarketing.com/send-me-your-best-articles-ill-send-you-my-best-traffic/ Dennis Edell

I did mention the ninja thing for a reason, I just didn’t have time last time to get to it. You might find it interesting though…

The SEO I go to with questions went on vacation for like a month, when he returned, just about EVERYTHING had gone UP.

Don’t ask me, I only understand the basics of SEO myself, but here’s his post explaining it…

http://www.nicolasprudhon.com/seo-help/what-would-happen-to-your-site-if-you-were-absent
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog post: Again – Pick My New Domain Names With A chance To Win $10! =-.

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http://techfreakstuff.com Tech-Freak Stuff

Thanks for such a nice advice. My exams are going on and I am taking a small break from my blog and I can see the drop in my reader count!
I will surely follow your advice during my next Exams and Vacations
.-= Tech-Freak Stuff´s last blog post: You have done a lot of Social Media Marketing Mistakes! Now Stop Repeating those.. =-.

http://ben-lang.com Ben Lang

Your welcome, that’s what happens to me when I take a break but for some lucky people it doesnt… Good luck!

http://blogidy.com Social Media Guide

I had the same dilemma myself, with my christmas time holiday. As I could not answer the comments I was bound to get I just decided not to update the blog for a while.

I believe that true blue readers do not even quit reading if you take a week off from a normal blogging interval
.-= Social Media Guide´s last blog post: Simple Blog SEO Tips for Beginners =-.

http://www.ben-lang.com Ben Lang

Sorry to hear that, it’s quite a difficult dilemma. Yes your true readers will continue to follow your blog, but new visitors probably will see that you haven’t posted in a while, or replied to comments which could prevent them from following your blog.

http://www.tlmarketing.net Tom – marketing tips

Good tips! If you let your blog go and not post every day, you will definitely lose readers and vacations used to be a problem for me until I purchased a laptop.

When I know when I´m going away, I write posts beforehand and then just publish one per day.
.-= Tom – marketing tips´s last blog post: Writing A Perfect Forum Signature =-.

http://ben-lang.com Ben Lang

Thanks! That’s what I think. I now have even more of a dilemma coming up though, midterms. I want to do well on these tough tests, and I know that requires a lot of time and studying. I’m thinking about talking a two week break from my blog for these tests, I just can’t decide if its worth it…

Ruben | OurBlogLog

Will definitely not walk through Door 5 , Where do I find the plugin to automatically schedule blog posts, any ideas?

http://ben-lang.com Ben Lang

Hey Ruben,
There is no plugin for scheduling posts to my knowledge, it’s a built in feature in Worpdress. Edit the post, look in the top right corner where you publish the post, and schedule it’s publishing date for later. Got it?

http://zemalf.com Antti Kokkonen

I wrote about similar subject last year after I took a longer break from the blog. The best solution, and not just for vacation, but for the normal weeks as well, is to have what I call a blog post buffer.

Blog post buffer means that when you write posts, write the first draft, polish and instead of publishing it right away, you schedule it to the end of the queue. Many successful bloggers, like Darren Rowse of Problogger have said that they’ve used a buffer of 10 posts or two weeks. This way you can easily “abandon” your blog for a while if needed, unplanned or planned. If you need a vacation, you can make a burst and make the buffer larger. Squeeze in some guest posts and your golden.

Taking this method into use requires a bit of effort in the beginning. But if you just make it so that you write two posts on one go, scheduling them in the queue, after ten sessions, you have a nice buffer.

This method is also good for freeing up the week, by writing all posts for the week on one or two gos during the weekend and then use the week to plan new posts, promote the ones that pop up to the blog from the queue, etc. Plus you’ll probably end up planning the posts better and end up creating good series of posts for the week, so you don’t just free up some time, but improve the quality of your blog as well.
.-= Antti Kokkonen´s last blog post: Now You Can Start a Mailing List for Free! =-.

http://ben-lang.com Ben Lang

That’s great advice. Many people have recommended scheduled posting and I agree now, that it’s probably the most practical thing to do in order to keep up your readership and traffic. Thanks!

Serge@CarTransporters

Okay so you lose some traffic while your out on vacation but you can get it all back once you start up again.

http://ben-lang.com Ben Lang

Yeah, traffic is less important than readership though, if your readers are discouraged to come back to your blog than you will lose something valuable.

Sarah Harell

Nice Post Ben!
I don’t really like the idea of bringing out my laptop when I am in the swimming pool! So no to Door#3! haha

http://ben-lang.com Ben Lang

Haha thats a good point!

http://webmaster-success.com Kharim

Great tips. I also wrote an article about blogging and vacation as well
.-= Kharim´s last blog post: Work While On Vacation =-.

http://ben-lang.com Ben Lang

Cool, I’ll be sure to check out.

http://thebeelergroup.com Lake of the Ozarks Real Estate

Dude, I know this post is a bit older but looking through the comments I wasn’t sure if you’d found about about postlater.net or socialoomph. Along with delaying publication of your WordPress post – you can also schedule tweets to tweet about it and link your WordPress account to Twitter so the posts go automatically.

http://ben-lang.com Ben Lang

Sure, good points, I’m not such a fan of automation but those definitely are the best solutions for it.

Cruising

Some good tips. It’s always hard to maintain a blog during those longer trips.

http://ben-lang.com Ben Lang

Thanks, agreed. About to leave for vacation, going to be tough.

http://www.hotphuketvillas.com/ Devix@phuket villas

I agree with you to choose Door # 2: prepare beforehand content and post it Quickly During vacation Whenever you catch Some WiFi time, because I think it all takes preparation as well in running the blog while on vacation. Thanks for sharing…

by : Villas in Phuket

http://ben-lang.com Ben Lang

Glad to hear that you agree, that’s exactly what I’ve been doing this summer

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How to Maintain your Blog during Vacation

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