Blog Vacation Strategies
I’ve just come off my third vacation this year. With each attempt to take time off while maintaining my web presence, I’ve employed a different strategy. My idea of vacations typically involves activities and environments where computer time and web access are limited or all-but-impossible (camping, hiking, white-water rafting).
- 1. Automation. My first vacation this year was a week long spiritual retreat — a Beltane Gathering — where the Grid of modern life is virtually non-existent. Battery-operated electricity, at best — not enough to power a laptop for more than a few hours, even if a satellite web connection was in the mix. Using Post Scheduling/ Publish On function, I was able to maintain my editorial posting schedule.
Cons: I’m not there to moderate responses. I wasn’t entirely “free” because my thoughts wandered to “Did the posts go through OK? Was there a major typo or formatting error I didn’t catch? Are people wondering why I’m not moderating their comments? How much backtracking and catching up are going to be required when I get back?”
- 2. Wifi Nomad. My second vacation was a two-week trip to another city, with normal everyday access to the Grid of modern lifestyle. I decided to “work mobile” — essentially maintaining a limited version of my work schedule from a different location.
Cons: A working vacation is NOT a real vacation. It’s living somewhere else. Being in a different environment can throw a big glitch in the flow of your normal routine. If you’re going to go this route, I advise stockpiling material to work with — have drafted posts ready to go with little editing; limit your online activities to moderating and responding to comments and answering emails.
- 3. Disappear. Do nothing. Simply stop blogging.
Cons: Blog silence — obvious lack of new material or activity. I do wince a little bit when thinking of new subscribers waiting to get at a free download.
Surprisingly, Blogging Vacation Strategy #3 works best for me. The hands-down winner.
- just NOT blogging is a real vacation
- traffic, conversion, and subscription rates did not significantly suffer by any means
- less activity on my end meant less required follow-up; I really only had to worry about email
- I’m probably not THAT popular; I was happy to see that a few readers did notice my absence and contacted me “just wondering” where I was and if I was OK — but that was a full six days in
Many people use guest bloggers to hold down the fort — but, sorry, the idea of anyone playing around in my dashboard while I’m not there to supervise is too much anxiety. I prefer to employ guest posts for my busy weeks — when I’m flying around spinning more plates than I planned on and see that editorial schedule coming on fast…
I come back to blogging with a new sense of direction — fresh ideas are abundant — but what kills me every time is getting back into my work flow. You know, the day in/day out habits that I run like a hamster in my wheel.
Re-gaining that momentum is the hardest part. How do you get your groove back? Care to share it with the class?
Want to Capture More Subscribers? Here’s what works for me.
Slade Roberson is an intuitive counselor, ATP®, professional blogger, and the author of Shift Your Spirits, Automatic Intuitive Response, and the PageCoach Problogging Tutorial Series. Slade on Blogging shares behind-the-screens internet marketing, self-publishing, and blogging strategies with other personal development writers, coaches, and healing arts practitioners.
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13 Responses to “Blog Vacation Strategies”
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Some nice ideas and caveats here, Slade. Welcome back.
Here’s the way I see it: a blog fast is like a food fast. Slow to go in, slow to come out. Coming out, take it nice and easy; at first, do what you feel is necessary, and then start playing with your options beyond necessity as you get back into your groove.
Christopher,
Digging the Fasting metaphor, man — great way to think of it!
Well, considering that I never had a blogging groove to begin with, it’s kind of hard for me to get into any sort of groove.
I’ve tried setting up a certain topic for a certain day, but, um, no, that didn’t work out, because I was denying myself experience outside… and that’s not very pragmatic for me, now is it?
Right now, I’m working on anti-groove. When the inspiration hits, I write it down (I’ve taken to carrying note cards in my back pocket) and I clear out the cards at the end of the day… Of course, my inspiration is rarely about blogging right now, but my system is anarchy, and it seems to be working well. Of course, your own mileage will most certainly be different… my goal isn’t number of readers, so much as to get my own thoughts down on “paper,” and have people tell me better ways to go about things.
In fact… I think I’ll use up one of those note cards now… this is inspiration in itself… “The Anarchist’s Organizer.”
Glad to see that you’re back, though. Nothing ‘felt’ wrong, but you were certainly missed.
Adam,
You missed me? Nice — I think that even further proves my point — being missed is definitely a benefit of the AWOL Blogging Vacation Strategy.
Your note card work flow sounds like a practical strategy I can definitely identify with — I write entire books by accumulating and arranging index cards.
I also use a few other “brain dumping” methods I call Master Lists and Buckets. I’ll have to write those up and share.
Thanks for welcoming me back and helping me break the thin layer of virtual frost forming on my WP Dashboards with the warm breath of conversation.
I missed you - but I also knew you were chillin’… great outlining of the strategies too.
Any suggestions if one is considering a serious 1 - 2 month holiday??? I’d love to do #3… but that might just be way too long to leave a blog unattended.
Slade,
Nice to have you back. I wholeheartedly agree on approach #3. It is probably the only way that prevents your site from becoming stale and predictable. I also took the opportunity to revisit your archives… was definitely worth it.
Phew, I thought something happened to you! Slade, from the looks of your 3 strategies, I can definitely see it’s alignment based on the growth of one’s particular blog. If it’s in the teething stage, automation will ensure the regular posts. Readers are less inclined to comment so there’ll naturally be lesser comments to moderated.
During the growing stage, where readers are more active, you’ll have more comments to review and they’ll also be more tolerant when it comes to posting. In the last stage, where you’ve build a loyal stream of readers, you literally had them waiting for your blog posts because you’ve build a rapport and post quality that the readers will find it distasteful to unsubscribe just because you’re not posting. I don’t know about others, but you certainly had me hankering after your articles.. haha.
I’ve not had a vacation for some time but if I ever do, it’s likely to be automation. Geez, does it give a clue as to which stage my blog is at right now?
Cheers,
Ellesse
Pfffft - I missed you in, oh, a day. I just didn’t want to appear needy.
K-L,
One to Two MONTHS would be pushing it
Ask yourself in what capacity will you be absent? Could your absence itself BE a temporary topic or source of material?
Looking at your posting schedule, you could easily strip down to once a week and be FINE. I’d aim for an absolute, absolute minimum of one new post every other week if you want to keep it floating; one new post per month if you’re beyond desperate.
Here’s what I might do if I was going to try that:
– define a time-period and create a topical concept or special series (maybe think of it as a temporary editorial schedule…)
– round up some contributing/ guest bloggers — early, if possible
– find some newsletter publishers who allow republishing (or go dig through some article banks)
– stockpile some article material in advance (cull through drafts that never quite happened, create a simple series, etc )
– re-present links highlighting some of your favorite posts
– re-work or re-run content from the bottom of your blog archives, with some kind of “tweak” to avoid duplication penalties
If your goal was only to publish one post a month, you could quickly pad a month with 2 re-print articles from other authors, and a link-heavy post or a revisit of favorites in some topical category — you’ve easily filled out a month of minimum blogging. Doing this for a 2 month duration could technically require you only to write TWO new posts in advance.
That’s only a few days worth of your normal work flow — that’s incredibly do-able.
Ellesse,
What a cool insight — I totally think you’re right about the “stages” — that makes a lot of sense to me. It also seems to me that the newer your blog is, the more likely you are to have more energy for creating content. This is why I recommend establishing an expectation of fewer posts per week. The burn-out happens later (and it will…)
A First Time Burn-out cycle SUX — but don’t panic. I’ve become aware of my cycles and actually schedule my blogging vacations purposefully to allow for them.
It’s good to step back, reload, and come back when you feel ready. My basic philosophy is Don’t Post Just to Be Posting — you know?
My creativity is trained by years of school and a quarter-based University system — I regroup every three months and treat it like a new phase…
Vitor,
I actually DID see more visitation and exploration of the archives. It’s something to keep in mind.
I’m looking at ways to re-invigorate older posts. Because of exponential growth patterns, you always have more new-ish subscribers than long-term readers. So you’re constantly aware that there’s more “buried” content that the vast majority of readers are accessing.
Lola,
You missed me in only a day?!
You must miss me a lot then. Sweet…
Great advice, as per… I’m thinking if life did conspire and I found myself with a month or two up my sleeves of just chillin’… I’d go down to one post a week and take your advice re. guest posts etc…
in fact, I’m thinking of cutting back on my posting schedule anyway - going for more quality and less quantity.