Leaving your blog while you go on vacation is like leaving your baby behind with a sitter. After all of the time you’ve spent nurturing your blog from infancy to maturity, the comparison is not too farfetched. Ideally, you’d like to be able to post from abroad, but not all destinations have Internet access (shocking, but true) and even those that do may not support functions like uploading pictures. Perhaps, you’re going hiking in the Andes or taking a private yacht voyage around the Caribbean. Good luck finding WiFi in either of those spots. Blogging also takes time, and one of the reasons you go on vacation is to be able to spend time with your family, friends, or significant other.
So, what’s a blogger to do? You want quality content to appear at least once a day (or on your regular schedule) on your blog (for SEO reasons and because your readers have come to expect it.) Here are some ways you can make sure your blog is taken care of while you’re away:
- Write Ahead. Probably the best solution to blogging on vacation is to write a week’s worth (or two weeks’ worth) of evergreen posts ahead of time and schedule them to post daily. Most blogging platforms allow you to schedule posts to automatically publish on a pre-determined date and time. Although this ensures an even tone and quality of content on your site, it’s sometimes tough to pull off amid all of your other pre-vacation responsibilities. Another downfall could be that you miss out on major news in your blog industry.
- Recruit Guest Bloggers. Recruiting guest bloggers is a good way to reach out and forge relationships with other bloggers in your niche. It’s also a good way to increase your readership, as most guest bloggers will say something on their own blog about writing for yours. To look for volunteers, post a request two or three weeks ahead of your trip asking for anyone willing to write a post for you while you’re away. In exchange, offer them an opportunity to link to their own blog or other project. Ask for the topic ahead of time to make sure it’s a good fit for your blog. You’ll also want to collect these guest blog posts before you leave so you can edit them to fit your blog’s style and schedule them to publish while you’re away.
- Re-post Popular Posts. If you have a well-established blog with hundreds (or thousands) of posts, there’s nothing wrong with picking six or seven of your most popular ones to re-post while you’re away. If you’ve been writing your blog for several years, it’s likely that these posts will be new to at least the majority of your readership.
- Relax … Just a Little Bit. If you’re the type of blogger that promotes each and every post on Facebook, complete with a personalized note, tweets about your blog and submits at least a post a day to one of a number of social media platforms, good for you! That’s what connecting with your readers is all about. However, there’s nothing wrong with putting that part of your blogging effort on hold for the week (or even two) that you’ll be on vacation. For those that are a bit more worried, there are WordPress plugins that will allow social media efforts to stay up-to-date with your posts when they’re pushed live.
Leaving your blog while you go on vacation doesn’t have to be traumatic. With a little planning and a little help, your baby will be just fine while you’re away. You’re on vacation after all, enjoy it!
Sandy M. is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments. WriterAccess is powered by ideaLaunch.
