11 July 2011

To Blog or Not to Blog While on Vacation

Summer time... and the livin' is eeeeaasyyy... right? But we have just 2 short months in Norway that we call summer and kids are in vacation. The weather gets autumny (cool word, isn't it?) a day or two before the school year starts and that's it. But oh, how we make use of those two sweet months - boats in the sea, fishing, diving, swimming, sunbathing, long bright days and carefree clothes. I bet that here, in Southern Norway we could do just fine without the popular vacations in South Europe. 

As you already know, we've had an awesome trip planned to travel up North without a strict plan and long before we set on the road I started wondering what to do exactly with my blog while I was away. To tell you the truth, it didn't take much thought and I quickly figured out that I would be blogging on the way! I wanted to make you a part of this amazing journey and I love it that according to the survey going on in the past few days, you too want to know more about Scandinavia. Another thing I love is coincidences!




Anyway, this whole summer-trip-vacation got me thinking of possible options and ways to take care of your blog and here is a short list I came up with:

Give your blog a vacation
Lots of bloggers stop writing for the period of their vacation and resume when they return.

pros:
  • as much as your readers love you they need some time off your "voice"; when you come back, time will have done its job and they will probably "hear" you in a different way
cons:
  • your blog might lose popularity and followers
  • your traffic will most probably go down
  • you will have a lot of catching up to do afterwards

Write on the way
Some bloggers prefer to blog while on vacation and that is what I will attempt to do too.

pros:
  • a refreshing way to update your blog with new type of information
  • gives you the opportunity to change your tone and explore new topics, as well as to show yourself in a different light
  • you can stay up to date and have less catching up to do after the vacation
cons:
  • puts you under stress

Invite guest bloggers
I recently talked about guest bloggers and the way they can freshen up your blog and increase its popularity. Inviting guest bloggers for the time of your absence is a very elegant way to keep your readers attention while you are away.

pros:
  • your readers will be amused
  • new approaches and topics will be covered
  • your active blog will be attracting traffic 
  • you can even gain new followers
cons:
  • you won't be there to promote the posts
  • you won't have control over the content posted on your blog

Schedule posts
"If you want a job well done, do it yourself." Scheduling posts is a great option offered by Blogger and a vacation is a perfect reason to make use of it.

pros:
  • you will have taken care of the content to be published
  • your will maintain your traffic levels 
  • you will keep your readers engaged
cons:
  • you might mess up scheduling and not all posts might be published
  • you will have twice as much work before going on vacation (to write all the posts in advance)
  • you will have all the catching up to do after you come back

So, to be precise, I chose not only to blog from the road, but also to have some guest posts and several scheduled posts, so I am implementing 3 of the options. Some bloggers also run retrospective posts, which I don't recommend because of the recent change in Google's policy to consider duplicate content as spam.

Want to know more? Read all articles in the How to Blog Like a Pro series.

So tell me, what do you normally do with your blog while you are on vacation? Do you have other suggestions that you have tried out or plan on trying?

10 comments:

  1. Great post! I've been thinking about this myself for as I'll be on vacation too in early September and somehow having other book bloggers as guests seems like a good idea to me. I wouldn't want to prepare so many posts in advance, and I don't really want to go on a blog hiatus for two weeks either, so this might be a fun alternative.

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  2. Always great words! Also, my button looks amazing on your sidebar :))

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  3. Great summer suggestions, Sonya! When we're away I often have posts ready to publish if I think I'll have little time at the computer. It means extra work before going away, but it's worth, and my friends /readers seem to appreciate it. Happy Summer Vacation! Oh, I am actually launching a new blog today, with new creative focus--I'm very excited about it. In a few weeks I'll be closing Pink Purl. Thanks for visiting me there sometimes. :o)

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  4. Haha, last vacation I abandoned my blog. ;) But since it was only for a week, it wasn't too bad... and I scheduled a post for while I was gone. But I'm thinking that having some guest posters at some point would be fun, and vacation would be a good time to do it!

    I can't wait to hear about your vacation!

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  5. great thoughts! I usually let my readers know that I will be away form my blog for a bit.. I find it to be more restful for me not to be thinking of it...

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  6. Good info. I do try to blog while on vaacation but it does add a lot of stress.

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  7. Very cool! I can't wait to see pictures!!

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  8. I've only been on one real vacation (more than a couple of days) since I started the blog, and I tried to blog every couple of days. It wasn't easy because we were in Mexico, but it was fun to share my adventures of the trip when I could find internet access.

    I can't wait to see the posts from your vacation! Have a great time!

    xo,
    melissa

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  9. Well, I did schedule one post while we were gone, but since the campground had no electricity, it didn't leave me much choice! ;) It actually was a nice break, got me rethinking and new ideas were birthed. However, catching up on the blogs that I follow was quite a challenge... I think I'm almost there... ;) On the other hand, I can't wait to see your photos, they're sure to be amazing! :)

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  10. I'm excited to read your posts from your vacation! I think what you are doing...scheduling, blogging from the road when you can, and having guest posts sounds like the best possible combination. If you did decide to just take a real break from the blog, you wouldn't lose me as a follower though! :)

    I've been thinking about what I should do too; I'm not going on vacation really, but when we move we will lose internet access for a few days (hopefully, not more than that). I think I will probably invite a guest post or two during that time, and if that doesn't work out then just schedule a few posts.

    I love your photo by the way. xo, Mary

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