Photo by NickButcher

As you read this I will be sunning myself for two weeks in sunny Italy.  I thought I would write a post on how to keep your blogs momentum going when you are on holiday (I’m British I go on holiday not vacation).

Why Will A Blog Loose Momentum?

People have an expectation of your content output, if you don’t keep up your side of this bargain (unwritten as it is) , you may be subjected to readership apathy and they will unsubscribe from your RSS feeds or email newsletters.  This will probably effect the end goal of your blog.

You have probably worked damn hard to build your reader base, your don’t want to loose it whilst you are relaxing.

Tell Your Readers

Let your readers know you are offline for a short while, a short post saying you are offline or a quick tweet and you are good to go.

Hi everyone, just in case you missed the point, I am away and will not be posting as frequently, will not be able to moderate your comments or take on new coaching clients.  Please send me an email from the contact page I will pick it up when I get home.

Post Later

The method I used to deliver this post whilst I am away from home is to use the post delay function of WordPress.  This allows me to write and publish a post, but for it to appear live to my readers at a set date in the future.  I have written and post delayed two articles for you whilst I am away.

I discused this function in depth in my blog post Write Now Post Later.

Guest Posts

If you have a large enough following you can probably put out a request to you readership for guest posts.  You can get people to write your content for you (for free!) and publish that instead of your own work when you are away.

A little organisation is required for this process you need to put the call out, get the posts and pre-publish them before you go away unless you are trusting enough to give the keys to your blog to the guest poster to login write and publish while you are away.

Be warned they may have a party and trash the joint you know what bloggers are like.

Hire Writers

If you can afford it why not hire some writers to get some content written for you.  In the same way as a guest post you need to organise this a couple of weeks in advance get it written and published before you go.

The Problogger jobs board is a good way to advertise for writers.

Reduce Frequency

I have a posting plan of three posts per week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  The thought of writing six posts whilst preparing for my trip did not appeal so I went for a reduction in posting frequency, during my break you will get two posts, one each Wednesday.

This still keeps my blog ticking over without the stress on me to get content produced and uploaded.  It may not seem so, but I spend a lot of time on each post, researching, writing and honing until I am happy.

Close Down Certain Aspects of Your Blog

Another thing to do is stop certain sections of aspects of your blog.  Here at WP Dude I have stopped all paid advertising, stopped taking any new clients from my wordpress coaching practise and setup an email autoresponder to anyone trying to contact me via email.

Bon Voyage

That’s it from me, see you when I get back.

Wish You Were Here – love the WP Dude