7 Ways to Keep Your Blog Working While You Are Vacationing

Yup. That’s my foot on the picture. On a side note, it was taken before I cut it up while stepping on what I have to assume was a shell. Although I’ve been telling everyone it was a stingray because that’s sounds so much cooler. I’m a bit accident prone.

Behind my foot is the Gulf of Mexico. I am writing this post while comfortably sitting back and soaking up some much needed Vitamin D with my wife Aimee. I highly recommend it. Not hanging out with my wife at the beach. That would be weird. I mean find someone you like and hang out with them. Moving on…

Fortunately my company is set up in such a way that I can skedaddle for a week without the place blowing up.

But what about my blog? There is no one here to cover me. I did have a guest blogger a few posts ago but it was my dog. And I hope I’m not blowing the ending for you, but it was really me that wrote that post and not Cali.

This is my little place where I get to empty my brain twice a week and hope that someone gains some value from it.

It’s just me.

So, when thinking about how I wanted to handle my blog while I was away, I came up with a few solid options that I would like to share with you and then I’m heading back into the water. Deal?

1. Schedule Your Posts. There is no rule that says that you have to write your post in real time. In fact, this is probably one of the better options while you are away. A week or two before your vacation, spend a little time writing additional posts that you can then schedule to go live while you are away. Using a tool like Hootsuite you can even schedule a few Tweets announcing the post once published. Just be aware that if you completely shut off while away you may miss some interactions with your readers who either leave comments or respond to your Tweets which doesn’t look good.

2. Blog About Your Vacation. Why not consider your blog a glorified public journal for the week? Talk about your experience away. For example, if you are a health blogger why not talk about how to eat healthy while on vacation? There are tons of ways that you can connect your vacation to your blog all while continuing to help people and get your message out there!

3. Get a Babysitter. Bring on a guest blogger. In this case, I wouldn’t use your dog. But why not bring someone in that may have a different perspective? It’s a win-win-win! You win because you get to enjoy your vacation. Your readers win because they gain knowledge thanks to your willingness to pass the torch. And your guest blogger wins because they are introduced to a new audience!

4. Repurpose Some Older Content. If you don’t want to spend too much time coming up with ideas or writing a post from scratch, why not take an older post that perhaps received a lot of feedback. Or maybe a post where there have been some developments since you originally wrote it that you can now point out. It could take you half as much time to write and get twice as much value out of it!

5. Video Blog. Take 5 minutes out of your vacation and create a quick video blog. It’s a great medium to share your content and it takes just a few minutes to do…unless you are a perfectionist like me which is why I don’t video blog. Bonus points if you can create a video blog interviewing some of the locals and tie it into your subject matter!!

6. Best of Other Blogs. Let some of your blogging heroes do the writing for you. Put aside some of your favorite blog posts that you have read over the course of the week. Or you could even scour Twitter for some links and do a quick write up on each. It’s a “while I was away best of” type of post. It’s not only a great way to cross blogging off of your todo list for the week, but a great way to tip your hat to those that you follow.

7. Don’t. Just don’t blog for the week. The world won’t end. Somehow the Internet will figure out how to carry on with one less blog post. It’ll be tough, but we’ll get through it. Enjoy your vacation and when you get back your readers will still be there. Those that won’t allow you to take a week off without an explanation aren’t the types of readers you are going to want long term anyway.

That should do it. Hope that helps! Well, there is a girly drink in a carved out pineapple with my name on it. Feel free to share some wisdom and entertain yourselves in the comments below while I enjoy the rest of my vacation and I will be back in a few days. You hear that spammers? The store is unattended! If there ever was a time to leave a link to the offensive site of your choosing, this is it!