Once again I have found myself spending more time with the family and off line which is a good thing personally but the effects of this time off on my blog have not been good.  What I want to talk about in this blog post is what I could have done differently so I would not have had the traffic lose and other side effects.

Most of us in the blogging world are part time bloggers but as we all know blogging can easily require full time attention.  So what happens when you don’t have or can’t make the time to get to you blog.  Your traffic drops your comments go done your progress drops off.  Take a look at my Google Analytics and let this be a lesson that you learn from me vs. trying it yourself.  About middle of October I start spending a lot less time on everything.

trafficloss

My time away from my blog was not planned, I really just lost my motivation and found myself wanting to spend my time doing other things.  I was able to completely remodel my bathroom so it wasn’t time wasted at least.  I think everyone at some point will have this problem so it is important that you plan ahead for it or you might also find yourself in the same situation.  Another part of the problem is getting back in to my routine.  It seems now I can’t find myself getting back at it like I was before lets hope this changes soon.

All of this damage could have been avoid if I had written and stashed a few articles away for a raining day.  So here it tip number one.

Key # 1  Stock Pile Some Blog Posts for Rainy Days

If I would have had a few blog posts saved I could have either spend 5 minutes to just publish them or better yet schedule them so I would have still had fresh and consistent content on my blog in my absence.  Instead I had a content drought which resulted in a drop off of readers and comments.

Moving forward I am going to make sure to start to write in batches again this was something that I was doing about 2-3 months ago which really helped me always have content ready or close to ready so posting something was a so much of a task.  I will also start to build and keep a stash of 5-10 blog posts that way since my goal is 3 post a week I would always have enough content to take a break of 2-3 weeks.

Key #2  Let your readers know what is going on!

I have seen some others like Doug Dillard announce that they are going to be taken some time off.  You can see his announcement here for and example.  This will at least let your audience know what is going on rather then have them coming back everyday to the same blog post.  Of course this only works if you plan to take the time off not my case.  I just go lazy and didn’t put forth the effort that I had been doing.  I did post a few blog post later to let people know I was having some motivational issues and talked a little bit about how I was going to work thought them which help at least with letting everyone know I was ok just facing some personal issue with my blog.

Key #3 Recharge and Come Back Strong

Taking a break is all about giving yourself some much needed time away so you can come back swinging.  Part of my problem with my time off was it was unplanned and I still worried about what I was not doing so I didn’t really recharge.   I still feel a little disappointed with myself that I just stop doing what was working after a couple of good months of hard work and dedication.  Right now I am dealing with the damage control over the last couple months and trying to reestablish my efforts so I can continue to grow this blog.  One of my biggest problems I think is I was spending early hours and late nights working on it which overtime will burn you out.  I need to find some larger chunks of time and be more focus but not spend every day morning and night on things or I will just burn complete out.

So the moral of the story is to make sure you have some extra content ready so it can appear as thought you still actively blogging if your going to be away for awhile.  If you don’t have content and know your going to not be doing something you normally do make sure to let your reads know so they are aware.

Related posts:

  1. What’s Your Blog Strategy Part 2
  2. Make Your Blog Stand Out And Look Professional
  3. Reader Pulse – Share Your Blog Advice
  4. How to Accomplish Goals for Your Blog Business
  5. Month 6 Internet Marketing Blog Business Recap and Review

Filed under: Tips and Advice • blog

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