By: Kelly Smith; Photos by Brooke Dennis and Justin Hackworth for Alt Summit
Everyone needs a vacation. They refresh the soul, spark inspiration, and foster healthy relationships. Yet, in the world of online hustle they seem impossible. While down time for most, bloggers tend to capitalize on holiday celebrations and work through most holiday events.
Five Questions to Ask to Avoid Unplanned Absences
But, if you want to avoid burnout and plan a little vacation, it is imperative to ask a few questions.
- Would quality time offline benefit my blog/business?
- What are my vacation goals?
- What time of year is my traffic naturally at its lowest?
- Will creating extra content to post ahead of time be realistic?
- Will scheduled posts distract from my offline enjoyment?
Of course, these questions are just a starting point for you to decide what is best not only personally but professionally, as well.
Announcing An Online Break
If you decide that scheduling posts will not significantly benefit your blog/business while you are away, it is important to tell your audience what is going on and why you are away.
Here are three bloggers who made that announcement really well:
- Haley of Design Improvised snuck in one more DIY while making her announcement.
- Melanie of You Are My Fave let everyone know she was on a moving hiatus.
- Gilit of The Bannerie let her clients as well as her Instagram followers know that she was on vacation with her kids.
If you know of any other sites that notified their audiences of a little time away include a link in the comments bellow.
Handling Unplanned Absences
Sometimes our intentions get ahead of us or life gets a little crazier than we anticipated. And that’s ok! We’re human. Our community doesn’t expect us to be perfect. So what do you do if went offline unintentionally? Drop in and give your community an update. If you don’t know when, or if, you’ll be returning to a schedule they grew accustomed to, be honest. They want to make sure you’re OK.
Here are a couple of bloggers who have taken unplanned absences or changed their posting schedule and explained their absence really well:
- Joy of Frock Files has a few projects she’s working on as well as a new job so she let her readers know where they can find her consistently.
- Jenny of Hank and Hunt took a break from blogging, but not from creating or sharing online–Pinterest and Instagram are her jam. She wrote a post announcing the decision and still checks back in, a year later with a how’s she doing post.
Happy vacationing!
