Taking Your Blog on the Road
Sunday, January 20th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
Me: “Oh, hey! How’s it going? Haven’t seen you in a while.”
Blogsolid: “Hmph.”
Me: “You look great. Have you lost weight? Wait, don’t tell me… It’s your header?”
Blogsolid: “Nice try. It’s the exact same random header I had before you left on your little holiday.”
Me: “Ohhh, I see - you’re upset that I left you here all alone?”
Blogsolid: “Without so much as a guest blogger! Why did you not invite me to go along?”
Me: “Don’t be silly, bloggers don’t take their blogs on holiday.”
Blogsolid: “Oh yeah? ALL the cool blogs are travelling. Scott Hansen just took his blog to Tokio, Bangkok and Amsterdam!”
Me: “That’s redicu… What? He did?”
So… Should you take your blog on the road?
In recent a thought-provoking article about boosting your creative process, Brian Clark of Copyblogger says this in favour of travelling:
One of the worst things we do to ourselves in terms of creativity is to stay within the realm of the familiar.
So, you want to take your readers on the journey with you, but you don’t own a laptop. What to do? In an article called 3+4 Tips for the Travelling Blogger, Daily Blog Tips shares some interesting advice:
Don’t be afraid to use pen and paper. You may or may not have access to a computer on your trip. As it turns out, though, it’s possible to manually etch your writing onto paper with a stylus. I know it sounds crazy, but it actually works.
It may surprise you that Problogger’s Darren Rowse advises that despite the advantages of taking your blog on vacation, it is not good for a holiday - you’ll never rest! In another Problogger article, he JD Roth reported on how a little planning in advance allowed his blog to flourish while he was away on holiday.
It really boils down to 3 options:
- Go on vacation and just try forget about your blog for a while like me. (I do not endorse this idea!)
- Make blogging a part of your holiday and take your readers on your travels like Scott.
- Do thorough planning in advance to keep your blog rocking in your absence like
DarrenJD.
So, what do you think? Is there room in your travel bag to take your blog on the road with you?
Brian Purkiss Says:
January 21st, 2008 at 2:02 am
I guess it depends on the trip and blog.
If it’s a personal blog, blog on the road!
Otherwise, maybe not.
I don’t want to have to be bothered by my blog while I’m on vacation. But that’s just me.
Personally, I have scheduled blog posts. They’re a life saver - your stats really drop when you don’t post. (although I found your blog while you were gone. :-) )
And if my blog was big enough, then I’d try and get some guest bloggers too.
Glad you’re back!
Bitten Says:
January 21st, 2008 at 6:58 am
“In another article, he reported on how a little planning in advance allowed his blog to flourish while he was away on holiday.”
Actually, that was written by a guest blogger, J.D. Roth.
Fun post.
Imar at Blogsolid Says:
January 21st, 2008 at 8:41 am
Oops. Thanks for picking that up, Bitten!
Sean Hodeg Says:
January 21st, 2008 at 8:51 pm
I just got back from Aruba Friday. I wasn’t able to get my blog taken care of before leaving. So, posting didn’t happen. This is a timely article for me. Though on my Illustrator tutorial blog I kept to my once a week posting schedule. I was only on vacation a week so that wasn’t difficult.
I find that to have a vacation I need to disconnect from the internet completely and just lay on the beach with my family. I did however bring a pen and paper and write down some blog post ideas. I didn’t write any full blog posts though. Just a bunch of Titles and ideas. Having a Pen and Paper available didn’t disrupt my vacation at all. Letting go of work obsessions is hard, but important to do on vacation as much as possible in my opinion.
Thanks.
Kosta Kontos Says:
January 31st, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Isn’t blogging ideal for holidays? Our overworked brains yearn to take a break, so we indulge them by hitting the road, leaving our PC’s behind. Yet the geek within us can’t resist our routine techno-fix.
Enter the blog; on the road. That way we feed our hunger without actually doing any “work” per se. Convenient no?
Although I maintain that going on holiday is forgetting what day it is. So be sure not to pay any attention to your blog post dates :-)
Milan Says:
February 9th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Hi, nice post at all ;-) I sent my Blog on vacation as well…
Andrew Says:
May 8th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Personally I love blogging on the road, and I never take my laptop with me! I post Twitter and Blogger updates via email with my cell phone. You can even include photos you take with your phone to appear in your posts. It’s really convenient when you don’t have a digital camera and a computer handy (like at a beach party). The only downside is that it takes forever to type out posts on my phone!
CPG Says:
June 29th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
It’s funny because I always think I’ve travel back in the early 70’s on your blog.
No need for vacation! I can stay home blogging!
;)