Going Away for the Holiday? How to Plan for a Blog Vacation

This time of year adds a few extra items to our “to do” lists…

If you’re planning to take time away from your blog for the holiday, or just for a bit of a vacation, here are some simple ways to plan so you’re ready and your blog keeps rolling along without as much of your focused energy.

Plan for Content, Promotion and Cash Flow

To keep your blog and your business rolling while you’re out exploring the beach or other sunny locations, you need to consider your plan for content, promotion and cash flow – but not necessarily in that order!

Your Cash Flow Plan

What’s your current money mix? 

Does your income come from product sales?  Ad sales?  One on one consulting?  Group workshops or training?

Now consider what happens when you take yourself out of that equation…

How can you keep your cash flow steady?  You’ve got to be able to continue your SALES and your DELIVERY.

Delivery:  How much time are you willing to spend with clients while you’re out on vacation?

If the answer is none, then plan ahead by rescheduling clients, bringing in a trusted colleague (swap vacation times), or pre-recording your trainings.  Or focus on the products that do not require your presence to deliver.

Sales: What’s generating your sales currently?

If you unplug, what are the top things you need to make sure keep running to bring in sales?

Do you need to engage a virtual assistant to promote your posts on social media and keep traffic coming to your website?

Or schedule ahead a great series of emails to drive sales while you’re out?

Create a plan for delivery and sales.  It’s a great time to weave in a holiday focused promotion strategy!

And then let’s move on to your content…

Your Consistent Content Plan

Here are my top three favorite strategies for keeping content consistent on my blog when I’m out, away, or otherwise on a “blog vacation”…

1. Use the Schedule Feature

Everything from your ezine or newsletter, to your blog posts, to your social media can be scheduled in advance.

So take time now to write and schedule so you know your content will continue to flow smoothly while you’re away enjoying time with your family and friends.

Consider scheduling…

• At least a blog post or two a week (and look for opportunities to reuse your own content from other places for content on your blog, or feature guest bloggers to give yourself more of a break)
• At least an email or two a week for your list to stay in touch
• Tweets, Facebook and LinkedIn updates with HootSuite or another social network scheduling tool

What else can you schedule in advance?  Look for ways to still be “present” the places that are important for you to show up, and find ways to create that content in advance and get it scheduled.

2.  Learn to Outsource

Which of the items on your plan and scheduling list might derail you because they take a lot of time or require things you don’t enjoy?  Those are great opportunities to plug in outsourcers.

3.  Collaborate and Co-Create

Have some fun by looking for ways to co-create the content you need.

You could:

• Write a collaborative post
• Do a written interview
• Host a G+ hangout with a friend, client or colleague
• Swap guest posts with a colleague
• Ask 5 colleagues to answer the same question and then compile the answers and allow everyone to use it as an article, email or blog post

What else could you collaborate on?

Your Promotion Plan

Keeping in mind your cash flow goals and what you’ve got to do to make that happen… what needs included in your promotion plan?

To stay visible in front of your audience, look for ways you can recycle and repurpose the content you’ve created.  Turn your blog post into an email to your list (or email to your list into a blog post). Pull out snippets to share on social networks.

Look at every piece of content and ask yourself, “How else can I use this?”

For sharing on social networks, look for some of your more popular older posts and share them again (recycle!).

What else do you need to schedule ahead to stay on top of your promotions to drive traffic and sales through your blog?

Don’t Disappear Completely…

There are a few things that still need YOU (or your assistant) to keep an eye on while you’re away:

• Check in to be sure your schedule posts go live.
• Approve and reply to comments that hit your blog.
• Say hello on your social networking accounts (and share some photos or personal moments with your friends and audience).

 

How do you keep up with your blog and stay visible during the holiday season or other vacations from your blog?