Those of you who follow me on Twitter will know that as this post goes live I’ll be heading to the airport to head to warmer parts of Australia for a couple of weeks break. The bags are packed, the house sitter has the key, the tickets are bought and most importantly….. the blog is scheduled to keep proving you with great content.
Everytime I go away for a break I’m confronted with the choice of either letting the blog sit idle for a couple of weeks or to work hard for the week or two before going to make sure that content keeps flowing. I’ve never really been able to bring myself to let things stand idle – so this week I’ve worked hard at getting enough posts up and ready to go (across ProBlogger and dPS I have 60 posts scheduled – it was a big job!).
The vast majority of them are guest posts. While a few of you may be disappointed that you’ll not be hearing from me for a week or two – I actually think it’s a massive opportunity for the ProBlogger community to hear from some fresh voices on some topics that I would never have come up with myself.
Here’s a screen grab of the upcoming schedule (including a few that already have gone up). Some of them are a little cryptic as I wrote them more for my own benefit and didn’t intend to share this – but hopefully it gives a little insight into how I prepare for a break – I did this for dPS also.
I hope you enjoy the next couple of weeks of content here on ProBlogger – having read all the posts I’m sure you will!
Thanks for the insights, Darren. I’ve been working on my blogs a lot more lately and have been trying to build up an editorial calendar. I’ve been using Google Calendar, but I think an Excel spreadsheet like this would work much better.
Great post, I wish you a good trip. Its important to keep a constant flow of content on a blog..standing Idle just causes unindexing. Plus your blog is incredibly popular need to keep it that way! Keep up the great work
Hi Darren,
Delighted to hear you are taking a vacation.
I wrote a posting on my site in June called ‘small business owners impress your clients take a vacation’. In it I talked about putting vacation time in your time planner just like you do business appointments. It works for my family and I.
Also, just like you I wrote my articles ahead of time and scheduled them.
Have a great time,
David
That is cool to sub in Guest Bloggers when you are gone on vacation. Thanks for sharing your information with us. Thanks Greg Ellison
Sounds exciting! Thanks for giving us the schedule.
Looks like some really great articles Darren, enjoy your holiday!
Have a good break, and I look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas on the 13th.
Thanks for sharing this, it really is encouraging to see that someone could line up 60 posts to allow for a break like that, are you letting someone push them live or are they scheduled?
I can’t wait to hear your post about how you compose posts to drive millions through digg! That will probably be a great read. I hope you have an awesome time in Australia. I heard you on YouTube tonight and thought you sounded Aussie. That is cool. Are you Australian? I’m like a bunch of things in one. Dutch, Hungarian, Mohawk Indian, German, Polish, Irish, French, Check and English. People think I look more Indian. What do you think? Oh, by the way. I bought your book “Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income”. You are a great writer and I love this book so much! Thank you for writing it.
Best wishes for your journey. Glad that we will be receiving good content even when you will be enjoying your vacations.
Darren,
Have a great expo and have fun! Like you said, your loyal readers, we will miss your presence, at the same time, we will get to read great guest posts that pro blogger always have here.
Boy this one is simply amazing Darren.
Now you will just do the reply of comments and all.
I like the way you plan. That’s why you are simply superb.
Nice Holiday Darren, I have seen your plan that there would be a post per day, I just wondering is it the best frequency for a blog to have a daily post,
I usually have a post or two only per week, should I increase this frequency to daily?
That’s great darren. I wish i could contribute in problogger.net. Your planning is good and blogging is all about planning and organizing.
Great post and I totally agree that guest blogging on comparatively popular blogs establishes your credibility and gives you great exposure and that’s why its a powerful way to gain exposure for your blog and website.
Have a great holiday Darren!
Wish I could implement so much planning in the blog. I am trying harder but just couldn’t plan ahead for more than a week! I should try still harder :)
Have fun.
Jane.
Don’t mind at all! WE get to hear from people whom you consider noteworthy and it fills the time while you are away. No problem!
Guest bloggers are a great idea, but having the pre-scheduling feature on a blog is great, I can go away at times and schedule some posts for while I am on vacation, it’s a great feature to have! Helps ease my mind a bit so I can actually relax on vacation.
Sounds great! Have a good time away!
I hope you have a great vacation! I think it’s great you’re thinking about us and want to keep providing us with valuable content. How could we possible mind that?
Look forward to hearing about your adventures when you come back!
Christina
I’ve been enjoying the guest post schedule. Nice to see so many different bloggers contributing here.
I have no doubt that sifting through tons of submissions, picking 60 that you liked and then getting them ready took a long, long time.
Well done.