How to Keep Up With Your Blog While on Vacation
We are only 2 days away from heading out on our road trip to Indianapolis! If you do not follow me on Twitter (@leepoe1), you would not have heard about this. Chris and I will be road tripping it all the way to Indianapolis, Indiana to watch the Redbull Moto GP at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Chris is a huge fan of motorcycles and racing so we both decided it would be fun to make a whole trip of it. We will be exploring the city from Wednesday to Friday (for me) and then going to the event on Saturday and Sunday (for him).
Being away from home for so long, especially with a good chunk of time on the road without WIFI, means that I need to make plans for up keeping my blog. There are many different tips and tricks I have learned over the past year for when I travel or am on vacation and I wanted to share them with you today.
1. Stay Organized
Making sure you have everything you need with you will help you stay on schedule. I like to keep all my "blogging" essentials together in a separate bag so when I have some time to blog, I can easily access everything I need. I have been using this great back pack from Estarer. The black color with brown detailing is perfect to match with any outfit if I need to tote them around with me. It has many pockets to hold everything I need as well as a special spot to hold my laptop, which is the most important item I need for blogging. I also have this amazing leopard print laptop sleeve from the same brand which keeps my laptop extra safe. The last item that I find essential is my Estarer hard drive/usb case. It has spaces for everything that I could possible need like USB Flash drives, SD cards, headphones, chargers and any other smaller items that I do not want to lose or damage.
All of these Estarer items are very affordable and can be found on Amazon.
2. Plan It Out
All you need for this is a notebook and a pen. If you know you are going to be gone for a whole week, plan out your posts ahead of time. Write out a plan describing what each post will be about and when you will write and upload it. To have a good head start, you can bullet point out your ideas for each post, making it super easy when it comes time to write. I love using pretty notebooks and colorful pens because just looking at it puts me in a happy and creative mood. I got this gorgeous pink notebook at Marshalls and these colored pens at Walmart.
All of these Estarer items are very affordable and can be found on Amazon.
All you need for this is a notebook and a pen. If you know you are going to be gone for a whole week, plan out your posts ahead of time. Write out a plan describing what each post will be about and when you will write and upload it. To have a good head start, you can bullet point out your ideas for each post, making it super easy when it comes time to write. I love using pretty notebooks and colorful pens because just looking at it puts me in a happy and creative mood. I got this gorgeous pink notebook at Marshalls and these colored pens at Walmart.
I know when I am on vacation I have a harder time thinking of what to write as I am more focused on having a fun or relaxing time. So why force myself to write about anything else...write about the vacation. You can do posts about what you have been doing each day, especially if you are in a fun destination like a resort or overseas. As a beauty/fashion blogger, I think OOTD (outfit of the day) posts are perfect since we all know we love to snap selfies when we get ready and throughout the rest of the day. The destination you are in has got to have some kind of great backgrounds for you to snap a few photos. You can even collect photos from over the entire vacation and do a complete look-book! These type of posts can be super easy to put together and everyone will really enjoy them.
4. Write and Schedule Beforehand
As I have written about before in my Blogging Rut post, there is nothing wrong with taking some time off from blogging. However, there are many people who want the best of both worlds; posting on a regular schedule and having a carefree vacation from blogging. The best way to do this is write your posts ahead of time and schedule them to go up when you are gone. I use Blogger which gives me the option to schedule the time my post will upload without having to even login. I also use the site Hootsuite which lets me schedule social media messages for future times; I use it for Twitter, Facebook and Google+.
As I have written about before in my Blogging Rut post, there is nothing wrong with taking some time off from blogging. However, there are many people who want the best of both worlds; posting on a regular schedule and having a carefree vacation from blogging. The best way to do this is write your posts ahead of time and schedule them to go up when you are gone. I use Blogger which gives me the option to schedule the time my post will upload without having to even login. I also use the site Hootsuite which lets me schedule social media messages for future times; I use it for Twitter, Facebook and Google+.
5. Guest Posts
Now even though number 4 seems like the ideal situation, planning and getting ready for a vacation can be a lot of work. Writing posts ahead of time can be just another line on a list of many things to do. This is when guest posts come in super handy. A few weeks back, I was in a wedding for my sister-in-law and that whole week was just super busy. I was able to reach out to a few of my blogger friends and they were able to write guest posts for the days I needed some extra help. This is my favorite way to keep my blog schedule consistent and it benefits both parties. You can read both of those posts here: Day Trip Essentials & Summer MVP's.
No matter what you plan to do on your vacation, you will need another plan on what to do with your blog. I hope these tips helped you out and I would love to hear which tip worked the best for you. Leave a comment below letting me know where you went for your vacation and how you kept your blog going.
Now even though number 4 seems like the ideal situation, planning and getting ready for a vacation can be a lot of work. Writing posts ahead of time can be just another line on a list of many things to do. This is when guest posts come in super handy. A few weeks back, I was in a wedding for my sister-in-law and that whole week was just super busy. I was able to reach out to a few of my blogger friends and they were able to write guest posts for the days I needed some extra help. This is my favorite way to keep my blog schedule consistent and it benefits both parties. You can read both of those posts here: Day Trip Essentials & Summer MVP's.
No matter what you plan to do on your vacation, you will need another plan on what to do with your blog. I hope these tips helped you out and I would love to hear which tip worked the best for you. Leave a comment below letting me know where you went for your vacation and how you kept your blog going.
Usually when I go on vacation I try to schedule things ahead of time - I haven't used guest posts for that before but it's a good idea - keep things active without stressing myself out. I do tend to instagram a lot when on vacation and even though it's not my usual beauty content my followers seem to be interested!
ReplyDeletewow you are super organised! it's great you have so much dedication, i love using holidays as inspo for my blog, great post x
ReplyDeletehttp://the-dress-diaries.blogspot.co.uk