Also, it’s great to see you able to take a break from the entrepreneurial spirit of blogging.
Have a nice evening.
-Dan

Hope you have come back with more energy.

Cheers.

I know planning ahead is important if we know we are leaving for a vacation or a blogging rest but this just don’t work for new blogs.

For me, new blogs should at least maintain or build up their voices and post frequency to be open to option like having a blogging break. The traffic base for a new blog might not be firm even you are getting high traffic and this will lead to a huge loss of traffic if the writer is missing.

I also was away for about 6 weeks and I wrote the content for all six weeks before leaving + I also had content ready for the two weeks after my return because I knew I would be really tired.

It does take a LOT of planning and time, but it can be done. I found it essential not to loose the momentum I had started to create just because I needed to get away.

One of Darren’s guest posted an article on being a Happier Blogger…I think that vacation time is part of the mix. If not, then blogging will make us quite miserable people.

Thanks for a great post!

Gisele
http://www.mybeautymatch.com

I did ask for some guest posts from some blogging friends, and also announced it on my blog, and I’ve been lucky enough to have some great articles come my way. Looks like I should have asked J.D. though.

Great ideas, man, thanks!

If you’re just starting out, there’s really no need for guest posts. If you have a handful of readers, you probably have a more intimate relationship with them. I know that’s true at my smaller sites. In this case, guest posts aren’t necessary. Or, if you want to have them, you can actually draw upon these readers.

(And if you don’t have readers, you don’t need guest posts. I have a blog about animal intelligence, but few people read it. When I go on vacation, I don’t worry about guest posts.)

Any slightly larger blog should have several sources of guest posts: “superfans”, colleagues in your niche, and contacts outside the blogging universe.

Bigger blogs should have all sorts of contacts they can call upon.

Regardless of your blog’s size, though, it never hurts to ask for a guest post from somebody who seems out of your league. As I say in my article, the worst they can do is say “no”. Though I didn’t mention it in my post, I asked Darren and John Chow. Though neither was able to contribute anything, I was glad I had asked. I also wrote to other big-name money authors (not just bloggers, but actual authors). Most didn’t respond. A couple said no. And one or two gave me stuff for after vacation.

What I’m saying is: take a chance, even if you think your blog is too small.