There will always come a time when you just are not going to be available to maintain your blog for a period of time. Whether you are taking a vacation from work or just a vacation from blogging, it would be beneficial to somehow keep your blog updated while you are away. This is when you want to put your blog on “autopilot”.
Configuring your blog to update itself on its own while you are away is a great way to take a break from blogging without breaking your blog. It is possible to take an extended amount of time away from your blog while still updating your blog with new content.
The easiest way to update your blog while you are away is to write new articles for your blog but set them to be posted at a future date. Wordpress makes this a really simple process. Instead of automatically clicking on the “Publish” button after finishing a new post, edit the time and date that you want your new article to be published. After choosing the date and time click “OK” and then click on “Publish”. Your new article will then be published at the time of your choosing.
If you go with this route you can easily create a backlog of future posts that can be used to update your blog during your absence.
Another way of putting your blog on cruise control is to enlist the aid of another writer. Creating a new author account for a willing writer is a good way to keep your blog updated while you are away. The only drawback to this approach is that you will probably not have a chance to review the content before it is published, so be sure that you are aware of your guest author’s capabilities.
If you aren’t sure of your guest author’s abilities you can also just have them forward their written articles to you and you could add them to your future postings as well.
If you find yourself desperate fora way to keep your blog updated while you are gone and do not have the time to pre-write articles then you could consider posting articles to your blog from RSS feeds. I don’t normally recommend this kind of action, but sometimes it can work out nicely. There are RSS plugins available in Wordpress that will allow you to publish articles from other blogs directly in your blog. Discuss this with the owner of the blog you plan on syndicating and if it’s an agreeable proposition then you have another source of new material that will be auto posted in your absence.
These are 3 easy ways to set your blog on autopilot if you ever need (or want) to be away from it for an extended time. With a little preparation it is entirely possible to leave your blog for a while without your readers leaving you.