On Vacation? Tips for Blogging When You are Away

This is a guest post by Lauren Bailey.

As anyone who is serious about blogging knows, running a blog is not a nine-to-five job.  If you want to keep your blog ranked relatively high in different search rankings like PageRank and Alexa, then you'll have to put in the necessary time. And even though, just like all other people, you may need to take a break and just relax, unplugged, with only your friends and family and a bit of sun, there are also some times in which you'll want to keep up with your blog even if you are out of town. Here are a few tips from an experienced mobile blogger:

1. Do all your work when everyone else is asleep

Sometimes it can be difficult to balance a vacation with friends or family while still keeping up with your online activities. For me, the best way to continue to stay connected with your audience is to work during times when everyone is asleep or taking a nap. Since vacations are fairly exhausting, there's always plenty of down time, when nothing much is going on. Wake up a few hours earlier than everyone else, get some breakfast, and start blogging!

2. Make sure your accommodations have a free, solid wireless connection

This is absolutely essential if you want to blog during your vacation. You'd be surprised by how many hotels and hostels don't have a reliable internet connection. And even those that do, many places charge an arm and a leg. As such, make sure that you ask about the Internet before you book your hotel.

3. Try to take a mobile or lightweight computing device with you

While I enjoy working on my laptop more than anything, it isn't exactly the lightest piece of electronic equipment I have. Especially if you are traveling to a place where you will be moving around quite a bit, it is absolutely instrumental that you take something with you that can easily fit into a large purse, a small knapsack, or something similar. I invested in an iPad for the express purpose of not having to take it out of bag when going through security. Trust me, size and portability makes more of a difference when traveling than you'd think.

4. Use the change of scenery to your advantage

The best thing about blogging while traveling is that you are enveloped in a completely new environment. In my own experiences, this enhances your blog writing because you have new vistas and sensations from which to draw inspiration. Even if you don't blog about personal stuff like vacations, it can be interesting to do a feature blog article that approaches your niche from that country or cultures perspective. For example, if you are traveling in India and you write about finances, why not ask other Indians about what the financial climate is like in their country?

For me, traveling is one of the most enriching experiences, and I can't do without it. For many bloggers I've met, they too, enjoy experiencing new things. If you fall into this adventurous camp, know that as long as you set some guidelines and do some planning, you can still vacation and blog at the same time.

About the author
Lauren Bailey regularly writes for best online colleges. She welcomes your comments at her email: blauren99@gmail.com.