Duncan Riley> There comes a time in everyones life that outside events or things gone wrong, sometimes as a result of our own actions, sometimes without control. And when such events occur blogging is often the first to suffer. Some events mean that you cant blog, others mean that your time is occupied, for what ever reason elsewhere. No matter what the circumstances, there is still some good advice that can apply to most situations.
Get back on the horse
They say when you fall off a horse the best course of action is to hop back on. I know as a child that the same was applied to learning to ride a bike. In the past week I had to deal with a local tornado and bad power for the better part of 48 hours. It hurt, it hurt stats and it hurt me personally because I had no means of delivering, so on this point I can speak from a little bit of experience. No matter how long the delay, the time off, or the time away (which ever way you describe it) the most important thing is to resume blogging as soon as possible. Remember that although there may have disappointed regular readers, every day potentially thousands of visitors may discover your blog from your older posts. They are not going to know your history or pattern of blogging. What they will discover is whether you are blogging at the moment. Your regular readers wont abandon you over a couple of days of not blogging, nor I’d argue probably up to a week. Any thing longer could result in a loss, but even if it is longer than a week, the same rule still applies: Get back on the horse: start blogging again as soon as possible.
Disclosure
One of the wonderful things about the blogosphere is that generally speaking, honesty is the norm. If something has happened to exclude you from blogging, tell your readers. For example, many regular readers of the Blog Herald will know that as a rule I dont blog a lot on weekends, so it’s not a problem for me. I disappeared Monday (my time) due to the Tornado, but I came straight out and said so. It may be an old adage, but honesty still remains the best policy, and as with everything in the blogosphere, people will respect you, and understand you, if you are honest.
