Just wrote a comment to Ben Lang's blog, which had a post about maintaining your blog during vacation, and decided to write a quick note on the subject as I couldn't cover it all in the comment, even that it was quite long already :)

Summary of Ben's post (as solutions to how to maintain your blog)

• Door #1: invite guest bloggers to post in your absence.
• Door #2: prepare content beforehand and post it quickly during vacation whenever you catch some WiFi time (or schedule the posts)
• Door #3: set aside a portion of your vacation to blog.
• Door #4: pay somebody to maintain your blog.
• Door #5: leave your blog without content and watch it lose readers, value and traffic.

Option 5 is of course out of the question, so we're looking for other options. In my mind using option 2 is something you can do all the time, not just preparing for vacation. This is what I call the blog post buffer.

Here's my comment on the blog:

I wrote about similar subject last year after I took a longer break from the blog. The best solution, and not just for vacation, but for the normal weeks as well, is to have what I call a blog post buffer.

Blog post buffer means that when you write posts, write the first draft, polish and instead of publishing it right away, you schedule it to the end of the queue. Many successful bloggers, like Darren Rowse of Problogger have said that they’ve used a buffer of 10 posts or two weeks. This way you can easily “abandon” your blog for a while if needed, unplanned or planned. If you need a vacation, you can make a burst and make the buffer larger. Squeeze in some guest posts and your golden.

Taking this method into use requires a bit of effort in the beginning. But if you just make it so that you write two posts on one go, scheduling them in the queue, after ten sessions, you have a nice buffer.

This method is also good for freeing up the week, by writing all posts for the week on one or two gos during the weekend and then use the week to plan new posts, promote the ones that pop up to the blog from the queue, etc. Plus you’ll probably end up planning the posts better and end up creating good series of posts for the week, so you don’t just free up some time, but improve the quality of your blog as well.

Blog Post Buffer

• Have enough posts for two weeks at all times
• Writing multiple posts on one go
  • writing all posts for the week during the previous weekend for example
• Instead of publishing the posts right away, taking advantage of scheduling function, like the one on WordPress
• Choose a schedule, e.g. 1 post a day, or 5 posts a week and schedule the posts accordingly
• The post is scheduled to the end of the "queue"
• Keep filling the blog post buffer until you have two weeks worth of content
• Keep the blog post buffer filled
• If you need to take a vacation, do a burst of posts and make the buffer larger
• If you get guest posts, schedule them to the queue and inform the upcoming publish date to the guest author

When you begin, you need to fill the buffer, but after you do it once, and keep writing posts to keep it filled, you'll soon notice that you have more time to do other things as you only use one day per week to write blog posts...

Benefits of Blog Post Buffer

When you write multiple posts in a row to your blog, instead of writing as you go, you'll have "free time" when you're usually writing the posts. Trust me, writing 5-7 posts on one go will take less time than writing 1 post a day, on 6 different days.

• Displaying upcoming content on the blog
  • At least on WordPress, you can list "future" posts with plugin or PHP code on theme
• Use the free time you have on the week to promote the posts that pop out your buffer to the blog
• Brainstorm, mindmap and plan new posts and series of posts
  • Outline the posts beforehand
  • This will improve your posts and you can write + finish them faster, but still end up with higher quality post
• Use the free time to write guest posts to other blogs for exposure, links and traffic
• Write articles to article marketing purposes
• Build Squidoo lenses
• Record videos for next weeks posts
• Record a podcast
• etc.

Do you see youself using method like this?

p.s. There is a lengthy post back on my post on topic how to properly take time off from blogging in case you're interested in reading more on the subject.

p.p.s. Here's the latest definition of the blog post buffer with further explanation and instructions on getting started and implementing the post buffer into your own blogging.