Have emergency posts

Bloggers should always have a clearly outlined posting frequency. It does not matter if you post once a week, three times per week or every day as long as your readers are aware of that (in reality I advocate that if you are serious about blogging you should write at least 5 weekly posts, but that is not the central point of this article).

The problem is that most people have other activities that might disturb the normal posting schedule. Your family might need your attention certain times or you day job might require some extra hours of work on specific periods of the year. The best solution for those emergencies is to have some posts already written, just waiting to be published.

Daniel Scocco on February 19, 2007 Subscribe to our RSS Feed

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34 Responses to “Have emergency posts”

egon on February 19th, 2007 3:20 pm

That’s a good idea, except for those bloggers where most of their posts are somewhat time sensitive.
Anthony on February 19th, 2007 3:25 pm

What’s your thoughts on too much posting? My blog currently publishes about 4 posts per day. Is there too much of a good thing, just this Sunday we had 7 posts in one day. Is there a limit to how much new information a reader can handle in a day?
Daniel Harrison on February 19th, 2007 3:29 pm

I think that just 1 post a day is sufficient, and only on a weekday. I try to do a post daily, but I’d rather post interesting content, than content for the sake of it.

I have started to queue up posts in advance though, just in case I run out of time that day.
Bes Z on February 19th, 2007 3:55 pm

Daniel, you raise a point which is one of the most important points for me at this point in life. I had to go to the hospital after midnight last night because of some health issues and before that I was spending hours on rewriting a single post repeatedly to make it better and have it published for Sunday. Had I started writing early Sunday morning instead of Sunday evening, I would have spent less than an hour on rewriting the post later on.

Having emergency posts will surely help in having something to post if something comes on the way or if a person simply needs to take a break. I have to start writing up posts for a few days in advance from now on too. Thanks for sharing this important tip Daniel.
engtech on February 19th, 2007 4:37 pm

You don’t even have to write content.

Have some “From the Vault” posts lined up that link back to good stuff.

No one ever dumpster dives through the archives as much as you think they do… there’s always plenty of stuff from 4-8 months back or longer that is still relevant.
Maki on February 19th, 2007 6:03 pm

Best way to do an emergency post?

Do speedlinks to some quality posts from other blogs. You’ll share some link love and get some new blogger friends.

Automate. Bookmark interesting websites with del.icio.us and have them autoposted on your blog everyday.
Ajay on February 19th, 2007 10:30 pm

This is something I have been practicing. I’ve got some posts ready even two weeks in advanced.
Xin on February 19th, 2007 10:55 pm

I do need to publish my posting frequency.

I have started a new blog, and I do not feel like I need to post daily. I want to post quality, practical, ‘pillar’ posts that add value to the blog.

I am going to aim for a couple of posts per week.
cindy@staged4more on February 20th, 2007 12:21 am

these are all great ideas which i am going to try to aim for. i have not been a serious blogger and was suffering a long string of writer’s blocks. now the blocks are slowly dissolving, i want to be a more consistent blogger also so it will make more sense for people to come back and read some more. thanks for all the great ideas!

cheers,

cindy
Daniel on February 20th, 2007 3:21 am

Anthony, I think that every blog has its natural posting frequency, you need to play around and find what works best for you (that said sometime in the future I will write a more detailed article about my ideas regarding posting frequency).

Engtech and Maki, I agree that linking to Archived posts or using Speedlinks is also a good way to cover emergencies.
Dawud Miracle on February 20th, 2007 4:53 am

I do this too.

I write Mon-Fri - work days. My weekend traffic plummets because I don’t write on weekends. So I’ve been writing one extra post per week to publish on Saturday evening. That gives me a post for Saturday and ramps up for the Sunday afternoon and evening traffic bulge.
Ramen Junkie on February 20th, 2007 1:36 pm

I do my best to keep 4 or 5 reviews “on file” for emergencies. They may not be the best reviews or even the most immidiately relevant ones but I have them there. The problem is when I use them up I often have a lengthy period where I have no back up posts ready.
Plain Jane Mom on February 20th, 2007 1:40 pm

OK Daniel, fess up. This was one of your emergency posts wasn’t it Very clever!
Daniel on February 20th, 2007 1:46 pm

Jane,

The post itself was not already written, but it on the top of notebook under the section “short posts”.

Actually I also thought about it, it would be funny if the post was an emergency one
Joe Manna on February 20th, 2007 3:02 pm

I can certainly agree with what you’re saying. I suggest writing a simple, yet clear tutorial and have it ready to post is a great posting topic. In addition, if you are taking a leave of absence — blog about it, to let your readers know where you are and when you should return.

Short on time to author a blog post? This yields a great opportunity to have a guest blog from one of your avid readers.

~ Joe
Daniel on February 20th, 2007 3:23 pm

Joe, I agree with you, guest bloggers are an excellent way to cover break periods, but as opposed to emergency posts they have to be planned with some antecedence.

It is a tip to keep in mind though!
Trevor on February 20th, 2007 3:50 pm

I try to post at least one new article on each of my three blogs every day. In this I’m not always successful but most of time I keep up this schedule.

When I know I’m going to be away form my computer for a time or very busy I write articles ahead of time and queue them up to appear during the busy time. I can do this as most of my articles are not time sensitive.

I don’t regard this strategy as emergency posting but rather a case of planning ahead. But when an emergency does occur it’s great to know you’ve got several posts ready to go. Writing a series of articles in another excellent strategy in this regard.
Ashish Mohta on February 20th, 2007 5:38 pm

I had done it when I was out to my family.It really helped.I didn’t loose any readers at all.
Easton Ellsworth on February 21st, 2007 8:02 am

Very important thoughts - thanks, Daniel!
Bes Z on February 21st, 2007 11:25 am

One more thing: scheduling posts in advance helps with this also. You can schedule posts for a few days or let’s say, a week, in WordPress and not have to worry about writing something for the same day. Writing posts in advance, a few days in advance for each day helps a lot also for days when you cannot come up with a good topic that you like.
Bill on March 30th, 2007 11:48 am

Thanks so very much for taking your time to create this very useful and informative site. I have learned a lot from your site. Thanks!!:

Also I must start applying those tips!
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Bill on January 24th, 2008 2:32 am

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Blake on August 5th, 2008 1:47 am

What I try to do, instead of keeping posts in reserve to publish just any time I don’t have something, is have what I call a “buffer.” Just a couple posts that are scheduled to be published in the next couple days, and as I write new content it goes to the back of the queue. That way, I have a buffer zone of a couple days if something goes wrong, and the reserve content will never be outdated either.