Microbusiness bloggers, don’t just disappear. It’s rude.

Posted on | August 14, 2008 | 3 Comments

(Well, this is different, huh? Let me know what you think of the new design — assuming you have any thoughts at all, of course.)

So, having to select my favorite seven blogs earlier this week and not being able to select two of them because they seem to be MIA, got me to thinking. And a howdy from an old friend got me to thinking even more.

Here’s something that I think too many microbusiness bloggers neglect: what happens to your blog (or business or whatever) if you get sick or your office building blows up or your house collapses or something, and you have to be away from the computer for awhile?

If you want, you can even think of this as disaster preparedness. (You see, I have some experience in these matters.)

When Kathy Sierra stopped blogging she told everybody and she told us why. When Kirsten Osoland felt she needed to go on hiatus to re-invent her re:invention blog, she told us she’d be gone for awhile and she told us that she’d be back … even if she wasn’t sure when.

Now, isn’t that a lot better than just disappearing into the ether?

Letting people know gives you the opportunity to avoid losing touch with your readers/contacts. Not only can you tell them you’re going, you can tell them when you think you’ll be back (if you know). And, if you’re not back when you think you were going to be, you can log on for a minute and tell them that, too. You can even invite your readers to be sure to subscribe to your blog or to an email list so they can be notified when you return.

It lets your readers know that, whatever stuff you may be going through (personally, professionally … perhaps even medically), you are aware enough of them to tell them you’ll be gone. That’s important because it’s fatally easy when you blog to act like you’re talking to yourself in a big room with no walls, and you don’t have to be polite when nobody’s listening to you.

Only, of course, if you start treating people like they’re not listening to you, eventually, they won’t be. ‘Cause that’s just rude.

On the flip side, when you don’t let the folks around you (including those around you virtually) know what’s up with you, then when you get back you have all the hard work of rebuilding your readership as if you’d never had one to begin with. Running a microbusiness is tough enough without saddling yourself with a bunch of extra work that you’ve already done once.

Stuff happens. People know that. If you’ve been honest with them all along, then they’d understand that you don’t have a bunch of staff to keep the blog going while you go have gall bladder surgery.

So, don’t just vanish. It doesn’t take very long and doesn’t take all that much effort to find a keyboard and post a quick update. In the end, you’ll save yourself a lot of hassle — and quite possibly, you’ll save your reputation, too.

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