[...] .  Jessica is not alone in her rant, taking a pages from fellow bloggers here, here, here, here, and (wait for it…) here.  There’s even a blog dedicated to blogging [...]

[...] are many articles that advice bloggers not to apologize for the lack of posts due to various reasons. It does make sense – our feeds are bursting with [...]

[...] Huereca wrote about Things to avoid – blogging about not blogging. Some good tips about what to do if you don’t have the time to [...]

I think it depends on the expectations you have set. With some blogs you do feel like there is a reader-writer community and in that situation it is a good idea to explain absence, in others they feel more like a professional publication, again those absences are good to explain.

There are some however, and I think I would class mine that way, where writing a post just to explain why you haven’t written one seems a little self-absorbed. I don’t think my readers hang on my every word, or expect a post every day. I hope I have set an expectation that when I do write I will write something interesting, but that I won’t force it if I have nothing to say.

Lauren, thanks for reminding me about John’s snippet posts. I think that’s what I’ll do next time when I have absolutely no time for more than a few bits of inspiration

Ronald, you achieved the desired effect with your 1st paragraph really well

inspirationbit,

I wanted the reader to say to themselves, “Not another one…” — And then I rip into what I’m trying to get at.

LaurenMarie,

I think the snippet posts are a good idea. When I go on vacation, that’s what I’ll probably do since I have a lot of content buried in the archives.

Vivien, I like it that you do not post “I’m sorry.” You are on a business trip this week and you said so (explained your leave, but not being annoying about it) and then gave us stuff to read. I think those kinds of apology posts are ok.

As to other ideas, speaking purely from a reader’s perspective:
I think guest blogging is a great way to “disguise” the absence of the blog owner. Online comics do this all time.

I think another way to do this is to have an extended writing session before a known absence and then post one each day (or whatever your schedule). If you will be away from technology, create a login for a very trusted person to do it for you.

I also like what Johno does with Snippet Posts. At least he points me to something that might be of interest and let’s me know he hasn’t forgotten me, his reader. Sometimes the short little paragraph posts are nice for me, as a reader, because I can still keep up with a blog and not have to read a three page report. I really don’t mind the occasional three or four sentence article!

Ronald, you should’ve highlighted that first paragraph differently. For a moment I got really confused – what is Ronald talking about, what school, what about all those regular posts at RA?

Anyway… since I can get very busy, I do need to find and use a variety of options to keep my blog updated and interesting for readers even when I don’t have time to write.

I do think that it’s a good idea to apologize and perhaps explain the reason of being silent on the blog, but I do agree that such posts shouldn’t start and end with the apology only. Often if I don’t have time to write, I simply don’t write… but it after a few days, I finally write a post apologizing for my silence and like Ronald suggested, add something more meaningful and interesting for readers as well.

Guest bloggers really help in such cases. You can check out Ronald’s guest post on my blog, if you haven’t read it yet.