Nothing irritates me more than to visit a blog and see one of those “Hey! Sorry I haven’t posted for a while. I was busy with my blah, blah, blah…” Now you may have a perfectly good reason for your lack of posts but I really don’t care. I don’t know you personally. I know you as a blogger. I read your blog because I like the information you share. But that doesn’t mean I’m interested in your personal life.
Here’s what happens when you apologize for the lack of posts on your blog:
You sound whiny: Imagine you walked into a new car lot and, after waiting around for an hour, a salesman finally approaches you and says, “Sorry I left you standing here. My boss has me doing all this extra paper work and I just can’t seem to keep up and my wife called and wants me to …” Do you care? No! In your mind, this guy is now just a whiny little salesman.
What could he have done instead? “Sorry I left you standing here folks. C’mon in and let’s relax over some free coffee and doughnuts and I promise my complete and undivided attention while you tell me how I can help you.” Now you’re lovin’ this guy, right?
Nobody wants to read it: You have to understand that readers come to your blog for their own benefit, not yours. Unless you’re running a personal blog, your readers are coming there to learn something from you. Most people have enough drama in their lives and that’s not what they’re looking for when they come to your blog.
If you haven’t posted for a while that’s your problem, not theirs. They don’t want to read about your problems and they certainly aren’t there to help you relieve your guilt. But if that’s what they see when they hit your blog, they’re just going to leave – and probably never come back.
You’re wasting time: You’re wasting your time writing up that apology because nobody wants to read it. You’re wasting your readers time because that’s not why they came to your blog.
What should you do instead? Forget it, get over yourself, and go eat a chocolate doughnut to make yourself feel better but don’t try to assuage your guilt at the expense of your readers. They really just do not care. If you’ve been gone for a while, carry on as if nothing ever happened and write one of the best blog posts you’ve ever written.
Plan ahead by creating some emergency blog posts to have as back up. If you know in advance you’re going to be away from your blog, schedule these for automatic publishing so you don’t even have to think about it. But never, never ever apologize for the lack of posts. It just makes you look bad all the way around.