Suppose you are an active participant on AR. Then for one reason or another you decide to take a break. OK, not going AWOL, just doing 
other things temporarily. Would it be the same for you when you come back? How could you improve blog longevity?
Today I read Loreena Yeo post about her decision to take a short break from AR and understood her need completely. I have done it myself, although I never stopped completely, just slowed down. Here are a few things I learned about blog longevity from a human and technical perspectives.
A bit of Background.
I started on AR almost a year ago and was hooked. I confess to staying up way past my bedtime to learn about people, blogging (yes, didn't know what that was) and to contribute a few of my thoughts. I met many wonderful people and felt more connected then ever before in my real estate career.
Then came some family issues needing much more of my time and attention. My AR participation slowed down. A while later I started another Princeton Real Estate blog, which took much more effort then I originally anticipated. Again, I slowed down on AR. I continued to read my favorite bloggers and to post, occasionally even getting the gold star. Somehow, it seemed the momentum was not there anymore.
The question for active AR participants is whether after your absence you could come back and start where you left off. My answer, as it often seems to be these days: "It depends". Several factors are important for the longevity of your blog. It also depends on the type of your absence: do you continue posting or not, do you continue commenting or not, do you stop altogether?
1. Content and Personalities.
This is the most important point and it's hard to separate the content from the personalities. If you have been around AR for any length of time you probably met the big blogging personalities here: Broker Briant, His Lovely Wife, Lenn Harley and many others. The reason people are drawn to their blogs - they provide content members want to read. The second reason is their personalities. My guess is that if they took a break from AR for a year and came back they would be just as popular.
There are bloggers, like Andrew Lenza, and others who no longer write on AR, but are remembered by many. These people have either special personalities, talents, and/or knowledge, like Karen George. These bloggers offered content that had the staying power long after they stopped writing on AR.
Not everyone has such gifts and talents. If your popularity here did not reach the highest levels you may want to think about the next point.
2. Human Contact
There is nothing that is stronger then personal bonds and ties. If you want to be remembered, you may think of strengthening those ties. E-mail, call, Twitter, Skype -what ever the method, think about staying in touch.
The interesting point for me is that my connection with many AR friends got stronger while I was "away". Irena Netchaev is my pal who offers her shoulder any time I click the Skype button. Kim Wood, Diane Aurit, Missy Caulk, Cyndee Hayden, Sarah Cooper, Ruthmarie Hicks, Mark Grossman, Kathy McGraw, Katerina Gasset and many others have continued to be present in my life on and outside this blog. Rich Jacobson was always only a phone call away.
3. Internet Connection
Internet turns out to be a small place. Yesterday I got a call from a President of the company I wrote about in this post. He thanked me for my article. We could all do that for each other. If you see an article you like mention the author in your post. We are not inventing a wheel in our writing. Most of what we write has most likely been written before. Use this opportunity to feature another blogger. It would not take away anything from your credibility. In fact it could help you with Google's credibility. We all have Google alerts, don't we? When someone mentions you call them and thank them. These are the things that keep people remembering you.
4. Emotional Engagement
What happens when you leave AR and even when you are still here depends on how much you got your readers emotionally involved. My "brilliant" market reports made my phone ring by prospective clients. Are these the kind of posts that leave a memorable impression and allow people remember me during or after my absence? I don't think so. When I shared on AR deeply personal stories about my family and kids is when I think I connected with people on a deeper level.
5.Google longevity.
Blog longevity comes in many colors and here I talk about the technical aspects. By this I mean would your blog come up in Google as high as it did before your AR "vacation".
I haven't tested what happens if you stop posting completely, since I continued to post, just less frequently. Although my page rank increased since I started on AR, my ranking for the key terms definitely slipped as my participation decreased.
Traffic to the blog decreased. Dugh:) Although people continued to find me through Google searches, the traffic went way down. I just checked the numbers and the decline was substantial in page views, unique visitors and repeat visitors.
6. People's memory.
Big part of the traffic to my AR blog was not surprisingly from AR members. Guess what happened when I was away? My readers moved on. Gone were the comments and participation, even when I came back. Granted, you may not be writing with the purpose of getting comments from AR members, but it may be one of the things to consider.
Back to content. My content shifted primarily to local real estate issues. Nothing personal, and occasional advice on blogging, marketing, or practice of real estate. I focused on the consumers. Was this the most engaging reading for AR members? I don't think so. Keep this in mind, when you think about your content vis-a-vis your goals.
Let me not to forget the commenting thing. If you stop commenting on other people's blogs, don't count on them commenting on yours, unless you are one of the "big"/popular bloggers. Again, if comments are not your thing, your blog longevity may not be effected in this way.
If you want to be remembered after you come back to AR, think about what you are doing while you are here and to continue to be engaged in some way while away. Google's memory seems to be tied to people's.
P.S. Shh...This is a test of the blog longevity:)
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