To Vacation or to not Vacation?

[idostuff74]

I have a few (5) days coming up where I’m not going to be able to take any orders. I’m also going to be fairly unresponsive.
Do I switch on vacation mode or do I extend delivery times on all my gigs and leave a note in the description?

[Anna]

Since you won’t be able to respond to messages in a timely manner, vacation mode is the way to go.

Enjoy your time off ;).

[silberma1976]

I agree. If you will be unlimited in response, go on vacation mode. 5 days will not hurt you when you come back.

[wordandrecord]

Vacation definitely!
However, from what I hear and read, it will take a toll on your gigs position when back…

Correct me if im wrong !

[taverr]

Vacation definitely!

However, from what I hear and read, it will take a toll on your gigs position when back…

Correct me if im wrong !

I have also heard that Vacation mode affects gigs ranking but after using it 2-3 times I think that those were just rumours. My GiGs ranking stayed the same after turning off the vacation mode everytime. 🙂

[landongrace]

When I suspend or use vacation mode to be off for 7 days, it usually interrupts about 20 days of work. On gigs that have a 3 day delivery, I have to shut these down early so that the machine will stop the day I start vacationing and I also have to budget time for revisions. After I get off of vacation, it take several days to get the machine turning again.

I ask myself, do I want to lose 3 weeks worth of work to have a 7 day vacation with no work contact? Everyone is different, but my answer is no!

It has been easier for me to vacation more often with a light work load. Continuing to manage some jobs while we are vacationing. It’s not difficult for me to spend about 90 minutes a day managing messages and delivering light gigs or atleast be available for simple revisions. You can delay your delivery times during the break to also slow the work down.

I have suspended gigs for 3 months and after I turn them back on, I get messages in a few days.

Your focus should be on your regular customers. They depend on you. How can you take a break in a way that doesn’t impact them and force them to change providers.

The one I can’t seem to make work is the 7 day cruise with no easy internet on the boat. When I figure it out I will share. 🙂

[mjakkerman]

It really depends on the work you do. If you do short articles at $5 a piece, you won’t lose much work (apart from the five days). If you have regular customers, you might arrange some work already for when you come back.

If you’re not able to respond to messages, your response rate will go down and might hurt you for 60 days.

In the end, the question is, what is more important for you. Is it taking a break, possibly with your friends and family, or is the work more important and is it necessary to do some work as @landongrace suggests.

[prologodesinger]

True but something missing…

[capitalquality]

If it’s going to be hard for you to respond to messages, even to send a quick response that says, you’re on vacation and will contact them to see if they still need someone when you get back, then you have to go on vacation as you don’t want your response rate to be too seriously affected. Even then, it doesn’t stop people who have contacted you before contacting you, and they often don’t go through your profile or gig page, just through the previous message thread, so they may not notice that you’re on vacation.

[misscrystal]

I would pause them all instead of vacation. I used vacation for one day and have not been the same since.

[idostuff74]

It really depends on the work you do. If you do short articles at $5 a piece, you won’t lose much work (apart from the five days). If you have regular customers, you might arrange some work already for when you come back.

If you’re not able to respond to messages, your response rate will go down and might hurt you for 60 days.

In the end, the question is, what is more important for you. Is it taking a break, possibly with your friends and family, or is the work more important and is it necessary to do some work as @landongrace suggests.

Is it taking a break, possibly with your friends and family, or is the work more important

I’m not off for shits 'n giggles. Just asking which is less hurtful to my gigs. E.g. one gig is in the top5 for its main key word. Will this drop into the obscure later pages? As for regular customers - I don’t have any yet 😉 (and not in the business where regulars are the likely thing to have, I believe) There’s no need to prepare my leave as I easily deliver my gigs in less than a day (excluding revisions)

After reading all your replies (ignoring the two new ones that came in while I had this reply open) I think vacation mode it is!

Thanks!

[miiila]

I think if I could reply within the famous 24hrs so response rate won´t suffer too much, I´d try a combination of increasing delivery time on gigs and setting the slider for allowed orders in queues on low. 5 days isn´t long after all.
If I couldn´t, I guess vacation, yes.