In the beginning: Revisiting blog posts for fun and profit

Photo: Mon Œil (CC)

I’ve lost count of my blog posts. It’s probably around 7,000, but the exact figure doesn’t matter.

I should go back and read what I’ve written.

I spent a week reading through a friend’s blog in chronological order. She started in 2004, a year before I did. It’s fascinating to see this glimpse into her life, preserved online for as long as she keeps it open.

Failing to heed my own advice to re-read our own old posts, I will devote reading time to my library of posts on multiple sites. I may cringe, I may find typos, but it’s an exercise in measuring growth as a blogger and finding the gems among the dross.

What are the benefits for brands revisiting their old posts?

1. A training exercise for new blogging team members.
2. Compile for white papers and ebooks.
3. Share in social media as evergreen info.
4. Inspiration for new posts, including updated best practices.
5. A hearty laugh.
6. An evaluation on whether posts reflect the brand then and now.
7. A closer examination of all reader comments.
8. A renewal of our vow to serve readers, fans and customers through better blogging.
9. Creating permanent pages for the most visited posts.
10. A re-evaluation of marketing strategy based on past performance.

Be fearless and dive into the archives. Bloggers should invigorate their institutional memory. After all, we did it all for posterity, right?

P.S. For WordPress bloggers, this simple hack makes it easy to read in chronological order from the very beginning.

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