One of the reasons why I love blogging is the constant electronic archiving of one’s work.
In fact, I’m a big believer that quality older work in a blog is not something to sneeze at, for it gives the blog a staying quality, even if no one actually reads those entries (perhaps the quality is expressed through the blogger’s self-knowledge, or confidence that he has “greatest hits”).
However, the problem I’ve been confronting lately is that most readers don’t go back and explore. I don’t blame anyone for this because the nature of the virtual medium we’re on is to push ahead. New stuff is constantly being created, and if it’s new, it must have something more current to say, and must take into account more ideas, so it must be better, right? – And even if it isn’t better, we gotta check it out to make sure it isn’t better, no? -
The issue with depending on archived posts to bring in traffic is that such a method probably isn’t feasible. There’s just too much new stuff, and one is expecting a lot out of an audience if one expects it to explore rather than simply glance and approve.
So I’m wondering what to do with the older posts on WritingUp. Blurb.com is working on something that will scoop up old posts and turn them into a book. The only issue with this is that it is self-publishing, so I have to pay for this privilege.
Any thoughts? Suggestions? I love blogging, but having an audience is fun, too.
- Some Posts on Xenophon
- Posts on Plato, 11/3/10
- Posts on Weakerthans Songs
- Philosophy Posts from 2010
- Philosophy Posts from this Semester
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Just don’t forget your past posts and use every chance to remind your audience of them.
If you manage to mention old posts in new articles, you make them visible to your current reader again. That way, you show your readers more content to read and save your archived posts from being forgotten.
Ashok,
You past posts are a wealth of information and thought, and you are correct that there is a self satisfying element involved with haveing a collection of your own work on-line.
I try to link to it when I can, especially the works on Lincoln. They are wonderful! Publish an index periodically, and maybe have more than one post display on a page at a time. Once people are hooked on your writing they will look at what else you have said.
People do not look at the other works because, like you said, thet don’t see the relevance of them. They assume it is like much other content in that it is a comment on the events of a day or event. They are dated. “I don’t care what so and so had to say about their day in October 2005,” is the mentality. Which is unfortunate.
When I find a new blog, it’s not so much that I don’t want to read what they’ve posted in the past, it’s that I don’t have time to go back and read everything. I will often scroll through the recent previous posts and perhaps the last month.
The best strategy, which others have also mentioned here and I’ve seen others do is link to your own posts. I’ve even seen some bloggers repost things from a year back or so if it is particulary relevant or they want to refresh readers.
I agree. Refer back to some of your older articles in your new ones with a similar theme or topic.
What about using a Related Posts plugin which might pick up some older works to suggest to readers.
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