It has been awhile since I’ve blogged about blogging and I may have lost most of my readers, but worst of all, I feel ‘out of the game.’ You know, like I’m no longer part of that inner-circle that happens to know everything there is to know about blogging. That’s what this post is about really: recommitting yourself to your blog.
Let it die?
Time off from any line of work always makes it hard to return. To be honest, about two months ago I didn’t see myself ever updating this blog again. Transitioning from accepting a blog’s death to working on it’s revival is incredibly hard. Starting a new blog is exciting. You get to pick out a name, design the theme, work on introductory content. But, coming back to a blog that’s on it’s last leg is a challenge to say the least. The design looks bleak and depressing and all of your old forgotten content is still there waiting patiently for someone to read it.
Right now, that someone is just you. You’re all alone with half-dead blog and you don’t exactly know what to do with it. Sure, you can take it to the carnival in a last hurrah and end the trip coldly by putting the blog out of it’s misery. It only takes two clicks to select the home folder and click delete. It is the easy way out and I suggest you take it if you are no longer passionate about the subject matter. On the other hand, your blog is a shining ray of hope, fighting to make it big online and you’re it’s trainer poised to make every good decision for it along the way.
Set Your Feet
There are a few things you need to do in order to revive a blog.
- The obvious one is to start publishing content. Don’t just sit down and write a post though. Spend a day or two gathering content ideas for you to post on. When you have a solid list of topics to talk about, then you can start developing content. If you write just one post, it will be hard to continue to return. You may make a few more posts, but it’s likely you’ll just quit again.
- Be sure to get your blog up-to-date with the latest releases. This includes the latest WordPress version and any updates to the theme or any plug-ins you’re using. Don’t let your blog get compromised by hackers because you were too lazy to spend the time updating. New releases are distributed for a reason.
- Land a few guest blogging posts on similar blogs. Take an idea or two from the list you’ve created and use them on other blogs. Most bloggers will allow their guest bloggers to post a little blurb about themselves at the bottom. Use this space to announce the revival of your blog.
- Finally, you need to convince yourself this is something you want to do. If you have any doubts about reviving a blog, don’t do it. It’s just a waste of time. You can spend that time more efficiently working on another project.
If you revived any blogs recently, use the contact form and submit it to me. I’d like to feature it on this blog. Free publicity!