Written on August 31, 2010 at 7:40 am by

Do You Promote Your Old Posts?

Filed under Find your voice, Inspiration, Writer's Block {16 comments}

If not, you should. When I first started blogging I didn’t have any readers. Occasionally someone would happen by but for the first several months no one knew about my blog because I didn’t know anything about promoting my blog. It was a good year or more before I had a healthy readership. Which means I have a year’s worth of articles that no one has seen and when I hit the wall, or become to busy I can either link to a post on the front page of my blog and/or I can promote the old posts on Twitter or Stumble and get new traffic.

I love going back to old posts. Sometimes I have no recollection of writing the pieces and sometimes they are so bad I want to delete them. I don’t because they are part of my evolution as a writer and I like to see how far I have come. Other times I will find an old post that is pretty good and it’s nice to see that even back then I could write.

I suggest you dig back into your archives, find a few posts that you think were good and then promote them either through a link post on the front page or simply by Stumbling or Tweeting them. Your readers will appreciate seeing the old stuff and you never know, you might find a good post that with a little bit of tweaking could be a great post.

Do You Promote Your Old Posts?
pixel Do You Promote Your Old Posts?
  • http://www.brookeamanda.com brookeamanda

    I totally agree. I re-read my old posts all the time and some of my best stories are from the first few months I had my blog (when only my close friends and family read it). I’ve been trying to make an effort to link my old posts to my new ones if there is a similar theme or if they compliment one another.

  • http://nonamedufus.blogspot.com/ nonamedufus

    Funny you raise this. When I revamped my blog after returning from holidays, and after some input from fellow Tribal Bloggers in the forum, I added an archives page of my favourite posts from the last year and a page that links to a 17 part series I did called “US and Them” – a humorous look at US/Canadian relations. It’s a great idea, Jen.

  • http://thinkspin.blogspot.com Lauren

    Talk about timing. While I figure out how to balance work, family, and writing, I’ve been publishing old posts. This is my second week back to work, and I still haven’t figured out the best time to write – a.m. or p.m. I only have 30 mins for lunch.

    Featuring old posts is a great way to keep an online presence when you’re mind is off line.

    • http://www.silentchatter.com Patricia

      So funny Lauren cause I am having the exact same problem the last few weeks, so instead of posting nothing….I have highlighted a couple older posts (not to old…i just started blogging.lol)
      To be honest I prefer cruising though peoples archives, sometimes the truest wirting is in the earliest posts. Ease of accessing them though really help :)

  • http://kikiwalter.blogspot.com KiKi

    I used to all the time, but lately I go back and cringe when I read the older ones! Sometimes I’m all, “what the frig was I thinking?!” LOL….

  • http://www.talktherapybiz.com Linda

    I promote the older posts, but my blog is not too old, so there’s not a whole lot in the archives.

    Especially with new Twitter followers, I like to introduce older stuff. It’s also a great reason to re-edit. I’ve had positive responses when digging…

    Thanks for the reminder!

  • http://www.junkdrawerblog.com Kathy

    I don’t actively promote my old stuff, but will now. I do have a tab at the top of my blog called “Greatest Hits” that I can see people looking at from time to time. It gives new readers a place to find the posts I have a fondness for and gives them a sense of what they can expect to find on the blog if they stick around for the long haul.

  • http://beetle-blod.com Babs (Beetle)

    Unfortunately a lot of my old posts were originally written in ‘Blogger’ and when they were imported to WordPress, they came with no media or photos, rendering them bland and somewhat confusing to read now.

    It’s a case of – I would if I could, but I can’t, so I won’t :)

  • http://wwwefrankking.blogspot.com Frank King

    Thanks for the suggestion. I have had my blog for only six months, and am slowly building my readership. I had not thought about what you are suggesting, but I will incorporate it into my strategy.

  • http://www.nourishourselves.blogspot.com Marie

    Kathy (Junk Drawer) suggested this to me a few months ago and I added the feature she references in her comment.

    From my stats, it appears people do check out the past posts. I know I enjoy reading them too. Often I’m like “wow, this was good!”. lol

    Great topic, Jen.

  • http://www.junkdrawerblog.com Kathy

    Isn’t it?! There are times I get lost in my own blog and think “Wow, this isn’t half bad.” It’s weird, too. Sometimes I read something that I barely remember writing and I’m like “Uh. I wrote that?” What a strange, but interesting, phenomenon!

  • http://www.jimmydoremi.blogspot.com jimmyng@healthywalkingexercise

    I’ve just started blogging so not many old post to promote. It’s a great idea and I’ll keep that in mind. You’re right to say that we must promote our blog if we want to increase readership else nobody going to notice you.

  • http://hipopinion.com Dave

    Just saw this in a re-tweet. I have had my blog around for a few years. I didn’t promote ANY post’s before.. Now that I’m doing some promoting I have earned more traffic.

    I am in the process of tweaking and re-working old posts to see if I can improve SEO…. I have searched as to rather this helps or not. I’m sure it can’t hurt.

  • http://prosaicshadesofgray.com KZ

    One of the greatest joys of writing a blog, aside from receiving comments from friends and strangers, is looking back at your own posts and realizing how far you’ve come as a writer. Then again, one of the most dangerous things you can do as a blogger is getting caught up in your past entries, remembering the good times, and wondering how in the world you’re going to top yourself the next time around. That’s how I look at things, anyway. Is that just me?

  • http://hipopinion.com Dave

    Yep… It get caught up in re-working those things till 3AM..I could be writing new stuff for my other sites or something.

    Now I’m trying to figure out why my gravatar won’t work… I want one I want one :)

  • http://really3.blogspot.com/ Mee2

    I was just reading a couple of my past posts, and really, what I thought was, WTH? Was I on drugs? I got quite a kick out of the weird stuff I wrote. And like a few others, I can barely remember, or can’t remember at all, some of the stuff I wrote, but loved most of it just the same.

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