31DBBB Day 16: Breathe Life into an Old Post
This is Day 16 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, a group project we are doing together in an attempt to improve our blogs and help each other become better bloggers. You can read more about it and still sign-up to participate here. Please subscribe to our RSS Feed to stay updated on the project.
- Week 1: Read about the first week of 31DBBB
- Week 2: The second week of 31DBBB
- Week 3: Our third week of 31DBBB
- Day 16 (Monday): Breathe Life into an Old Post
- Day 17 (Tuesday): Call your Readers to Action
- Day 18 (Wednesday): How to use a Magazine to Improve your Blog
- Day 19 (Thursday): Ask a Question
- Day 20 (Friday): Develop a Plan to Boost your Blog’s Profile and Readership
- Day 21 (Monday): 17 Statistics to Monitor on your Blog
- Day 22 (Tuesday): Plan the next step for your blog
Believe it or not, we are nearing the home stretch here with only 7 more lessons before the end of this project! Let’s keep up the effort and finish on a good note everyone.
Today, we are going to spend a little time breathing life back into an older post. More than likely, there is some post that aren’t up-to-par with what you would expect from yourself in terms of quality. Maybe, that old post was rushed to publication, or you know more today about the topic than you did when you wrote it. In any case, today is a chance for you to update it.
Personally, I often go back and revise older posts especially my movie reviews. More often than not, I can find a way to express my opinions better after some time has gone by. I actually have never felt fully satisfied with something I have published on this blog the first few times around and it takes numerous revisits for me to even come close to some level of satisfaction. To be honest, I could probably count on the fingers of my hands the reviews I actually feel somewhat proud of.
Ways to Update an Old Post
Darren elaborates on several aspects you should focus on to improve an old blog post.
- The post title: Simply changing the post title to something new and better can breathe life into the post.
- The opening line: A great hook is usually all it takes to make people read your post.
- Call to Action: What do you want your reader to do after they’ve read your post? Comment? Share on Twitter? You need to tell them!
- Add depth: Adding more content and new knowledge to an existing post is a great way of making it feel fresh again. It can be new examples, pictures, videos, links etc…
- Proof reading: This is one of the great way of improving an old post. Simply re-reading it immediately gives you some perspective on what could be improved.
- Polishing posts: Making your post look appealing might be the difference between it being read by many or left in the ether of the blogosphere
Assignment
- Update at least one older post today!
- Come back and tell us what you learned from today’s lesson and post a link to that updated post
Discussion
- Does this assignment feel productive or counterproductive to you? Why?
- Have you or your opinions changed much since you started blogging?
- If you’ve ever updated an old post, what sort of response did you receive?
33 Comments
Did that two days ago. Does that mean I’m a trendsetter?
I do this from time to time, especially the posts from the first few months I started blogging, as I had no idea what I was doing (not that I’m a pro now by any means). Mainly checking for grammar errors and make sure I have the appropriate tags. As for call to action, mainly I just want to hear what other people think about the subject of the post. Well, for what it’s worth, the two I just recently updated are these two: http://wp.me/pxXPC-3B and http://wp.me/pxXPC-4Q Since they mention one of your fave actors Castor, I’d like to hear what YOU think
I usually post a new entry, and link back to it. Is that good? x\
Not really Amy, the point is to update the old post. If you re-post it in new entry, that might be considered duplicate data by Google maybe?
I was thinking more on the lines of “This is new information about this old post” and link to it, not really a re-post. It’s an update, but not on the original post.
I agree that this can be important, but I try to resist the George Lucas syndrome and generally leave my posted reviews as is, unless there’s a glaring error or I want to add a link to another post.
I’m surprised that you’re never satisfied with your reviews Castor. They’re always good and because you don’t seem to post a whole lot of them, I figured you were only unleashing them when you had a good one done.
Thank you Will, it means a lot coming from you. If I was to wait to be satisfied with my review before publishing them, I would probably post only one a month
I don’t make major overhaul once it’s been posted but I try to make it easier and more coherent to read. If I have new thoughts, I usually a couple sentences as well. Nothing major but I guess, over time, it can add up a bit.
Great series, just found out about them. Getting readers definitely acquires you to invest some time into it. I’ll check out the other posts as well.
Great to hear Nostra, feel free to jump in if you would like
Once again nice session…But as a New blogger I dint need to update my blog. Because I have limited number of posts. While creating content, I do things like Putting exact title for the post, make content with good keyword density. Also I concentrate in giving the best info to readers….
I do this on a regular basis mostly due to my language handicap since Swedish is my first language but I write my blog in english. I also revisits post since I always try to keep my tags and other formalia updated.
How do you ping the updated post in a good way? Whats easiest?
here’s a post I did quite the update on since changing direction on Deny Everything this is more how my posts are gonna look in the future:
http://jodokast.wordpress.com/2010/05/27/leap-year-varfor-sa-daliga-recensioner/
As you can see I have some serious problem with blank spaces around pictures! Whats up with that???
I forgot I also do a lot of random track backs on my updated posts. Is that a good thing or should you keep the trackbacks to blogs on your blogroll?
Look at the HTML of the post. You will probably see a lot of junk code above the picture. Removing that will remove the blank space
Trackbacks are good if they are from related blogs in your niche. It’s very easy to see if it comes from some link farm/spam site.
Also Joel, I think there is something wrong with how your sitemeter is installed. It should not say “Unknown” for referrals 100% of the time lol. I know I give you visits from here but they don’t show up properly.
Thanxs for the tips on html junk! I sorted out the worst ones straight away.
Thanxs for the heads up on the sitemeter ranking. I have been aware of something being wrong with it but haven’t really taken the time to search down whats wrong with it because I am seriously thinking of changing to wordpress.org and thesis and then I’d need to change it again.
Castor I agree – I think this a cool thing to do when you are reviewing films. I wrote a blog post about Brian DePalma’s Obsession a while back and someone brought to my attention a glaring error in my observation. For one this will make me go back and revisit the movie and secondly I will be able to update that post with my revised view of the movie.
My question for you Castor is how do you go about editing? I have read some people who have said that you should do strike-throughs so that your readers know that there have been changes. What are your thoughts on that?
I don’t do strike-troughs because I believe only in making tweaks to an old post and not changing its essence. Say if I was to initially review a controversial movie like Mulholland Dr. and give a grade of D because it did not make any sense. I would not come back and edit it and change its grade to an A after realizing later how ingenuous it is. (I would simply write a new review). Thankfully, I haven’t had to deal with this issue yet. The only edits I make are “aesthetic” or adding tidbits of information.
Yeah the way I handled it initially was to thank the poster for pointing out something that I missed and promising after some time to revisit the film.
I do not anticipate that my opinion will change that much but in case it does a post is the way to go!
Todays topics
1.Does this assignment feel productive or counterproductive to you? Why?
It feels productive, and its good to know that a lot of people are doing this aswell in the beginning I felt really disturbed that I was updating posts twoeeks later still editing grammar and formulating sentences.
2.Have you or your opinions changed much since you started blogging?
Not really but I have gotten my blog voice together better and is better on formulating what I want to say with the post.
3.If you’ve ever updated an old post, what sort of response did you receive?
I dont have that kind of traffic that I get this kind of response.
I’d also like to know how to reping the updated post in a good way? Would love an article on backtracks and pingin etc. seperatly since I think its often walked through really fast in blog guides and hardly getting any attention.
I sure would like some help on trackbacks and pings too!
Well, as much as I would like to update my posts, I feel like I would constantly refine and not get much done. I would like my post to show how I felt at the time and hopefully show my evolution as a critic. My opinion does change sometimes for sure. Avatar got worse for me over time and Dinner for Schmucks got better. I added my thoughts to the latter.
http://colleeniescouch.blogspot.com/2010/08/dinner-for-schmucks.html
IU’ve got some kind of weird OCD that finds me going back over old posts quite often. I’m painfully aware that some of my older stuff was more thoughtful without being as insightful as I feel now, and I try to spruce things up a bit in case someone drops by to read some of the stuff I wrote 2 years or so ago – it’s sad because I don’t think anyone read them back then, and the likelihood of them being read now seems remote.
That being said, I see a great value in going over old stuff and giving it a polish. For one, for those of you who are writing to create a portfolio it keeps your favourite stuff in fighting shape, keeping pace with your improving skills. I also think that the timeliness of your posts can wax and wane with current pop-culture trends – and you never know when something that had limited relevance at one time, might get super-relevant at another time. Also, it’s best to look back if you find you’re ever refering people to your older work. Your old posts might not have all the things in ‘em you remember having – maybe there were things you meant to say that you didn’t actually express.
I’ve saved this assignment for today and am going to refurbish an older post and re-post it. I really enjoy doing this, because as you pointed out, you 90% and more aren’t satisfied with the work that you post.
If we were ever satisfied with anything we’d written, we’d never write anything else. Here’s to dissatisfaction!
Cheers! Completely agree. We learn and grow, it’s having the kahunas to put it into the universe when we know it’s not quite what we’d want it to be:
Here’s the article I almost entirely re-wrote:
http://www.moviemobsters.com/2010/08/24/throwback-tuesday-pillow-talk-1959/
It did really belong in the Throwback Tuesday crowd.
It is a good idea to look at older posts from time to time. We all improve our writing skills and technical knowledge, so there are areas where improvements can be made. I update older posts when I find typos or error, especially earlier posts when I first started blogging. I have also added to older posts based on comments from readers.
In the interests of sharing, I added new artwork to about 10 reviews yesterday. Partially to spruce them up, partially to accommodate my new slideshow.
Hi everyone!
So sorry that I haven’t been doing anything with the challenge (well, almost nothing. I always interlink, write the occasional list post, comment on blogs and such) but I haven’t been active here (catching a cold in the midst of a scorching heat wave does bring down the motivation!)
The problems with my old posts usually arise because either they are not interlinked (nothing to link to at the time) and/or they are not optimized with the all in one seo plugin, something I added a couple of months into the blog. Whenever I can, I go back to optimize older posts and update them with links. There is also the occasion where I had written this post about Mel Gibson complaning that he hadn’t been in a good movie for a while. then he made edge of darkness- which I totally loved- so I went back and added it.
Have been updating quite a lot of my first posts, mostly because tagging was missing and the WordPress site has changed as well (social links is now automatic). Also the format of the site is different from what it was meaning that the images are too small compared to what I use now. Still have not done them all, but it’s something I was meaning to do for a long time. These articles (although I’m aware are some months old) are really inspiring to actively work on the site and promoting it.
I try to do this kind of old updating all the time but its very time consuming.
Yes it is a lot of work. I’ve written so many reviews this year that it will take some time before I’m finished with it.
Yes, time consuming and brain racking
I’m slowly updating a few posts every now and then so I can improve on the SEO. Right now, my main goals is getting a new logo for the site and developing a couple new post series that I hope will drive more visits here in the long-term.
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