This is day 21 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, a group project 60+ of us bloggers are doing together in an effort to help each other become better bloggers.
There have been a slew of movies recently which are remakes of older films, or complete reboots of entire movie franchises, and more are in the works. Batman Begins, King Kong, The Taking of Pelham 123, Karate Kid, Footloose, Clash of the Titans, and Conan the Barbarian are just a handful within a long list of remakes which are being produced for lots of reasons:
- Special effects technologies have improved
- Cultural ideals and mindsets have changed
- The story wasn’t well told the first time
- It was a good movie, but it’s so deeply buried in history that younger audiences probably won’t dig it up on their own
- We’ve learned that mullets weren’t a good idea after all
If you’ve been blogging for a while, then chances are that you have an old post or two that could stand to be remade. Perhaps you’ve learned a thing or two that puts a different slant on what you wrote. It could be that your writing skills have improved or that you happened to write the initial post in hurry, so that it’s just not that well written. Or maybe you wrote an opinion post, and your opinion has changed.
Whatever the case, there are lots of good reasons to go back through your old posts and update some of them. Here are four quick tips for revamping your posts:
- Write a better title. Sometimes just coming up with a new and better title can spark new interest in a post. Many successful bloggers believe that the title is the most important element of your posts, since that’s what grabs or loses the initial attention of potential readers.
- Rewrite the opening lines. Now that you’ve learned about writing an elevator pitch, apply that strategy to individual posts. The opening lines will either convince people to keep reading, or dissuade them.
- Correct typos, bad grammar, and broken links. I’m sometimes amazed and embarrassed when I go back to an old post and spot grammatical errors that I completely missed when I wrote the initial post. Bad grammar, bad spelling, and bad links may tell your readers that you’re not a careful person, so you may not have thought through what you’re saying.
- Give it a makeover. Just redesigning the look and feel of a post can make it more readable. Try breaking up large paragraphs, adding a picture, or adding subheadings. Books are frequently republished this way, even when their content doesn’t change.
- Add depth. As you learn more about subjects which you have already written about, it’s a good idea to go back and update those posts with new knowledge and depth.
Just as remade movies are bringing in droves of both old an new audiences, an update of an old post can bring a wave of readers to your blog.
Discussion Questions:
- 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?
The Extra Mile:
- If you’ve never done so, go back through all of your old posts and re-read them. You may notice corrections that need to be made.
- If you know of a good example of an old post that has been updated well, please share both the old and the new post here for others to read.
- Please be sure to visit people’s updates that are posted here, and offer your feedback.
- Tweet, share, and bookmark this post.
Chris Branscome decided to see what would happen if he could pray once every minute. Read about it at The Prayer Experiment, or better yet, join in the Experiment yourself! Follow Chris on Twitter at @ChrisBranscome
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By the way, I'm out for the rest of the day. My family and I are going hiking for our day off. I'll catch up with y'all later tonight or tomorrow. Peace!
Good for you, Chris! Enjoy the family time, and thanks again for today's post.
Great post Chris! And I'm glad that you took time away from it to spend with the family!
I often make grammatical corrections, and I have updated old posts, but I always write "UPDATE:" and add the additional information OR write a completely new post and link to the old one. I think updating is useful, but I agree that it depends on your purpose, how old your blog is, your subject matter, etc. Today's topic is one that each one of us will have to address according to our unique situations.
I'm spending the rest of the day with my family. Have a blessed day!
My blog post today was a book review (opinion post!): http://jenniferjanes.wordpress.com/2010/05/31/boo…
Every once in a while I will revise old posts. Mainly because I am embarrassed by those early posts a couple of years ago.
I did revise (or rewrite) a post which I have scheduled for tomorrow. I found that when I went to revise I completely redid it because of how much my writing has changed. But that is cool. We are all in process. I will probably read the revised post in a few years and think, "yikes, that needs revision."
My post for today is memorial day related, http://unrehearsedadventure.blogspot.com/2010/05/…
I have been posting for nearly two years now so this lesson makes good sense to me. Thanks for the good job Chris. This makes sense because my intial blog posts were not titled, etc. Also, though I love to do fresh things, looking back at 40 years of sermons, lessons, and writing (when I moved a couple years ago) I see that I definately have themes that mark my minstry and concerns for the Body of Christ. I've learned, clarified, update applications, and illustrations, but God keeps bringing me back to the central messages. So, in most cases I would post a new post liked to the past, unless it is merely grammar etc. This lesson is definitely productive.
With blogs I have done the same as my general writing. I seem to catch a little more attention when a post's content are revisited. As most of my posts have to do with truth bites or truth applications, I seldom find I have changed an opinion. If I start telling God what-to-do then I have slipped back into myself and have to repent, refocus and renew my day by day, minute by minute listening.
Just read what you all said and thinking I'm going to go look through my blog to see what I can do, whether it's editing a post, rewriting one, or whatever. I do tend to update posts a lot when first published because I catch an error or something I should have linked.
Hope everyone has a great day today. Like many of you we are leaving in a few minutes to celebrate with friends and family.
Paul, I just want to say that I think this process has been great for many if not everyone that has participated. Just from a visual perspective I have been on several of the blogs that have been reviewed and the changes that are taking place are great.
As for me, I have developed some great relationships and have immensely benefited from some of the great writing that is taking place on the other blogs. The insight and writing has been better than some of the well known blogs I follow.
Amen Larry! I've thoroughly enjoyed this project too, and for many of the same reasons! Thanks for voicing your feelings on this!
I feel that "breathing life into an old post" is similar to cleaning or organizing. Things like setting up dating your blog layout, making sure old links still work, and going through old posts to see if your views have changed or if there maybe it needs to be updated or maybe you didn't finish a series or something. I think it can be productive or counterproductive just depending on the blog, and what it is that needs changing.
My reasons for blogging and such have changed some since I started blogging, still trying to find my niche and some other stuff but it's slowly getting there.
I've updated old posts, more like updating posts I had just written. I tend to find things I should have linked, a typing error, or something after it's been published so then go back and fix it. This is the first time updating posts that have been written for over 2 days.
I found one post that needed a title change, gave an update on something I just realized I haven't in awhile, and added related posts to that one. Didn't find any that could have broken links, poorly written, or anything. So that's how I fixed old ones, I did go through them all to see if maybe there was something I should change.
Posts for today and yesterday (yesterday's goes with today's holiday)
– Blog Layout Update – http://tijuanabecky.wordpress.com/2010/05/31/blog…
– Remembering our Nations Foundation -http://tijuanabecky.wordpress.com/2010/05/30/remembering-our-nations-foundation/
– Memorial Day – one day and every weekend – http://tijuanabecky.wordpress.com/2010/05/30/memo…
Something I noticed when I changed the title on one of my posts was that the url link stays the same. So the post title from before will still be in the link.
You are right that our blogs need modification and corrections after some time. However it should be done with care as some of us believe in consistency. One may not have confidence in a blog whose content is not consistent. By the time you revisit you see an entirely new content. However it is still good to change obsolete and inaccurate contents.
I have done this several times already. My "blog" started out as an email devotional. I have about 200 of these "posts".
When I am running low on time or know that I am going to be out of town, I will take one and re-do it. Sometimes it's just a simple re-wording. Other times it's to clarify something that I missed the first time I wrote it.
I think it's an awesome way to learn about yourself and a way to gauge how far your writing has come.
Great job Chris.