Remember ye olden days? Way, way back, in our early blogging days, when we were trying to figure it all out? It got kind of lonely out there, didn’t it? We’d sit, we’d write, we’d worry, we’d post… and then we’d hope and pray that someone, somewhere would bother to read those incredible pieces we just slaved over.
It seems like a long time ago — and yet, for me, it’s only been about a year and a half since my first baby steps into the wonderful world of blogging. It definitely took me a while to find my feet and start expanding my reach. Meanwhile, there were some days that felt kind of soul-crushing, to be honest. Who doesn’t remember the feeling of writing something and feeling really proud of it, putting it out there… and then seeing, day after day, that no one actually read it? Oh, the sadness of low stats!
While thinking about how to approach some year-end posts, I went back and looked at my “year in review” post from December 2012… and was pleasantly surprised to find that I liked it quite a bit (if I do say so myself). Which then led me to skimming through other post from my early blogging days — say July through September of last year — and finding that I had some other posts in there that were kind of fun or interesting or just in general a little bit smile-worthy.
Of course, I also found a few that made me itch for a rewrite, or that provoked a “what was I thinking?” reaction… but that’s part of the learning curve, I suppose.
But still, looking at some of the older posts that I felt good about also made me a little sad, because in my early days, visitors to my blog were few and far between. If I write a good post and nobody reads it, does it matter? Like the proverbial tree falling in the forest, my early posts just didn’t make any sound.
It got me wondering: What do you do with your older posts? Do you go back into your archives and re-run pieces that still feel relevant? Do you ever do nostalgia pieces, maybe highlighting an older post as an example of “hey, look how I approached this topic way back when” or “look how much I’ve changed”? Or do you just leave the past in the past?
I know I still occasionally refer back to some older posts, particularly the ones I especially like or which have sentimental value for me. An early post I wrote about the role books played in my romance with my husband is a special favorite, and I do tend to link up to it from time to time when it relates to my current topic. In a more obvious approach, if I’m reviewing a new book by an author I’ve discussed before, I’ll usually link back to my reviews of earlier works by the same author.
But I still fell bad sometimes for my orphaned posts — those poor, lonely pieces that maybe only 3 or 4 people ever took the time to read. Now that I’ve been blogging longer, would the same pieces generate more comments or discussion? Would they help me engage with other bloggers in different ways? I’ve toyed with the idea of doing a “From the Stacks” or “Old Post Love” type of post from time to time, maybe reviving something older that I’ve written and perhaps adding commentary to update it, but so far, it’s just an idea, not an action plan.
So what do you do with your older posts? Leave them in the past, because hey, that’s where they belong? Repost them every once in a while? Bring back an older piece and update it? None of the above? All of the above?
Older posts: Love ’em or leave ’em? Please share your thoughts in the comments!
Bookshelf Fantasies 