One of the things that really impressed me when I first met Mike was HOW involved he was in the personal finance blogging community. When he found a blog he liked, not only would he add it to his RSS reader and start following it (and commenting at it), but he’d dig in and read through its complete archive (he’s stopped doing this, but he used to do it all the time). It makes perfect sense, if you like what someone writes about, why wait for the new stuff when there’s a massive amount of existing material free for the taking? I’ve never been able to do the same. After going through (at most) a month or two of the archive, I’ll get distracted and move on to something else: even with the strongest blogs out there. I get the feeling most people are like me in this respect, even if they like a blog, they don’t go through its archives.
Given that this is something of value to most blogs / bloggers, it keeps bugging me that there must be ways to make better use of the archives. I have four ideas, which some people are already doing, but there must be better ways to use them.
- Reference old posts in current posts. I do this all the time (along with everyone else), typically when I want to make a point, but don’t want to explain it again. I reference the old post, and let anyone who doesn’t believe me click through and read what I previously wrote. This definitely provides exposure for old posts, and there’s probably a tendency to refer very often to your best stuff (we’re always linking back to Mike’s excellent posts on real estate agents).
- Collect cash from advertising on well-indexed old posts. Apparently (Mike tells me) older posts that have a high rank on Google are one of the most lucrative parts of a blog, as people searching for things will come to the blog, click on an ad or two, then carry on with their browsing. Regular readers never click on ads (and often don’t even see them if they’re reading the RSS feed).
- Use the old posts as the core of a book. Kevin Smith did this (non-affiliate link) along with a number of other bloggers. I suggested a few times that a “Canadian Personal Finance Annual” collecting the best posts of the year from various blogs and selling them with some additional material from each blogger as a paper book would be an interesting project (that I don’t *THINK* would take much work), but whenever I’ve mentioned it to people there hasn’t been much interest.
- Have a “best of” re-run day. I don’t actually know anyone doing this, but on a day when you don’t usually post (such as the weekend perhaps), bloggers could start re-running old posts that newer readers haven’t seen before. Long time readers can ignore the re-run day, while newer readers will probably have a look when it ends up in their RSS reader. Mike tells me that having duplicate content on your site can get you in trouble with Google and other advertisers…
None of these ideas are terribly appealing, so I’ll throw the floor over to our (far more intelligent) readers.
What neat projects could established bloggers with a large archive, that few people read, do with that archive?
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I have a “strategy” (it was not developed with any intent whatsoever — it was forced on me with me kicking and screaming every step of the way) of blogging only on a set of ideas (the Passion Saving approach to money management and the Valuation-Informed Indexing investing strategy) that were developed through the work I have done in the Retire Early and Indexing discussion-board communities. The strategy has been a dismal failure in money terms (thousands of people who loved me passionately in the days when I wrote only about saving have come to hate me just as passionately as a result of my investing work), but I continue to tell myself that it has potential. And much of the potential results from the fact that, if it worked, it would deal effectively with the question you are raising here.
The strategy is to write only about ideas that you yourself have developed and never to comment (at least not on your own blog) on the thousands of other ideas that all the other bloggers are commenting on. The downside is that it is harder to build an audience; those who take just a glance at the blog don’t know what you are talking about. The upside is that, if the ideas catch on, you are the go-to person for them.
There is a sense in which this is the ultimate niche strategy. I OWN the term “Valuation-Informed Indexing.” If it ever becomes a popular search term on Google (please say a prayer?), I am gold. I’ve been writing about it for seven years and just about no one else has ever heard of it. I have enormous street cred re all aspects of the VII concept.
The plus to this high-risk strategy is that all of my archives have lasting value. If large numbers of people elect to follow the investing strategy, they will want to know all about it before putting money on the table and so all posts in my archives will have value to them (while my posts on some topic of general interest today would not be viewed as being of compelling interest).
I must warn that this strategy has NOT “worked” thus far. I have enjoyed a tremendous learning experience. But I do not have big numbers at the blog and I certainly ain’t making the big bucks.
I believe that the strategy could be adapted so that it could be used by just about anyone. The idea would be to focus your blogging efforts on a topic or two that you would explore in great depth and from hundreds of different angles. You would in time come to be viewed as the expert on that topic and, once you are viewed as the expert, all of the work you have done relating to it has added value for those with an intense interest in that particular angle.
I would characterize this strategy as a “Swinging for the Fences” kind of thing. If it works, it should pay off big. But it is very much a high risk strategy. Many newcomers to your blog are going to be turned off to see that all of your blog entries deal with the one or two topics re which you have established yourself as the expert. And of course it is even worse if you are clever enough to pick a topic where you are telling people stuff that they very much do not want to hear. Taking it that far takes a special kind of genius! (a joke!)
Rob
Since Bennett was the first and only responder so far, it is clear that he did not read your qualifying statement:
“I’ll throw the floor over to our (far more intelligent) readers.”
Speaking of leveraging old posts, I would humbly offer:
http://www.retireearlyhomepage.com/hocomania.html
Funny, we were just tweeting about this. I’d love to be part of any Canadian personal finance annual. I do #1, have seen a bit of #2, – using old posts and putting them into a book is a good idea too, if you have good enough content. I’ve also done a bit of #4. I can’t think of other ideas. We were talking about republishing old posts, but there isn’t any good way to do that, apparently, without messing around with permalinks. Not a good idea.
You could actually ad adds to your feed. The money earned are very very little but it’s something.
As for being number one for a certain phrase, I believe if a higher ranking blog than you “steals” your idea, they would rank better than you ( I might be wrong however).
What sometimes bugs me about readers is when they ask about something that’s already on the site. Of course if everyone knew how to research information on the internet, noone would be reading PF blogs, right?
I believe if a higher ranking blog than you “steals” your idea, they would rank better than you ( I might be wrong however).
You’re probably right, Blogging Banks. But, if you have studied the topic in depth in materials at your site, the high ranking blog is really not able to effectively “steal” the idea. For the high-ranking blog to gain anything from exploitation of the ideas, it would have to publicize the ideas. But once they publicize them, other bloggers are going to learn about them and someone is going to come across all the material at your blog. Then you are “discovered.” Since your materials go into far more depth, your site is going to get more lift than the high-ranking site.
That is NOT to say that the high-ranking site will not benefit as well. My hope with this strategy is that all other blogs will come to see that, while I have been digging on these ideas for years, there’s a lot that newcomers can add (we all have different skill sets –so there are things that I cannot do well myself no matter how much of a head start I possess). It’s not at all a bad thing to have other blogs “exploit” the idea. That’s a good thing, It gives blogs with higher rankings a nice incentive for publicizing the ideas (which is the key to making the whole thing work).
Buffett says that he prefers to invest in companies that possess a “moat” protecting them from competition. For example, Coke is so associated in the public mind with cola (as a result of decades of effective advertising) that there is nothing that a competitor can do to top them — lower price won’t do it, better distribution won’t do it, etc. The idea here is to explore a concept in such depth at your blog that you come to possess a “moat.” Any “competition” is going to work to your benefit by publicizing the root idea (which spreads awareness of a great mass of materials at your blog).
The idea of competition being a good thing is also one that is widely accepted in the business field. It does not necessarily need to hurt baseball for football to become popular. There’s a place for both since they are played in different seasons. And, if there were no popular sport in the winter, people might lose their interest in sports and turn to other activities. Football keeps people interested and then baseball benefits from that interest when summer comes around again. It should be possible for many bloggers to “exploit” any idea that is truly worth exploring (but the one who strikes first possesses an edge in getting in place the materials needed to make a big impression).
I hope.
Rob
Mr. Cheap – Speaking of old blog posts, just wanted to say thanks for your comment on my DRiP article – would be great to talk some more about it – I think we’re both on twitter but email is also good. Glad you liked it!
BTW, Rob Bennett above: I think you have a great idea there in your earlier comment and in principle that should work…. I just hope it works for you soon! Though you’re probably trying other strategies as well.
Clare: I’ve never twittered (I may be getting old but the whole twitter thing seems silly and pointless to me – to be fair, I felt the same way about blogging before I started doing it, so maybe I’m just getting old
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I’ll definitely get in touch with you when / if I get the DRiP series going and involve you. Thanks very much!