People seldom read old content. So you need to think of each post you write as the only post in your blog. The others are background to show you’ve been here awhile, more like a credential than content. Without an archive you look like someone who just started. Yet, those posts could all be about your pet salamander for all anyone is likely to actually look back and read them.
Why do people not read old content? Lots of reasons: it’s outdated, it’s too far away, they don’t have time and they didn’t really come to your blog to get to know you all THAT well after all. Blog readers tend to skim, even the post they do read might be hit and miss rather than fully read. I do think short posts are the way to a reader’s attention in the web writing scheme of things.
Have you read this far? Did you skip to the bottom after reading just the first sentence to see if I was writing about anything interesting? Did you just skip to the very last sentence, looking for a quick conclusion?
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I think you totally missed the mark on old posts. I have posts from 2008 that get more traffic daily than my latest posts. If a post has quality content and addresses the needs of someone using a search engine, it will get traffic for years to come. Tutorials, fixes, and reviews are my best traffic generators as others link to them. Someone will ask in another forum “how do I fix this wordpress problem?” and someone else will post a link to my blog saying to try my solution.
I agree with you for 99% of the time but I’d say 1% off my readers will arive on my blog and go right through my categories and archives. They are usually a new reader who I assume has really connected with the content and they aften spend 1+ hours going through old content!
So to add to what you said, you are right but it does give the need for a good label / category / archive system.
I sometimes skim posts, but if I’m going to leave a comment, I’ll first ensure that I have understood the gist of the post.
Old content isn’t always irrelevant due to its age. For instance, in 2008 I published two posts with tips relating to New Year resolutions. As it’s almost the end of 2009, I went back to read those posts to see if they’re still relevant today. They are. Some posts can be mentioned every year, others are timeless and can be useful regardless of when they were written.
Also, some feedback for you. The falling snowflakes are not making it easy for me to write this comment. They keep obscuring what I’m typing.
Nope! I read the whole thing! Do I get a gold star? *grin*
I never really stopped to think about old content, but now that I am, you are probably right. I’m guessing that this is part of the reason ‘professional bloggers’ recommend linking to past content if it is related to the current post.
I do tend to skim the latest posts, however I do check out older material if I think it’s worth a glance. I changed the commenting on the ancientdigger by the way.
The snowflakes are just for the holiday. I will take them down tonight. Thanks for letting me know they were a problem, Ben.
I wasn’t really thinking of old content being connected from Google searches. Just looking at the front page of my site and thinking that most people who land here will only read the first post so everything else was kind of moot for those readers.
I do know this is not how everyone reads a blog. I like to read a few posts. Today I was reviewing blogs to link to and I spent a lot of time looking at their archives. I like to read back to the very first post and see if they say anything about the blog and their ideas for it. It’s interesting how many people don’t do this in the first post.
You have a wonderful blog here. Full of tons of great advice and tips.