Today your task doesn't involve writing new content for your blog but updating old content to make it more useful.
Once you've read the post and updated an old post or two stop back here to tell us about what you did (and share a link).
ProBlogger, DPS & TwiTip
Once I have updated an older post, should I bump it to the front page? Leave it where it is or post a new article referring to the updated post ?
vdchitnis2000
Member
I agree with Dareen about updating a post .In my world of health care there are many views taken by differant authors and it would be neccesary for me when i write to update my post , some times bump them up on the reading list just for that reason. Thats my thought .
Healthy Regards
Sudeep Chitnis
Blogging for Optimum Health Care
If you do update a post and bump it to the front page then doesn't the URL change therefore stuffing up any other links into that post?
On a slightly different note, I wrote about my blog being the eternal first draft a couple of years ago.
Blogging at Semantically driven
This was a good exercise. I chose one of my most popular posts and decided to write a new post to update it. It's called How I Put My Site On Steroids - Again
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One question that still remains for me, is whether to revise an old post in place or to add a new post linking back to the old post.
Writing a new post will have the advantage of internal links new to old post and old to new post. Revising the old post will make it comfortable for all readers who set bookmarks (favorites) to the old post in their bookmarking tool or browser. In the case of a new post and a link to it from the old post the reader has to read the old post partially to find the link to the new one (maybe he/she doesn't), then they have to follow the link. This can be experienced as a detour.
In today's challenge I did not take an old post, actually it was yesterday’s post. Yesterday I had made rather quickly a link list post to reliable places (not news), where you can find information about the swine flu. http://info.ulrich-schrader.de/node/643
Today I have been adding new links including a map with the confirmed (strongly suspected) cases from reliable sources and also restructured the post. I decided to revise the "old" post since it was rather new, and I wanted people to favorite it. Good decision?
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I am about to get to work on this old post - it is the most popular page in my stats, so I need to make it better. As of today it has a bounce rate of 84.88% I would like to get that down. Just got done tweaking it, I re-worded some of the explanations, completely changed one of the suggestions as it was pretty silly sounding, added a picture, and added in a few amazon affiliate links that matched the article. I amso made sure the key words were sprinkled in there a little more. Oh, and added a 'call to action' at the bottom, asking readers for thier tips and advice. What do you think? Should I change anything else? I will keep an eye on the stats and see if any changes!
I am wondering if I should revamp the original post on Living Out of a Suitcase 101 which has the most reads or if I should write a follow up post on the topic.
I think I'll do both as I'll probably be having it linked to from outside.
Carl Nelson - Slacker Reform : Lifestyle Designer
One thing I am doing is updating URLs of old posts. When I first started blogging, there were no blog titles, and the URL was formed from the first letters of the post. Then titles came along, and I added titles (without really knowing about what makes a good title). So I am rethinking titles and changing URLs to match. Of course I need to be careful not to change the URL for something that already has external links.
@jon.reid - try this plugin http://www.zimbio.com/WordPress/articles/801/Create+wp+Permalink+Structure+SEO+friendly read the section under the screenshots for hw this works in your situation. Good luck!
For this assignment, it will have to be a toss-up between my resolutions blog http://bit.ly/1a5Vqa and my ardent job seeker blog http://bit.ly/IDciB I think I will do more of a follow-up vis a vis Part 2 than a rewrite. Comments and feedback are always welcome.
Don't forget to wish our very own problogger - Darren Rowse - a Very Happy Birthday! April 27th it is... Hope you don't mind Darren, I love birthdays; a great gift of life! ;-)
Cheers,
Elizabeth
Tempus Fugit -Carpe Diem! I need this reminder...
These points are excellent for new posts too. I wrote a new article today and referenced Darren’s list prior to publishing. I liked my new article, but saw that there was no call to action. Consequently, I added a challenge and I think the post is better for it, and I think it is more persuasive.
I updated one of my old posts by adding the video. But not sure if I leave it where it is or repost it. Perhaps I missed something.
http://newworldstoconquer.blogspot.com/2008/12/malaysia-truly-asia.html
I don't think I should redo any of my older posts. They all represent a certain time in blogging development and rewriting them would change that feeling. Although my earlier posts are rougher they do represent me and my honesty. I don't ant to change that.
I will however revisit those topics from time to time as those are topics that I really like. I will further develop the topics in new posts and probably link back to the older posts.
Mind the beginner A blog on beginning, it sounds so simple but it’s quite complex
One thing I have found very helpful is to view the analytics stats and see what drives people to a particular post on my website. Then I go back to that article and make sure that the conent is meeting the vistitors needs. Sometimes, for a particular keyword, no editing is needed. Other times I will add a paragraph or two to expand on the idea that brought them there in the first place.
Other times, the keyword isn't really relevent to the article and I don't really do anything about that. However, if it is my niche I'll make a note and then write an article on that particular topic.
I finally completed this exercise today. Sheesh, it's so easy to get behind!
A month or two ago I wrote basically an opinion post titled "Go Where You Haven't Been." It was essentially about how travel and new experiences gained through travel enhance creativity. Lucky for me, just last week the American Psychological Association published a study supporting that view. I was concerned about permalinks and content getting "lost," so I wrote a new post today about the study and linked back to the old post. It's titled "New Study: Travel Increases Creativity," and if you're interested, you can view it here.
I enjoyed updateing this post
http://outbackselfhelp.blogspot.com/2007/12/pay-ir-forward.html
Pay it Forward : )
I think i'll make a short video to go with one of my quick guitar lessons. they would really be enhanced with a visual, especially my lesson on Train's Drops of Jupiter.
I tried to follow the 100-mile diet and the sustainable fishing guide when preparing cod stew. The original post was too long and wordy. I shortened it and tried to get my readers to give an account of their experiences in biting off more than they could chew.
http://akamamma.blogspot.com/2009/04/aborted-attempt-at-100-mile-diet.html
This was a big but important task since I have "related comments" below my post.
I have learned a lot since I first started so I updated the old blogs with those things. I added video, pictures, updated the tags and categories. Updating the tags really made a difference. Now more of the related posts show up under the current posts.
I also found that my archive link is not working so I am off to email my webmaster, since I can't figure this one out.
Sheila
Newbielifeline.com
@SheilaAtwood
Decided to polish up the titles and add a picture to this older post:
Colin Powell's Rules for Bloggers
Hi
finally i got te time to do this task
i crafted the titles in these post
http://www.speechstarter.com/working-online-what-do-you-think/
http://www.speechstarter.com/more-children-means-great-fines-in-china/
in this post http://www.speechstarter.com/twitter-reality/ rewrote the title and correct a grammer mistake :p
i rewrote this posth ttp://www.speechstarter.com/tips-for-cash-reserve/2/
i rewrote this post http://www.speechstarter.com/earn-money-from-youtuble/
i rewrote an opening of this post http://www.speechstarter.com/pay-per-click/
that's about all
thanks
This was a really important task for me - at first I thought, well, I don't really have any old posts that I can update... but that's clearly not true as my blog has been going since 2007. Then I remembered that I recently got some great constructive criticism on my blog, and on particular on this post, about Chicken farming and my entry into a label competition related to it. Initially, I never really put my own opinions into the post, just said what my illustration was about and that was it.
But I went back to the post and added lots more of my opinion, as well as a video that helped back up what I was trying to say. I'm glad I've done it as it was something that was always niggling at me but didn't realise.
We loved this task as well. It took a long time to read over this lesson and the recommended blog posts.
Based on the suggestions we made the following changes:
* A large relevant graphic at the start of the post to reduce bounce rate
* Introductory questions to entice people to continue to read more
* A call to action - "leave a blog comment"
* Links to some newer relevant posts we have written
Here is our updated blog post
http://www.excitedbylife.com/passion/how-to-make-life-more-exciting-3-top-tips/
Children are born ExcitedByLife. When did we forget?
Well, excitedbylife, I was very excited by your post and uplifted. I commented on it and linked it to a related post of mine.
I also changed the title on a post. It was called Psychology of Coping, and used search words. I changed it to How Do You Cope? and added an invitation at the end to invite the reader to respond.
Have your best day ever, all of you.
I update the post Phone Recon – Motorola CLIQ. My biggest problem is figuring out when to do the update. I am looking to plan those on days where I generally have the lowest number of downloads.
My blog is too new to warrant an updated post, but I published my sneeze page today for a series of posts I have been writing and I went back to tweak the original posts. I added a lead in and ending that highlight that these are posts in a series.
For example: Network with Friends and Family to Find Writing Jobs
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