Contributed by: Roger C. Parker

Never consider a blog post finished: no blog post should ever be considered the final word on the topic. A great deal of the content-generating power of blogging comes from the ease with which you can build on, and improve, previous blog posts. Here are three of the most important ways you can save yourself time while offering a valuable service to your readers and prospects:

Reviews and anthologies

Not every blog post is worthy of review, but those that are truly timeless deserve a longer shelf life than just one day. Let’s face it:

• Few of your blog’s readers are likely to pay equal attention to your blog posts each day. Even if they subscribe to your blog’s RSS feed, or have signed up to receive your blog posts by e-mail, it’s unlikely they religiously read your words. As a result, many of your readers and prospects may have missed – - or not appreciated the relevance of – - some of your best-written and most-valuable posts.
• Searches aren’t the answer. True, your readers can search your blog using keywords and topics. But, searching assumes that your readers know what they’re looking for. Searching can take a lot of time and lead to a lot of frustrating false positives.
• Archives aren’t the answer, either. The usability of your blog’s archives depends on how consistently you listed the most appropriate categories for every blog post. In addition, if you “over-categorized” your blog posts by listing the same post in several categories, you’ll also waste your reader’s time.

A better alternative is to be proactive and draw your reader’s attention to your most important previous blog posts.

Seth Godin’s take on revisits

The first time I realized the importance of revisiting previous topics was way back in December of 2004, when I ran across one of Seth Godin’s posts entitled, The Best Seth Godin Posts of the Year. He introduced his “best of” review with two simple sentences: Easier than checking the archives! More efficient than wading through inane banter. If you’re only going to read 2 of my posts a month (that’s 24 for those of you without a calculator) then this is where I’d have you start.

Since then, I’ve noticed many occasions when Seth has created “Best of…” review and anthology posts. And, each time, I’ve been pleased to have his “expert guidance” to call attention to important posts I had missed, or had not originally recognized how valuable they were.

Revisit = updated information

Another reason to revisit your most-heavily commented blog posts- -or the posts you feel are exceptionally important- -is to be able to update them with new information.

The new information can come from your recent experiences, conversations with your co-workers, comments on your blog, recently published books, or ideas and information you discovered while researching your book or while speaking and presenting.

Just like an author’s third book can drive sales of their first two books, blog posts on similar topics can provide a reason for visitors to spend more time on your blog, becoming more familiar with your expertise and style.

More time spent on your blog also means more time noticing the announcements and offers placed in your blog’s sidebar!

Revisit = enhancements

Your revisits to previous posts don’t have to be limited to providing new information. Another reason to revisit previous posts is to enhance the quality of the information. This can take several forms:

• Going deeper. The most common form of enhancement is to add new information, such as new developments in the field, a glossary of terms that can help newcomers better understand the vocabulary used in previous topics, and reviews of new books that have appeared since the original post. In most cases, however, you can simply “slice and dice” your original topic, and expand individual ideas or bullet points into their own blog posts.
• Format. You can change the format of the information, revisiting a previous text post by depicting it graphically, or by treating it as an audio or a streaming video. You could also serve your market by providing downloadable formatted PDF’s which would consolidate topics in attractive, printable, and readable versions.
• Style. Each time you revisit a topic, you’re likely to not only discover that you hadn’t completely covered the topic, but that you can write about it in a clearer and more concise way. Basically, your original post was a “first draft,” and by revisiting the topic, you can edit and refine it, while adding valuable new information.
• Tools. A final option is to enhance the value of the original information by adding downloadable tools, such as templates for use with popular software programs.

Examples would include spreadsheet templates for use with Microsoft Excel, scheduling and task templates for use with Microsoft Project, mind mapping templates for use with Mindjet’s MindManager, and design templates for use with Adobe InDesign or Microsoft Publisher.

Learning from Click & Clack’s “Car Talk”

One of the most popular segments on public radio each weekend is the “Stump the Chumps” segment on Tom & Ray Magliozzi’s Car Talk.

Each week, they contact a previous caller and ask them how helpful their previous advice turned out to be. It’s a great segment because of its unpredictability; you never know if their advice worked or their advice turned out to be useless.

You can build interest in your blog with occasional “look backs” on your previous perspectives and predictions. Ask yourself:

• Perspectives. Where were my previous perspective on-target, and where were they off-base? What changed my mind, or proved me wrong?
• Predictions. If you are in the habit of making predictions about events in your area of expertise, or in marketing in general, where were you right, and where were your perspectives wrong? Why?

The more candid you are in evaluating your previous perspectives and predictions, the more your market will respect you, comment on your blog posts, and refer you to their friends.

Recommendation

Take a little time each day to review your previous blog posts, and note the ones with the most significance. Create a list, or a mind map, showing just the most important posts, with links to the post themselves, or the Microsoft Word version of the posts.

After you’ve finished the list, review it with a critical eye, and edit out all but the 10 or 15 more important posts.

Then create a system for revisiting your “best of” posts. Perhaps once a month you’ll revisit a previous topic, or even twice a month.

The number of times you revisit your “best of” posts isn’t as important as the process you’ve created to constantly look back while you’re looking forward.

Author bio

Roger C. Parker is the 32 Million Dollar Author, writer’s coach, and e-course developer. Get his free, 14-page, Write Your Way to Success white paper at Published & Profitable.