Three Things To Do With An Unloved Blog

Is your blog unloved?"Dead" blogs are one of my pet peeves.  Especially when the now unloved blog had enough good content to still pop into the search results for niche keywords.  I click on a promising link, only to find the post is from 2004... and is one of the most recent entries!  Broken links, dusty designs and out of date contact details just add to frustration when I am researching a particular topic.  I often wish there was a rule that any blog that didn't post at least once a month would be labelled as "out of date" within Google.

There are many reasons why a blog project that you were once passionately devoted to falls into disrepair and neglect.  Perhaps the idea didn't pan out like you hoped; maybe your life took a different turn and the topic no longer inspires you the way it once did; or you just found that a lack of time meant you haven't been able to post updates and articles as often as you should have.  So what do you do with an unloved blog?

The answer rather depends on the blog's original purpose and how successful it is.

Sell it

Obviously, a popular and well crafted blog has some potential to make you money by selling it.  However you will have to have significant traffic and some good statistics to back up your blog's success in order to leverage any kind of real money.  If the blog was hosted on a dedicated URL (e.g. not user.blogspot.com or user.wordpress.com) You might be able to sell the domain name.  Unused domains with page rank are often bought as a way for companies to build backlinks to other sites and blogs.  You aren't likely to get rich by selling your blog, but even $20 in the bank is better than letting a web property fall into cyberspace disrepair.

Pass on the Torch

Perhaps you know of another writer who would like to pick up the pen and carry on writing for your blog?  Or maybe you could recruit a new guest author each month?  In this way you get fresh content and keep the blog alive while new writers have a chance to showcase their work.  This is great for an established blog, or a blog that lets writers use a very specific style of writing.

Re-purpose It

If your blog still has traffic, you might still get value from it even once you have stopped posting as long as you change the focus to one that doesn't require regular updates.  Post a notice on the page explaining that you are no longer updating the page BUT give the visitor an alternative place to go to find more information on the topic, or to find where you ARE writing.  Add a call to action if you want to turn your blog into a static sales tool.  Perhaps you want to promote your new e-book, or direct them to another online portfolio of your work?
If you don't get a lot of traffic, but still have some old links out there pointing to your blog's domain then consider redirecting the URL to a more up to date site.

Whatever you do, do something.  There is nothing worse for a surfer than hitting a virtual dead end of information with no place to go.