File this under blog maintenance – great blogging advice from two experts.
Reading old blog posts – The first comes from a social media expert I check in with often, Tac Anderson, a Web 2.0 manager at HP who I interviewed for a story awhile back and then got to know a little better. Anderson’s way ahead of me when it comes to blogging and using social networks. He’s got two blogs and hangs out on Twitter, FriendFeed and BrightKite.
Anderson recently wrote a post on his NewCommBiz.com blog explaining why it’s a good idea for bloggers to re-read old blog posts. His reason? You may have thought you knew everything there was to know about a topic when you wrote the original post. But chances are you’ve gained experience, perspective or better sources in the months or years that have passed. If that’s the case, updating old blog posts could be a great way to come up with new posts. You can read more of Anderson’s thoughts on the subject here.
Previewing posts – I’m a post preview fanatic. When I’m writing posts, I constantly use the “Preview this Post” feature of WordPress to see what the post will look like once it’s published. I didn’t even realize some people never use this feature until I read Lorelle VanFossen’s post on previewing, How Often Do You Preview Your Blog Post? According to VanFossen’s informal research, some bloggers never preview their posts while others hit the “Preview” button up to eight times before actually publishing. VanFossen, author of Blogging Tips: What Bloggers Won’t Tell You About Blogging, explains the pros and cons of WordPress’ current post preview set up. Some bloggers like it, some hate it. Either way, VanFossen says, it’s a good idea to use it.
Thanks for the mention Michelle. I actually have more than two blogs but we won’t go into how big of a geek I actually am.
I’m also a big fan of the preview button. Even still I end up changing my post 2-3 times immediately after posting.
It’s like they say; good writing’s never done.
I have a hard enough time keeping up with one, I can’t imagine having more than two. And like I said, I am a preview-aholic. I probably look at a blog post five or six times or more before publishing it. It never even occurred to me that some bloggers don’t use it at all.
Michelle R.
For someone new to blogging, it’s great to hear this from experts. I have only posted these past three days and do re-read things making a slight change here and there. I also agree with the two commenters, switching between previewing and re-reads/editing.
Kind regards,
Dr. O’Mittenz
Dr. O: Welcome to the blogosphere. Proofing posts before publishing is indeed a good idea, if only to make sure that whatever HTML coding you’ve included works.
Michelle R.