You've noticed one of the things I do here is collect useful resources for you, our loyal readers. Heck, I do it for our disloyal readers too (but seriously, come by more guys).
This also means that I encounter what I've christened "The Blog Boneyard".
Have you ever, honestly, blogsurfed? Go from blog to blog to blog? Try it some time on any subject, and you'll fidn yourself clicking through dead blog to dead blog. I've encountered blogs that have not been updated for four years – yet people are still apparently hosting them.
In these days when everyone checks for you online, when your personal brand is part of your online efforts, I'm wondering if your blog is part of the boneyard if that's a bad idea.
A blog is a positive for many people. It connects you with people. It teaches you discipline and organization. It looks good to an employer – even if you're not blogging on things relevant to your career. A blog is a sign of talent and commitment.
So what does it say about you when your blog is dead?
I'm not sure I have an answer to a question, but I think that it may not look good. If an active blog shows commitment and talent, an inactive blog could be taken as a sign of disinterest, laziness, or a lack of followthrough. You may also think people won't find your dead blog, but . . . well this is the age of the internet.
So I'd like to suggest that if a blog must die, it be buried properly – or embalmed or preserved otherwise:
- You can just take it down. That's simple and effective, but . . .
- . . . that could take own all your hard work. You might want to freeze it and note that it is on hold and why.
- You could also redirect the domain the blog went to to an archive of the blog or a page on your personal page where it can be downloaded, or something similar. That way you preserve the work, the URL isn't mapped to an account you no longer want to pay for, and you show thoughtfulness.
Buried or embalmed and on display, it's better than leaving your blog abandoned.