Blogs are notorious for being left for dead. From the millions of blogs that are launched every month, most are later abandoned. It’s not a huge surprise when you consider the majority of these blogs were built on free hosted services such as Blogger and WordPress.com, as most were created by people who are new to the blogging world.
Many new bloggers are simply trying out the medium and are not personally invested in their blogs enough to keep them going. Once they realise that it requires a lot of hard work to develop a blog, they walk away.
What is surprising is that many commercial blogs are abandoned. Blogs that were once making money. Blogs that had a readership.
The Blog Graveyard
When I first launched this blog, I published a blogroll that detailed blogs I read regularly. I recently re-visited all of my these blogroll links, which was a strange experience. It was interesting to see what blogs I used to read every day, what blogs are still going strong, and what blogs have died.
Now, I wasn’t shocked by the fact that many blogs are not still actively being updated. Blogs require a lot of time to update and people’s plans change, so it’s understandable that a large percentage of blogs are no longer updated. What baffles me is that the blogs that were abandoned, were not sold or redirected to another website.
For example, the blog Success for Your Blog has been completely abandoned. The domain is now for sale. 45n5 was another popular blog 5 or 6 years ago. It now redirects to AffiliateMarketer.info, a page that simply lists articles from other blogs.
These blogs should have been sold. It was a mistake for the owners to keep the websites for years after they stopped updating them. You should review your blogs frequently. If one of your blog’s is not in your long term plans, sell it. Sell it as soon as you can. The longer you leave the blog without updating it, the more the blog’s value will drop. Once you have made a clear decision to no longer develop a blog, you need to sell the blog as soon as possible.
With over $200,000 in sales on Flippa, I’m known by many people as someone who is willing to sell websites I own. Yes, in hindsight, I could have kept some of the websites I owned and developed them more, however, I always made a point of selling websites as soon as I decided they were not in my long term plans. This happened a few months ago when I sold my old WordPress theme gallery for $3,100. Once I had realised I did not have time to develop the website more, I sold it. Sure, $3,100 isn’t a huge amount of money, however the longer I held onto that website, the more its value would have dropped. Selling was the right decision.
It’s a different situation with personal blogs, as you can’t really sell a website that has your name as the domain (e.g. I could only really sell this blog to someone who shares my sexy name!). However, if you are not updating a blog for an extended length of time, you should make steps to address that. For example, you can redirect the personal domain to a blog you do update regularly, or convert your blog to an online resume.
Some of the bloggers I used to follow did not do this. For examples, WooThemes co-founder Adii Pienaar, blogged at adii.co.za for years, but the website no longer exists. He now blogs at adii.me, however he didn’t redirect the old domain to the old one. Likewise, Caroline Middlebrook hasn’t updated her blog in a year and Matt Blancarte hasn’t updated his blog in four and a half years. They should have changed their blogs to a static page.
Don’t Be Afraid to Sell
Not redirecting a personal blog that is no longer updated is not a major problem. You may lose a little traffic, however you don’t need to worry about the price of the blog dropping. Commercial blogs are different as they can be sold.
Therefore, the question is: Why do many bloggers hang on to their blogs too long?
I suspect that many people become attached to their blogs after working so hard developing them. Selling a blog is, in some people’s eyes, admitting that you have failed. I can relate to that, but it’s the wrong way to look at things. If you hate updating your blog, or just don’t have time to update it actively, it’s time to move on. You shouldn’t have an emotional attachment to any blog or website you develop.
Things can also just run their course. When I sold BloggingTips, I had been updating it every day for 3 years. It was time to move on and start something new.
I also believe many bloggers are unable to be honest with themselves and know when it’s the right time to throw in the towel.
I know a lot of you have your own blogs, so here’s my advice to you:
- If you are bored updating your blog regularly = SELL IT
- If you are busy developing other websites and cannot work hard on a blog = SELL IT
- If you feel that you have taken the blog as far as you can take it = SELL IT
Time and time again I have seen bloggers hold on to blogs for too long. If you are not actively developing a blog, you need to review whether the blog is in your long term plans. If it isn’t, start looking at selling it.
Thanks for reading,
Kevin