One of the downsides to blogs is that the archives get buried. Bloggers put hours into their writing, but it pretty much disappears after a week or so.
That’s a shame. Usually, some of the best content on any blog is already in the archives. But if the blog isn’t set up well or if readers are too lazy to look for them, no one gets to appreciate the old posts.
With all my blogs, I’ve tried to make it easy to read the archives. I have a separate page devoted to it here.
Still, it’s overwhelming. Who wants to sift through that much content?
When I started reading blogs, probably in ’05 or ’06, I read blog archives. I started at the beginning and read almost every post my favorite bloggers had written. Back then, I was still used to normal websites where the content is static, not dynamic with constant changes and updates.
But over time, I fell into the same habits as other blog readers. I checked in with blogs when they updated but didn’t bother to read old posts. Even though I’ve wanted visitors to read my archives, I had stopped reading anyone else’s.
Lately, though, I’ve been trying to take my own advice. Lately, I’ve tried to read more old posts.
If you have a favorite blog, try it, especially on those days when the blog doesn’t have any fresh content you’re interested in. Look for an archives page – that’s the easiest way to find interesting content from the past. But even if a blog doesn’t have a dedicated page, you can still backtrack by clicking a “Previous post” button or something like that.
It’s a way to get a blogger’s whole perspective, instead of just what’s current and trendy. It’s more like a book. It’s deeper. I like that. I think you might too, if you try it.
By the way, if you’re interested, here are my archives. No pressure… 🙂
