Deleted 3 old blogs today...

January 2nd 2019.

So today we deleted 3 old blogs that we haven't updated in years.

Several reasons.

1. We no longer used the blogs in question for advertising (or anything else).

2. We had already cannibalized the blogs in question for their content and repurposed that content elsewhere.

3. It is 2019 and we felt like cleaning house, throwing out old blogs / old stuff.

Blogging is valuable as a method of advertising and building an audience. However if you rarely update a blog or have quite a few (we manage about 200 different blogs) then it just sits there, unused and unappreciated.

Eventually after a blog collects dust long enough the best thing you can do is cannibalize the content, use the content elsewhere in a blog of a similar topic, and then delete the blog which is no longer of any use.

And now here we are...

Writing a blog post about deleting 3 other blogs.

A new year is a good time to do something new. Start fresh.

In our case, it is a matter of fixing old things that need fixing.

Make Do and Mend was a motto promoted during WWII in Britain, promoting the idea that people should not buy new things and should ration their supplies by focusing on repairing things.

As a concept, it isn't something people do these days in our modern capitalist consumerism society. I should know, I work in the marketing industry. Consumerism is what I promote.

However from a business perspective saving money is also of value.

Say for example you have old signage outside your store. Something which needs some repairs and a lick of paint.

Does it make sense to replace the signage entirely, just tossing out the old signage?

Or does it make more sense to repair the old sign, repaint it, and thus it can serve its purpose once more with renewed vigor?

A wise businessman (or businesswoman) would choose the 2nd option. Repair, repaint and reuse.

You know the old adage for recycling?

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Except the Reuse part is kind of useless if you don't also Repair.

In blogging terms we use the word Cannibalize*. We take the old content, copy/paste it to a different location, and delete the old website that is no longer used. There is more to it than that however. First you want to set up a redirect code so that visitors to the old website are automatically redirected to the new website.

* Cannibalize is an ugly word, but it is the word used. Basically it just means we are reusing the old content elsewhere.

After a suitable amount of time has gone by and visitors to the old website are rare, the old site is then deleted.

During the process of copy/pasting the old content, you may also decide the content needs to be updated. This could be done immediately, or it can be delayed until a better time. eg. Delayed until you have time available to do the needed updates. Updating the content (repairing it?) doesn't always have to be done right away.

But if you are in a mood to repair / fix things, like we are right now, then now is as good a time as any.

So why not? Just get it done now.

Just do it now. Get it over with.

Doesn't have to be a big fix either. Sometimes a bandaid solution works just as well and is a more efficient use of your time.