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First, let me define “recycling blog posts”. It’s when you republish or change the publish date of one of your older posts in order to increase traffic to it or to simply give your readers “new” content for a day. Since your older blog posts are buried way down in your archives, there’s a high possibility that your new readers have not read them yet.

Another thing that makes this method great is that search engines will see your website as “newly updated”, and we all know that search engines love sites that are constantly updated. :razz:

So those reasons make recycling blog posts a good idea, right?

Not so. If you repost your old articles, chances are you’ve got outdated information already. Now, people wouldn’t want that, unless you literally rewrite half of your post! I strongly believe that having no content at all for one day is way better than having outdated content. Plus, republishing old posts would only mean one thing, and that is you have no creative or innovative idea in mind on that day!

Another disadvantage is that if you have readers who were with you since day 1 (or week 1), then chances are they already read the article and would not want the same old article on their RSS readers. If they see that you’ve posted your previous article, then they might unsubscribe because thoughts like “Ah, this blogger can’t provide useful content anymore.” would occur in their minds. It’s better to have no increase in subscribers, than to lose 10 or 20 of them in just a single day.

Your Opinions?

What do you think? Short post, I know — it was intended to be short because I just wanted to know your thoughts. I’ll be back tomorrow (probably, if time will permit) to give you some advice on internet marketing, so stay subscribed! Is it a great idea to republish/recycle your blog posts, or do you think your readers would be pissed off if you do that? All thoughts are welcome!

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Thursday, 28 August 2008 at 10:34

Readers have left 8 comments on "Recycling Blog Posts: A Good Idea?".

Comment by axioblogger 28 August 2008 at 12:55 Reply

Recycling old post is not bad as long as you add new flavor to the post.

axioblogger’s latest blog post… Don’t Listen to Them, You can Blog that Niche

Comment by Blog for Beginners 28 August 2008 at 18:59 Reply

I’m not too sure if you can read my mind but coincidentally, this is what I’m going to do to pull my old post from the archive.

The reason why I’m doing this is because at the time of the writing, there wasn’t much of the traffic or readers so I’d like to see how’s the audience might response to it.

Yan

Blog for Beginners’s latest blog post… 15 SEO Tips for Beginners

Comment by Hussein | Random Blog 28 August 2008 at 19:34 Reply

I think it is ok and what axioblogger has just said, just add some new flavor to the post by improving the content. This will help SEO purposes also.

Great themes :D
Hussein | Random Blog’s latest blog post… Earn Money With New Web Hosting Affiliate Program

Comment by Nathaniel 28 August 2008 at 21:52 Reply

I agree that reposting can be hazardous. Besides what you said then search engines might penalize you for duplicate content.
If you write a post that is similar, you have it updated and maybe with more information still on the very same topic as your old post that is all right.
Nice themes too!

Comment by Lucas 28 August 2008 at 22:08 Reply

@Nathaniel:
Penalty for duplicate content? But there’s no new page that’s added to your blog — only the post date would change. Can you clarify the duplicate content issue?

It’s good to know that you liked the themes.

@Hussein | Random Blog:
Adding some new stuff is also a good idea. Glad that you liked the themes. ;)

Comment by Static 28 August 2008 at 22:28 Reply

I don’t know if recycling your posts is a good practice. If caught, your readers could get the wrong thought, which would be of you slacking off. Also, there are some great plugins like popular posts, featured posts, and related posts which you could use to help your “newer” readers find your older posts. At least that’s what I’d do. My 2c. :)
Static’s latest blog post… UBD Celebrates 1 Successful Year With a Contest!

Comment by Frank C 29 August 2008 at 21:10 Reply

I recycle posts on my niche blogs all the time in various ways, primarily rewrites or re-pings. Remember though that these blogs are primarily designed to attract the one time search engine visitor and aren’t intended to gather regular readers and subscribers like a flagship blog.

Frank C’s latest blog post… Used Cell Phone Buying Guide

Comment by ASlacker 20 October 2008 at 18:22 Reply

yep, a few modifications wouldn’t hurt and might be helpful as well with seo purposes. I have heard that its better to keep on changing posts rather than burying it within your archives.

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