Is Your Blog “So Last Year”?

Published May 14, 2010

Over at www.shelleypalmermedia.com/blog/ I was watching a recent edition of ‘Digital Life‘ which included an interview with Dr Ruth Westheimer about how parents should know about their kids’ online activities…

Dr Ruth Westheimer, in her long career writing books and making countless TV appearances, has previously said that any kind of ‘snooping’ on what our kids are up to is a big No, No. However – she now has a completely different view. Basically wiping out a lot of what she has said in the past.

Okay so what the heck has this got to do with the question I asked in the title? A lot.

Times have changed – New world – New challenges

Dr Ruth knows that the world we live in has changed. She knows that some of what we would have taken as good advice or ‘social rules’ etc., 10 years ago are no longer as relevant because of the massive shift in the way we live. We didn’t have Facebook 10 years ago. All our kids didn’t have mobile phones and they didn’t all have email accounts and spend hours and hours hidden away in their rooms constantly exchanging dialogue, pictures and personal ‘issues’ with ‘whoever’…

We only had to worry about a fraction of the things we (as parents) need to know about nowadays compared to ‘back then’ so the rules and the ‘guidance’ was very different.

The point is: What worked then, what was relevant ‘back then’ and what advice was worth following ‘in the olden days’ may not necessarily apply today and, while it does take a strong person to ‘contradict’ themselves by updating their own advice, it is the right thing to do.

Does that mean everything Dr Ruth ever said or published is wrong? No. Not at all (I learnt everything I know from Granny Ruth W – lol). But what it means, and what we can all learn from it, is; whatever you said 10 years ago or 20 years ago – you should be asking if is it still relevant? Is it still accurate?

It’s not a ‘contradiction’ if you make it clear to your readers that it (your new post for example) is an ‘update’. It’s not necessarily a contradiction if you dig out the old posts and update them with a link to newer – more relevant – advice. It’s only a ‘contradiction’ (and in some cases quite an embarrassing one) if you leave it to someone else to provide the newer and more accurate and relevant information and you choose to leave your blog in the bygone days.

Is Your Blog or Website Up To Date?

Take a look at your blog… Have a scoot through your website. Is there any info there that is no longer relevant? Do you have blog posts advising folks to do something that no longer works?

Unclutter Your Blog

Perhaps you’re living well off the adsense wrapped around your 10 year old blog posts but if the info is not as accurate as it should be – perhaps it’s time for a spring clean. It’s all well and good showing off the fact you’ve been blogging since you were in diapers but there’s nothing clever about leaving old, obsolete content out there just for a couple of dollars a day in adsense revenue.

I’m sure you meant well when you wrote everything you may have written in the past but lets be honest – there’s one serious amount of clutter on the web. You go to Google and search for a topic and get dished up endless reams of garbage that is older than Bill Gates’ first billion…

The problem with all this clutter – all the advice and ‘answers’ found in blog posts and forums threads form 2004, 2006 or whenever is that it could be misleading and it could, in fact, be dangerous – it could actually get you into trouble if it no longer has any validity whatsoever.

Laws have changed. Regulations have changed. Are there any new regulations or legal requirements that relate to what you have published?

If you have an aging blog or website, it could be contradictory to what you’re writing today and it could actually be providing advice that would not be helpful – or worse – have negative results.

So how about it? Getting the duster out yet? Or haven’t you got the bottle to admit what you said in February 2001 is no longer relevant or accurate and actually contradicts what works or what you would advise today?

I’m sure there’s some who ask

Why the heck should I care about Internet clutter?

Would you leave every sticky note you ever wrote still stuck to your desk or notice board?

Would you leave ever diary you ever kept on show for the world to see?

Would you leave every book you ever read, just dumped around your house for everyone to trip over?

Do you keep manuals for devices you sold or scrapped many years ago?

Do you keep recordings of TV programmes from years ago?

Of course not – you tidy up.

You throw away old notes and journals, you delete old recordings and give your old books to someone else or the chairty shop…

So why is the internet any different?

Why do we all feel the need to leave a trail of half-written blogs, discarded websites, embarassing forum posts and profiles? Is there any fun asking Google a question and getting some spammy 2002 blog post back as part of the results – only to click the back button time and time again trying to find a relevant answer.

Just a thought… What do you think?

Martin Koss – thinking out loud…

I don't mean to be so opinionated and argumentative, it's just me…