Recycling Posts/Ideas Can Be Good

So Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen came out in the theaters last week! Woo-hoo! Megan Fox makes the movie just awesome, but the story is pretty cool too, so hey I went and paid my ticket to watch the show.

Anyways, although ahnternet is technically a “personal” blog, I still want to give something worthwhile to you guys, so here it goes.

Today while I was waiting in line for my Transformers 2 ticket, I was somewhat befuddled at a screen that was showing the movies that the theater was playing. Drag Me to Hell, Terminator, Night in the Museum 2, Transformers 2, Transformers 1, … what?! Transformers 1? That must be an error, right? I quickly realized it wasn’t–they were playing it again to help people who might have forgotten the previous story. Anyways, what does this have to do with you?

“Publish” Doesn’t Mean “End”

Let’s first look at the “posts” component of this article–recycling in the aspect of the blogging. Often times, we will publish an article and think, “Well, that article’s done with now.” It is as if you won’t ever come back to that article. I feel that such a thought is actually a big mistake that bloggers make. It is like although “Publish” is a bit significant in that it feels like the article is finally ready to be released to the world, bloggers should see it as “just another draft.”

In the world where we’re constantly going after good keywords and SEO, we often forget who we actually write for. It definitely isn’t entirely for Google or any other search engine spiders and it also isn’t all for yourself. The majority of our content should be written for the blog readers and subscribers. Hence, you want to deliver quality.

Recently, I had a legitimate comment made on a post I made back in August 2008. That’s right, nearly a year ago. First, I was surprised that someone commented on a post that old. Second, I found a few sentences that I could rework (and I did) to make the ideas easier to grasp.

Regardless, I’m currently in the stages of composing a new post that enhances upon this post I made. Obviously it won’t be a lame re-phrase or a regurgitation of what I wrote 11 months ago, but its focus would certainly revolve around the same idea. Why am I doing this? There is a clear indication that there are new people coming into this industry and often times, these old posts can get buried away and catch a few webs. Therefore, it seems appropriate to re-open and explain once again. Who knows, you may have missed a couple points here and there too!

Recycling Ideas & Not Copying

Let’s admit this. We see same ideas coming up again and again. Remember The Million Dollar Homepage? That site and the script was cloned so much it wasn’t even funny. I think it came out to be that the only one that suceeded was the original. Hah! Well then, why am I saying, recycle ideas if you know that copies are bound to fail?

No, it is not copies that I’m talking about. I would say a model to build on with a hint of creativity. What am I talking about here? Let me show you.

The Thesis Theme is a popular theme in the blogosphere, not because it is fancy, but because it is an excellent theme to build on. However, let’s be frank. Many blogs that run Thesis, you sort of get the feeling that it is running Thesis. However, you still wouldn’t be able to conclude for sure. Why? Because the more successful ones have adopted Thesis, but have developed its own unique parts. This is what I’m talking about. Starting from something and building on it.

One of more direct examples I could give you is my mini-sites. I run a lot of mini-sites that sell various things ranging from simple eBooks to tools like directory submitters. Often, I’ll just copy over the same page, change the words from one product to another, and then play around with the site. Sometimes I’ll re-order the paragraphs and other times I’ll change the color of the page. At times, if I’m just flowing with adrenaline, I’ll add more scripts and functions to the site to make the visit a little bit more enjoyable. However, in the end, the core beginning is the same. By doing this, I am able to save money and time mostly while providing the same great quality and easy navigation to my visitors.

Conclusion

I will say this again. I am not promoting plagirism and I am not telling you to regurgitate your old posts. The point I’m trying to get across is that by enhancing your previous works, you both benefit yourself and your reader in the ways I mentioned above.

If you are an old blogger, look through your achives and see what posts could still be pertinent to readers today. See one?  Read through it and see how you can enhance it for today’s visitors new and old.

Are you a new blogger? Read through others’ blogs. See what they are talking about. See what you can give about that topic? Remember, don’t copy. However, I’m sure other bloggers wouldn’t mind you giving your view on the subject. Isn’t that what communication and interaction is after all?

What do you feel about recycling ideas or posts? Let me here your view through the comments, as I do fully realize that this can be quite a controversial assertion.