Sometimes, after you get years of blogging experience under your skillful belt, you look back at your old blog posts.
What do you see? How do you feel? Do you sometimes cringe and want to hide under a blanket and never come out of it?
Same, bookwyrms, same. 😫
Moving to WordPress destroyed some of the formatting we had on Blogger. Despite moving in February and having all summer (let’s be honest though, that wrist) to do all of that, I’m still not done. I’m halfway through, and Clo has kindly allowed me to steal her soul and we’ve got a ways to go still. 😥
But here’s the thing… I deleted nearly 50 blog posts from my past.
Whatttttt. That’s approximately 2-3 months worth of posts at the speed I was going back then. That brought me down to under 1000 posts again, am I trying to lose myself here? What’s going on?! Did I think this through or am I just impulsive and moody and didn’t want to blog anymore???
Why would you want to delete some of your old blog posts??? 😱
Deleting an old blog post is not as easy as finding that post and hitting the delete/trash button. After all, some sites allow you to keep the post in the trash for a certain time period before deleting it permanently while others delete it immediately. And if you’re on blogger, the posts you delete are gone from the currently visible eye. You don’t want to accidentally toss out a post!
You want your blog to reflect your best self.
This means getting rid of anything that doesn’t put your best foot forward, and that includes blog posts. You feel that your blog is your personal brand you want to display professionally out into the world (not just in your niche), so you want all of your posts to reflect who you are. It’s basically your portfolio.
In fact, if you started blogging in high school like me or in college, you can use it as part of your portfolio. I definitely showcase some of what I feel are my best posts for use when it comes to job searching.
The post is embarrassing, and you don’t want others seeing that.
I’ve had my fair share of embarrassing blogging moments, you’ve had your fair share of moments – we’ve all had it. Some of us are okay with displaying that, but some of us?
Well… we want to hide the most embarrassing posts because omg what if they judge you based on that one post you wrote six years ago? (I’m judging myself after all.)
Please note when you delete your blog posts, you don’t actually delete it because there are probably ways to bring it back, but that takes extra technical work most people don’t have time for. So at the surface level
You basically didn’t write anything.
Once upon a time in the book blogging world, promotional posts were extremely popular. Over the past few years, we’ve shifted from posts promoting books we think our readers would be interested in something more. Discussion posts are a huge deal, providing thought-provoking conversations with other bloggers. Reviews are rarely read, with views being the lowest compared to everything else. Fun posts breaking the rules of Top Ten Tuesday are far more entertaining to read because they are outside the box and provide a way to discuss.
We skip over the blogs that just do promotional posts because there’s nothing to say. What do you say to a book that has a small excerpt and a not very convincing synopsis? What can you say that’s thoughtful and creates conversation?
There’s not much, is there? We’ve become a community that is more than just promoting; we’re focused on interacting and engaging with others, and not just on our blogs.
You feel those posts don’t truly show your growth.
This kind of goes hand in hand with the above statement: if you’re copying and pasting promotional content without providing any further content… how do you show you are growing as a blogger and writer? Maybe you’re providing a sentence or two, but does it really show how you’ve grown? Does it really show your skills at the time? 🤷 This is especially the case if you’re planning on using your posts as part of your portfolio or LinkedIn because employers do take a look.
Why would you keep old blog posts???
Like I said earlier, deleting old posts is not an easy task. You’re deciding work to be erased from the visible eye – how does one do that? Why even do it? You’re throwing away hard work!
You get a good laugh out of them (despite how embarrassing they are).
Every time I look back at my old posts, I sometimes want to laugh at myself because oh dear. Clo likes to say they’re gold. 🤧 And every time someone goes to them, I sometimes want to tear the review apart and rewrite them in my current glory.
But they show my growth and improvement as a blogger, a writer, a person.
I kept a lot of my old posts because I throw away all of my school assignments from before college, so my blog posts are basically the only representation I have of my past writing self. I’ve grown from the awkward post I once wrote about my moments, which I’ve definitely deleted (also it just used the letter “a” as the permalink). And with six years of blog posts under my belt, maybe I do want to look back and reflect one day, even if they don’t necessarily show my best self.
Maybe other readers want to see how I was when I first started, which gives me a bit of a personality in my opinion. Oh, hey, she was awkward, too! Awkward is okay! Learning is constant.
Provide your experience to others so they won’t make the same mistakes you did.
Back in 2012, there weren’t many book bloggers out there (at least not that I know of). I didn’t have many resources and the only resources I had catered to bloggers in general or bloggers hoping to earn an income. (I mean, it would be nice, but ha, I didn’t even know if I would last a year.)
This is why it is so important to research before you ask – if you have access to the internet and can access Google, please research before asking other bloggers. There’s a line between needing help and wanting people to hold your hand – a lot of us are okay with guiding all of you, but we do have our own blogs and lives.
As someone who has blogged for a long time, you got the opportunity to see the blogging world change hands on. You’ve seen the mistakes that others have done over the years, you’ve made your own mistakes. Newer bloggers might look to you or ask for advice and you can chime in!
And if you have a horrible memory like me, every little bit helps when it comes to answering questions.
Let’s talk, bookwyrms! Have you deleted some of your old blog posts before? Have you considered it? Would you ever do it?
Sophia started blogging in February 2012 for the hell of it and is surprisingly still around. She has a GIF for nearly everything, probably listens to too much K-Pop and is generally in an existential crisis of sorts (she's trying her best). More of her bookish reviews and K-Pop Roundups can be found at The Arts STL.
If you enjoy her posts or found them helpful, consider tipping on KoFi!
Yeah, I definitely deleted some old post. I’m slowly updating a lot of my old graphic. Those aren’t that much to kill my blogging spirit, so it’s okay.
While I was checking those old posts, I noticed how many where… terribile? Like, why those were even there?
So I decided to delete some and felt really good about that. I’m more interested to re-order old reviews (that can be always useful for the blog) in repect to random post in which I talked about what I was going to read next.
Yet, I kept some others, like nice and funny list in which I talked about objects essential to the readers and such. Something I’m sure people will still enjoy to read if they ever stomp on it
Oof. Good luck on graphics! Glad they’re not killing your blogging spirit though.
I’ve only been blogging since April, and while I know that I’m cringy at times I don’t really want to delete something that I was so happy and excited about at the time of.
I really should go back and get rid of certain posts, like things that were just giveaways or really old promotional posts without a review attached. Stuff like that. I’ve been blogging for 11 years though, so I have a LOT of old posts and I doubt I’d ever get rid of a large chunk of it…I like the idea of having my growth shown from beginning to current status. I’d really just rather get rid of those filler posts, or ones with broken links, etc.
-Lauren
prob maybe just discussion posts, if I had some I wanted to get rid of. Maybe not always reviews.
I’ve only been around like 10% of the time that you have, but even I deleted a couple of old posts! I definitely think that as we grow and find our voices, and the community shifts, some of our content becomes stale. In the case of those old promo posts, I doubt anyone would be googling for them when the book has been out for X amount of time, anyways.
Well Sophia this is a very interesting discussion because yes I do erase old blog posts but only the promo posts! You know the ones months old. Not my own posts because avan if they have flaws as you’ve said they reflect yoru growth and sho your evolution!
A fellow promo deleter! I’m like you, I don’t delete the posts that I create, like reviews, and it usually takes me a few months before I delete the promotional post.
That would be a huge NO lol. I won’t lie, I cringe so hard whenever I go through my old posts, but it’s like what you said here–you can’t see and judge your own growth and progress if you don’t look back. Also, by looking at my old posts and reviewing my current posts, I was able to understand better what I hope to contribute to this community now. So yeah…unless you absolutely want to, you probably should not delete old posts IMO.
ALSO I don’t delete old posts or writings because I am a VERY sentimental digital hoarder XD
I’ve never really thought about deleting old posts. Sometimes I go back and read earlier stuff, especially reviews, and I cringe a little, but it was all part of the journey!
I have never deleted a post, but my blog is only one year old. I don’t think I would delete any posts, but if I was converting from one host to another, and if it was a lot of work to convert them, there are some I wouldn’t bother converting. Also its your blog so if you want to get rid of “embarrassing” posts (which I am sure no one else but you would think are embarrassing) then you should do what you want! 🙂
There’s WAY too much work with converting, haha. I still have a long way to go, but I think I’ve given up for the most part except for reviews so UBB can put it in the archives automatically for me. As for the others… I’m more concerned about getting rid of broken links and sorting them in the right cateogory than actually converting them to fit the new theme.
I thought about deleting old posts. but I like to go back and see how I was in the beginning. I get a laugh out of it. I do plan to go back and add correct links and make them “look” better. I didn’t even use book covers in the very first ones. LOL
I am an associate reviewer, but yes, we have deleted posts. Not intentionally, though. It was the process of switching over and some updates that lost them. In the process of adding them back in, we are choosing to only do posts that were unique like reviews, chats, interviews, and guest posts rather than the ‘kit’ posts.
I like the idea of keeping older posts to show a history of the blog as it grew.
Great discussion!
Oh no! Sorry you lost some of the updates while switching over. That’s always a bummer.
At one point I went through and deleted all my old promotional posts. I only do those very occasionally nowadays (for books I’m enthusiastic about), so it’s not much of an issue anymore (though I’ll probably eventually delete those as well). I also deleted reviews that were less than four stars when I changed my review policy awhile back (because of my writing career). I don’t think I’ll delete any discussions or anything, though. I could be embarrassed by some of my old posts, but I had to start somewhere, right? If people look back, they’ll just seen that I’ve grown as a blogger. 🙂
I did the same with promotional posts and also do them very rarely now as well. Actually… I don’t even think I do any aside from the rare cover reveal.
And definitely! You wouldn’t have gotten to where you are today without those posts in the past. 😉
This is such an interesting and insightful post. Firstly, congrats on the 6 years! That’s awesome. I missed commenting on that post so I’ll just write it here! I haven’t gone and deleted any of my posts … yet, but you do make some compelling arguments and it might be something that I do one day when I clean up my blog!
Thanks, Di! Don’t wait too long, though! They’ll bite you back later if you wait 5+ years like I did.
I haven’t deleted any old posts, at least not yet. Heck, I haven’t even finished tweaking all the older reviews to work with UBB, and I’ve been on WP for about 4 years now. (Yes, I know. But there’s so much else to do, and I’m having a tough enough time finding time and energy to do stay current.)
I don’t have a lot of posts I feel embarrassed about. Part of that is just my perfectionism; I’ve always spent a fair bit of time writing and editing a post, and usually go back and reread it after a couple of hours or even days, before actually posting it. But another reason, I suspect, is because I’m in my 50s and you’re in your early 20s (I’m guessing.) I’m sure if I went back and read things I wrote back in high school and early college, I’d be embarrassed by some of them. In those years, I was still figuring out who I am, what my style is, what I thought and believed, and what I wanted to say. At my age, although I keep learning and I do make mistakes, I’m a lot more confident in who I am, what I think, and how I present myself. I’m also less afraid to publicly change my mind about something as I learn more, and less afraid of being judged or disliked than I was back in my teens and twenties. So I don’t feel as much of a need to delete my public past as I probably would if I had started blogging when I was much younger.
Oh, and I forgot to say — Congratulations on 6 years of blogging! That’s quite an achievement, and the more so because you have all the classes and homework to handle, too.
So much to do, so little time – I completely get where you’re coming from. Take your time, though, I’m sure you’ll get them done one day with UBB! And those are some super good points to have since I’m in my 20s and still figuring out my writing style – all trial and error, haha.
And thanks, Lark! 😀
I love this post and discussion. I have deleted quite a number of posts, when I finally shifted to the self hosted WordPress. They were mostly promotional posts and some posts that were more like life updates that were not irrelevant anymore.
I love this post. And I really love that the permalink is just “a” xD 2012 was a while ago and I suppose blogs were kind of like social media back then? I think they’re losing popularity now precisely because we have social media to fall back on now.
I also agree about promo content. When I started out I said I would never include it because it would bore even me to do it. Lol.
But I would also delete my own posts. But I was thinking of deleting Sunday posts or something like that, that just isn’t relevant anymore. I’ve left my reviews alone xD
Oh, no, you too, Evelina. I think Clo found that post HIGHLY amusing when she was going through the other day and I told her about the permalink changing to just a letter.
I think blogs were definitely like social media – a lot of the bloggers (some who remain blogging today) I followed back then used it as an extension of their social media platforms. I guess I became one of those who evolved from using a blog as an extension to well… a blog?
Promotional posts did NOT bore me at the time, but it bores me now to even read or write it unless original content is involved. If I do any now, I generally have something to say about the book in addition to the cover and synopsis.
Interesting discussion Sophia. I don’t delete older posts. My blog has changed though the many years and I have plenty of posts that are not book related (paper crafting, motorcycling). I keep them, because it’s nice to look back and I do all this for fun. I do know when I first started posting about what I was reading, my format for reviews was horrible… I had no format! I often thought about going back to add more book information, but honestly that’s more time that I rather spend doing other things, like commenting on other bloggers posts 🙂
This post speaks to me so much. And after reading it, I think I’m going to take the plunge and start deleting some of my very old posts. Most of them were back from 2014 when I didn’t know anything about book reviews and was just blabbing on. After all the changes I’ve made, I want my new blog to reflect me properly. I’ll still keep some of the old ones though – for nostalgia
LOL babbling on is a huge mood; my oldest reviews are a trip and a half and very much full of babbles. I do think wanting your blog to reflect you properly is a valid reason to delete your posts though; but I’d also be careful when deleting them. Plus, like you mentioned, for nostalgia. Most of my memories that I go back to are reliably from blog posts, haha.