Blogging 101 - Kill Your Blog

By QBlog in Blogging 101

Blogging 101 is back! I bet you're wondering about that special announcement I promised a couple of weeks ago. Well, a new guest blogger has agreed to join me and Matt Wood as a contributing writer for Blogging 101. I'll tell you more about her next week as she makes her Blogging 101 debut. Stay Tuned!

So, you hopped on the blogging bandwagon and posted your insightful commentaries about U.S. Foreign Policy, the rude waiter at Applebee's and that hilarious Snakes on a Plane meme. Yet, like the day after a Tequila-inspired Vegas wedding, you've come to your senses and realized that you really don't need a blog. But you have a blog, maybe even a popular one, and you're now faced with the challenge of getting rid of it and abandoning that self-imposed responsibility to churn out free content.

What To Do?
Obviously the easiest way to kill a blog is to simply stop blogging. If you don't feed the beast, it will eventually die of starvation right? Well sure but you're not a sick, sadist. You just want to stop blogging, not leave your readers speculating about what happened to you and why your posts suddenly halted.

Did she die?

I heard he was arrested.

Maybe he's in a coma? Or has amnesia?

Vacation or Death?
Before you decide to kill your blog I suggest that you take a break to think things over. Post a message letting readers know that you're putting the blog on hold and then leave it alone for a few weeks. If you still have the blogging itch after your hiatus then pick up right where you left off. But if you don't feel the itch then it's probably time to hang it up and kill off your blog.

How to Kill Your Blog
Each blog is different and therefore each blog death will be unique. However, most blog deaths should follow some practical guidelines to ensure that your piece of the Blogosphere doesn't end up resembling an abandoned Wal-Mart.

Here are seven recommendations for killing your blog:

Be honest about the motivation for killing your blog. If you're killing it because it got you fired, let the world know.

Once you kill your blog, resist the temptation to resurrect it. Nobody likes a zombie blog.

Make the death quick and painless. There's nothing worse than a long, agonizing death. Don't waste dozens of posts explaining your action. Do it quick and do it with confidence. One farewell post should suffice.

Don't delete your blog. Deleting a blog looks like you're trying to hide something and that feeds conspiracy theories. Simply kill it, have a funeral and put up an appropriate tombstone engraved with a clever epitaph for posterity.

Be sure to tell your readers where you'll be spending your time if you decide to blog somewhere else. Unless of course you're killing your blog because you want to start blogging anonymously.

Leave all the archives up for as long as possible. If you're paying for hosting then you may need to remove the blog at some point but post a termination date and explain your reasons for removal.

Unless you plan to monitor comments for spam you should disable the comment (and trackback) features.

Conclusion
There's no shame in properly disposing of a blog. Our lives change. Our goals change. Sometimes our blogs can't adapt to those changes and it's better to kill a blog than to leave it lingering, sporadically updated with second-rate content.

Blogging 101 publishes every Sunday and provides blogging tips, advice and tutorials for blog newbies and veterans alike.

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