Perhaps you enjoy maintaining your blog with a post only when you come across an item worth sharing, or a personal essay too good to let slip away. That's what I do here at Release Your Writing; share items I think will be of interest to you. And with over 34,000 visits to this blog, I feel gratified by the attention.
What if you want your blog to really sustain your big ideas? That requires more than posting a movie review, which is soon to be old news, or ranting about a topc of only marginal interest to your readers.
To bring a lasting value to your blog, TheBookDesigner.com [aka Joel Friedlander], offers the concept of a "backlist," similar to a publishers reprinting books that keep selling well, and magazine editors seeking evergreen content - those stories that everyone wants.
Below is a brief excerpt and here is a link back to the full article.
Although blog articles don’t have to prove themselves in the market the same way a book does, they have some of the same characteristics of great backlist books. Some kinds of articles that fall into this category include:
- Foundation content—articles that explain basic concepts will be in demand as long as those concepts are relevant to your readers
- Evergreen articles—software changes constantly, but general principles rarely change, and people always want to understand them
- Process overviews—quick-reference summaries of basic processes in your field are great to orient new readers to your topic
- Resource directories—readers will always need tips on where to find tools, vendors, and other necessities
- Best practices—whittling down the number of choices beginners face to just a few appropriate options will be helpful to many people
