ProBlogger: 5 Brilliant Things You Can Do with an Inactive Blog

5 Brilliant Things You Can Do with an Inactive Blog

Posted: 15 Jul 2011 07:03 AM PDT

This guest post is by Tristan of Infographic Academy.

If you've been blogging for any length of time, the odds are good that you have an inactive blog or two (or *cough* a dozen *cough*) sitting around. Maybe you wrote only a few posts before you realized that your calling in life is not writing about animal husbandry or underwater basket weaving. But hey, I guess you can cross those of the list, right?

So what should you do with Underwater Basket Weaving Master Central Dot Net now that it's defunct? Well, below I’ll explain five of your most viable options.

1. Sell it

Wouldn't it be awesome to sell your inactive blog and make like a bajillion dollars? Maybe you could sell to AOL; I hear they're always on the prowl.

There are two ways to go about selling a blog: actively and passively.

Actively selling a blog involves hustling around and playing matchmaker between you and potential buyers. This includes listing it for sale in online marketplaces like Flippa and shooting off emails to individuals or businesses that you think might be interested in your blog.

Passively selling a blog means that you write a final post that says, "Hey, this blog is for sale!" and hoping that a buyer will find you. You could include some ads on the blog announcing the fact, too. It might take time to sell this way—if it sells at all—but at least minimal work is required on your part.

2. Dismantle it

Maybe the bits and pieces of your blog are more valuable to you or someone else than the whole thing. For example, you could sell your blog posts to a small business to use on their own blog. Or you could package them up as an ebook and either sell the ebook yourself or sell the rights to it. Of course, you'd want to delete all of the content from the blog when you sell it.

Perhaps your domain name is worth some cash now that it's aged, has PageRank, and/or gets traffic. GoDaddy Auctions and NamePros domain name forums are great places to sell domains, and I've also had some luck with eBay. In addition, you could try contacting potential buyers in the niche directly. If you go that route, be sure to list all of the benefits your domain name has and why they'd want it.

3. Merge it

Adding posts from an inactive blog to an active one is great because the more articles you've got on your blog, the more traffic you'll get from search engines and other sources.

A couple months ago I merged two of my blogs together. I had a personal blog and a blog about rock climbing, but I realized that my personal blog was just about my rock climbing adventures. So I moved everything from my personal blog to my climbing blog. The result was more search traffic to my climbing blog. Sweet!

I had trouble finding good information on how to combine multiple WordPress blogs, so I wrote a step-by-step post if you're interested.

4. Use it as a billboard

If you've got something else you'd like to promote (like another blog or product of yours), put links and ads everywhere on your inactive blog that point to that other blog or product.

Or if you don't think people stumbling upon your inactive blog would be interested in anything else you've got going on, you could have affiliate links and ads to someone else's more relevant product. There's nothing wrong with making a sale here and there, eh?

4. Take it down

This one is simple enough. Just delete your blog. Wipe it clean from the face of the Earth. It will either be forgotten or become legend. Either way, you're done with the thing and can move on.

5. Do nothing with it

Of course, you can always do nothing with your inactive blog. Maybe you're just so sick of underwater basket weaving that you never want to dedicate a single additional brain neuron to it ever again. Or it's possible that your time is so valuable that it's simply better spent elsewhere.

And remember that if nothing else, you can always slap some AdSense on that puppy and let organic search traffic do its thing (you did optimize your content, right?).

If you do nothing with your inactive blog, realize that you're either going to keep paying for hosting (if self-hosted), or it will eventually wander into the vast bone yard that is the world of abandoned WordPress.com and Blogger (or whatever blogging service you use) blogs.

Final words

Quitting any blog is often an at-least-slightly painful experience. It stings. You put all of this time, effort, and maybe even money into something and you hate to see it wasted.

But don't worry about it. If for whatever reason you decide to abandon a blog, do what you need to do and then move on. Take what you learned and apply it to your next adventure. And what about Underwater Basket Weaving Master Central Dot Net? Well, as long as you steer clear of swimming pools and long strips of reed or cane, you should be okay.

What else can you do with an inactive blog? What have you done with your inactive or abandoned blogs? What has worked well for you and what hasn't?

Tristan Higbee is a professional blogger. He teaches people how to create their own infographics at Infographic Academy and writes about blogging and internet business at Blogging Bookshelf.

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger