Archived posts should not be ignored. Image: Flickr / wistreize / CC-BY-SA
You work hard to build strong content, so focusing on only the newest content could mean you are shooting yourself in the foot. Adding extra focus to your older posts can help build a much more well-rounded online presence for your readers.
Include related posts
At the end of every post, you should include links to related posts elsewhere in your blog. This will not only give readers who stayed with the post until the end somewhere to find more information, but will also help search engines index pages within a particular topic area. A more topically focused index and reading path will help bring focus to some of the best posts that would be otherwise buried.
Write a compilation post
At least once every few months, write a compilation post that links back to several of your old posts. These posts could be framed as the “Top 10 posts that…” or “A guide on doing XYZ, from A to Z” or even “The 5 posts that got the most comments last year.” No matter how you frame it, providing additional insights on these posts as well as links will help bring focus back to great content. In essence, create table of contents for your content.
Mix old and new
When you send out your e-mails to subscribers, combine old and new content to create a more compelling topic discussion. The simple act of highlighting old posts will bring new attention to them, and new subscribers could discover your older content much more easily. Mixing the old and new can also help you make connections that you may not have previously made, creating better content in the end.
Use a Creative Commons license
Remember that post you wrote two years ago? Chances are that that post could be exactly what someone is looking for as a source or quote for their post. Provide an open and obvious license for others to use or quote your post as long as they credit and link back to your content. Creative Commons is an easy shorthand license that allows for this kind of reuse and remixing.
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