- Here's what I do when I don't have a post to publish...

Published: Tue, 01/31/17

Want a quick tip for what to do when you don't have time to write a post?

(And I have to admit, I did this a lot last year.)

Go back into your archives, find an old post that you can revive with a new photo and maybe some content edits and republish it.

Hopefully your blog doesn't use urls that reveal the date... what I mean is... our post urls look like this:

http://www.5minutesformom.com/83564/10-tips-for-natural-cleaning/

So there is a post id number in the url, but not a date. You do NOT want to change the url or you'll break all the existing links and social shares of that post.

That post is from 2013, but I just added a new photo and republished it last night. One of our contributors at the time wrote it, and her blog has changed since then. So I updated her website link, made a new pinnable image and everyone wins!

I usually make a note at the end of the post saying the date that we originally published the post. I think this is important especially if the post has comments from when it was originally shared. You'll want to explain to your readers why the comments have earlier dates.

This is such a simple tip, but I wanted to share it with you because I suspect you might not be making full use of your blogging archives. It's tough to keep enough new content flowing each week, so make use of what you've already got.

Here are a couple other examples of old posts I've edited and then republished...

http://www.5minutesformom.com/86102/ways-show-love-daily/
http://www.5minutesformom.com/45292/the-good-part-of-a-panic-attack/

This post I barely even edited, I just changed the date, made a comment at the bottom about the original date and republished...

http://www.5minutesformom.com/113720/you-color-my-world-free-printable-valentines/
 
I'd love to hear whether or not you use this strategy. Reply back and let me know... also, tell me a few posts that you'd like me to pin for you.

Stay inspired and keep blogging,
Susan 
5 Minutes For Mom

ps. To tell your friends about this "Become a Better Blogger" email list where I share my secrets, you can send them here.