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7 Ways to End a Blog

Posted By Darren Rowse 17th of March 2010 Miscellaneous Blog Tips 0 Comments

Yesterday I wrote a post about some of the factors that bloggers might consider when deciding whether to end a blog or not.

Today I want to continue the theme and look at some options available to bloggers who have decided to end their blog but who don’t quite know how to do it.

Here are some of the most common ways that I’ve seen people end blogs:

1. Sell It

Before you decide to delete your blog, or simply decide to stop writing – consider whether it might have some commercial worth. This might not be appropriate for all blogs (for example if you have a more personal blog you might not want to give it over to someone else) but if your blog is more commercial/entrepreneurial in nature you’ll probably find that it has some value to somebody else.

There are a variety of places where you can sell blogs and websites online but one of the best that I’ve had a little to do with is Flippa which has regular auctions of blogs and sites running. A quick survey of blogs listed there over the past few months has seen blogs sell for anything from two digit numbers right through to some pretty large sales (I just saw one that went for $60,000).

Obviously the more traffic and income your blog has the better but you might be surprised what people are willing to pay even for smaller blogs that have been around for a while and which have some page rank and incoming links.

Another option if you’re not willing to give away your content but still have a domain with some commercial value is to simply sell the domain without the content. Again – if you have a more established domain with lots f incoming links pointing at it you’ll find that some will be willing to give you something for it.

2. Hire a Blogger or Take On a Partner

If you’ve lost your passion for the topic of your blog but it still has potential to generate traffic and income you might want to consider hiring another blogger/bloggers to write for your blog (or even the run the whole thing).

There would be a variety of levels that you could do this on – from hiring a blogger to write a certain amount of posts per week which you edit, to hiring someone to write and do all the editing, to hiring someone to take on everything (including managing ad sales, maintaining the blog’s platform etc).

The model for this might be to pay a per post rate or you might choose to make it more of a partnership where you share ownership and income with the other blogger.

3. Transition it to a Community Blog

This is similar to the last option but if you have a blog that does have a group of loyal readers it could be worth handing the blog over to volunteers from your community to help you keep it running. In a sense it will become a blog which is largely made up of guest posts from readers.

This approach will only really work if you have an established readership who feels strongly that the blog is something that they believe in and want to keep running – even if it costs them some time to contribute to.

4. Relaunch

One option that I’ve not seen done many times but which could be considered is to refocus or relaunch your blog. This will probably only work if you have a domain name that is suited to more than one niche but instead of completely scrapping your site and starting again from scratch on a new domain perhaps you could build upon the Google rank that your blog has and start a new one on the same domain.

Again – there would be some branding considerations to keep in mind here and it work work best with a small shift in topic, but it could work in some situations.

5. Stop Writing But Let the Blog Sit as an Archive

I’ve done this a number of times – instead of just deleting my blogs I generally will just stop writing and then let them sit on the web in archive mode.

The benefit of this over completely deleting your blog or letting your domain name lapse and someone else grabbing it is that you keep the option open of using it again later and if you are monetizing it you have the opportunity to keep earning a little money from it in the mean time.

The other benefit is that you still are making your content available to readers who might be loyal to your blog and who want to keep referencing what you’ve written previously.

I’ve seen a number of people take this approach and also take up a more aggressive monetization of the site, do some link building to it and treat it virtually like a more static website that targets search traffic.

6. Redirect Links to a New Project

Another approach to consider if you’re starting a new blog on a similar topic is to set up your old blog and get it redirecting its permalinks over to your new project to help that new project get established with a little extra SEO juice and forwarded readers.

This is something I’ve seen a few SEO types do quite successfully and could be well worth doing instead of deleting your blog and not building upon what you’ve already done.

7. Delete it

This would be my last preference for most blogs but could be an option if you don’t want to keep paying for a domain/hosting and don’t care if your content disappears for ever.

I would probably sell my blog before doing this (or at least sell the domain) but I suspect that this is probably the most common approach among bloggers who simply let their domain names lapse and/or switch off their hosting.

What Have You Done with Old/Dead Blogs?

I’d love to hear what approaches you have taken with your old/dead blogs? Have you done some of the above or have you tried something else. Please share your experiences of ending blogs in comments below.

About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Comments
  1. My blog has a PR-4 but covers a wide range of topics. After reading 31DBBB, I decided to concentrate of my current passion on WELLNESS. However, before long I got some positive suggestion to narrowing down my topics, and I thought it’s time to move my WELLNESS topic into a new blog and keep the old blog as is prior to change it into a WELLNESS blog. If I want to write any topic other than WELLNESS I will post it on my current blog.

  2. Great post, food for thought!

  3. This post and the previous post are some what depressing to me. It makes you think about the option of ceasing the posting on your blog.

    Currently, that is not an option for me because my blogs are still growing and have plenty of potential. Still, wondering what if kind of creeps me out.

  4. I’ve got a site I’ve re-purposed for the third time now. Main reason was changing interests over the years – found that it’s much easier to write about a newer more compelling interest than keep slogging after the old one. Key is to keep the site name generic.

  5. I think the post number 5 is very interesting. You never know what you may do in the future with the blog you don’t want to continue. Just a few years ago, all the sites were like that – static without any new updates. Give it a rest for some time and focus on what you want to do later.

    However, if your decision is to sell it, just sell it and get that thought out of your mind and concentrate on the new project you have in your mind. You have only to make sure what you’re doing is the right thing.

  6. Like you, I’ve started to many blogs because I thought they would be good Money makers. I’ve also been Something of a domain name investor over the years and it can be difficult for me to pass over good ones when I find them.

    Mediocre stuff has been deleted over the years but most is either Sold – in full as well as domain only – or been left online as static archives. I have successfully re launched a few but like you said, that only works in some cases.

  7. Knowing exactly how to open your Xbox 360 will allow for you to insert just about any mods you prefer. I have published instructables on how to open up, disassemble the case, the best way to fix the Red Ring of Death. Get ready to delve Microsoft’s successor to the Xbox, and have some fun in your potential future projects =)

  8. would it be possible to translate your website into spanish because i have difficulties of speaking to english, and as there are not many pictures on your website i would like to read more of what you are writting.

  9. Coca Cola spends tens of millions every year, even though it’s number one¡­ just building the brand.

  10. Your fantatic blog is definitely worth a read if anyone comes across it. Im lucky I did because now Ive got a whole new view of this. I didnt realise that this issue was so important and so universal. You definitely put it in perspective for me, thanks for the nice info.

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