There’s an amazing part of every blog you read that you’re missing out on.
It’s not that you’re not paying attention; it’s just hard to keep up with everything. If you’re like me you have anywhere from 50-100 blogs in your reader. Most post multiple times a week, and some post daily (and some post even more than that!). It’s hard to keep up with life in general, much less anything besides the latest post on the blogs your keep tabs on.
So what’s the best part of every blog that you’re missing out on?
The Archives
Why Most People Don’t Read Them…
A huge number of people don’t both reading archives. Why?
Archives are messy. They’re not packaged neatly and sometimes difficult to find and/or navigate. There are spelling errors, outdated information and bad videos with guys breathing heavily into the microphone.
They’re raw…
…And That’s Exactly Why They’re Important
They’re raw, that’s why they’re valuable.
Whether you like it or not, most all testimonials, memories, accounts or opinions are revisionist history. It’s how the person thinks NOW about how they felt THEN. We’re terrible at recalling exactly what happened. We’re involuntarily biased by our own current position in life. The archives are a way for you to tap into how they felt at that exact moment in time. The archives let
Learning Opportunity
I’ve learned more from Chris Guillebeau than probably any other blogger. I’ve only met Chris once, since have only exchanged a handful of emails, but I’ve still learned an amazing amount about him and his strategy. How? By reading his archives.
I’ve spent countless hours looking through the archives of his blog and I’m constantly amazed at how his blog+travel-project+life concept is so seamlessly put together and executed. I couldn’t figure it out how he did it for the longest time and then I realized, there’s one reason why:
He planned it like that
Take a look at these mind-maps Chris created at the start of AONC [thanks Chris for letting me use them here!].
The detail in these is amazing and have been incredibly helpful in helping me form my own plans for world domination and doing of impossible things.
If you take the time to look through them mind-maps, you’ll see a some pretty ambitious plans for what was at that point, a 1 month-old blog. They say something about releasing a best-selling book, implementing a postcard project and a starting charity project under the AONC umbrella
Fast-forward to early January 2010; Chris announced his plans to raise $500,000 for an AONC charity project for Ethiopia through Charity Water. A month later he introduced an AONC postcard project soliciting postcards from people changing the world. Turns out, he’s also coming out with a book in a month. Coincidence? To the casual observer, it might look like Chris is just lucky and every project he rolls out is a success, but in reality, he was planning world domination from Day 1 [if you didn’t know, he’s getting pretty close]. His AONC archives are a living case study on how to live life intentionally and also build a blog, business and a charity initiative in the process. Even if you were reading Chris from the start, humans have a pretty short-term memory. It’s one thing to dream about creating change, but you really appreciate the end goal when you understand the full arc of the story. Reading the archives gives you that understanding and knowledge to plot things out yourself.
Archives to read:
By now, I guess I’ve revealed my blogging-crush on Chris. Go read his archives now. Like I said, it’s a living case study on blogging [and it’s free] better than any eBook on blogging that you’ll find. Start with his first month of posts and make your way through it. It’s worth your time, guaranteed.
Gary Vaynerchuk [Wine Library TV]
Watch Gary’s latest video on WineLibraryTV.com. Now watch his first video. See a difference? Gary went from an average guy talking on a bad video with bad lighting with his cameraman breathing directly into the camera into the rockstar of the wine world. Gary’s got four years [and counting] of videos documenting that progress. I dare you to watch them and NOT learn something.
Inspiration
There’s a ton of blogging gems that you’ve read before that might not have applied to you at that moment in time, but if you read them now, would impact you immensely. There are other posts that you read over and over again, others where you celebrate others victories and some that make you wonder “why can’t I dominate a triathlon?“
Sometimes the journey itself is an inspiration. I’ve talked about Sean Ogle a few times, but he’s a great example of a guy who just started blogging to just start blogging. He knew he wanted a life change, but didn’t necessarily know what that meant for him. Didn’t matter, he kept writing and made things happened.
- He started with this article.
- 6 months later, he quit his job.
- 3 months after that, he moved to Thailand.
- 7 months after that [just over a year later], he has a completely different life.
Archives to read:
Sean, Sean, Sean. I’ll stop gushing. His blog is an evolving story and it’s a dang good one. Read Sean’s Archives Here
Baker’s story, like Sean’s, is of evolution. I don’t think Adam would say he’s “arrived” by any means, but to see they journey he’s had since he started blogging a year and a half ago and is nothing short of awe-inspiring. Baker doesn’t have an archive page, but start here and work your way backwards.
Encouragement
Blogging gets hard. But when it does, you can bet that it’s not just hard for you. It’s hard for everyone at some point. You hit a dip, you get mad as hell, and you want to throw imaginary chairs against the wall. The only problem is, not everyone hits that point at the same time. The archives give you that ability to go relive those hard parts with those people you look up to. You also realize that amazing blogger you look up to, wasn’t always so big and that everyone hits a low point every now and then.
Archives to read:
David Crandall [Heroic Destiny]
David is in a completely different stage of life than me. He’s married, has kids and everything he writes still manages to resonate with me. He’s incredibly honest & open about his life & adventure as he works on building out his new life. David doesn’t have a clean archive page either, but you can start here.
Do yourself a favor. Visit one of these blogs, dig into their archives, find one post and read it. If you get something out of it, comment, let them know. You’ll get something out of it. I promise.
[Photo Credit]
Man you keep saying all of these nice things about me, and I’m afraid I dont live up! Nonetheless thank you for such kind words! I’m in some extremely good company here. Let’s skype soon – tomorrow perhaps? I’ll email…
haha, it’s all very well deserved Sean.
Hey Joel!
Hows life? Hope all is well!
Thanks for the link!!!
Hey Diggy.No problem. Thanks for writing such a great article to link to!
It’s crazy you can definitely a big difference in the first video of Garyvee compared to now. With experience we get better and it almost becomes second nature to us the things we do. It’s like brushing your teeth every morning for him now I bet.
By the way it’s funny when you said “you want to throw imaginary chairs against the wall” only one person came to mind (David) funny how that happened and of course that’s who you were talking about.
After reading this and David post similar to this one, I might just have to go and start looking through some of you guys’ archives. Thanks dude!
David has to stop reading my mind! It’s like we’re on the same wavelength!
Oh, the difference between Gary’s first video and now makes me laugh. Amazing at how much he came out of his shell once he started getting comfortable.
You’re going to totally laugh, but I was literally showing my brother Gary V’s first video last night and how un-polished it was. We then watched 11 minutes of him talking about wine in his latest post.
Perhaps we are clones of one another. You are definitely the more healthy version of the clone though; I’d die if I had to participate in a triathlon right now!!
I love that people now think of me when imaginary chair throwing comes up. Also, “OM NOM NOM NOM” and unicorns.
It’s honestly laughable how bad his first video is…bad audio, camera guy breathing into the mic. All sorts of “no-nos.” But none of that mattered…look where he is now. That type of progression just blows my mind.
I love this. I think that people really do miss out on a mountain of knowledge by not going back through someone’s archives.
For me it has been insanely encouraging to go back and watch the development of some of the top A List people from a time when they barely got any response until the current moment. I actually think that many of us start out better because we are able to start off having already learned a ton from them.
I’ve been scouring the archives of some really successful bloggers lately and have found a ton of things that I don’t think I would have discovered on my own for quite some time.
My name is David Crandall, and I endorse this message.
DANGIT! That wasn’t supposed to be a reply too…it was supposed to be at the bottom of the page.
Oh well, I’ll just converse with myself for a while. That’s one way to get a conversation going in the comments.
What are we going to do with you? Someone needs a lesson in comment etiquette…
Is this politician David? 🙂
There is a some great stuff in the archives of “Blog of Impossible Things” as well. I recently enjoyed “My First Spinning Class, Khaki Shorts & Miley Cyrus”, “Chicago Blogger Meetup”, and “Dangerous Inaction”. It’s like opening up a time capsule and finding hidden gems.
haha, maybe I shouldn’t have people read my archives =) The Spinning class was definitely an experience. Dangerous Inaction & Screw it & Do it are still some of my favorite posts…
This post comes at just the right time for me. I’m a few months into my blog and beginning to loose steam. Fortunately, I’ve been distracted by lots of new work (I work for myself) and fun new projects on the horizon; unfortunately, I’m writing has suffered and my focus has blurred. I have been wanting to sit down and work out a plan to get back on track and the mind maps are a great idea!
Keep it up Brian. Refocus, find what works for you and get after it :). There’s lots of people out there that make a killer support network. If you love it, it’s worth it =)
Map out your plan and then go get it done.
Perfectly-timed Joel. I just started doing this with a video blog that I follow. Now it looks like I’ve got my work cut out with your suggestions.
Good stuff!
– JC
I’ve found video blogs take more time, but it’s so cool to see the transformation of some people’s personalities as their blog progresses. Mind if I ask which one?
Very cool idea here and you’re totally right! Chris Guillebeau’s archive is one that I’ve looked through extensively. There’s just so much great stuff there. The last couple of weeks I’ve been working on creating an “all posts” page for my site and it’s been a blast going through and reading all the oldies.
Every time I re-read Chris’ stuff I get something else out of it.
Not sure what you mean by “all posts” page, but if you’re looking for an easy, clean archive page, this plugin does the trick (I use it at least) and doesn’t require much work on your end. Might want to check it out.
http://www.viper007bond.com/wordpress-plugins/clean-archives-reloaded/
Joel, Stick a picture on your about section man, make it more personal.
I had one, but apparently I took it off at some point…hmm. Thanks for the heads up. I’m actually working on revamping the whole thing, but in the mean time, I put up a couple for now =)
Hey Joel,
I Love going through blogger’s archives. You always find pieces of treasure that were forgotten about over time.
Yet, it is often one of the more neglected pages, thrown down in the bottom footer in font size .56 and nowhere else to be found. You’re hurting your own blog usability and navigation by doing that, and it is such an EASY way to help your readers find those treasures you wrote so long ago.
And as you mentioned, one of my FAVORITE things to do is to go to a big bloggers archives and read their 1st post ever written. Speaking of this post, just a few weeks ago I read the 1st one on Chris’ AONC actually!
We all start at the beginning 🙂
Anyway, cheers to world domination 🙂
Mine’s in the navigation bar up top =) Success! haha.
Definitely cool to see people’s roots and see that we do all start at the beginning.
Wow, this is wonderful, Joel! Great way to shine light on something most readers ignore (but you apparently picked up on, enough to share with us all!). Thank you!!
No problem Nina! Excited to see you this weekend!
I’m somewhat guilty of not reading archives. I’ve done it some times, but they can be a huge time sink. I prefer to bet that the blogger has good “Related links” in his posts. Some people do, some people rely on automatic linking… Which is like writing your post and then forgetting what you wrote before!
Ruben
It depends. Some archives can be, but I’ve found personally that the bloggers that I really look up to have something I can learn in almost every single post. Just my experience though 🙂
One of the most fascinating posts I’ve read in ages!!
A really great idea, thanks Joel
Thanks Jordan! Try it out and let me know 🙂
p.s. are you in England right now by chance? I got 1 1/2 days left here…
Hey Joel, I’m impressed — there’s a scholar in you. Seriously, this is a very, very good post. Some great insights here. Definitely worth studying the backstory of those stand-out successes. Another one I would add to the list is Steve Pavlina. He has a huge archive by now. I believe Chris Guillebeau also said that he studied the Pavlina archives in detail in the early stages of his blogging career. It was interesting to contrast Steve’s early posts with Chris’. As Chris explained in his second manifesto, he spent along time accumulating a back-log of posts before launching his blog, while Steve definitely went with the ready-fire-aim approach.
The more and more I study others, the more I realize, “there are no rules.” There are a million different methods to build a blog, but in the words of J.D. Roth – I think you need to “do what works for you.”
My god. I’ve been looking around, digging in a search for exactly this lesson and these links. For real, I’m getting a pen and paper ready to start studying. But I’m expanding the lesson to include you too. Consider your archives flattened in one of those plastic thingies that CSI guys use with the microscope.
Thank you.
Best Analogy Ever =)
That’s awesome. There’s a ton to be learned from the posts of all those guys. So much information! Thanks for including BIT in your bag of CSI investigation materials =)
Sweet post – and nice blog Joel. I was on the 4HWW, then linked to Josh Crocker, then to you. I’ll be back. I’m also a big fan of Chris @ AONC and just finished reading his book.
Check out my blog and keep in touch – I have a feeling we’ll see each other again.
JSJ
I’ll check it out! Thanks for stopping by James!
Chris, Tim & Josh are awesome btw.
Guess how I found this? Your archives! I love looking through a blog’s archives, because, just like you said, it gives a look in to how it all started and what a person felt when they were writing! You’re blog is awesome, and I’m starting to DO what I love. It’s fantastic!
I always read archives of blogs I follow. It’s the only way to know that everyone had a starting point somewhere.