I wanted to tell you what I do every so often,  when I feel like I am having blogger burnout.   Sometimes I really just feel like I get a little overwhelmed (if you ever feel this way, check out “should I quit my blog“?)
Today I want to tell you how to re-use your old content & why its a good idea for your blog.

What most people don’t understand is that blogging isn’t just writing your post.   No, that’s the fun part.  That’s what draws you in and gets you motivated to start a blog.  That’s the part that keeps you inspired and keeps you here.

The part that is hard is… the rest of it.   The time that it takes to create a great picture.   The pressure to write a fantastic sponsored post.   The realization that now that you are making money with a blog, you can see the benefit that it has for your family and you want to keep it up.   The networking…  (ps- I recommend a great book called UnMarketing for this!  You can get it at your library.)

So, how do I take a blogging break?  Its easy- I go back into my Dashboard, go to Posts and I filter by date.   (Go to Published & then check the dates):

I pick a date from a while back- normally around a year ago or more.

I will make a newer, better picture for it, if you need to.   (I do this because I have changed so much in a year and my pictures are better now compared to a year ago.)

I will write at the top of my post:  “This post was initially published in ________ (old date) but I wanted to re-publish it for you today because I know that you will love it as much as I did.”   or whatever you want to write.

Change the date to today.

Now it is back at the top of your page.

** DO NOT CHANGE THE URL!!!  If you change the URL and someone sees it on pinterest or somewhere from a year ago and they click on it, it will take them to a 401 page instead of to your post.   Leave the URL alone. 🙂 **

The benefits of this:
1- For new readers, this post will be new anyways & you already wrote it, but they probably never saw it.

2- For older readers- it is always great to re-read a great post.

3- You are giving it the chance to go viral, again (here are more topics to make a post go viral)

4- You are giving yourself a much-needed break and it only took you five minutes!

Don’t worry about taking a break when you need it!   Now you can keep your “new” content coming & you will be off playing with your kids all day!  (or whatever it is that you do in your free time!) 🙂