The return of the much-anticipated Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks this week has already fueled plenty of discussion online just by the name alone. Bloggers everywhere are already in an autumn frame of mind, ready to ditch the heat for crisp weather with discussions on back to school and pre-holiday anticipation topics cluttering your RSS feed.
We've heard it all before and we heard it all last year, last month, a few days ago, on various blogs and op/ed pieces on websites everywhere. When in doubt or without inspiration, bloggers always have the seasons to guide them home, which usually come with a set of pre-scheduled topics to discuss. In the fall, you'll hear about how to motivate your office to get out of the lazy days of summer groove and back into work mode and how to utilize the first hour of your day to maximum productivity. Hot topics that get recycled on every possible blogging outlet, every year, and yet we continue to blog within the seasonal box. The question now is how often is too often to revisit a post idea that you might have already written about before on your blog. Should you do it or skip it in favor of trying to stretch your brain to think a little further about something else?
I'll always encourage brainstorming for a blogging session myself, but sometimes there are hidden benefits to rehashing topics you wrote about once that need to addressed - again.
Timeliness
If it's in the news and relates to you and your business in a big way, blog about it and don't wait either. Relate the topic to the current event news story that it's on and take a stand that exerts both your opinion as well as exercises your level of expertise in the subject which will give the blog post additional heft. You don't need to continually write follow-ups to this post either unless it demands the occasional update, such as following a legal lawsuit in the news.
Growth
Bringing back a topic that you spoke about once some time ago will see a different version of you as a blogger appear. In the post you're writing, you will undoubtedly link it up to the first piece you blogged on and chances are high your writing style and tone has changed since then. Just remember that while your style might have changed, as a writer you owe it to your readers not to take the old post and just toss on an extra paragraph at the end or pull some old references so you "recycle" the content and pass it off as new. Your readers aren't idiots - they'll be able to tell if you copied and pasted an old post that had been previously published before.
Point of View
If you're working with a company blog, there's a good chance that past writers and interns have written up posts for it and presented different takes on various topics that you wouldn't necessarily have agreed with. This makes for revisiting older topics that are suddenly relevant much more interesting because you can debate the stance once taken with a new fresh one to hook in readers, both old and new with. Maybe you really don't like the Pumpkin Spice Latte and think that Starbucks should pick a different flavor to capture the season of fall with. Not everyone will agree with your take on the matter, but they'll be curious. They'll click on your title or on the link provided and visit your blog. Most importantly, they'll read it which is why we blog, and write, in the first place: to express our ideas, concerns, and opinions in the hopes that it gets at least one person to read it and stretches their brain a little further on the topic.
Author Bio:
Deborah Sweeney is the CEO of MyCorporation.com. MyCorporation is a leader in online legal filing services for entrepreneurs and businesses, providing start-up bundles that include corporation and LLC formation, registered agent, DBA, and trademark & copyright filing services. MyCorporation does all the work, making the business formation and maintenance quick and painless, so business owners can focus on what they do best. Follow her on Twitter @deborahsweeney and @mycorporation.