How To Revive ‘Dead’ Articles
Simple Tips and Tricks to give your articles a second life
More times than not on this platform, I come across an article of mine that has sadly ‘died’. What I mean by that is, the article has stopped gaining views and reads. The article has joined Medium’s graveyard, and will not amount to much ever again. A sad truth about this platform. Much of the content here on Medium gains its views and reads within the first week of being published. Evergreen pieces become scarce and scarcer yet, and are always subject to the algorithm’s final judgement.
Editing is your friend
I am going to assume here, that much like the other writers on this platform, once you hit publish on your article, that’s the end of its journey with you. By that I mean that there’s little further action you will take on that article, for starters, why should you? It’s already been published, presumably in a publication, so what more is there to do? Unless a clear spelling or grammatical error is revealed to you post publishing, it is unlikely that you would feel the need to edit your articles. Here’s why editing your past articles could actually revive them.
When you edit your article, things are being changed, and the algorithm will re-evaluate your article. This could be your second chance of going viral. Therefore I implore you to edit your old articles — if this doesn’t lead to a viral article, all is not lost. This is because you still improved your past work, increasing the chances of any new reader who comes across it feeling satisfied — increasing your chances of gaining claps or a follow (both of which will boost the article).
Change the title and then change it again
This goes hand-in-hand with editing, but is a bit more complex and as a result, may require some more thought. Once your stories have stopped earning completely, you are provided with the chance to test out any new titles you had for the piece. I know that when I finish an article, I brainstorm potential article titles, and pick the one I would most likely click on. As with everything, you are never going to pick the best option every time. This means that you can still put those old titles to the test to see if they bring life back to your ‘dead’ article.
Switch the title and headline around
This is something I recently discovered, and had not previously considered. It seems quite ludicrous to switch your headline and title when you first think of it. You created your title to be what it is, a title — and you did the same with your headline. That being said, take a look at one of your published pieces and switch them around in your head. You may discover that the article doesn’t look as unusual as you may have initially expected. Sometimes it needs a little tweaking, as some headlines aren’t in the correct format for a title (certain words capitalized etc.), but once this is done, it can work wonders. You may find that readers are more receptive to this change, leading to your old work starting to gain views and reads again.
While this may bring back life to your ‘dead’ articles, that doesn’t mean you should exclusively use this exercise for that. I’ve found that doing this for new pieces is just as useful. While I create my title to be a title, sometimes I find that the headline is far more alluring, and I, as a reader, would be more likely to read the article if they were switched. It doesn’t always work of course, but it is a great way of coming up with new ideas for articles with tricky titles.
Is one publication enough?
Here on Medium, publications are one of the most useful things writers can use to increase views and reads. I would describe them as an extension of your following, a means of extending your reach. With this in mind, many writers submit their article to one publication, and once it’s published, they move on. They let this story gain its views and reads, and eventually it ‘dies’ and that’s the end.
What if I told you that you could double or even triple your articles reach. This can be done simply by moving the article to a new publication. There are rules to this though. Many publications do not accept already published pieces, and most publications will not look fondly on writers who remove their articles without consulting them first. If you do take the necessary steps, and remain transparent with the publications you’re working with, this can be a great way to revive ‘dead’ articles and increase your overall views and reads.
Summary
The main takeaways are as follows:
- Edit your existing articles
- Change your article’s title
- Switch your article’s title and headline around
- Add your article to multiple publications
And there you have it, several ways to revive your ‘dead’ articles.
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