Have you ever wondered what will happen to your blogs if there’s an emergency and you’re sick, injured, or God forbid, worse? We don’t like to think about it, but the truth is we’re not permanent fixtures on earth and stuff happens.
Whenever I bring up the “what if something happens?” question to my fellow bloggers many don’t have a plan in place, while others don’t want to even consider there will ever be a time when they can’t blog. Before I left for BWE in the beginning of November, I thought a lot about what would happen if something happened. Who would alert my clients and readers? What would happen to my blogs if I was no longer around? Not attractive possibilities, but certainly something to think about.
Appoint a Blog Guardian
As much as I love my husband, I can’t trust him to handle my blogs, especially if he’s in mourning or caring for me if I’m injured. I contacted my oldest sister and gave her a list of contacts as well as the log in info for Freelance Writing Jobs. She knows to alert my readers.
I also have the passwords and logins for all my blogs noted on a disc, which is in the fireproof box that stores all the important family business.
Sell or Pass on the Torch?
It’s not enough to have someone alert your readers that you won’t be blogging for a while, or ever again. You’re going to have to decide if you want to appoint a successor or sell your blogs. If it’s a matter of illness or injury, you may just want someone trustworthy to fill in during your absence. Choose someone who feels the same way about blogging and your niche. This way your readers will be exposed to the same passion.
Now, what if you’re no longer with us? What will happen to your blogs then? Will you leave them to languish? If you care about your blogs the way I do mine, you’ll want to either appoint a successor or sell. Presently my family has instructions to sell all my blogs and websites and put the money into my son’s college fund. Eventually these instructions will be written into my will.
No One Wants to Think About It
No one ever wants to discuss the “what if something happens” scenario. Many of us would love to live forever or at least spend the remainder of our lives accident and illness free. That’s not the way life works, however. Stuff can and will happen. It’s best to be prepared, no matter how unattractive the thought.
11 thoughts on “What Will Happen to Your Blogs if Something Happens to You?”
Think about it people… Nobody… And I do mean NOBODY gives a rat’s ass about your stupid blogs. I don’t know what kind of fucked up world you live in to think that what you write on the internet on some obscure page really matters one shit to anyone else’s life. Talk about egocentrism to the extreme. Jesus Christ, if you actually believe that you have some redeeming value to the crap that you post, then why don’t you write a fuckin book about it? Is it the fear of realization that your book sales will amount to zero? Guess what? EVERYONE has a life and that means EVERYONE can have a blog. 6 billion stupid ass blogs that nobody gives a shit about and you want to sell yours or have someone continue yours after your death??? Give us a fucking break. Count the number of persons out in the real world who think that your blog is a pile of useless shit and wish that you WERE already dead so you would stop wasting computer space.
I’m not even in my 30’s. Maybe it’s because I’m a little older this is something I think about? I care about my blogs and the last thing I want is to see them just languish in cyperspace without any updates or interaction from the regulars.
And like davestar, the inevitable can happen at any age – and it’s not only death. What if you become very sick and need someone to care for your blog in your absence? Sometimes you need to make your intentions known before the unthinkable happens.
The owner of a Fortune 500 company wouldn’t leave his business to die if something happened to him. We should treat our business with the same concern.
In November my father-in-law was in a car accident and in a blink of an eye will probably be institutionalized for the rest of his life. He is 73 (very active in his business) and one of those legitimate oldtime clock repair people that fixes antique grandfather clocks and the likes. As a sole proprietor, there is noone to take over the shop and my role has been to try to liquidate and return products back to the customer. Fortunately, he did have some foresight and the following two items have helped the family:
1) When he revised his will several years back, unknown to anyone but his lawyer, he prepared a power of attorney just in case – that was all ready and signed and legal .. he had maintained all of the documents with his income and expense receipts, where he knew someone would probably look at first. It allowed access to insurance claims, banking and other information.
2) We were worried when, at 73 years old he just renewed his shop storefront for another 3 years until Sep/2010 .. but he did inserted an age and mental health clause in case of situation just like what happened .. a 30-day out. I’ll probably need until end of Feb08 but it’s nice to be able to plan for that. That’s one last thing the family would need is to be arguing with landlords trying to get out of a lease etc
I wrote an entry on my 1800HART blog last week about what I should be and will be doing for my own business and preparing. If I die first, I think my wife will just throw out all my client records and ignore my blogs altogether and let them rot away. I need to expand my networking of friends who blog who would be willing and capable of helping. Although it’s still in mind … it’s only recently that I actually created a new contact on my cell phone .. “I.C.E.” (in case of emergency) that people will contact my wife if something happens to me. When my father-in-law had the accident at 10am in the morning, it wasn’t until about 5pm when we were informed, because his latest kin on record was his deceased ex-wife.
Since I have no established blog as of yet, this hasn’t even crossed my mind. That and the fact that I’m in my very early 20’s and still think like I’m some sort of invincible, impregnable bulwark of strength and nothing can touch me. Yup, it will pass soon enough.
I’m glad to see this post, Deb. been thinking of doing one myself soon. My good friend Eric Giguere did a well-thought-out post on this subject more htan a year ago … afew of the “name” bloggers, like Darren, picked up on it but the amazing part to me … as an old guy … were the silly and sort-ranged comments by a lot of the blogging crowd. By an large this is a fairly young group … so your chances of dying from old age in the next few months are slim … but having had the expereince of watching a 25-year younger boss fall dead on his face one morning, and then watching the business crumble becuase he had no plan makes me take the advice to heart.
People get “dead’ at any age. people also get their life interrupted seriously enpugh to be unable to blog at any age too … it only takes alittle thought to write it down somewhere and entrust it to someone you have confidence in … no lawyer or formal will required, just do it now rather than later.
I also gave my sister the email address of another trusted blogger (and alerted the blogger as well.) Since we do a lot of work together she will know what to do and who to contact if something does happen, which will alleviate some of the stress of my family.
Bloggers are always willing to offer help when it’s needed, there are several I know who can keep things going if I break my fingers or eat some bad food.
Deb, you’re right. No one likes to think of these things but it’s good to be prepared especially if you have a family.
This is why it’s important to network so that those in your niche may be able to help you when times get hard. This could mean guest blogging, fundraising, blog selling, or just general encouragement.
I knew you authored this as soon as I saw the title in my feed. I like the ideas about actually selling your successful blogs and putting the $ in your son’s funds. Also the passwords and log-ins on a disc that’s a good one. I’m so nervous about mine that I only have them in one place but that’s likely not very effective if something did happen to me. I also need to update my sis on all my editor contacts — I don’t update her enough. Great post; somber but good.
I need to update my instruction disk for all of my latest projects; the plan is to do that in early 2008 since I am launching a new site and don’t have all of the information for it yet.
I am also going to be getting a safety deposit box for it as well. The firebox at home is nice because it might work in a pinch and it’s sort of hidden, but there’s no real security there. Anybody can force it open after stealing it (that’s how you open them after a fire, after all), and while I’m sure that the papers inside will not burn I can’t be sure that a CD or DVD won’t warp or melt.
Optical media really isn’t all that durable, and needs to be replaced every few years anyway. I think putting it at the bank is the safest thing to do. Then if something happens to both myself and my wife, then somebody else will learn how to take over or sell the assets.
I started to document all those questions in a private wiki some time ago but stopped working on it. Good reminder to bring that little project back to the front.
Scary question, but necessary question.
So many of us are bootstrappers…mostly running our own shows. I wonder how long it would take for a premier blog to collapse into ruins.
Say PerezHilton stopped posting to PerezHilton and no one else could login to make changes to the blog. How long would it take (weeks, months, years) for the blog to collapse into irrelevancy? How long would it take Google to notice?
Very interesting questions. Not sure what the answers are.
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