---
title: "Being unfindable (Sins of blogging)"
date: 2009-10-18
description: "Seven deadly sins of blogging   1.0 Being fake (Sins of blogging)   1.1 Being irrelevant (Sins..."
canonical_url: https://idratherbewriting.com/2009/10/18/the-seven-sins-of-blogging-sin-6-being-unfindable/
---
# Being unfindable (Sins of blogging)
[Download MP3](https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3?https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/idbwmedia.com/podcasts/findability7sins.mp3)
Length: 25 min.

The sixth sin in my ongoing series on the Seven Deadly Sins of Blogging is being unfindable. (The other sins include being [fake](https://idratherbewriting.com/2009/09/15/seven-deadly-sins-of-blogging-1-being-fake/), [irrelevant](https://idratherbewriting.com/2009/10/04/seven-deadly-sins-of-blogging-2-being-irrelevant/), [boring](https://idratherbewriting.com/2009/10/13/the-seven-deadly-sins-of-blogging-sin-3-being-boring/), [unreadable](https://idratherbewriting.com/2009/10/17/seven-deadly-sins-of-blogging-sin-4-being-unreadable/), [irresponsible](https://idratherbewriting.com/2009/10/17/the-seven-deadly-sins-of-blogging-sin-5-being-irresponsible/), and [inattentive](https://idratherbewriting.com/2009/10/31/the-seven-deadly-sins-of-blogging-sin-7-being-inattentive/)). Admittedly, lack of findability seems more a sin of omission than commission. Being unfindable seems like a sin bloggers commit against themselves.

I've written more than 1,000 posts on my blog, but usually the posts on my home page are the only posts people read. In this sense, blogs are like the news. A newspaper that's several days old lines bird cages. Reading blog archives is like reading yesterday's news -- there's no appeal.

And yet, many times archive posts have more substance that news commentary. The posts incorporate research and get into issues in depth. They don't deserve to go into the garbage can once they slide off the home page.

[![How do you make the hundreds of posts you](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/idbwmedia.com/images/1238posts-600x5551.jpg)](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/idbwmedia.com/images/2009/10/1238posts.jpg)

[Michael Arrington](http://techcrunch.com/) of TechCrunch.com compares blogging to reaching down and grabbing a handful of sand. The sand slowly slips through your fingers. You have to reach down and grab another handful of sand, and another, and another. In the metaphor, your readers are the sand; your reaching and scooping -- those are the new posts. Perhaps if the content were more findable, you wouldn't have to do so much reaching.

How can you enable readers to naturally find the content in your archives? How can you make the hundreds of posts you write more visible and prominent, especially if readers are looking for it? This is partly what the field of findability is all about.