Oops! Or, What to Do When You Mistakenly Publish A Blog Post

The other day, I clicked Publish on a blog post. Nothing wrong or embarrassing in it, mind you, but there was a problem: I had not set the scheduled time for it, and it was not something that I wanted to be live until two days later. Ooops!

Now, this is not the first time I’ve made a mistake, and I knew what to do. However, I didn’t do it. Instead, I simply deleted the post, skipping over a key first step. So, in the spirit of sharing (and reminding myself…), here’s what to do if you have published a post you don’t want out there.

FIRST OFF, PANIC!

Nah. That won’t help.

However, the truth is that once you’ve published your blog post, it’s out there. So, always think before you send that post out. Yes, really… take a moment and make sure everything is as you want it because the odds are that SOMEONE will see it no matter what you do.

Still, mistakes are made, so here’s what you really should do first after the mistake…

EDIT THE MISTAKENLY PUBLISHED POST

Erase everything you don’t want in it – probably the whole thing. You can replace it with a message like “check back later” or anything you want, or just leave it blank. Then press PUBLISH again.

Why, you ask?

Because once you published your post, you cannot pull it back from people’s readers (Google Reader or wherever they do their blog reading). However,  just like when you fix typos, an update to a post becomes the most recent version and replaces the old version in people’s readers (as soon as those readers update – it’s not always instant).

So, by blanking out the post, it will show up as blank in people’s readers. HOWEVER, not all readers, I’m told, update the same way. This is a level of tech I don’t profess to understand, however, so I cannot tell you which ones do or why – just know that some folks will still see that original post if they check soon after you published. (In some cases, perhaps even long after.)

AND THEN…

Once you’ve updated, you can delete the post. After you have published your changes, that is the version that’s “out there.” That version will still be in people’s RSS readers even after you delete the post, but at least it’s blank (again, see the note above about some folks still seeing the original).

If you just delete the post BEFORE you edit, everyone who subscribes to your blog will still see the original post, even though they won’t be able to find it on your blog, nor will visitors to your blog ever see it.

So in my case, all my GottaBook subscribers saw a poem two days in advance but without my comments that normally accompany it . No one else saw it. But because I deleted without editing, that post stayed out there.

Keep in mind, too, that once you delete a post… it’s gone. You can’t make changes or bring it back. Usually this doesn’t matter, but once you delete, you’re done.

TAKE A MOMENT BEFORE YOU PUBLISH

For me, this was hardly a crisis. Imagine, though, those times when you’ve published a post announcing something too early or written in anger or or or.

The point is, once you publish it, it’s there, but you can try to mitigate any damage by quickly erasing and republishing the post BEFORE you delete it.

I hope this makes sense… and may we all blog mistake free!