I’d like to continue my Blogging Fears series by talking for a moment about Death.
OK – ‘death’ is probably not a topic you were expecting me to cover in at ProBlogger (I hope this is not too morbid) but the past week I’ve actually been wondering what would happen to my Blogging assets if I were to die?
I know there would be international mourning among my readers and a great pilgrimage to Melbourne for my Funeral (streamed live on the net) but what about my blogs? It seems such a waste for me to have worked for all this time on my blogs and for them to stop running and stop earning an income for those that I love when I go.
Advice: Perhaps it would be a responsible thing to do to add my blogs to my will and to make arrangements for someone to look after them for my lovely wife who is rather clueless about blogging. Like any income earning asset, your blog is something to think about the future of beyond your life time (btw – if anyone wants to leave me theirs in their will – let me know!).
Have you considered adding your blog to your will? What provisions have you made (if any) for your blogs if you were to die or become incapacitated?
This is another part of my ‘Blogging Fears’ series where previous posts have been Getting Hacked and Disappearing from Search Engines.
I remember having asked you by the end of February if you had made out your will concerning your blogs.
You answered :
I think that I would want my blogs to be archived on archive.org, at least.
I note the post time and would suggest that you get more sleep, but you do make an interesting point, particularly given that not even my wife knows the passwords to my blogs and other related services (hosts, domain sites etc).
aaah – yes – the illusion of working around the clock in advance posting so that it hit the blog when the rest of the world was awake!
Let me know your passwords Duncan – trust me – mwhaahahahaaar
Side question, do you find that advance posting is effective?
yeah I do Duncan. Keeps the site ticking over.
So interesting that this question of what to do with digital assets is finally coming up. My advice, leave whatever money is necessary to support your blog for one year in your will so that there’s time to figure out what to do. Problem wills are public documents, I recommend that people also draft a letter to their executor – not legal, but morally binding, to deal with passwords to online accounts, what you want done with your email, email or blogging friends that should be contacted along with your last wishes, the music you want at the funeral etc, how you want to be buried.
I really urge everyone to keep what I call personal legacy archives in digital form. Blogs are definitely part of that.
Take a look at Ronni Bennett’s post on Stories to Leave for the Infinite Future http://www.timegoesby.net/2005/04/stories_for_the.html. She’s the first blogger I know of who’s made plans.
I will definitely post on this in the near future and welcome any other suggestions of what people are thinking to do.
The weirdest thing I worry about is that I advance post about a week or two. If newspapers can do it, I figure I can to. If I were to die, my posts would keep on coming every day at 5am and my readers wouldn’t know that they were posthumous. Creepy…
Hi Darren – I recently made a blog for a friend, Anoopa, who was in a terrible car accident. She passed away only a week later, at only 24 years old. Her friends and family members regulary visit the site, but it also has had thousands of strangers that learned of her untimely death through news coverage and other blogs. Hundreds of people have left comments for Anoopa and her family on various blog entries.
We keep it up-to-date with information about her memorial services, a new memorial fund, and other relevant information.
Her site: http://www.Anoopa.net
It is a morbid topic indeed but you make a good point! I didn’t think about granting access to my blogs to the people who survive me in the event of my death (at least sooner than anticipated).
As for continuity, perhaps this is a good case for grooming someone to take over in the case of things going badly? Perhaps you could consider introducing a guest blogger who could work with you on an ongoing basis?
Advanced posting could help someone to be the first to cover his own death – but it’s risky.
Your Digital Assets
Darren Barefoot wonders if it isn’t time for Digital Morticians Just where should you put all those bits and pieces about your digital assets and your online life?… Your will is not the only way or the document with which you can direct how y…
Your Digital Assets
Darren Barefoot wonders if it isn’t time for Digital Morticians Just where should you put all those bits and pieces about your digital assets and your online life?… Your will is not the only way or the document with which you can direct how y…