Let’s do something a little different today and take the edge off a little bit, it’s been a hectic week for just about everyone and every once and a while it’s nice to do something “Just for the hell of it”.
As I was poking around the internet and going through some of my favorite blogs the other day I had an idea pop into my head to write a post about Google PageRank Checkers, this kind of thing happens to me all the time btw. Anyway, I ended up coming across a web tool that can be more fun than actually useful. Actually I probably shouldn’t have said that because now I want to include a few tips in this post about how the information from this tool can be useful to a blogger, everything can have a purpose if you look hard enough.
The Wayback Machine is a neat little tool that allows you to see what your website or blog use to look like, well you know if you go… Way back! I decided to give you an idea of what the Wayback Machine does with the screen shots below, but you should really try it for yourself it’s pretty funny to look back at our marketing skills or the way we presented outrselves when we first opened our website or blog.
I have mentioned before that Extreme John was an HTML based website before I switched it over to the WordPress Blog format that you see now, I really wouldn’t be able to give you an idea of just what my website looked like before I switched it over to a blog format, with Wayback Machine I can. If you take a peek at the screen shot below you can see that my blog was not open in 2006, the earliest look at my website we can get is May 4, 2007.
Now you have to be a little patient with the Wayback Machine because not every year that is linked will actually display a historic view of your site, 50% of my entries between 2007 and 2008 return a “Not in archive” message. I don’t let that silly stuff get in the way of a good time, the other 50% do return an old school look at what Extreme John.com use to look like.
I really found my little text inclussion about the “blog link” on the site a little comical, I really did have a link to my blog that went to the typical WordPress fresh install blog screen.
Now as long as your not like me and constantly deleting things off of your server, especially those old school images the chances are that your Wayback Machine might have working images when you view your own website or blog. Leave a comment and let me know how your little test run with the Wayback Machine went, better yet write an article on your own blog about the Wayback Machine and be sure to link this article up so I can get some link love….. I’m not affraid to ask for it and you shouldn’t be either.
P.s I mentioned that this tool really wasn’t useful, than I went on to mention how I like to find something useful about everything I do or at least every tool I use. Here are three things that the Wayback Machine can do to be useful to you.
3 Ways to use Wayback Machine to your benefit
- Refresh your memory – Marketing tactics you previously used and forgot about may still be useful
- Energize – Chances are your motivation to make money online was greater when you first started, re-energize
- Content – you just read it here, allow others to read it on your site as well
Ok, Im done! Catch everyone in a little bit.
Cole Stan (2)
KyAus @ Those.Tips (2)
SafariDave (2)
{ 34 comments… read them below or add one }
Your website/blog was totally different back then. I bet updating isn’t as easy as now.
Maybe next year I will use way back machine as my blog is just a week old
Zee
ZXT´s last blog ..Tweeting from Operation Room
@ZXT, it’s certainly faster and easier to do more content rich updates thats for sure.
I don’t think I want to see how my sites looked years ago. Pretty scary stuff.
Reverse Cell Phones´s last blog ..Tracking Cell Phones
I just tried it on my other website for Remergence and I was able to go “wayback” to 2003, wow, I must try this on more of the site I run
Karen@Blazing Minds´s last blog ..The Weekly Round Up on Blazing Minds!
Yo Professor Drop the PIPE
and let me know what you think of this lame ass theme I’m running right NOW 
thanks
John Sullivan´s last blog ..Commenting and backlinks
@John Sullivan, I will head over and check it out in a little bit there fella.
I think a fourth benefit would be if you’re starting to lose momentum, you know, feeling like you’re not achieving anything, a look back to see how much you’ve done and how far you’ve come could be a great motivator
Hard Rocking South African@Music Judge´s last undefined ..If you register your site for free at
@Hard Rocking South African@Music Judge, keeping the sould happy is a big part of it.
Oh..your blog is quite old; I didn’t ever noticed it..I thought your blog would be something like a year old.
Well, the service is very popular and I used it a lot almost 2-3 years back..It’s a great fun watching how websites looked like in their olden days.
Typhoon´s last blog ..3 Twitter Monetization Models to Make Money with Twitter
@Typhoon, no my blog is only a little over a year old, someone else owned the domain before I did (bastards).
Ha. Wish the Wayback Machine would show my very first web page on AOL back in 1998. I think it would explode.
Imagine the black background with clipart images and rotating email logo, with very bad jokes… and you get an idea.
Paul@copywriting blog´s last blog ..Blog Inspiration Dried Up? How To Get An Instant Fix For Your Blog Inspiration
@Paul@copywriting blog, I love the idea of the spinning old school email logo. CLASSIC!!
One of my favorite uses is looking at my competition’s websites to see what changes they made. You can see the mistakes they made, changes they made to improve traffic, sales etc.
Mike@DailyShotOfCoffee´s last blog ..Fresh Brews: Instant Coffee And Coffee Saves The Day
@Mike@DailyShotOfCoffee, Ya, that’s a really great use of that website. Nice to hear that Idea..
Typhoon´s last blog ..3 Twitter Monetization Models to Make Money with Twitter
Oh this is not the first time I read about this website John. But I guess that my blog isn’t that old to see how it looked like. It says 0 pages :S.
Asswass´s last blog ..Monday WOP: Do you use Affiliate Links on your Blog Posts?
I love the wayback machine. Wow, your blog has come a long way since then. I like using this tool to research domain names before I buy them, just to make sure nothing shady was going on in the past.
Tycoon Blogger@Promote your blog´s last blog ..Sunday’s Best – week of September 6, 2009
That Wayback machine is actually an interesting tool- never heard of it before. I was not really convinced until I read the post until the end, lol. Now I understand why I never visited your blog before
Great tool and worth checking out. As Tycoon mentioned, it could also be a great way to “analyze” domain names.
DiTesco´s last blog ..Bing SEO Toolkit – One Of The Best SEO Tools
Interesting, I actually used that just a few days ago – I already knew about the service, but it’s cool to dig it out once a year or so to check what you’ve done in your early years
Just too bad it doesn’t save graphics etc. I wonder how many TB’s of data they have stored away…
Klaus @ TechPatio´s last blog ..Two Girls Rescued By A Facebook Status Update
@Klaus @ TechPatio, Ya, they have only stored graphics of popular websites like Google, Yahoo etc.
But If they would have gone and stored graphics of all the websites listed then there storage capacity need would have increased almost 1000 times which I think they won’t be able to as it will need lots of Funding $$$…
Typhoon´s last blog ..3 Twitter Monetization Models to Make Money with Twitter
@Typhoon, very good point!
A very interesting service actually… I tired it but it gave me some error saying it had some technical difficulties…so will check it out sometime later…
Compute Live´s last blog ..Download Microsoft Office 2010 Build 14.0.4417.1000
John, your website based website in the past looked cool too! Between, Wayback Machine couldn’t retrieve my blog history, I tried twice but it was still the same..too bad..
I love the Way Back Machine… especially since I have been doing this for a while… it allows me to go back 10 years and look at sites i created when I first got started. Definitely fun stuff.
It also comes in handy as well. A few months ago I had a new client ask me if there was anyway I could recover posts from his blog after his server crashed and everything was lost. I was able to use the Way Back Machine to recover almost every post. It was a pain… but it worked.
Doug Dillard´s last blog ..Custom Banner Package Giveway Winners
@Doug Dillard, thats a pretty wild way of using the Wayback machine also. Good thinking Doug and at least you got it back.
@Extreme John, Imagine the size of the servers to house all those archives…. WOW!
Doug Dillard´s last blog ..Making Money Online Promoting a Free Secret System to Help People Earn $300-$500 a Day
This service will surely be useful for me in coming years.. too bad my blog isn’t old enough.
Nehh´s last blog ..Celebs who had botox and other fillers
Even in the time I’ve been following you, your blog has come a long way. It looked way different back then. I say add more Playboy mansion re-posts!!! Hehe.
The Constant Complainer´s last blog ..When is it enough? – Guest Post
Wow, your blog really looks cleaner now. I really like the white background more than the dark gray.
I have used the Wayback machine to double check posts and articles from time to time.
Another use would be to verify any copyright issues. A screenshot would prove you published it first. (Don’t ask.)
Keith@Norman Rockwell Art´s last blog ..Sep 1, The 1939 Norman Rockwell Santa, Extra Good Boys And Girls
Yea, I found this from Alexa too. It’s fun to see the history of blogs. I will use this when my blogs are 5 or 10 years older.
Jacob Yap´s last blog ..Do You Buy Stuff From Affiliate Links?
This sucks my blog is over a year old and it won’t come up..
ShaunJudy´s last blog ..Best MMA Knock Out(s) Ever!
I recall posting about this too couple of years ago, you should check how ‘Google BlogPost’, ‘Yahoo’ and ‘Mircrosoft’ looks like in the past! Awesome tool
Hicham´s last blog ..Book Shopping
Well that pretty well sucked. It seems my blog doesn’t go back far enough to even exist. I even entered my original website which has been up for years and that didn’t even show up. Maybe the stupid machine doesn’t reach way downunder
Sire´s last blog ..A Whole Lot Of Link Luvin Going On
It’s always good to look back. “Never forget where you’re coming from”.
As far as I am concerned, most times I look back I am amazed how great some of my ideas were for their time and what a fool I’ve been for not being able to take full advantage of them.
Anyway, this might be useful in years to come.
Car News and Reviews´s last blog ..Mercedes Benz S 400 HYBRID. Driving on the Road to the Future
@Car News and Reviews, it’s hardly the most useful tool it’s just fun.