It’s a question that this blog cannot answer. I’m not going to comment on the great beyond. There’s a twist though — what happens to your blog if you die? I thought of this topic a while ago, but held off posting. I didn’t want to cause anyone grief. Bloggers are typically young, vibrant beings. We’re not going to die, right? Well, according to a recent NY Times article, bloggers may be in peril of experiencing a Big Crunch, so I want to explore this morbid topic.

Before we kick the proverbial bucket, we often times setup wills to carry out our wishes. Our will forks over our boatload of affiliate earnings to our next of kin or the neighborhood postman, depending on our eccentricity. So what happens to our online lives? I’ve personally witnessed MySpace pages fill up with comments for the deceased. I’ve read blog posts written postmortem (gives new definition to that term). I’ve seen blogs with guest appearances from loved ones explaining the sad affair. Whatever the case, our content survives us. Isn’t this what we want?

What if we have affiliate programs setup where our family members don’t surf? Should we catalog our online affairs so someone could access our earning reports, blog posts, and other doings? We do have passwords and logins to a number of ad networks, affiliate programs, blogs, and social media sites.

I thought of building a website to capture this information securely, but it would be horrendous for convincing people it wasn’t a scam. The online safety deposit box. A virtual time capsule ready to store for that ill fated time.

But I don’t think it would be popular for one major reason. We don’t want to think about death. It’s the same reason I fretted about this topic myself.

I searched many sites, looking through Terms and Conditions on Amazon for instance, but couldn’t find anything related to death. I guess they don’t believe in customers leaving this world.

I also searched for websites related to retrieving passwords of the deceased. I expected to find harrowing tales of customer service calls by grief stricken relatives, but found instead a site dedicated to members of MySpace who died, aptly named MyDeathSpace.com.

How can it be that with a wealth of online content, I can’t find the answer to a simple question — what happens when we die? Are our online lives separated from health concerns, natural disasters, and other mortal fears?

The Solution As I See It

We need to create a spreadsheet with the sites we use that have importance to us. Our loved ones might need to know exactly in what pot we were cooking. The spreadsheet doesn’t have to include a password, but simply the URL and login used. I’m sure with the proper paperwork the person invoking the rights of your estate could secure access.

The only other solution would be to live forever. I don’t mind that solution. I embrace it actually. But unfortunately its not a reality. It’s better to keep a postmortem post handy and provide a loved one with a spreadsheet to our lives.