What do you do with old websites and domains?

I’ve bought quite a few domain names in the last ten years and also created websites on many of them. Some of these have been personal projects where I had an idea for making millions on the Internet (like we all have) but, no surprise, they failed in that respect. I’ve made some pocket money with Google Adsense on a few of them so that’s been good but I won’t be retiring from my day job as a web designer/developer any time soon.

Anyway, to the point, what do you do with old ‘personal project’ websites? Retire them gracefully and realise that you’ve learnt a few things along the way so it’s not been all bad, or leave them to gather dust? Or do you revitalise them with a new idea and put some work into each?

I’ve been thinking about this recently because of a website that I ran for a couple of years. I had to move it to a new server last week so I took the opportunity to delete old posts/content and this gave me a few ideas about what I might do with it. The website is Shop Junction which used to pull in product data from an affiliate scheme, and then became a product review blog. Now, it’s sitting there looking a bit lost!

Last week, I replaced the old theme with a more modern WordPress parent theme (Genesis framework) and it would be relatively straightforward to add a child theme or customise the design but I don’t know if I have the time to spend time on the website – although I have a few ideas.

So, what do you do with old websites and domains? I’m still thinking on that one…