As we’ve previously covered, remarkable content is dying. It’s dying and in its place we’re seeing content farms sprout up delivering us material that is “good enough” for search engines, but not necessarily inspiring for users. Before you invest in a content farm of your very own, why not make sure you’re getting as much mileage out of your best content as you can? That means finding ways to repurpose it. I mean, you wouldn’t throw an ice cream carton away until you had scooped out every last bit, right?
Of course you wouldn’t. It’s not human.
Here are some ways I like to repurpose old content. Maybe it’ll give you some ideas for how to get more power from your own work.
Article Directory Sites
This is the easiest (and my least favorite) way to repurpose old content. It typically requires going in and reformatting the material for an article directory site like EzineArticles. These sites tend to have strict editorial guidelines about how articles must appear, the number of links you can include, and how to handle affiliate links. The benefit, though, is that these sites tend to rank very highly and can offer you a whole bunch more new eyeballs, while allowing you to point keyword-rich links to your site. To make it super easy, eZine now has its own WordPress plugin so you can post directly to the site from WP. I haven’t used it myself, but people say it works.
Your Company Newsletter
Your email newsletter often has a much wider audience than your blog does. If you write a post that gets a lot of traction or even an article for someone else, don’t assume that the people on your email list have seen it. Because they likely haven’t, which means you’re missing out on an opportunity to bring them into your community and to show yourself as an expert. If you had a post that exploded on your site, why not republish the article in your company newsletter? Obviously if the article appeared on another site, you’ll need permission. But you’ll often be able to get some republishing rights, even if it’s just a snippet that directs them to the full article. Everyone wants extra exposure.
Change Markets
Say you’re an Internet marketing company that recently penned an article on promoting your caterer business online. Now you have this killer resource for those in the catering market who need help networking online, creating relationships with bloggers, and using social media. Awesome. Now flip it. Change the market. Make it about floral marketing or using social media as a veterinarian or accountant. The core of the article is there, you just have to change the details and market the article toward a new audience. Bing, bang, boom.
Create Presentations From Articles
I choose not to speak at conferences, however, the moment I ever decide I want to I know how I’d be writing my presentations. I’d be going back to old articles and blog posts I’ve written and creating my presentation around it. Think about it. You’re often asked to speak on issues that you’re an expert on. Topics that you’ve probably already written about at length on your blog or for other outlets. These articles broke down complicated problems and created a step-by-step process for how to do something. Pick out the steps, add some clever banter throughout and it’s not an article anymore. It’s a crowd-winning presentation!
Create Articles From Presentations
If you do speak at conferences, then you’ve already spent the time and mental energy to create a presentation deck that carefully outlines your view on a specific topic. You’ve stood in front of an audience in the position of an expert and shown them the steps to do X. Why not use that as the basis for an article on the same topic? I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve listened to Rae or Rhea speak and approached them later about writing an article on the same topic. It’s another good way to repurpose content. After all, the work is already done!
Expand on Interviews
A few weeks ago I was asked to answer a few questions for an upcoming post on one of the popular social media blogs. Because I’m a tad wordy, the interviewer emailed me back and said he wasn’t able to use the entire interview and asked if he could repurpose it for another article on a different site. Obviously, I told him he was free to do so. If you’re often interviewed, chances are your whole interview isn’t being used either. Why not ask for permission to use the remaining portion on your site and turn it into a larger article? You’ve already spent the mental energy and been given a great prompt, turn it into something.
Transcribe Interviews
Were you recently interviewed for a podcast, TV interview, or some other non-text medium? Ask for permission to transcribe the interview and place it on your site. This will help you add new content, take advantage of keyword opportunities, and it gives people another option to take in the information. Believe it or not, there still are some people who would rather read an interview than listen to one. Google also provides text to audio. Interviews can be time consuming, you want to make sure you’re getting as much mileage as you can.
Tie it together as an eBook
We’re starting to see a lot more of this lately. A company or media outlet will publish a series of articles on a related topic and then, later on, tie them together as an eBook available for download. This is a great way to establish authority on a topic that you’ve already written about and it gives readers one place to go to get in-depth information about a certain topic. You’ve already done the work, now you just have to rename posts “chapters”.
Document Sharing Sites
Again, don’t be afraid to reuse presentations. Whether it’s a presentation from a national conference or the presentation you gave to a handful of college students, upload the Powerpoint to a site like SlideShare and embed it on your blog with some additional comments. You’ll get more eyeballs on it and reaffirm your position as an expert on the topic. It’s also good to place this type of content on your blog for any media outlets or potential clients who may stumble across it.
Audio Content
People listen to podcasts because they like the freedom of being able to take content with them. They want to listen to that radio show while they’re in the car or burning calories at the gym. Why not deliver your RSS feed or articles the same way? Use a program like Audacity to record them and publish them to the Web so that users can subscribe to them via iTunes. You get to re-use the same content and potentially attract a whole new audience.
As you can see, I’m a big believer in repurposing content. Because, as they sometimes say, if you’ve got it, you may as well flaunt it. ;) What are some ways you repurpose your best content?
