I am blogging for more than 3 years now and I have written more than 255 original posts in my site (besides my other contribution as a guest poster on other sites). That means that I (as many bloggers) have to accumulate a lot of content on my site that can be utilized in various ways and provide more value to the users. The name of the game is the continuous value provision to the audience you have chosen to serve, and content repurposing can serve this purpose in a grand way!
Most of the posts I have written on my blog(s) (or other posts I have contributed to 3rd sites) can be easily considered as evergreen content which, per se, can provide a solid base of continuous value provision to you as well as to new (and recurring) readers of your site! Besides, evergreen content is never out of fashion!
But content repurposing serves many objectives more and is not be used just for the lack of new ideas! In my notebooks, I have a lot of notes focused on similar subjects! As the things are I cannot rewrite all the time my older posts trying to make a better argumentation, to improve the SEO results, or add one (or more) points, or reference. Something like that would be unproductive.
What though can be done, is the “rewrite” old posts and repurpose them in a way that new posts and ideas and approaches can be produced!
Content Repurpose. What an Idea!
The content repurposing practice in simple terms is when you use your old content and material in order to develop new content! Simple as that. Content repurposing can have many advantages.
Among them, the practice of content repurposing can provide you the opportunity to:
- research more and re-check the validity of some ideas and/or approaches
- promote more an older idea or tools
- communicate more clearly some ideas
- reach a new audience
- locate the most valuable and well-written post or content
- propagate more ideas on social media
- change the scope of an old article
- enhance older ideas and bind them to new content and/or context
- acquire more authority
- test new messages and delivery approaches
- develop more channels of communication
- exploit major trends and/or events
- introduce you new ways of propagating your message
- appeal in various styles of readability and cover many communication leaks
- provide a fresh base for learning
Content repurposing can have many forms. You can use the same content as a base by changing its headline or a visual/multimedia element and publish it in a 3rd site (like Medium, Quora, LinkedIn Pulse. etc.).
Or you can simply borrow some argumentation from different posts and develop something new, or simply use some points of reference to an old post in a different format (video, podcast, presentation, infographic, webinar, etc.), content, or context.
Or you can find some evergreen content ideas and start exploiting them.
Or you can use the same basic content and rewrite structure, scope and/or objectives. The capabilities are endless!
Content Repurpose Without the Fuzz!
Content repurposing seems, easy, but it needs a little bit of thought, and some requirements before you employ it! The first and most important requirement is to have content in stock you can use it for the development of new content! Before you start a procedure as that you need to do 3 basic things:
Before you start a procedure as that you need to do 3 basic things:
- Take an inventory of what can be utilized and how (this is important because not all content is equal!). I usually work it in a spreadsheet in excel in which I insert the post, its location, its description, the possible formats it can be transcribed to (not all content can be easily transcribed in a different media channel) and an evaluation point (from 1-10) determined the relative value of the content under examination.
- Locate the value the content has for your readers (in terms of the number of comments, social media shares, promotion in forums and specialized discussion groups, etc,). For this, you can utilize with success, among other tools, the Google Analytics, the Social Metrics Plugin for WordPress, the Ninja Outreach, and the BuzzSumo. And
- Locate the content that has high value for YOU (either in terms of research, argumentation, basic reference, scope, objectives, etc.) and you can use it as a matrix or template for rewriting or developing new content.
The second basic requirement for content repurposing is for you to understand with clarity how Google views duplicate content! This is important because if you want, for instance, to republish blog posts in LinkedIn Publisher, you should wait some time (usually 2-3 weeks) in order the bots have the time to understand which is the original and which is the copy and rate them accordingly (the original has always better score).
The third requirement is that you always need to employ content repurposing as an integral part of your content strategy and not arbitrarily! Always, your content should fit in your general strategy for content development and distribution!
Of course, you can always rewrite an old post into a new article using many methods. For instance, you can pick up a popular post from your site and:
- Change its goals, scope, and focus
- Brainstorming some more ideas with the existing content in the post
- Check BuzzSumo for better titles (more shares) you can use for your new post
- Republish the same content with different more luring or on-the-point headlines, and with some additions (or not) in
- Promote your message via more channels, by selecting key points from your post and developing new content in a different format, or with a different scope, in:
There are many ways you can repurpose your content and provide value to your readers! Some are more difficult than others, some cannot be done by yourself without an experts’ assistance and some are very time or money expensive to implement without prior knowledge.
Your content repurposes practice can ranging from developing a simple presentation based on the content you are going to use as a base to develop a video presentation, a podcast, or something else with larger impact (as an ebook or a course).
As an author, you can:
- Develop a story around your existing content integrating the existing information as an integral part of the plot. You can move a level up and follow a bottom-up approach to providing new content, context or/and mean (i.e. check my approach in the History Will Teach Us Nothing? for a larger story with existing content. Bits and pieces of the argumentation had appeared on my site in various posts)
- Develop a multimedia presentation. You can easily provide a video presentation (with MS PowerPoint, PowToon, or another video maker for instance) or audio narration. You can further develop a new podcast or a video animation (low cost) or a self-video presentation presenting the new concepts and the message you want to convey
- Develop a .pdf document and give this additional material as a gift (free or for email addresses) in your post
- Develop an ebook with one or more related posts binds together. You can give it free or as a “legal bribe” in your site (in exchange for e-mail addresses) you can publish it on Amazon, you can upload in Gumroad as a pay what you want or with a minimal price, you can add it as a basic material in a course, etc.
- Develop a course with posts you have already and can utilize in the various course modules
- Develop a Slideshare presentation or a Prezi one or an Animoto one and upload it to the respected sites
- Develop an infographic with Pictochart, Venngage, or any other tool you can utilize
- Develop a mind map with the basic steps of an approach or a procedure
- Develop a cheat-sheet or a document based on tips given in a post or a resource guide, etc.
- Develop a white paper on major findings from your research in one or more blogs and promote it on social media
- Develop tools (as an excel describing or facilitating procedures described your posts, templates, etc.) to give them to your readers as new resources
- Use existing content as a basic material in the promotion of a new product or existing ones
- Develop a new info-product based on the responses received for certain posts and rewrite them to match your audience expectations
- Group the key points, tools, and references from a post and add them in a list format in sites as the List.ly
- Develop a webinar(s), explaining basic concepts, how-tos, and ideas
- Add existing content in a roundup tour or to a resource list
- Subtract the key points of a procedure described in a post and develop a word document as a template to help your readers to implement the procedure described with ease
- Add existing content as training or reference material in subscription sites
- Use existing content as a base and as reference material for coaching and/or mastermind sessions
- Use existing content as a core foundation for new online business activity (like consulting, mentoring, online teaching, etc.)
What do you think? How else can you do for content repurposing? Send me your ideas and your comments!
