Deborah Canon Camera

Wednesday, 13 May 2009

Repurpose Content For More Blog Posts

Ideally, you should post to your blog at least two or three times a week. That can be hard to manage in the real world, where lots of other priorities are competing for your attention. There is a simple solution, though, and it can be as close as your hard drive.

Although I write a lot of new articles, I sometimes take a shortcut and repurpose content I originally wrote for other reasons. Chances are, if you have been in your field for a while you have a mother lode of content you can mine for great blog posts. Here are some ideas to get you started.

Articles written for newspapers, newsletters and other publications. I wrote a weekly column on marketing for more than three years, and I was shocked to realize that I had put fewer than a third of those columns online. That means I have more than 100 columns in reserve that will be added to my sites over the coming months.

Have you published a print or email newsletter, written a column for your professional association's newsletter, or written articles for magazines? Each article could become a blog post (or maybe two or three).

Handouts for speeches, seminars and workshops. If you are a public speaker, you have probably created outlines, handouts and other materials for your audiences. Some may take a bit of tweaking to become blog posts, but others can be used as-is.

Workbooks, manuals and books. Training materials, such as workbooks and manuals, are chock full of lists, resources, and other content that makes great blog posts. Books, published or unpublished, can give you months of useful posts. (If your book was published by a traditional publisher, make sure all publication rights have reverted to you.) Do you have a book that you started but never finished? Slice and dice the unfinished manuscript to create a supply of posts.

Tip sheets and resource lists. Seven tips about this, or best web sites for that, and other resources are often the most popular and the best linkbait, bringing lots of new visitors to your blog.

Press releases. When you send a press release, post it to your blog first. Do you have press releases you have distributed in the past? If the information in them is still timely, post them.

Client materials. Several years ago, I hired a coach who gave me a HUGE binder full of articles and other training resources. While you may want to keep much of that information exclusive to clients, you could use excerpts as blog posts. Also look for ways to use reports and other materials prepared for clients, with all identifying and proprietary information removed, of course.

Emails and forum posts. I get a lot of questions via email from clients and people who visit my web sites. My answers are often turned into blog posts. Your posts to forums and discussion groups can also become content for your blog.

You can even repurpose words that are not in writing. If you speak or present seminars, you should be recording every presentation you give. That includes teleseminars, too. You may use excerpts from the recordings as podcasts (more blog content) or have the recordings transcribed, then edit them into blog posts.

To make sure your blog never goes long without fresh content, upload a batch of posts at once, and schedule them to appear on future dates. With just a couple of days of work, you could have 50 or more posts in queue. Better yet, have your assistant do it.

Now, what is your excuse for not having any new posts on your blog this week?

Copyright Cathy Stucker. Get a free audio program on repurposing content and turning your content into cash at http://www.CashContentFormula.com/. Discover how you can turn what you know into multiple streams of passive income.

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