Wondering what to do with all that great old content? Maybe it’s time to Revive It & Reuse It!

It can be hard to always be creative. For some, it is a gift. For others, a burden. For all, it requires time and concentration – both very high commodities for any business owner. But what about all the wonderful material you have already created? Why not revisit it and repurpose it?

“I don’t need an alarm clock. My ideas wake me.”
– Ray Bradbury

But how do you do that without it seeming like you are trying to take the “easy road”? Over the next 2 posts, we will show you some fabulous tricks that will save you hours of work and breathe new life into your old, but valuable content. We will also illustrate some new ways of rethinking ‘standard practices’ to improve them when renewing the work.

“I’m not a very good writer, but I’m an excellent rewriter.”
– James Michener

Blogging (Recycle)

The modern small business equivalent of a commercial or print article. You can’t escape the need for it, especially if you are targeting millennials or other entrepreneurs. In an article from Olivia Allen, she states that blogging should be the top priority for all businesses. “B2B marketers that use blogs receive 67% more leads than those that do not.” And if that doesn’t convince you: “Companies who blog receive 97% more links to their website.”

So, what about all the blogs you have already written? The really fantastic ones that just flowed out effortlessly. Simple, repurpose them! In fact, they may be even more popular the second time around. You (should) know which blogs were most impactful. Take them and expand on the old material with a fresh perspective, updated research, or expanded data.

Some other ways to transform that blog content:

• If you have a series of them, turn it into an eBook
• Create a presentation or build an infographic
• Share the message in a video or a podcast interview
• Write an guest blog post or a newsletter email message

Marko Saric advises that you make sure to stick to material that is classic. “Timeless (or evergreen) content is the durable content that has a long shelf life. It’s content that thrills, that’s as useful, as interesting and as true in a year as it’s on the day it’s published.” Now, use those pre-worn blog posts and turn them into the new “rage” – the long-form blog.

Blogging (Rethink)

How many times have you heard that you should keep your blog post to under 800 words? This idea was based on the premise that people are busy and no one has the time or desire to read a long post, so chances are, it will not be read. Well, there’s a new perspective emerging… New research shows that long-form content, even up to 3500 words, is now preferred.

Benefits to long-form content:

• Makes you seem like an expert in your field, transmitting a greater sense of credibility – which builds trust.
• It improves SEO. More keywords to offer combined with visitors spending longer on your page reading the post = Google love.
• People prefer reading it, and even more importantly, sharing it. This leads to greater referral traffic.
• Conversion rates are improved (the critical money-making part). After all, the reason that you write your blog is to market your brand and increase your business.

Top blogger Neil Patel did an evaluation of his work and the results were clear – his long form blogs were more popular. And he believes that this is a trend that is here to stay. “There isn’t much gray area when it comes to blog posts and content length. If you want to boost your rankings, you better get used to creating the highest quality form content in your niche. This means striving for 2,000 words, but realizing that 3,000 is even better as your conversion rate.”

Note: the rule of thumb is still to make each post a minimum of 350 words to ensure the better search engine results.

Tips on creating a long-form blog post:

• Select a good topic. Make sure that it is compelling and alluring.
• Be sure that a long-form blog is appropriate. Don’t force it, padding it with filler. This will have the opposite effect. When in doubt, always opt for quality over quantity.
• Properly format your post making it pleasing to the eye and easier to navigate and digest by using sub-headings and bullet points. Leave paragraphs to a few sentences and keep them concise. Multiple fonts can look messy but make key text stand out by using bold and italics – it can be beneficial at highlighting important points.
• Use relevant images. They say a picture is worth 1000 words. Find the ones that best complement your topic. There are many sites that offer free stock photos that you can use.
• Last but not least – share your post. Promote it on all the social media you can and encourage your friends and family to like it and/or repost it on theirs.

Need Help?

Need some assistance getting on track? We can develop a plan ensuring that you start blogging interestingly and regularly. Need help with the “interesting” part too? We have a team of talented writers that will take care of that. We can repurpose your old material, transforming it into something fresh and exciting that everyone will enjoy. No library to draw from, no problem. We can create it from scratch. Just give us your ideas and we will handle the rest. It’s what we do!