I love blogging: From day one I got passionate about the process and the results. The only thing that makes me sad is seeing lots of older articles I once wrote being forgotten with time. We've seen a few great articles on getting more value from your old content including getting more traffic to it and breathing new life into it using images. In this article I am following up with some tips on getting really creative with bringing your old content back into the focus.
The end of the year is coming, and it is the perfect time to start looking through all of that old content to see what can be re-used creatively.
[tweet_box design=”box_08″]Now is the perfect time to look through your old content to see what can be re-used creatively[/tweet_box]
Bloggers should squeeze every bit of value they can out of what they write because we all know, it's not about how many articles you write: It's about how much effort you put into writing and marketing each of them.
Here are some creative ways to give your old content wings:
Keeping track of old content
As someone who is blogging all over the web, keeping a good track of what I wrote where is not easy. Usually I clearly remember I already covered a topic in detail and have to use Google to find that article online.
I have also collected all my author RSS feeds (by default (for WordPress sites), it's usually as easy as adding /feed to the end of your author page, for example: maximizesocialbusiness.com/author/ann-smarty/feed) and used this tutorial to create an auto-generated spreadsheet of all my major content.
I am also using these two tools (both are not perfect for that, so sometimes I still need to search Google) but on the bright side, they help me keep promoting my older content on social media:
1. Rebel Mouse
Rebel Mouse is a semi-automated content curation tool that aggregates your sources and creates an online magazine using them. Among other sources, it also supports RSS feeds (25 feeds for free), so I imported my major blog columns into it to collect my articles in one place. This way I have a nice collection of my articles – all on one page.
Viral Content Bee (Disclaimer: I am the co-founder) is the social media sharing collaboration platform which also has an RSS import option. I like the fact that it collects my articles from my RSS feeds: This way I can access the whole list via “My Projects”. Also these VCB projects will keep picking up social media shares through the platform even after they get older.
Write an update (& and approach that creatively and productively)
Let me break it to you: Looking at your old content to find what was well received previously is one the most efficient ways to brainstorm. If that topic worked well for your audience once, it's likely to make some waves again!
You can gather all the newest information on the topic, write a new post, and then link back internally to the original post. It gives you both a brand new article on something formerly well received, and direct new readers (or old ones) to the first post you did on it. It's great for traffic.
Here are few creative ways to write updates on older content:
1. Combine topics you researched earlier and write an “Ultimate resource”
If you have written a lot on one topic or a few related topics, think about investing your time into creating a crash course or an ultimate evergreen guide.
First Site Guide is a perfect example (and also a recommended resource for beginner bloggers): It is very well organized, concise and truly complete.
2. Collect opinions on the same topic and publish a “Group interview”
Writing a follow-up article featuring different opinions on the already covered topic (with the link back to your initial article) is effective for both adding highly-sharable and trusted content to your blog as well as bringing your old article back into the center of the discussion. Look through your old articles and find the one with a solid discussion (Comments are my favorite source of inspiration when it comes to questions for the group interview). Then go ahead and create a group interview revolving around that discussion.
(Disclaimer: I am MyBlogU founder)
3. Create a collection of tools that solve a problem discussed in your old articles
You can never go wrong with tools: Readers love them! My most popular articles are about industry tools. Find your old article that explains a process and think of tools that can help make that process easier!
Re-package old content into a new format
Re-packaging means turning your text content into a different format (image, video, powerpoint deck, pdf, etc). It's by far my favorite way of targeting more social media channels and wider audience.
Make a video round-up
Videos are visually stimulating and engaging. They also demonstrate a concept in a much more focused and useful way than text may do. Take an old post and turn it into a handy video guide. Then you can also benefit from having it on other sites, like YouTube.
Create a slideshow round-up
Slideshows are great, because they give a quick-fire way of organizing the information in a new way. Since most online readers are skimmers anyway, this cuts out the middle man and just goes right to the skimming-friendly format.
Here's a quick example of me curating my tips and previously written articles using Slideshare: It made it to Slideshare home page!
Note: Slideshare links will be clickable after Slide #3.
Create a graphic round-up
Thanks to sites like Pinterest, images in general are gaining a lot more traction on the web than they even had before. Infographics are increasing in popularity at a shocking rate, and are some of the most shared types of media available today. You can be incredibly informative with an infographic, giving a condensed version of your posts that are also visual and attractive, and keeps the reader's attention.
Re-package old content into an eBook
There are plenty of tools out there that let you create ebooks out of your blog posts, such as BloxP and Zinepal. I prefer to do it manually using Word / Google Drive (the latter allows collaboration) and this Words-to-PDF converter.
Do you have any tips for bringing old content back to life? Let us know in the comments.
Recommended Reading and Additional Resources:
