Having a blog is a great thing:
1. It’s your “HQ” online and a place where people can find out more about your business
2. It’s an awesome way to build trust and rapport with your subscribers and customers
3. Over time it can start to generate traffic from Google
As you publish more blog posts on tips, tricks, strategies and things you’ve been up to it’s amazing how quickly your blog content can build out.
The only problem is that after a while a lot of your posts can become “buried” on previous pages on your blog.
For example, if you scroll down on the main page of this blog you’ll see a link which says “Previous Entries”. Clicking on this takes you back in time.
In fact, if you keep clicking you’ll eventually find my first ever post back in December 2010.
But here’s the problem: The majority of your new subscribers and visitors will never see the majority of your older posts simply because very few people go back through the archives like that.
This is a waste.
So here’s a couple of “tricks” that I’ve used to make the most of your blog content.
1. Repurpose Your Blog Content Into An eBook
This is exactly what I did on my niche blog TinLunchBoxesHQ.Com.
I simply collated all the individual posts together in a Word document, formatted it a little and saved it as a PDF file.
Then I placed an optin form on the sidebar offering this PDF eBook for free in return for signing up to my list.
It took me probably 1 hour to do and I’m now gaining email subscribers passively! 🙂
Remember: The value is not just in the information you provide to your subscribers and customers but in the structure of that information. A random collection of blog posts has less value that a collated single file with a proper index. So don’t underestimate this method!
If you have a blog but aren’t building a list yet then this is an excellent way to start one (and you must!). I did the process manually as I said but you can also use free tools online such as zinepal. Give it a try now: Just enter a URL of a blog in the box and click the “Select Stories” button.
2. Use Your Older Blog Posts In Your Autoresponder Messages
This is something I’ve used sparingly as well.
There are a couple of posts on this blog that have received a lot of attention in terms of comments, Facebook, Likes and Tweets. But I know that my newer subscribers might never see them.
So I have added a few new autoresponder email messages to my Aweber account which links to them.
If you want to do both of these tips then perhaps you just use some of the posts for your eBook and the rest for your Autoresponder. It doesn’t really matter, there’s no harm in delivering content twice provided it is high value and helpful for your subscribers.
Making The Most Of What You’ve Got…
These 2 ideas are all about repurposing which is an extremely powerful thing to do when running your web-business. In short repurposing is about making the most of what you’ve got.
Talking of old blog posts, here’s one which you might not have seen where I talk more about repurposing and how you can get more results for less work.
I hope you found this useful? Please share, like and tweet if so 🙂 Do drop a comment below as well as I’d love to hear your feedback…
Hi Rob!
Great, insightful post. I try to re-cylcle and reuse as much of my content as I can. Like you say – most of the older posts on someones blog probably do not get much attention any more.
Nice idea about packaging them together as an eBook – I will check out that site you mentioned.
I have tried all sorts of methods, for example:
– You could make them into powerpoint presentations and share them on Slideshare.
– You could convert them to videos and share on the many video sites such as Youtube.
– You could break them up into little “thought provokers” and share them on Twitter.
And also you mention, adding them to your autoresponder – which is a great technique in my opinion.
Hope all is going well,
Regards,
John
Hi John,
Excellent ideas – thanks for taking the time and grabbing the first comment slot. I’m sure many others will find the extra tips very useful 🙂
Cheers! Rob.
Great ideas Rob … and don’t forget to deep-link from current articles to older ones just as you did in this post 🙂
Ian
Thanks Ian!
Hi rob
Creating an ebook out of your blog posts is really great idea, would never of thought of it. It’s so simple yet easily missed!
Hi Joe,
Yes, it’s sometimes easy to overcomplicate things I think!
Cheers, Rob.
Hi Rob
Great tips and the reason I get 100s if leads daily.
Nice too see someone else in the uk doing well online. Testing my new iPhone out so might as well be on a nice Im blog!!
Keep up the good work mate.
Best
Johnny g
Hi Johnny,
Great to see you here – thanks for your comments and glad you liked the 2 tips 🙂
Cheers, Rob.
Hi Rob
Thanks for more useful information – much appreciated!
Peter
Thanks Peter, your very welcome 🙂
Hey Rob,
Thanks for the awesome idea of repurposing content.
In my case it’s old blog posts that are completely relevant for today but for someone new to the blog, may not see them right away.
I’m going to do exactly that (create a report with some of that content) and offer to give it away in order to build my list.
Thanks again for the great idea man, cheers! 😉
Sergio
Hi Sergio,
Thanks very much for your feedback. Really pleased it has inspired you to take action on this!
Cheers – Rob.
Wow Rob, I just love reading your stuff! I always learn something new from you. I took your advice and signed up with zinepal and quickly (maybe too quickly in my excitment, hmmm) created an instant book and tweeted the details. I was impressed with the site and loved what it did to my blogs. What do you think? The link is http://t.co/ZbjyOiC5 if you want to peek…….
As always, looking forward to your next blog! Thanks again Rob. Great infomation.
Kate
Wow Kate – that’s brilliant! You are a great example of taking action with this 🙂
Thanks for taking the time to let us know!
Cheers – Rob.
Thanks Rob, another great tip I am one of those people that only read the latest blogs so this really does make sense I suppose you can add the content to a Webinar or Articles too?
Once again thanks rob, I will take this onboard.
Imran
Hi Imran,
Yes, you can definitely repurpose like that too. Thanks for your comment!
Cheers – Rob.
Hi Rob
This is an unrelated question. I notice you use Aweber to send your emails. What is your take on Mailchimp vs Aweber?
Jonathan
Hi Jonathan,
Thanks for your comment. I’ve never used Mailchimp. It’s fine as a free solution to get started with but to be honest I think you’ll get better deliverability and features with Aweber. Remember your email service is such an important thing in your business so it definitely makes sense to invest here.
Cheers – Rob.
Hi Rob
This blog has given me great room for thought.
I like writing -always have – and have a not inconsiderable store of articles which I thought would be in big demand on goarticles and ezinearticles. What a bomber! I never managed to work out why my (subjectively speaking) wonderful work brought little interest while totally incomprehensible ones by others got thousands of views! Guess that’s another vagary of life!
I’ve always thought that I could do with them as you suggest but maybe not the reason being that by looking at your work there’s a lot of difference between an article and a blog post ie:-
One largely preaches while the other is a ‘benefit provider’, in short to use your acronym WIIFT.
You’ve certainly got me thinking of doing re-writes as a first action.
With respect and regards
Ken
Hi Ken,
Glad this helped you 🙂
I see what you mean on the difference between a blog post and and article but really it depends upon the kind of website you have. Blog posts can really be anything and whatever helps and builds a relationship with your audience is the right way to go!
Kind regards,
Rob.