11 Ways to Reuse Killer Blog Posts to Generate Traffic and Income [AIB]

by

Content is king.

How many times have you heard that expression?

As Internet entrepreneurs, we’re told that great content is the pathway to fame and fortune.

But what happens when you write a killer blog post and nobody seems to care?

Or more importantly, how do you feel when your articles fail to grow your business?

Usually you feel frustrated and tempted to give up.

Fortunately there’s an easy solution to this problem.  Rather than following the “one and done” publishing model for blogging, you can take ONE piece of content and use it to generate more traffic and income.

In today’s edition of the Authority Business Case Study, I’ll talk about how to take your “Most Valuable Posts” (MVPs) and leverage this content in a variety of unique ways.  Specifically, I’ll talk about a how I’m using an article from my DevelopGoodHabits.com website (27 Strategies for Breaking ANY Bad Habit) to grow my audience.

The following is a list of 11 ways to reuse one blog post to grow your audience.  Apply these strategies to your best articles and you won’t have to follow the constant cycle of creating content, hoping somebody will notice.

Let’s get to it.

[title color=”green-vibrant” align=”scmgccenter” font=”verdana” style=”normal” size=”scmgc-2em”]#1 – Break Into Small Blog Posts[/title]

MVPs—especially lengthy numbered list posts—can seed dozens of individual blog posts, each targeting a high-traffic keyword.

Generally speaking, large articles gloss over specific topics.  So, you can maximize the value of the content by fleshing them out and providing more detail.

For instance, in the “27 Strategies for Breaking ANY Bad Habit” article, I cover a variety of habit-related topics.  Some can be expanded into their own blog posts.  That’s why I’ve written (or plan to write) articles that cover:

  • Ego depletion
  • “What the hell” effect
  • Incremental goal setting
  • Habit loops
  • Tracking habit triggers
  • Hot-cold empathy gap
  • Using accountability journals
  • The power of forgiving yourself

To add more value to this tactic, I plan on linking the original MVP to each of these blog posts.  That way a new reader will have more content to check out.

[title color=”green-vibrant” align=”scmgccenter” font=”verdana” style=”normal” size=”scmgc-2em”]#2 – Add to an Autoresponder Sequence[/title]

It’s not easy to fill an email autoresponder sequence with quality content.  Sometimes you don’t know what to write and other times you don’t want to be too promotional.  (This is especially true if you’d like to start an “Authority Builder” campaign like I recommend in my book Email Marketing Blueprint.)

One solution is to write a short introduction about the MVP article and then directly link to it, which is a great way to generate traffic and strengthen your relationship with subscribers.

EXAMPLE:

The topic of the “27 strategies” article is perfect for new subscribers.  Everyone has a bad habit they’d like to eliminate.  So adding this type of autoresponder can help them while building a connection with a list member.

Adding an autoresponder is super easy.  Simply write a short message (around 100 to 200 words) that describes the value of the article and then link to it.   You can also ask for comments and feedback.  That way you’re creating a dialogue with subscribers.

[title color=”green-vibrant” align=”scmgccenter” font=”verdana” style=”normal” size=”scmgc-2em”]#3 – Turn Into a Lead Magnet[/title]

You can turn a longer piece of content into a lead magnet and use it to collect email addresses.  This strategy is especially useful if it solves a very common problem that people have in your niche.

For instance, we just talked about how everyone wants to eliminate a bad habit. With the “27 strategies” article, I could add more content and then I’d have a freebie that’s worth joining my email list.

[title color=”green-vibrant” align=”scmgccenter” font=”verdana” style=”normal” size=”scmgc-2em”]#4 – Generate Mobile App Email Subscribers[/title]

Mobile apps are hot right now.  They’re a great way to promote a brand if you have an app that relates to a common problem in your market.  One trick you can try is turn mobile app downloads into email subscribers.  Simply add a tab that links to a free report (see #3) in exchange for a person’s email address.

EXAMPLE:

I’m currently using my Trigger Tracker app to build an email list.  Since this app directly relates to “bad habits,” most users will be interested in my report.  All they have to do is tap the “More” button and they can download a PDF version of the “27 strategies” article.

[title color=”green-vibrant” align=”scmgccenter” font=”verdana” style=”normal” size=”scmgc-2em”]#5 – Expand Into a Kindle Book[/title]

It’s not hard to turn a long article into a Kindle book, especially if you didn’t thoroughly cover certain topics.  Most are between 10,000 to 15,000 words.  So you only need to double or triple the content to have a book that can be sold for $2.99 or more.

One important thing—you need to do a complete re-write if you plan on using Amazon’s KDP Select program.  So if you’d like to give away for book for those five days, then you can’t have an exact copy on your website.  With a heavy edit you can have the content on both your website and as part of a Kindle book.

EXAMPLE:

Currently the “27 strategies” article isn’t part of a Kindle book, but since it’s over 5,000 words in length, it wouldn’t be hard to double the content, add specific examples and do a simple re-write.  Then I’d have another profit generator for my business.

[title color=”green-vibrant” align=”scmgccenter” font=”verdana” style=”normal” size=”scmgc-2em”]#6 – Create a “Perma-Free” Book on Amazon[/title]

There’s an alternative to turning an article into a hot-selling Kindle book.  Another option is to create a book, upload it to Smashwords, set the price at $0.00 and then add a duplicate book on Amazon.  What this does is create a permanently free (or “perma-free”) listing on Amazon.

The major benefit of a perma-free book is you’ll get a steady stream of free traffic to your website.  Also, you’ll get email subscribers if you include a lead magnet offer within the content.

It’s actually not that hard to create a perma-free listing on Amazon.  Just follow this six-step process:

  1. Turn your article into a Kindle book (Remember to not sign up for KDP Select.)
  2. Set the price to $0.99 on Amazon.
  3. Create a Smashwords version of the same book (Use Mark Coker’s free guide to learn how.)
  4. Set the price to free on Smashwords.
  5. Find your book on Amazon and use the “tell us about a lower price” link to report the free price.  (Here is a screenshot of what this looks like.)
  6. Wait a few weeks to a few months.

Having a perma-free book is a great way to get extra mileage from an existing piece of content.  You can use it to promote your website, Kindle books and email list.  This is something I’ve done with my “How to Start a Successful Blog in One Article” book, which generates over a hundred downloads a day.

[title color=”green-vibrant” align=”scmgccenter” font=”verdana” style=”normal” size=”scmgc-2em”]#7 – Use as an Outreach Hook[/title]

Referral traffic is the best kind of traffic.  Having someone share your content is a great way to get targeted, loyal readers.  Plus every link from referral traffic will help your rankings in Google and other search engines.

How does this apply to an MVP article?

What you can do is leverage the article as part of a 200 Blog Outreach strategy like Neil Patel describes in his interview with Pat Flynn.  The idea here is to target blogs in your niche and see if they’d be interested in sharing your quality content.

Building relationships is the key to this strategy.  You want to help others first before asking anything in return.  It’s like establishing a friendship.  Your goal is to start by providing value to other bloggers.  And then you ask if they’d be willing to share one of your killer pieces of content if they think their audience would like it.

For instance, I’m currently building contacts in the personal development niche.  As I start connecting with others, I’m occasionally asking them to share the “27 strategies” post with their audience.

[title color=”green-vibrant” align=”scmgccenter” font=”verdana” style=”normal” size=”scmgc-2em”]#8 – Build Quality Backlinks  [/title]

Getting blog mentions isn’t the only way to build backlinks.  You can also write quality, unique content on various web 2.0 sites.  While these links aren’t that powerful, they can become an important part of your overall linking strategy.

The key to this strategy is to create a piece of content that’s at least 500 words long (or 1,000+ words for document sharing sites.)  The strategy is to post a unique article and use this to generate a backlink to your website.  What you can do with a MVP is take the content and turn them into individual articles for sites like:

EXAMPLE:

Each of the “27 strategies” could be a mini-blog post, which can be shared on different web 2.0 sites.  Currently, I’m working with someone to re-write each tip and turn it into an individual article.  In theory, this one post can generate 27 unique backlinks.

[title color=”green-vibrant” align=”scmgccenter” font=”verdana” style=”normal” size=”scmgc-2em”]#9 – Rework into YouTube Videos[/title]

A variation on the above technique is to create simple videos from each strategy discussed in an MVP.  Actionable videos are short and to the point—each can be two to three minutes in length.  Just cover one tip in full detail and you’ll have a video worth watching.

YouTube works well if you use numbered lists on your blog.  For instance, it wouldn’t be hard to take the content from each of the “27 strategies” and create 27 different videos.  Each one would target a unique keyword phrase, which would generate traffic from both Google and YouTube.

[title color=”green-vibrant” align=”scmgccenter” font=”verdana” style=”normal” size=”scmgc-2em”]#10 – Create Slideshare Presentations[/title]

Websites like Slideshare can generate a sizeable amount of target traffic.  Your goal is to create a slideshow presentation on an engaging topic.  Then you generate traffic by offering additional content or a free report (see #3.)

Numbered lists work well on Slideshare.  So another way I’m leveraging the “27 strategies” article is to have a freelancer create a multimedia version of this article.  Since the content is already written, all a person needs to do is summarize each strategy into a few bullet points and use an eye-catching graphic.

[title color=”green-vibrant” align=”scmgccenter” font=”verdana” style=”normal” size=”scmgc-2em”]#11 – Use as a Press Release Angle[/title]

Publishing a great article is a newsworthy item—especially if it solves a problem that people regularly experience.  Nowadays, you can’t wait around for people to discover your website.  Instead, you should write a press release about your MVP and distribute it using the top news services (WebWire and PRWeb are my two favorites.)

There are a few benefits of writing press releases:

  1. Your site gets a quality backlink to increase search engine rankings
  2. You establish yourself as an authority on your niche topic
  3. You open the door for potential interviews and networking opportunities

Many people have trouble with press releases because they don’t know what to write.  So one solution is to talk about a great article you’ve just released.

For instance, check out this press release I wrote for the 27 strategies article.  As you can see, they’re not hard to write.  All you have to do is write a description of the news item, include a few quotes, add some links and give a reason why it’s important to the reader.

[title color=”green-vibrant” align=”scmgccenter” font=”verdana” style=”normal” size=”scmgc-2em”]Final Thoughts on Content Leverage[/title]

We all love to save time and money.  When posting a piece of content, it’s important to think of additional ways it can be used.  This is especially true if you plan on building an authority business that leverages multiple platforms.

While I detailed 11 strategies that can be immediately implemented, there are more ways you can maximize visibility without doing a lot of extra work.   Whenever you hit the “publish” button, ask yourself how this article can be reused to grow and expand your business.  Odds are, you’ll think of something creative that doesn’t take a lot of extra effort.

Take Action. Get Results.



48 thoughts on “11 Ways to Reuse Killer Blog Posts to Generate Traffic and Income [AIB]”

    • Thanks Joseph! I’ve decided it’s been awhile since there was a decent level of content. So I’m focusing on this case study for the rest of 2013 and plan on publishing regularly here. Glad you’re into it 🙂

  2. I agree with Joseph above. I always devour your new blog posts!

    There’s a ton of value here. Especially the Slideshare/YouTube angle. I’m creating courses on Udemy which are videos of a slide presentation. I can re-edit some of them for YouTube and upload the presentation to Slideshare. And you never know when a Slideshare presentation or a YouTube video is going to get incredibly popular!

    • Awesome way to reuse the video stuff. I’m also keenly interested in Udemy–might use it for my first habits-related information product. Let me know how it goes for you…

      • I’ve actually been on Udemy for most of this year, Steve. I really like the platform. It’s not perfect but, for me, there is some recurring revenue there. My advice would be that people with YouTube videos up their sleeve should consider it (and I would advise anyone to have YouTube videos up their sleeve!)

        You would be really good for it as you have an online “brand” as a person of expertise in a specific subjects. It’s also good for people with large email lists and followings so that these can be offered your courses at a discount. (Udemy’s all about discounts).

        For me at least it’s best to create a free course on Udemy. Free courses are very popular and the students/subscribers on these course can be successfully recruited to your paid courses with the use of discount coupons.

        Also, you can develop relationships/friendships with other Udemy instructors and cross-promote with discounts and/or affiliate links.

        (It’s a kind of mini-blogosphere.)

        I’ve just written about and done a video on Udemy on my blog – it’s the second most recent post on there now! 🙂

        • Excellent response Rob! Just read through the article and Tweeted it out. I’m really excited about Udemy — like your comment about the relationships with other instructors. If you don’t mind, I might ask you a bunch of questions when I’m about to publish on there. Looks like you’re really leveraging this platform. 🙂

  3. Love these ideas. In fact this is one of my biggest issues with blogging — you take all this time to create an awesome blog post, and enjoy the rush of traffic and social shares, but it’s short-lived. The next week everyone is on to the next smart article, even if your content is “evergreen.”

    This week was my first attempt at SlideShare — and my presentation has more than 400 views already. Next on the list is to turn the same slide deck into a quality YouTube video.

    • Yes, blogging can be frustrating, especially when you take a long time to write a post and it only gets a handful of views. Your results from SlideShare are awesome…is it related to your Side Hustle website?

  4. I loved this post. This is the kind of posts I like to write because it not only explained a process, it gave a real world example. I bought your book and went to every link in the article and signed up for other blogs mentioned. The only suggestion that I would make is use some graphics that people can put on Pinterest. The graphics would be linked back to the post. I do that with every post I write. Another idea is to make an infographic of the post.

    Great Job

    • Thanks Janis–glad you’re getting use from the article. I agree that Pinterest is a monster in some markets, but it didn’t work for me with the Internet business stuff. With that said, I might give it a go for the habits website. Great to hear you’re having success with it.

  5. Good ideas Steve. Glad that you shared it as I’m kind of stuck in my website with non-existent traffic. Got to find a new ways to get more traffics. Your ideas are definitely helpful!

  6. I really dig the idea of using a free Amazon Kindle book for free traffic. What an awesome way to bring more visitors to your own paid books or a blog. Very smart.

    Smashwords is new to me so thanks for sharing.

  7. I concur. I’ve written a piece of good content and frankly, I didn’t know what to do with it. I have #3 and #5 in mind. Now I’ll add #6, #10 and #11. And Maybe I’ll make an video from a slide show (#9). Thanks for tip Rob.

  8. OK – I’m on this! I really like the idea of re-using content. we bloggers put so much energy, heart and soul into creating it in the first place that if it’s possible to reuse and give it extra life then that’s something I’m definitely going to pursue.
    I’d certainly never thought of creating a e-book from it my MVP – I’ve a post called 21 ways to boost your resilience which has been popular on my site – I could turn each tip into a chapter. Ooh my mind is now a whirring – thanks for the tips!

    • Awesome! Honestly, that title sounds like something that would sell well on Kindle. Perhaps you can add a bunch of content and turn it into a $2.99 book that generates revenue and traffic back to your website.

  9. Steve, when creating a Perma-free book for Amazon, are you using this as an opt-in offer for your mailing list? Or are you just making sure your blog links are within the book?

    • Both Melanie. Every book starts with an offer for my email list, plus I have one (or two?) links to other Kindle books I sell. Plus, I have a “Other Books by Steve” section at the end. If you have a few really good posts, then I’d highly recommend testing out the perma-free technique.

  11. I’m a BEGINNER, 60years plus, and have found your site, so…helpful. I find your links are ‘educationals’ in themselves. And with yours, and the help of your recommendations, I have now found my niche. What an inspiring learning curve that has been! And now, with keyword phrase information I am writing content.
    Its great to have you back, however I understand the need to have a break. Take Care, thanks so much for SSS.
    Honor

  12. Expanding them into the small pieces as well as stretching out to create the ebooks or the white papers is the good idea and I’m planning to do it now, lets see what happens.

  14. Steve,

    Thanks for this post. I am really looking forward to the case study! I think case studies actually are the MOST valuable information out there on the web, because it takes all that theory we see elsewhere, and makes it practical.

    Eric

  15. Hi Steve, great stuff! I applied your thinking to your thinking and here’s the result 😉 Only the format is changed… http://bit.ly/150IEWL
    It’s for visual people as myself… I’ve got an overflow of long posts of serial text and need Big Picture & SnapShot at once and then a way to Dive Deeper…

  16. Hey, Steve!
    Great ideas here, some of which I am exploring now..tentatively lol. I would like to add that you can save your slideshow as a PDF and upload it to scribd.. I think they may even have a slideshow option for uploads as well. I just put my first PDF up over there and am waiting to see if there is any traffic for it in the next 14 or 30 days.

    • I’d be interested to see if it works out for you. Haven’t had the time to test out Slideshare or Scribd yet for my site and I’m wondering if they’re a great source of traffic.

  18. Can you please say what is a lead magnet? . And how can we make use of guest posting. I mean should we post on other blogs or other bloggers post on our blog for getting higher traffic?

  19. Writing post is tough task but you are right getting traffic is. I always tried to find new ways to promote my blog posts and hope to getting better traffic. Thanks

  20. Hey Steve,

    Awesome post! I especially liked the tip about using apps 😀

    I think we should always repurpose our killer posts – take advantage of them. What’s the purpose of writing great content if people don’t see it? To help the most people, we need to increase our exposure, and to do that we need to repurpose content and share them in as many as ways as we can.

    By the way, how is the habits blog doing? I will be dropping by soon 🙂 I just got back after an year long vacation from blogging. I was hoping to start a niche site – with your blog as a guide (read your latest article on niche sites; about Google changing their algorithms every now and then and how it is affecting niche sites).

    Do you still think Niche sites are worth the effort? I do plan to maintain an authority blog along with it – with affiliate marketing, Kindle eBooks and writing services as my income sources. It’s a little ambitious, but I suppose I can do it :D.

    • Thanks for the tip on Smashwords. I do have a question though (sorry for not asking this in my previous comment): Are we allowed to update the book? And how does this work anyway? Aren’t we charging 99 cents in the first place?

      • Great to see you back! The habits blog is coming along. To be honest, I just took the last two months off, so I’m still getting back into the swing of things. Once I do, I’ll start to blog more there and on this site. Plus I’m going to execute on many of the plans that I’ve been meaning to implement.

        Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of niche sites. But, Spence over at NichePursuits.com is still making them work, so I’d definitely recommend checking out his site for more information.

        You can definitely update the SW book. What you do there is set the price to free on SW and $.99 on Amazon. Eventually Amazon sees the difference in price and drops your book there to match it.

        • Great 🙂 Will be waiting for the updates.

          Thanks for the suggestion, Steve. I will check it out 😀

          Okay, thanks 😀

  21. Pingback: Online Business Productivity: September Link Roundup
  22. Pingback: 15 Ideas for Blog Posts (and for Other Content As Well): Are You Sitting on a Content Goldmine?

  23. Hi Steve
    I went away on a real holiday and did not pick up my laptop once!!! Now I am looking to pick up some traffic and buzz. I thought about making my stuff into PDF’s but I think I will do a few more things after seeing your lists…

    Thanks Steve… I needed a kick.

  24. Hi Steve,

    Traffic is like a heck some but I personally believed it does not come over-night. I’m not a YouTube fan (Very bad though) but splitting content that go viral on my blog can be of great important to have thing done, nonetheless some of those article submission doesn’t work for me to get backlinks and I rather focus on Yahoo answer to get backlinks if at all the backlinks from Yahoo Answer may end up being nonfollow.

Comments are closed.