On Blogging: Repurpose + Repromote Older Content

Can I be honest? I work really hard on my blog posts. I put a lot of passion, care and love into everything I post here, or send out in my newsletter. When I finish a piece of content, I feel so proud and eager to share it with as many people as possible.

Before I began blogging with direction and purpose, I rarely promoted my posts heavily. I would tweet out links on occasion, but that was as far as I’d go. Self-promotion didn’t feel comfortable to me, I thought people would think I was full of myself, or that they wouldn’t respond well to what I was sharing.

Everything has changed now.

I’ve accepted that there is value in my content, and that I should share what I’ve produced with as many people as possible to live out not only my brand’s purpose, but my own purpose as well. So, that’s what I want to talk about today: how to repromote and repurpose older blog content to help increase your traffic + keep eyes on all of the amazing content you’ve created.

Just because a post is a few days, weeks or months old does not mean it’s outdated. Most posts don’t have expiration dates on them, so by sharing them consistently, you’re giving readers more of a chance to soak up good information. If you’re a WordPress user, there are plugins like this one to make that process incredibly simple. Personally, I opt to skip over the automated re-share systems and developed my own strategic method of sharing.

Here are my top tips for repromoting and repurposing older content.

>>Look at what’s happening now –current events, hot topics in the blogging community, special events that are taking place. Then, review your content and pick out select posts to share throughout the week that will be relevant and helpful during that time. It’s a little more time consuming, but it helps target and position your content to yield the best results possible.

How I do it: a few nights a week, I join in on some awesome Twitter chats with creatives and bloggers. The topics of those chats are usually shared a few days prior, so once I know the deets, I’ll jot down a few posts and get links ready so that I can reshare them during the chat! Simple and reliable way to draw eyes back on that post, encourage shares and increase visits to the blog.

>> Dig into your archives. During the week, I also share posts on Twitter and Facebook from my archives. I usually preface those post with “Archived / ‘Post Title Here'” just so everyone knows I’m sharing content off the regular posting schedule. I determine how to share these posts in a few ways: by looking at questions I’ve received lately from new readers; looking at which posts have been shared frequently; and, by going back to posts that resonate with where I am in life. When I’m having somber days, I’ll be more likely to share posts like this one, or this one.

Oh, and I also repromote older posts by linking to them in new post, like I just did above! That is also a nice boost for SEO.

>>See the bigger picture in your content. Along with repromoting old posts, you can also repurpose them to create new content. Use your own work to inspire you –repurpose them as content for newsletters; expand on them to create new offerings like e-books or e-courses.

>>  Refresh and repost! If you’ve been blogging for a while, you probably have a full stock of archived posts. Getting the chance to go back and equally re-promote them all can be extremely difficult. So, rather than trying to share all of that old content to keep fresh eyes on it, why not create a series filled with tips that you’ve already expanded on in other posts? That gives you a chance to link to those posts in a new post, share it right on your blog, and promote it as fresh content. A post called “My Top SEO Tips” can be a post with quick summaries of all of the SEO posts you’ve written over the years. You get fresh new content, and still keep the old content relevant.

Do you repromote and repurpose your old content? Share how you do it, or why you don’t, in the comments!

 (image source)