Content Recycling: 27 Ideas for Reusing Content

Creating quality content is not only important to achieve good rankings, but more importantly to keep users or readers happy. However, we all know that it is sometimes difficult to run a blog with consistently valuable and high-quality content, as it is a resource-intensive process.

So why not make the most of the content you've already been working on?

Sometimes you don't want to (or don't have the means to) reinvent the wheel every time you create new content. So why not make the most of the content you've already worked on?

All you have to do is reuse the content you already have. In this way, you not only save resources, but also expand the Range of your blog and perhaps find new ways to reach your audience.

27 ingenious ways of content recycling

The right ways to Content Finding recycling can sometimes be a challenge. That's why we've put together a great list of the best ways to repurpose content. Different tactics suit different people. So read through them all and choose the one that suits you best. You're spoiled for choice:

1. convert your old blog posts into practical instructions

If you've been writing about a particular topic for a while, at some point you'll have gathered enough information and expertise to educate someone in that field (at least at a basic level). This applies to all fields, not just SEO (e.g. cooking, coding, DIY, etc.). So why not use all of this knowledge and create a guide where you take the valuable information you've scattered across many posts over time and compile it into a clear, easy-to-understand manual? Manuals, if written and edited in a clear and understandable way, can have a very high re-read value as they are useful both as introductory reading and as a later reference work.

2. turn your already published content into podcasts

People still like to listen to other people talk. They just don't want to tune in at a certain time to be able to do so. So podcasts are the TiVo version of radio shows: They can be very entertaining and/or enlightening, require no activity, and can be "digested" at any time. This last factor is a real plus in terms of convenience and accessibility: how many articles/videos can you read/watch while driving, walking or doing household chores?

The series format also allows you to break new ground and experiment with content and form, as long as you can guarantee a certain level of technical quality. Even if some attempts fail, listeners will usually come back to a podcast that they like. Once the initial attraction has been created (just like a TV show, not all episodes will be great, but you will keep tuning in to watch the show).

3. use your internal data and combine it into case studies

If you like analyzing large amounts of data in the hope of finding useful trends that can help you make decisions, then it makes sense to analyze this data. Of course, you may be more interested in the quantitative aspects, but you can also learn a lot from a more qualitative approach (especially for others).

Trying to understand why something happened in terms of cause and effect can be very rewarding and is a fascinating mental exercise, both for you as the person behind the analysis and for the reader who is a virtual Dr. Watson. A good case study is less rigorous than a study, but also more challenging from a creative standpoint, and if done right, it can bring you just as much glory.

4. collect all your interviews in an expert advice e-book

Once you have done enough interviews on a topic, you can try to put them all in one E-Book to summarize with expert advice. There are many advantages to an e-book (more on that below), but there are also some particular advantages to expert advice e-books. First of all, there aren't that many of them; even on the first few pages of a Google search, you won't find that many relevant results, which is not the case for most of the other examples in this list. The reason for this could be that it's hard enough to get expert advice, let alone get enough of it to publish a book.

You also have the advantage of not having to come up with the content yourself (although you still have to conduct the interviews). If the advice comes from different recognized experts, people are more likely to find it more relevant or convincing than if it comes from a single source. Of course, you still have some influence over the structure, design and transition of the different sections of the book into a cohesive story, and that might be exactly what makes it possible to publish this content as an e-book rather than scattered across different pages on your website.

5. turn the Quora question into a valuable blog post

It is valuable that your post is read, commented on and shared with others. But it's also valuable if you open up your content to wide-ranging and irreconcilable debate. That's what's likely to happen if you post some of your ideas in response to a question on Quora.

Or when you use your content to start a discussion in a Reddit thread. While these two examples differ in many ways (starting with the type of platform they represent), they do have one thing in common:

(1) a significant number of experts contributing to the platform (this is more visible on Quora, but also on Reddit) and

(2) a number of committed core employees and a strong ethical awareness.

Even if the reward is not always easy, you can be sure that it will be the result of serious thought and great attention to your content and you.

6. share your stats through Twitter posts

With the Microblogging (as Twitter is usually defined) is about saying a lot in a few words (multum in parvo, as the Latins would say). Of course, brevity (or conciseness) can also be achieved through images (to quote another old adage) - and that's where things can really take off.

The same information can be presented in countless ways and have a different effect each time. When it comes to "shareability", nothing beats a well-designed statistic. What's more, a well-made infographic is not only a feast for the eyes, but also a valuable educational tool.

7. update your old posts with new information

Your content should be "alive" as much as possible. This means, in part, that you update previous posts with the new knowledge as you get a clearer or more complete view of reality.

It's not about recycling things, it's about making them relevant again with a fresh, more insightful look. Just as you initially thought a certain SEO tactic was good and useful, others may have believed the same. If you come back now, after further research, and suggest a more nuanced approach, it could help others too. It might also help people who are new to the discussion and haven't had a chance to read the original post and the comments on it.

8. create new blog posts and articles from spinoffs

Once you've taken up a topic, that doesn't mean it's done. There are innovations in every area, especially in technology. What you thought was right last year may not be right anymore (and what you thought was right last month may not be right at all). So, much like Hollywood, sequels are very likely. There are many reasons why a sequel could be relevant. Something has changed and there are now more reasons to do or not to do something. Otherwise, there may also be more ways to do it.

In the meantime, you have exchanged ideas with readers and industry experts and discussed the topic and discovered that there are more points worth including in your list than you initially thought. A minor character in your original article has suddenly become more important and could be the main character of a separate article or blog post. Whatever the case may be, take the opportunity to expand your article pool, as in the following example.

9. create a slide deck and upload it to SlideShare to reach new audiences

You can turn your content into a slide deck presentation and upload it to sites like SlideShare. The site allows you to browse slide decks both by topic and by user, giving uploaders the advantage of a "channel" that is famous.

Despite the general feeling of "death by PowerPoint" in the classroom and in companies, it can be entertaining to give a presentation on your own. It's more engaging than a lecture and more interactive than a video. Plus, you can impress the reader with more than just the content (remember how important design is and how much it can say about you).

10. create an infographic to make the most of your old content

Creating a good infographic can be quite a challenge. It needs to show all the relevant information, leave out superfluous or useless data, make sense, be scientifically sound and at the same time grab the viewer's attention by being both original and good looking.

In fact, it may be less difficult to gather the information you want to present to your audience than to shape the way you want to present it. But it might be worth it: A well-designed infographic gets shared, liked, commented on, shared, included in mainstream publications, shared... you get the idea. Plus, you don't have to start from scratch or have a team of graphic designers, as there are plenty of templates and tools you can use if you're just starting out.

11. summarize your current content in an e-book

If you've been publishing content for long enough, you might think you have enough material for a book. And that might even be true. If that's the case, why not create a book, or rather an e-book? An e-book has advantages for both you and your readers.

As a publisher, an e-book offers you enormous flexibility and variety in terms of structure and design, allowing you to create a completely unique product. As a reader, an e-book is easy to transport and easily accessible (whether on a laptop, tablet, cell phone or e-reader). It also doesn't take up too much space (if any), you can easily switch between books.apiYou can navigate between pages and sections and mark or bookmark paragraphs or pages.

12. write guest posts on topics in which you are already an expert

If you know your way around a topic, you're no longer limited to your own soapbox, you can jump on someone else's (at least for a little while). If you have enough expertise on a topic or niche, you may have what it takes to write guest posts for other people who may have a very different audience than you.

There are many websites that allow guest posting, and a whole host of advice on how you can do this successfully and make the most of it (we've written about this ourselves in the past).

13. promote your existing blog posts from different angles

This is pure marketing at its best. The modern cultural equivalent of this would be the current trend of releasing multiple teasers and trailers for a movie. This is exactly what you would be doing: selling your entry from different angles (and possibly to different audiences).

For this to work well, it would of course be helpful if your 5, 7 or however many tips cover a whole range of topics. That way you can be sure that you share a different image and tip every day, attracting a different audience. People love variety in lists because if they don't like one suggestion from your list, there are plenty of others they can try.

14. turn your existing content into videos

Our culture has increasingly moved from reading to visuals. This is evident not only in the enormous amount of video content uploaded to YouTube and similar sites every day, but also in the distribution of video content on pretty much every other platform that is not designed to manage video. (e.g. websites, blogs, social networks, etc.)

Therein lies the great advantage of converting written content into a video. A written post signals effort and says: "Hi, you need about 5 minutes to read me, or 10 if you're tired". A video doesn't say anything, it just doesn't give you a warning. Especially on mobile Facebook, videos are designed to just run as you scroll down. If something catches your eye, you'll probably watch it to the end, even if you wouldn't have clicked on it otherwise.

15. conduct podcasts with industry leaders on topics you are already familiar with

The most important elements that can influence the success of a podcast don't necessarily have to do with what you say. Not because content is irrelevant (it definitely is), but because the responsibility for delivering that content doesn't have to rest solely on your shoulders. In fact, you can build a sustainable strategy based primarily (or entirely) on interviews, whether with authors, musicians, comedians or other experts. So if you don't feel confident enough to give advice yourself, why not try to get industry leaders to give it?

This requires a completely different skill set, but also has some advantages (e.g. the fact that industry leaders like to talk about how and why they are industry leaders - so you're already halfway there).

16. compile the questions of your customers from the support in a FAQ page

FAQs are highly underestimated. They are compilations of useful information that are statistically proven to be useful. How could you not be interested in them? As with pretty much every other example in this list, there are rules for creating good FAQs, both in terms of content and structure, as well as design.

17. turn the best questions you ask support into individual blog posts

If you're struggling with writer's block, let your audience be your muse. With experience and knowledge, you not only gain information, but also a certain way of thinking about things. That means you also lose a certain way of thinking about them - a more naive, but very likely original one. So it shouldn't surprise you that some of the most interesting questions you try to answer come from your readers, people who are counting on you to help them expand their knowledge.

Of course, there are many websites that bring people together and that you can use to get answers to your burning questions. But nothing beats cultivating a personal relationship with your readers and trying to find an answer, even if you don't know what it might be beforehand (Randall Munroe of xkcd has made a pretty lucrative blog out of this). Also, if your readers have a blog or website themselves, turning one of their questions into a full post can be a great way to build relationships.

18. turn the testimonies of your users into high-quality content

Sure, we know what you're thinking. But we're not suggesting this to satisfy your ego. That's the obvious benefit of testimonials that everyone notices. But there's another, more reader-oriented benefit to them. When you say something, you speak as the creator (not the creator, but the creator of a product, post or website). Your readers are most likely reading what you say as users. And no matter how considerate you are, there will always be an imperceptible gap between the creator and the users.

There's something about the way users learn from their peers that traditional interaction can't offer. Seeing someone else who is just like me using your product and being successful is probably more effective than all the data in the world. Of course, you can't just put other people's words out into the world and hope they inspire you. You have to be mindful of how and when you do it and always try to stay true to the original message as it was written/recorded.

19. use the photos or videos of your customers with your product

This is an even more effective version of the testimonial. It's also a bit different than the testimonial, as it's less of a proactive initiative and more of a fair exchange. However, it's still a real message. You're not asking your customers to make something up or pretend they like your product when in reality they don't.

It can be a video they've come up with themselves, or something you put together where they simply agree. Either way, the customer's presence in the video needs to feel genuine and honest. It can be even more convincing if the experience shown isn't 100%ig positive (maybe they had a problem initially but overcame it, or they didn't know how to use a feature but your customer service team found a solution).

20. mix your blog posts into valuable online courses

All content can be educational, but depending on the form in which it is presented, some cases are more effective than others (and it's usually about making learning an active process where the learner has goals and incentives to achieve them). With a bit of editing and some understanding of the psychology of learning, you can turn existing interviews, blog posts, Q&As, etc. into a series of (short) online courses.

Sure, the market for online learning platforms has exploded in recent years, but there is still uncovered ground, both in terms of content and method. Most learning platforms integrate one or more learning methods, but few can integrate them all. So one solution would be to look around and see what's missing. Is it the content you have? A certain level of interactivity? The opinions and advice of industry experts? Find out what others are missing and turn it into your selling point. Learning is more than reading, and you can put your content to good use by turning it into training.

21. share the best of your content in a newsletter

It may seem like a thing of the past, but the newsletter seems to be making a comeback. The most important question this time is: "How do we make an email newsletter that people actually read?" The answer is quite complex and involves more than relevant content and good design (although these are absolutely important).

It's about a lot of strategy, targeting and how to get people to voluntarily sign up for a newsletter rather than settling for trying to figure out what your messages should actually be about, but also giving a leap of faith and making the "unsubscribe" option visible because your readers' comfort is more important than your numbers.

22. pull out quotes as micro-content that speaks to your target audiences

The Internet loves quotes. More than statistics, videos or Clickbait-articles, and perhaps even more than cats. The online love for quotes is so great that John Oliver even dedicated a post to them, calling them the "karaoke of ideas". Of course, his post was a warning about the many ways in which quotes can be misattributed and often even misquoted. But it is undeniable that they are popular and readily shared.

It can be a counterintuitive statistic, a pertinent piece of advice backed by experience, or the insightful conclusion of an in-depth analysis. The challenge, of course, is to create a quote that is both unique and memorable, and that's no easy task.

23. divide long articles into a series of shorter blog posts

Publishing an article in a well-known publication is a lot more time-consuming than publishing it on your blog or website. Therefore, it often happens that you end up, if not writing a larger article, then at least doing a lot more research and analysis. You don't have to waste it all.

You can break it all up into a series of smaller blog posts. This way, you win by having material for more than one update, and readers win by being able to digest your data piece by piece (because the length of an article can put off many who might find the topic interesting). Of course, this means you'll have to pay more attention to linking, but overall it's worth the effort.

24. get your content syndicated and gain quality traffic and authority

In short, Content Syndication means that an article from your blog is published on a popular website in your niche. Danny Brown has a great analogy for a better understanding: "Most local journalists read their articles primarily in the local community. There's nothing wrong with that, and it's a solid career. But every once in a while, you might write an interesting story that gets picked up by the national media, and your article gets quoted in the New York Times or on CNN."

As for your blog, of course you have your specific niche and fan base. But imagine how great it would be to have an audience a thousand times bigger than yours for your great articles? The sky's the limit.

But how can you syndicate your content? What should your content look like to get picked up by influential publications? You may have to work a little in this direction to figure out the best strategies, but it's worth putting in the effort.

25. create and share an infographic to reach new audiences

Take an infographic, a how-to article or a step-by-step guide, combine them and you get what is known as an infographic. So an infographic is a how-to article or a step-by-step guide wrapped in an infographic. How can this help you reuse content? Let's say you have a fairly complex, well-documented guide in written form. But you also want this content to be easy to visualize and share. An infographic could be just the thing.

It's also not a widely used SEO tactic, meaning it's not (yet) perceived as an abusive tactic by search engines. It's easy to place Instructographics on social media or websites, they enhance product pages, generate buzz and, why not, some Backlinks and, most importantly, they help users. Here you can get inspired on how to create Instructographics to get the most out of your content.

26. turn your content into valuable email series

I'm sure it's happened to you more than once that you've looked at all the content you've written, all the great tips, hacks and strategies you've shared with your users, and felt the need to make even more of that content. Good content deserves to be reused. And good users (readers) deserve to be kept in touch with their area of interest.

You can take all of this valuable content that you've already documented and written and create a series of "how to" or "did you know" emails that your users can use. For example, let's say you're a savvy digital marketer and you write weekly content on a blog where you inform your users about the latest news, trends or strategies in the market.

It would be more than great if your users received an email series with "tips and tricks" that they can use in their digital marketing campaigns. It's a win-win situation: you utilize valuable content and your users get great insights in an easily digestible form.

27. turn your blog post into a webinar (and vice versa)

On your blog, you've probably discovered the content that interests your audience the most. If so, why not turn this topic into a conversion-boosting event like a Webinar convert? Converting your blog post to a Webinar is not only a great way to convert content, but also to generate leads.

A big advantage of a webinar is the feedback. You should ask your audience in advance which topics they would like to discuss. During and after the Webinar you should also ask as many questions as possible. These questions will give you a sense of what your audience is really interested in and should give you lots of ideas for future blog posts.

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