You work really hard on your blog post and finally get it published, share it a few times and the move onto the next one. That’s how blogging goes for a lot of us, right? Don’t do this!

You don’t have to be done with posts just because you’re done writing them. Don’t let them die and move onto the next. Keep those posts and make the most of your hard work by repurposing your existing content.

I’ve been blogging for almost 10 years at this point (does that make me sound old?) and what I’ve been focusing on lately is quality content, not just posting as much as possible. I spend a lot of time trying to create quality, helpful content, but even with great posts that people find useful my traffic hasn’t grown to where I wanted it to be.

So rather than spending all of my time on new content I’ve been making my existing content work for me. I already put the time and effort in researching, planning and creating so here are the ways I’m making my existing content work for me.

Before I get started feel free to download the free workbook if you’re ready to start working on repurposing content.

Sharing Old Posts on Social Media

How often have you written a post or created a graphic and shared it to social media once, maybe twice? That’s not enough. Not only because just a handful of people saw them, but also because of all the people that did how many do you think actually clicked on it or acknowledged it?

Make sure you keep sharing your posts on social media. A great post from three years ago is way more helpful than a meh post from last night. Keep the content alive!

Pinterest Optimize Older Posts

My biggest source of traffic has been Pinterest for a long time. You know the drill. The best images getting lots of repins and clicks on Pinterest are vertical images with big clear text. So I’ve been going through my archives and redoing the graphics for old posts with better Pinterest worthy images.

Tips for good pinterest graphics:

Vertical images give you more real estate
Clear images so the viewer can instantly see what they’re looking at
White space is great because it stands out and isn’t too busy
Close up photos are eye catching, especially for DIY’s and recipes

If you’re not great with graphic design try using Canva. I know how to use Photoshop, but I love using Canva for quick graphics. There are some great templates to get you started and bonus, it’s free!

Link everywhere on your own website

When you create a new post, try to see if you can reference an older post (only if it relates of course). You want to make sure people visiting your blog or website move around to different posts that might interest them.

So if you have three posts on the same topic go back and add links within each post directing your reader to your other related posts so that your reader knows that more content on that topic exists and they don’t head back to google for more information. Keep them on your site!

Place you should have links

On your sidebar (if you have one)
Within the text of your posts
Related links at the end of your posts
On your static pages (like your about page)

Write about it again and again

If you have popular posts that are older (or even if they aren’t that old) use that to your advantage! If they’re bringing in a good amount of traffic that means that you’re writing about something that people want to know more about so find a way to repurpose that content.

One of my most popular posts on one of my blogs was How to Sell on Instagram. I had no idea it would be so popular, but when I saw how much traffic it was getting I did a part 2 answering some questions from the original post and linked it to that original post. Then after that I also created a How to Sell on Instagram Course that has made me several hundred dollars.

Some ideas for repurposing:

Write a new post with a twist on the original
Break the post down into specifics and elaborate on details in several different posts
Create a video/course/opt in from the information
Answer questions that were left on the original post

And when you do repurpose the content make sure you refer to the tip before this and link within each of the posts so your reader can find all of your related content.

If you have a ton of good content that you worked hard on make sure you’re not letting it disappear into your archives! You create value for your readers so make sure they can find it.

Do you have any other ideas for repurposing existing content? I’d love to hear them!