Blog content tip - Don't let your content go to waste

You may be saying to yourself, what should I blog about today? This is no different from a marketer saying "Where am I going to get quality content for our email newsletter." This was similar to a situation that in which I discussed the idea of helping a client create a lead nurturing (maturation) program using emails that are sent out periodically based on user activity. The response I received was "I don't have the resources to create this content". The answer is closer then you think - look at what you've already done!

You would be surprised (perhaps shocked) at all of the great content that you already have on your blog that you can reuse. You may have new users that have never seen some of your older posts or you may have some great content that requires updating based on new technology and research that is out there.

Here are some tips on recycling your blog content:

• Come up with a topic and then search your blog and see what posts already exist. You can either refer to this post or blend a few posts together. For example, if the topic is search marketing, see what comes up on your blog. I know that I have a few posts on search tips that I plan to amalgamate these to one post and perhaps create a top 10 list on blog SEO tips that have worked for me (some day, some day). You can also take a recent story and apply it to one of your blog posts.
  
  
• Do a "best of " post in which you blog about your favourite or most popular posts
  
  
• Take one of your posts and republish it with an update based on some new data that's out there. You can even do a search across the blogosphere and add links from other bloggers.
  
  
• Here's a good one - look at your blog comments. If you have a good blog, you probably have some good comments on there that you can share. Give your readers, the people that come to your blog and comment on it, a pat on the back and blog about them.
  
  
• Compile some of your blog posts and create a downloadble white paper or e-book. This is really easy to do and is a great lead generation tool.
  
  
• Look beyond your blog. If you have a corporate blog look at your other marketing materials - website articles, ads, email, white papers, pamphlets, trade show materials etc... etc... Why not republish a reference email from a client (with their permission) or comments that other blogs have made about your company or blog (good ones AND bad ones). Why not blog about comments you've left on other blogs? The possibilities are endless.
  

Remember, you've invested a lot of time in your blog and for the most part, your posts should be well thought out and useful. Why waste this great content? Forget the three R's and go with two of them - reuse and recycle. Most importantly, have fun and keep blogging.

Chad H.

PS - OK, there are some posts like my one called Google in Space that should be retired forever but that was early in my blogging career so please, look away.

Tags: blog comments, lead generation, corporate blogs, blog content