If you’re already writing regular blog posts, you’ll be aware of how this builds up traffic to your website over time. But what if you could accelerate that process by simply repurposing each blog post into new content you can then publish all over the web in different formats?

In this post, I’ll show you 7 top ways to do that, and get your content – and your business – in front of your marketplace and on some of the most popular websites.

Turn into a presentation and publish on SlideShare

SlideShare is often referred to as a ‘hidden secret’ of content marketers. It’s owned by LinkedIn, and in the top 200 most visited websites. It can drive significant clicks to your website over time.

To take advantage, simply create a presentation based on your post.

I find it’s most effective if you firstly script out the content that will be on each slide in a separate document, and then create the presentation from that.

For a presentation, you will generally be looking for a mixture of standout statements, and lists of bullet points that help explain your ideas. You won’t normally include longer paragraphs such as this one.

The information needs to be easily scannable by the reader so they can get the grasp of your ideas and your main points quickly.

Use software like Powerpoint or Google Presentations to create your presentation. Personally I’m a fan of Google Presentations. It’s all cloud based and I can always access my previous presentations from any computer, for example if I’m travelling.

Don’t forget that the purpose of using SlideShare is to get people viewing the presentation to click through to your website. So make sure you include a link to your site and a call to action at the end of your presentation.

I also include the website in the footer of each slide to encourage more people to visit the website. To do this, I use an image rather than straight text. If you use straight text, it will show up in the transcript for every single slide and creates a poor impression for viewers of the presentation.

When you upload to SlideShare, include up to 20 relevant keywords – or tags – to ensure your presentation can be easily discovered by interested viewers (i.e. your target market!).

Add a description that helps encourage potentially interested parties to view the full presentation. I usually base it on the first couple of slides and make the closing sentence a question or use it to inject some suspense about what’s in the full presentation so it’s clear the reader should click and view the slides.

Here’s an example of this blog post, converted to a presentation for SlideShare:

Convert to a video for YouTube

Now you’ve got your presentation, it’s easy to now create a video and take advantage of YouTube too.

YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine, and third most popular website. Your videos also get ranked quickly on Google. In other words, it’s a powerful way to reach your marketplace.

To repurpose your presentation as a video:

• Record your screen …
• Run through your presentation recording a voiceover through a mic. Keep it straightforward and use your original blog post as the script. Alternatively, if you don’t feel comfortable, either find someone else to do the voiceover or use some backing music and let the presentation speak for itself.

For recording the screen and adding your voiceover (and/or backing music), use software such as Camtasia (from Techsmith) on a PC, or Screenflow (Telestream) on a Mac. Adding some backing music can add some dynamism, along with say an intro or outro, and help keep the viewer’s attention.

You might even want to include a so-called ‘logo sting’ video that can dynamically open or close your main video with your animated logo and some appropriate music. I’ve used MakeWebVideo* before for this which I’ve found provides a professional logo animation at very cost effective pricing. You can see the result via some of the videos on vWriter.com’s video channel.

In the same way as for SlideShare, add some suitable keywords when uploading the video to YouTube. Again, you’re trying to make your content – your video – as discoverable as possible by your marketplace in order to attract them to your content.

For maximum impact, make sure your most important keywords are in your title, description, and the name of your file when you upload it.

Add the link to your website in your description as well. Unlike SlideShare, where such a link is not made active or clickable, on YouTube it becomes an active link and so is worth taking advantage of.

Here’s the video version of this blog post that was created in the same way described above (you can also see this at the top of the page):

Add to LinkedIn Pulse

LinkedIn Pulse is rapidly growing in popularity and, similar to SlideShare, can drive a lot of clicks to your website over time. And, as it’s LinkedIn, it tends to be high quality traffic too.

It’s designed for quality articles, and means you can simply repurpose your blog post to make it suitable for submission here.

It’s important not to submit the exact same content you have on your blog. To maintain your blog’s authority, as well as help it grow over time, you need to ensure the same content isn’t replicated elsewhere. In other words, it’s best to rewrite your blog post for submission here.

So switch things around. Reword your sentences. You might need to shorten it down too.

(It’s not just for LinkedIn Pulse, the same content can then be used in Point 7 below too. So you get a lot of exposure for a short amount of additional work, or alternatively simply outsource it).

Upload articles to LinkedIn Pulse regularly and build your authority in your niche.

UPDATE: Medium is another site you should strongly consider adding your content to – it’s mixes a blogging platform with some of the viral power of social media. Here’s how to publish content on Medium.

Offer as a guest post to other blogs

Offer free, unique content to other blogs in your niche. Simply compile a list of suitable blogs and contact them, providing a link to your own blog for example content. Remember to make it clear you’ll be providing unique content not published elsewhere.

Of course, not all of them will respond. But a percentage will, and it means you get long-term links back to your site from other relevant sites. This helps your traffic directly in terms of click-throughs, as well as giving a boost to your search engine rankings.

When your content starts featuring on other sites, it also boosts your own authority and credibility.

For each blog owner who agrees to your proposal, adapt one of your existing posts as a new, completely unique post for them. For example, you might take a slightly different angle, or focus on a particular point in one of your existing posts that can be expanded out.

It’s worth taking the time to do the best job you can for them. This can lead to a longer term relationship where you supply content on a more regular basis.

Remember the point is to get traffic to your website. So ensure you include a byline with your own details and a call to action that encourages readers of the article to click through and visit your website.

Use for communication with your email list

The relationship you have with your list is of course all-important for building the sales and profitability of your business.

You build that relationship – and trust – through regular communication. Each blog post you create provides the ideal opportunity to do just that.

(See related resources:

• How to Improve Your Email Marketing By Leveraging Content
• How to Really Monetize a Blog (Easy 1-2-3 Blog Monetization Strategy)).

Start publishing a regular ezine or newsletter, and share your new content with your list. Include the first few sentences, or paragraph or two, and link back to your site for them to read more.

I usually recommend to add your own introduction to the email too, and just connect with your subscribers on a more personal level. People connect with people, not businesses, and it’s important to share aspects of your life your subscribers may be able to relate to, and also remember you by.

There’s an email list I’ve been on for years and I nearly always open his email, simply because he shares aspects of his life on a regular basis, alongside useful marketing information. It holds my interest and I want to hear about what he’s been up to lately, and can relate it to stories he’s told in the past.

Because of that interest and that connection, I read the rest of what he has to say.

By the way, it’s usually about the normal, fairly mundane things that we all get up to and that we can all relate to. Things where we can say, yeah, me too. Going to the supermarket, stories about his family, having a sore throat, seeing the latest film at the cinema, working too late, and so on.

One of the largest responses I ever had to a mailing was when I shared the news of the birth of my youngest son, Pip (now five). One subscriber even sent a cuddly toy from thousands of miles away. He still plays with it now.

Use as the basis of a podcast

Podcasts are growing significantly in popularity, and it’s another powerful way to get in front of and build relationships with your marketplace.

According to a study by Edison Research (see above), not far off a fifth – or 17% – of all Americans now listen to at least one podcast a month.

You already have the script in the form of your blog post, so you can simply base each podcast episode around that.

If you’ve created a video (see point 2 above), you can make it even quicker by simply extracting and reusing the audio that you created for that. Add a regular opening and closing track that’s distinct for your podcast, and your podcast would largely be complete.

Add to article directories

They have fallen somewhat in popularity, but guess what? Article directories are still some of the most popular sites on the web, and get hundreds of thousands of visitors a day.

A lot of the low quality article spam brigade who plagued these sites before have gone to pastures new. Those article directories that are left have cleaned up and are more stringent on the quality of the articles they accept.

As a consequence, they are becoming more viable again as places to submit your content and add your links.

For example, EzineArticles.com is in the top 2000 sites. Why wouldn’t you want your content and your links in front of your marketplace on these websites?

It therefore pays to add your content on a regular basis to these websites too.

You can use virtually the same article that you post to LinkedIn Pulse. It’s a quick and simple process to add that same content to these article directories too.

Another site you may like to consider is Scribd. This site accepts content in PDF form, so is a little different. However, it’s in the top 500 sites online and so is another site that’s well worth considering.

___

Finally, social media is now crucial for building the authority of your site and getting in front of your marketplace. A great side effect of the above repurposing methods is that you now have a ton of content in different formats to share across social media.

Bonus Tip: Use a Featured Image for your blog post. You can then reuse it when you:

• Create your SlideShare – use as the initial slide …
• Upload your video – post the image as the thumbnail …
• Email your list – make your email more visually appealing and enticing …
• Add to LinkedIn Pulse or Medium– when you add an article, you should include an image right at the top, and your blog post’s Featured Image would be ideal.

Plus the image is further reused when updating social media. Images are crucial for boosting engagement and making your post stand out from the crowd.

And don’t forget Pinterest! Pin your image, add some teaser text, and link straight back to your blog.

Any more ideas about how you can repurpose your blog posts, and attract more traffic and leads for your business?

* Some links on this page are affiliate links where products and services can be genuinely recommended within the context of the overall information provided in this post. That simply means I may make a small amount of commission should you choose to make a purchase as a result of the recommendation after following the link provided.

---