Content Strategy
Mining Your Blog for Content Gold
We put undo pressure on ourselves to come up with sparkly new content for our online businesses, all the while ignoring a wealth of information right at our fingertips: the content already on our sites.
Here are two ways to examine your current site and uncover hidden (or forgotten) gems.
Once you’ve found these gems they can be repackaged in a variety of ways. Repackaging saves time, gives great (but neglected) content new life, and helps establish you as the expert you are.
1: Examine your blog post categories and tags
If you’ve been categorizing and tagging your posts use this ability to sort by topic to your advantage. Pick one category or tag and drill down through the blog posts. Look for big picture themes, how-to posts that go together to explain a larger topic, and posts that can be grouped together into a package of content.
Here’s an example:
A fitness coach has posted 30 healthy snack recipes on her blog over the past few years. With a little bit of editing and design she can repackage those into a PDF recipe book to sell or use as a freebie for her opt-in list.
2: Shine a light on your wisdom
Trust me, you’ve said some brilliant things in blog posts that have never seen the light of day. Now it is time to bring these bits of wisdom to light. Go back through your blog posts looking for little phrases, tips, quips, etc. that are totally you. You can turn these into branded tweets or tips to share on Facebook. You also can rescue neglected but powerful posts by pulling them out of the archives and showing them off.
Here’s an example:
Last March I blogged everyday. You probably didn’t see my March 2nd post “Do online businesses need a logo?” because I hadn’t been blogging for very long then. I decided to pull that post out of the archives and sent out this tweet last week:
It got retweeted a couple of times and more people were exposed to that info and me. You can do this with your vintage blog posts, too.
If I wanted to take it even further I can make a branded tweet like this:
“Branching Out Tip: get these files from your logo designer: .eps .tif .jpg .gif along w/color & font info, you’ll need it as your biz grows” Or I could pull a larger chunk of info out of the blog post and make it into a tip for my Facebook page.
What if your website is new?
So if you’ve read this far and are saying well that’s all great for someone with a lot of blog posts, but what about me? Here are a few tips for new bloggers, too.
Fill up the tags and categories
Instead of relying on tags and categories that aren’t quite full, do the work and fill out those categories and tags. Pick a topic and write a series of posts.
Here’s an example: Our fitness coach has a category called “flat stomach” with only one blog post so far. She decides to do a week long blog series on the best exercises to tone your tummy. Seven blog posts later she has a great series on her blog and also enough material to put together a quick PDF ebook for her audience.
Expand questions into content
Look at your social media streams and emails for little bits of conversation. What do you talk about all the time? What questions do you answers over and over? Think about how you can expand those into a blog post or a video response.
Here’s an example: Our fitness coach is always answering questions about how she got back into shape so soon after having a baby. She created a step-by-step fitness plan for herself, but hadn’t thought about sharing it with anyone else. She’s answered that question so many times that she can pretty much recite the answer in her sleep. Now she has perfect material for a blog post or even an ebook.
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***Super Cool Bonus***
Post a link to your blog in the comment section below and I’ll go on a mining excursion on your blog. The first 20 to comment will get a reply with my recommendations for quick ways to repackaging their genius.
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Mad Libs and Magazines: Inspiration for Blog Posts
As you are building your online business you’ll produce an amazing amount of content: blog posts, Tweets, Facebook status updates, ebooks, video scripts, program materials, sales copy, the list goes on and on.
Here’s a trick for coming up with blog post topics for your editorial calendar.
You can also try this tactic when inspiration isn’t striking and you need a quick blog post topic.
Content Strategy Tip: Pick up a stack of magazines and use their cover lines to create fill-in-the-blank formulas, like Mad Libs, to spark post ideas.
Here are a few examples to get you started.
Cover line:
The Novelist’s Survival Kit (from Writer’s Digest)
Mad Libs style fill-in-the-blanks template:
The _____ Survival Kit
Twist to fit your niche:
The Weight Loss Survival Kit
The Product Launch Survival Kit
The New Mom Survival Kit
The Solopreneur’s Survival Kit
Cover line:
Story Essentials: What Every Writer Should Know (from Writer’s Digest)
Mad Libs style fill-in-the-blanks template:
_____ Essentials: What Every _____ Should Know
Twist to fit your niche:
Weight Loss Essentials: What Every Woman Should Know
Product Launch Essentials: What Every Entrepreneur Should Know
Breastfeeding Essentials: What Every New Mom Should Know
Outsourcing Essentials: What Every Solopreneur Should Know
Easy, right?
Now, let’s see what you can do. Post a comment with your twist on one of the cover lines above (or an alternative cover line from one of the magazines you have on hand). I’d love to see what you come up with!
p.s. This is a great thing to do while you are waiting for doctor’s appointments, oil changes, etc. There are always magazines on hand and often they are ones you’ve never seen before. Fresh inspiration for your brain.