(Reading time: 6 – 9 minutes)
Blogging is a pastime of passion and perserverance. Here’s Bob Hayles take on the matter:
July 26, I wish…
…tomorrow, and BPE, would hurry and arrive.
July 27…ITS HERE…YIPPEE!!!
July 28…damn, there is a LOT of sh1t here to pick up on…I’ll deal with tags, keywords, catagories, and SEO descriptions on the first run through posts…
July 29…SH1T!?!??!? I’ve written this much?
July 30…f*ckin’ Doolin…someone should tell him ignorance is bliss…
Aug 1 (2 am)…I’m flyin’ to CA and kill that SOB…sleep? What the hell is sleep?
Aug 1 (1pm)…all…ALL…posts tagged, keyworded, described, excerpted, catagorized, linked, etc…HEY DOOLIN!!! Yer alright, man! un-SEO is gonna be GREAT! Thanks!
My goodness! Such emotion… and engineering ALL your blog posts in 3 days. If that’s not perserverance, I don’t know what is.
Now, I wouldn’t want to disappoint Mr Hayles, so I spent a couple of weeks this August writing a brand new chapter for Blog Post Engineering: Repurposing.
Let’s talk about repurposing for a bit.
Repurposing blog posts
You already know about building outposts with tools such as Amplify and Posterous.
With outposts, you want to try and use your blog post, or snippets from your blog post more or less as is.
Repurposing goes one step further: your blog post is the raw material for new content.
Once you have been blogging for a year or two, you will see that there isn’t a lot of truly original or novel content out there. But neither originality nor novelty are your goals here, your goal is uniqueness. Thus, repurpose existing material into new, unique content.
Why repurpose?
Two great reasons for repurposing include:
- Finding new audiences for your message. You may be a blogger first and foremost, but you may find that some of what you write has an audience on Docstoc.com. Many other such sites exist.
- Reaching people who prefer different forms of content delivery. Perhaps you learn from reading and writing (i.e., blogging). Other people learn listening or watching. Remember that person in college who just went to class and never did the homework… and aced the exams? She learns by listening. Talk to her with podcasts.
What to repurpose
You can repurpose any blog post you want. With popular posts, repurposing may make them even more popular.
But you can get even more satisfaction repurposing good articles that never took off on your blog. For example, compare the traction between an article on blog success on Website In A Weekend (1 comment) versus the same article repurposed as a guest post about blog success on Free Blog Help (47 comments).
In this case, the article was only lightly rewritten.
(By the way, if Google decides to “penalize” me and return the article on Free Blog Help, I really don’t care. I’m backlinked, and Gabe is a good guy. It’s a win/win for both of us.)
Here’s some guidelines for more extensive changes:
- Change the article title, page (SEO) title, post slug, and so on.
- Change the sectioning in the article. If your article has no sections, add sections. If it has sections, and you can improve them, do so.
- Massively improve the article. If you can extend it’s length, do so, then split it again. Now you have two totally legitimate articles.
I’m sure you can add to this list (and please feel free to do so in the comments).
Repurposing as blog post engineering
This latest version of Blog Post Engineering (0.7.3 Metholz) contains an entire chapter on repurposing. Much of the material will be familiar… but not all of it. For example:
- Each document sharing website has a distinctly different audience, and you need to know the audience before you pitch your wares.
- Some sites encourage monetization, others, not so much. You’ll find out more in this newest edition of BPE.
- Repurposing may require rewriting and reformatting your material for different media. Are you writing your blog posts with reformatting in mind? More information in BPE.
- There’s two really fast ways to incorporate audio, things you could do right now. You get example of each way using articles from Website In A Weekend.
- Three methods for doing video are explained; two of them you should be doing right now… with free software.
There’s quite a bit more. Existing readers of BPE will attest to my addiction to over-delivering.
Get your copy now
It’s true: when you purchase Blog Post Engineering, you’re really getting a “lifetime subscription.”
Blog Post Engineering
See, blogging is evolving very rapidly, and you want to both keep up with those changes. Some of these changes are good, some not so good. If Google Buzz was part of your promotion strategy, you’re probably rethinking that about right now (because the verdict is still out… which is not good).
Likewise, you’re probably on the lookout for new services. I am too.
And I keep my eye on what existing services are doing. Are they getting better? Worse? Here’s two examples:
- Digg is getting a rewrite, a new CEO and new services. Did you know that? Do you know how these are going to affect your promotion strategy? If Digg succeeds, I’ll be updating BPE with what you need to know. (Find me on Digg.)
- Plurk, one of those “WTH is that?” social media applications is moving a chunk of their backend to node.js, an exciting new Javascript server side technology. I’ve been keeping my eye on Plurk because it 1. I like the interface, and 2. it has a large English speaking user base in East Asia. While you don’t need to know how node.js works, Plurk’s adoption indicates they’re still in the game. And that’s something you might want to know. (Find me on Plurk.)
What a deal! I keep track of this stuff so you don’t have to.
And yes, the price went up. And the price will increase again when the upcoming “Tools” chapter is finished.
Satisfaction guaranteed. If – for any reason – you don’t like Blog Post Engineering, 100% refund, no questions asked.
Questions? Please, ask in the comments!
