Sick and Tired of Creating Content? – Here Are 9 Strategies To Start Milking More Out Of Your Content

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I’ve constantly amazed myself at the amount of content I’ve created since I start this blog and other websites. To date, I think I’ve created almost 300 articles for a variety of niches for all these sites. This is something that’s happening for me mainly because I find it difficult to get people to write good material for me and also I kind of like producing my own work.

But do I really like writing? NO.

I don’t hate it but I don’t dislike writing either. The main reason is because writing them takes quite a bit of my time and I hate doing my research before publishing them as content material for some of my sites (I always strive to produce good content). Although I’ve not exactly slowed down, I’ve come to realize that the hundreds of hours putting into writing content can be reused again and again for other purposes. I don’t necessarily have to rewrite them all over again. I’m sure you’ve heard of this… repurposing content. I know they are some content purists who are against this idea but please I don’t have all the time in the world to write new content again!

These are some ways that I think you should do if you are on the same boat as me – if you are sick and tired of creating content.

Content Strategy #1 – Web 2.0 Sites

These sites are probably my content’s second home. Most of my content ideas will end up on Web 2.0 sites like Squidoo and Hubpages which are my top 2 fav Web 2.0 sites. Some of the main reasons why I like putting them there is the fact that they are great high ranking sites (despite the recent Panda update) and I can get backlinks from them. I’ve been doing a lot of content writing on these 2 sites for my niche sites. And I’m really pleased that my second highest referral traffic comes from there.

Do be careful not reproduce content again. Hubpages and Squidoo editors are always on the watch for duplicated content. I ran into trouble with one of my Hubs when someone else had the same hub topic as mine recently. These Web 2.0 sites are also great at building link wheels. Interlinking between Squidoo Len, Hubpages and my sites are great at getting good link juices flowing.

There are of course other sites you can try apart from Squidoo and Hubpages.

• Squidoo
• Hubpages
• Blogger
• Tumblr
• Devhub
• Scribd
• Wikispaces

Wikispaces is a relatively new Web 2.0 site that I recently discovered to publish your content and interact with millions of other members around the wikispaces community. I would highly recommend going for them, if you are thinking of Squidoo and Hubpages alternatives.

Content Strategy #2 – PLR Ebooks / Articles

This method is relatively simply. All you got to do is gather all your content related to a particular topic, then repackage them into a nice PLR ebook and give it away. I have done a few of this already and given them away but you can always make some money out of it. All you go to do is to be clear about licensing terms and how your article should be given away or used.

So what qualifies as good material for PLR ebooks?

Before you go into making one, be clear about the content you want to use. You must identify a “pillar post” Here are some characteristics of identifying a pillar post.

• They can be ridiculously long 4000 worded posts or just 800 word posts but
• They must be popular on your blog in terms of comments, social media mentions and referral traffic via external backlinks. (they don’t necessarily have to fulfill all criteria but most of it).
• They must also be popular on the search engines, ranking well for some good search terms.

Once you’ve identified your “pillar post”, get any text editor like Word or Notepad or Notepad 2+ to give your content some nice TLC. Then all you got to do is get the front cover designed and the you’re ready for submission.

This whole process might sound really long-winded, but this is one method you should think about considering the financial rewards you might get later on.

Content Strategy #3 – Article Marketing

Oops.. did I just say that? Article marketing is not dead! Even with the recent Google updates, content on sites like eHow, Helium, Ezinearticles, Goarticles are still relatively useful. But always strive for quality. The recent update emphasizes quality content more than ever. My strategy to do this is to rewrite some parts to make it more unique instead of having something duplicated exactly and published on one of these sites. You definitely want to avoid doing that to earn backlinks from these sites.

This is still one of my favourite methods for building backlinks although it can be a painful process. Although there are a lot of article directories out there, I’ve resorted to using Unique Article Wizard to help me publish articles to various blog directories and article directories.

Content Strategy #4 – Guest Posting

This is also another great way to reuse your content again. But always remember that you have to make variations to prevent it from looking exactly like how you wrote it initially. You can use the same content but make it sound original. There’s nothing more annoying that publishing a guest post and then receiving an anonymous email that the article has already been published on another site and is the exact duplicate.

Don’t make it sound similar and you might do this for a few reasons like getting good referral traffic, building backlinks and increasing readership but do this wrongly the first time and you will face problems submitting guest posts on other sites.

Content Strategy #5 – Video Posting

There aren’t too many bloggers who are going down this road. If you have hundreds of articles, you don’t necessarily have to create more or rewrite them in a unique way. Video posting on Youtube or Viddler are great examples of how you can get people to enjoy your content again. Some people are more visual and get sick and tired of reading long articles like this

Let me give you a quick run through of video posting ideas from your own existing content.

• Product Reviews 1 – Teach people how to use a particular software. I reckon this is far more effective than writing a step by step post on a 1000 word blog post.
• Product Reviews 2 – Compare between similar products and make some money out of this!
• Turn a How-to Post into A How-to Video
• Create A Video Newsletter
• Highlight Case Studies. I reckon people would love visual comparisons, graphs and stats compared to just words.
• Webinars

There are heaps more you can do with video posting. Things like How To’s and Product Reviews are great on videos.

Content Strategy #6 – Podcasting

This is also a relatively underutilized area. There are some who like to read, some who like to see (video) and also some who like to LISTEN.

I’m not an expert in this area but there are people who can help you to do this much better than I can explain here. Basically, if you are already podcasting and blogging, you should know that you don’t have to add new content on your podcasts all the time.

Use existing content like:

• How To posts
• MVP / Super long posts – breaking it down into smaller podcasts episodes
• Getting Interviews
• Debate about a particular contentious topic
• Rant with your mouth instead of words (I reckon this would be more effective with your voice).
• Q&A sessions – much more effective on Podcasts

Content Strategy #7 – Create An Ebook

All those hundreds of hours spent on creating quality content should not go to waste or even for free! I believe even with the ridiculous amount of information on the internet, people are still willing to pay for something that is really worth paying for. I mean, seriously there are still heaps of crap on the internet. With this in mind heaps of areas waiting to be exploited to feed a starving “info” crowd.

Creating an informational product can be a long and tiring process if you don’t have the content ready at hand but if you have already written 50% of what you need for your next ebook, why not complete the other 50% and sell it as your very own unique ebook?

This is a rough general guide on how to create an Informational Product / Ebook

• Find existing content for your ebook.
• Find out all about the niche your ebook is about.
• Research thoroughly and find “Holes” that can be filled with this ebook.
• If you are not such an expert in this area, interview someone who is and add this into the content
• Alternatively, get a JV with someone to write the book
• Start writing but don’t rush
• Set deadlines and goals and be strict with your target. Find ways to avoid procrastination and delays.

Once you’ve got all of that sorted out, get it out and sell it! I know I’ve grossly simplified the process but you get the idea J

Content Strategy #8 – Coaching Program

With all the content produced, it’s nice to know that you are the one who actually produce everything, or almost everything. So why not make some of it a little more exclusive and teach someone?

Whatever you choose to do, personal or private consultation on SEO, backlinks, SEO, Social media optimization, facebook marketing all can be done through whatever means. Even if you are not in the internet marketing niche, there are other offline ways you can use for your content. You can start your coaching program through these methods:

• Your blog
• Create a brand new coaching site specifically for that
• Put it on Videos or Podcasts for A FEE
• One on One Phone consultations
• Skype consultations
• Membership sites
• Personal tutorials / classes offline on various other niches (does not necessary have to be IM-related).

Content Strategy #9 – Blogs

I left this last because it’s pretty self-explanatory. Publishing on blogs is almost always the way to go because content is what drives them. But still be creative, unique and inject your own style to it. There are way too many posts out there teaching you how to write, publish and market your content. Go figure.

I think I’ve pretty much exhausted all my “alternative” ideas on repurposing existing content.

Tell me what you think!

Tagged as: content development, informational products, repurposing content, writing tips