How to Recycle Old Blog Posts to Make Them New Again

September 1, 2016 3:10 pm

“But, Dave, why would I recycle an old blog post? The information is the same!”

Well, evergreen content may seem timeless to you, but your readers may see a post from 2012 and think the information is “old,” even if it’s still relevant. It’s kind of like shopping for milk at the grocery store. Which one will you grab: the one that expires in a few days or the one that expires in a few weeks?

Blog post dates can make the information in them seem outdated, even if it’s only from a year ago. I recommend repurposing them with a fresh perspective.

Ask the Question Again
At Shortcut Content, we can take a post from a few years ago and ask you the exact same question. Because you’re not working from a script and the content is sourced from spoken word, you’re going to answer the question a little bit differently.

You’ll probably say a lot of the same things, but you might say it in a different order or with some new anecdote or experience. Our editors will then take that audio recording and edit it into a brand new blog post.

Break Down a “List” Blog Post
If you’ve written a “5 Ways to Do This” or a “6 Ways to Have That” blog post in the past few years, all you have to do is dive a little deeper into each item on the list. At the end, you’ll be left with 5 or 6 individual posts, depending on the length of your list.

Change a “How-To” into a “Why-To” or a “Who-To”
Say what, Dave? Just hear me out! If you’ve written a post telling your audience how to do something, you can take that same topic and repurpose it by telling us why to do it or who has done it.

With a “Who-To” you’re telling a story about someone in real life who took your advice. You can tell your listeners how it worked out or made their life better. You can create new content, simply by changing up the question.

You may think talking about a topic once in 2013 is enough, but your readers may look at it, see it buried in your archives, and ignore it. I think that’s one of the best reasons to go back in and repurpose your old blog posts!