Clearing Your “To-Do List”
Repurposing blog content is something I've been meaning to “get around to” for a long time.
Determined to finally learn Affiliate Marketing properly, I have been taking several training courses, and most of them recommend “Repurposing Blog Content”.
It makes complete sense.
I enjoy writing blog articles, but once they're written I've had a tendency just to move onto the next job without making the most of what I've spent a very long time producing!
Why? Honest answer, there was ONE stage very much outside my normal skill-set. (Solution below!)
I was keen to start applying this training, but……
Do you find that if you've got “things” nagging at your brain you can't get on with where you really want to focus your attention? Even if the nagging thought is not your top priority, it somehow won't let go.
A Real Life Example
A real life example was the beautiful solid wood floor my son Matt laid for me, piece by piece a few years ago. It was a back-breaking job as it's quite a large area. When it was finished, it looked beautiful.
But after a few years of wear and tear from general traffic, grandchildren's toys, Bailey and Dog-dog it was looking a bit sorry for itself and in need of a proper “feed and polish”.
It's at least a three day upheaval: move the furniture out, two special washings, lay the polish, buff it up, then move all the furniture back. And the main stages needed an 8hr drying period in between. Even longer for the final polish.
So I kept putting it off because it wasn't a quick job – like, for instance, a blog post.
Finally the guilt overcame me – I buckled down to it, and I'm thrilled to have restored it to its former beauty. Can't wait for Matt to come and see it looking good again!
It's cleared my mind, and I'm loving the result. Win-win.
But what about online?
An Abandoned Niche
An Internet Marketing task that's been on my “to-do list” for a year or so was a remnant from my first venture into the world of online marketing.
I went to a “free” seminar and ended up buying a coaching package, because “Working 10 hours a week for 6 weeks, even a beginner can have their own product online and be making a big income”.
Subtext – when we coach you. LOL.
Well to cut a long and sad story short, I worked far longer than 10 hours a week, and for many more than 6 weeks.
But with no previous online experience, the learning curve was too steep for me as a beginner. (Despite 30+ years experience as a self-employed IT professional.)
I completed the coaching program and had a website and eBook to show for it. But being a bit of a perfectionist, by the time I was prepared to “sign them off” I'd lost the will to live.
That's when I (belatedly) realised the wretched thing needed promoting too.
Oh no! I'm outta here 🙁
As an aside, even the coaching program's top PPC man lost money when I insisted he set up a campaign for me, if it was SO easy!
By the time I abandoned the migraine “niche” (far too broad LOL), I had become fascinated by the whole topic of Internet Marketing and decided to put my efforts into learning affiliate marketing, rather than product creation.
Why Affiliate Marketing is the best way for beginners to start an on line business. Click To TweetSo What To Do With That eBook?
When my hosting came up for renewal, I took a dispassionate look at the sales I was making and decided to cut my losses.
But my eBook was sitting unloved on my hard disk, and it really did represent MANY hours of hard work.
So I applied one of the lessons of the training I have been taking: “Put your products where there is already an audience”.
And where would that be?
Amazon's Kindle marketplace of course!
But again, I didn't know how to do it, and the idea was to free time to apply myself to things I AM good at and enjoy, rather than spend time learning how to promote an abandoned product.
Here it became a case of “It's not WHAT you know, but WHO you know”.
I knew, from a friend that the “goto person” for all things published is Monna Ellithorpe.
We struck a deal, and the whole job was off my plate and finished in a matter of days.
And, if you're interested in having your work published digitally or as a physical product, contact Monna. I highly recommend her services.
Product Creation vs Affiliate Marketing
By the end of this “online product creation” saga it had dawned on me:
- The world wasn't beating a path to my door, as…
- There were already excellent products written on the same topic…
- Their creators would pay me a commission to promote them…
- So I needn't go through the agony of product and website creation. (Hooray!)
- If it was a flop, at least it was an inexpensive flop – in time AND money!
- If it worked – I could just scale it up
- It would take an AWFUL lot of $27 one-off product sales to keep me in the life-style I want…
- So my business model must include an element of making repeat sales, and with much of the technical work done for me.
So I decided to revert to an affiliate marketing business model, where I had made the highest and most consistent income of any online business. You can watch video about it here.
Repurposing Blog Content
Having re-published my updated eBook (to get it off my mind) I could start applying the rest of my affiliate marketing training. Specifically that about re-purposing blog content. In fact that's what actually triggered the idea of re-purposing the eBook.
Applying the lesson of “Take your content to the traffic”, the point of re-purposing blog content is to turn articles you want to promote into PowerPoint presentations / PDFs. Then you publish those on document sharing sites that are already getting high traffic.
As PowerPoint and good design are not among my skill-set, it was “off to Fiverr” to find someone to work some magic for me!
I struck lucky with the first lady I used (Jen) and below is the presentation she made from my previous blog post about Retirement Solutions.
For “my” (haha) first attempt, I'm jolly pleased with it, though I say it myself.
If anyone wants to use it, download it etc, they can just click the arrow on the left to reveal sharing and embed information. Neat 🙂
There were some mistakes in my planning, rather than Jen's execution of the gig, but she was superbly patient with my inexperience and I learned a lot about the process.
I have already placed my next order!
Taking Your Content Where The Traffic Is
The other document sharing sites I have placed it at are:
https://pdfsr.com/
https://issuu.com/
https://snack.to
https://www.docdroid.net/
I don't know what sort of traffic I'll generate by repurposing blog content on these sites. It will be interesting to find out.
Not an avalanche I know, but they'll be fresh eyeballs and highly targeted (probably searching for the specific topic). So that's a win-win from an almost free traffic generation strategy. (The Fiverr gig and a bit of time.)
Over To You
- How do you repurpose your blog (and other) content?
- Has it produced the results you were hoping for?
- Can you recommend any other document sharing sites?
- Any other tips for repurposing blog content? (Yes… video… I know… watch this space LOL)
I'd love to hear your ideas and experiences – please share in the comments below.
