Repurpose content like Frankenstein: 4 ways to transform old posts

Image via Unsplash

Halloween month* has arrived, so I thought we’d celebrate by cutting things up and sticking them back together as new creations. Kinda like Doctor Frankenstein did with his monster…but with less grave robbing, less killing and less controversy.

Not as fun, but there you go.

Here are some of the cool creations you can concoct with the dismembered limbs of an old blog post. Get the shovel, get the axe and prepare your electrodes cos we about to make monsters…

1.Infographic

Ever heard of the ‘picture superiority effect’? Apparently, it’s easier for our brains to remember images than words. If you want your content to be inescapable, dismember it into bite-size pieces and styled them up into an infographic or a series of sharable images.

No worries if you aren’t a Photoshop kid, you can use Canva to make the process quick and easy. Post to Instagram, Pinterest or Twitter and get people engaging with it. Everyone loves to re-share an image!

2. LinkedIn PowerPoint

I didn’t know LinkedIn PowerPoint presentations were a thing until I saw Dave Harland using them to absolutely slay.

To get started, take a scalpel of any size and make a horizontal incision between each section of your deceased blog post. Take the section, edit it down, and paste into a PowerPoint presentation. Then upload the PP as a document on your LinkedIn post.

Unleash your creation and watch it wreak havoc.

3. Make a video

Blog posts make great videos, ya know. I’ve done it myself in the past — taken a particularly successful post and recycled it as a YouTube video. Means I can target the same keyword cluster and get new eyes on top performing content.

You don’t need fancy lighting, an expensive camera or editing software to do it, either. You can use natural light and the camera on your phone to make something cool (trust me, I’ve done it!).

Be sure to reword your title and avoid reading your post verbatim — just chat through the points naturally and you’ll be golden. Jiggle it up a bit!

4. Write a newsletter

Newsletters are very en vogue right now. If you’ve been toying with the idea, why not bring your blog content into the mix? Rather than cooking up a brand-new theme each time (fucking effort, right?!) crack out some of your best old posts, and break them down, attack them from a new angle or link off to a few of them. If you know you’re reusing a topic people enjoyed the first time around, you can use that to boost your open rates.

*Yes — when you’re a goth you celebrate the entire month of October. Sorry, but that’s just how it is.