Work Better, Not Harder

If you're buried in holiday preparations - at home or for your business - perhaps blogging is low on your to-do list. What if you knew exactly what to write about for the rest of the year? Here are a few no-fail ideas to wrap up the year with a bang. #1. Top selling products or services Check your sales reports and make a list. You might include additional items like photos, detailed descriptions, tips for use, and customer testimonials. #2. Most read blog posts (or newsletter articles) of the year Check your stats and make a list. Include a short preamble for each and a link to read more. #3. News and trends that impact your target market Do a summary timeline of this past year, or write your predictions for the coming year. This one can be serious or fun. #4. Best of... lists You can do a best of... lots of things: videos, books, trends, apps, tips, resources, infographs, others' articles, music, products, services, customers, suppliers, dates, events, celebr...

Each time I post a new article on this blog, there are a few regular things I do to start the recycling process. You may find some of these useful, too. #1. After emailing subscribers and posting on my social media feeds, I save time by immediately scheduling some future tweets (including images) using Hootsuite - once a month for the next 3-4 months. #2. Next, I grab sentences that can stand alone as tips or quotes for posting on social media. These go into a spreadsheet so I can continue to rotate them, for example, my daily enewsletter tips. ( You can grab a similar spreadsheet here. ) #3. I fire up Canva and make some graphics with tips and quotes for future use. I've got a file folder I can delve into when I need something to post. #4. If the blog post was a suitable list or process, I file it with my soon-to-be infographics . #5. About a year later, I'll review the post with the intention of repurposing my ideas. Depending on the post, I may expand on ...

I'm a big fan of recycling content for a few reasons. I've written about 350 blog posts and I know you haven't read every one. That means you've likely missed a good idea that might appeal to you - so I should repeat my ideas. Finding different ways to do that means my ideas will impact a larger audience. Rereading my past articles often triggers new ideas for me to write about. Plus I make the most of my content creation time investment. photo by localben / Flickr originally published in  Work Better, Not Harder on April 28, 2016 Click to Tweet this Article