20 Ways To Craft Amazing Blog Posts Your Readers Love

Up-cycled Blog Post Content

Unlike recycling that converts waste into new ingredients to avoid squandering potentially useful resources, up-cycling converts worthless materials into higher quality products.

Similarly, upcycled content instills existing communications (often that are no longer of value) into fresh high quality information your target audience actively seeks to fulfill their needs and desires.

When applied to blog articles, the resulting up-cycled blog post content yields increased value through the application of creativity.

Why up-cycle stale content when you can create fresh content?

At it’s core, up-cycled content applies a content curation approach to your organization’s  existing content assets. This content marketing tactic enables you to re-invigorate content that was expensive to create initially and/or performed well in the past.

Up-cycled content extends and improves existing information assets to build your brand, and attract prospects.

As the heart of your owned content offering, your blog is the best place to publish re-envisioned content.

20 Ways to create up-cycled blogs post content

Here are 20 ways to create up-cycled blogs post content your audience adores.

Stale content: Past blog posts

Why up-cycled blog post content succeeds: Based on your blog analytics, you know your audience loves this information.

1. Aggregate posts on a specific topic. Go beyond providing just a collection of links. Include a short summary and explain why you chose it. The goal is to create pillar content. Bear in mind that this post should provide value to your readers.
2. Update strong posts. This works well for posts and articles where the information has changed since the last time you wrote it. Another alternative is to create content on an annual, quarterly or monthly timetable. Year-end roundups are a good example of this.
3. Re-envision seasonal content. If you have a strong post focused on winter activities or products, consider how you can craft an equivalent article for the summer.

Stale content: White papers

Why up-cycled blog post content succeeds:  Breathe new life into a white paper where the information is still useful but it has no sex appeal.

4. Spotlight key research facts. Unbury the lede. If you’ve buried the important information in pages and pages of dense text, consider pulling out the important facts.  Use charts or other graphics. (Don’t forget to make them shareable!!!)
5. Craft a series of blogs posts. Write one or more articles based on your white paper that you can drip out over time.
6. Tell the story behind the story.  Did you do something noteworthy that broke through? This is good for content creation or distribution process.
7. Interview people who provided commentary in the original. What’s changed? What else do they have to contribute? If you plan ahead, you can gather this information during your white paper creation process.
8. Add an update. This works well if the industry or niche has changed significantly.
9. Take a page from the Star Wars playbook. Create a prequel. Explain what happened before.

Stale content: social shares

Why up-cycled blog post content succeeds: Blink and your social shares are gone. Since the lifespans of social media shares are measured in hours or less, extend the usefulness of these communications.

10. Gather your tweets (or better yet your twitter chat). Don’t just promote your social shares once or twice, give them life beyond social media. Show the verbal conversation. Include your two cents.
11. Spotlight social shares from the experts in your field. Provide new context for information shared on social media.

Stale content: presentations

Why up-cycled blog post content succeeds:  Presentations tend to be major content efforts. Extend their useful value!

12. Showcase your presentation. Write a blog post before your presentation to get people excited about you and the topic..
13. Extend your presentation with online commentary. Go beyond just posting your slides. This is particularly important for people who weren’t present. Ann Handley does a great job of this for her “Bold Talk.” Don’t forget to add your two cents!!!
14. Craft a few select slides into a unified blog post. Make your presentation easy-to-consume.
15. Strut your stuff. Have someone film your performance. Then you can clip a few pieces to add live video to your blog. Video is 2014’s hot content format.

Stale content: Visuals

Why up-cycled blog post content succeeds:  People are attracted to photographs. Even more so when people are in the picture.

16. Show off those photographs of yesteryear. Have fun with old pictures. Make sure that your readers can share them on #ThrowBackThursday.
17. Put your products in the spotlight. Present product photographs in visually interesting ways to attract attention. Make people want to have your stuff!

Stale content: Marketing communications (aka MarCom)

Why up-cycled blog post content succeeds: Most corporate communications are deadly. They’ve been stripped of anything that remotely sounds like a human being.  They’re easy to up-cycle. Take the information and instill it with a human voice.

18. Rewrite customer service information in human terms!!! No one can understand your corporate gobbley guck. Write in plain English for real people.
19. Explain your products in terms your customers and end users understand. The easier the better!! The goal is usability.
20. Add photographs to explain your product instructions. Many people are visual. There’s a reason that a photo is worth a 1,000 words.

Up-cycling content for your blog breathes life into your existing content that no longer yields results.

As with any other blog post, to yield measurable results, don’t forget to incorporate calls-to-action, tailored landing pages and trackable metrics.

Have you used up-cycled content? If so, what type and how did it perform?

Happy Marketing,
Heidi Cohen

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Photo Credit: (c)2014 Heidi Cohen – All rights reserved. Reuse exception if you link to this article.