Repurposing A Previous Post

Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Sep 10, 2009

In my 501st post the other day, I talked about possibly going back and repurposing previous posts for one reason or another. I’ve done just that very thing, I wanted to share with you that post and the reason why I did it.

Back in March of 2008, a friend of mine sent me some videos she found where the guy on the video offered solutions for how people could get out of their credit card problems. This wasn’t a quick fix thing, but real videos that were teaching people some long term solutions. Lucky for me I already knew how the process worked, but I thought the videos were neat enough to share, and since this is a sharing blog I decided to share them with others. I wrote a post called CreditCardSolutions.com to highlight them.

Somewhere along the line, the site must have changed hands, and all the old content was suddenly gone. Now I had broken links and a page that literally made no sense whatsoever. I could have just ignored it, until I was writing that 501st post. Though my original page didn’t make the top 5, it was number six. It means there were a lot of people looking for credit card solutions, coming to my site, and finding absolutely nothing to help. Me being me, I just couldn’t let that go on.

So, I’ve gone back and basically rewritten the entire post. What I also did was leave what I’d originally written, so people could see why I changed the page up. And I optimized it slightly, with only one little affiliate ad because it fit the change I made to the content. I also changed the title of the page to Credit Card Solutions, which fits better, and obviously it’s been drawing traffic anyway under that search term, so it just fits much better.

Anyway, I hope you check it out, even though it was an old post, because now it’s totally new. Even if you don’t need the assistance, just see what I did; it might spark an idea in your own mind for some of your older posts.

eFax

Tags: Blogging, credit card solutions, internal linking, repurposing, rewriting copy

14 Comments »

Sire:

Leaving the old post so that people can compare the two isn’t a bad idea, but why not write a new post linking to the old post with an explanation at the end as to what you had done?
.-= Sire´s last blog ..Why I Don’t Comment On Blogger Blogs =-.

Mitch Reply:
September 11th, 2009 at 2:19 AM

I did; this is it! lol If you’re asking why not a totally new post with almost the same title,… no, that just wouldn’t work. That other post is already getting lots of visitors; why compete against myself?

September 11th, 2009 | 2:15 AM

Sire:

I don’t see it as competing against yourself at all. I look at it more as trying to snag some of the passing by visitors that may miss your first post. You would do this by targeting different keywords etc. What you missed with the first drag of the net you may capture with the next pass.
.-= Sire´s last blog ..Why I Don’t Comment On Blogger Blogs =-.

Mitch Reply:
September 11th, 2009 at 9:43 AM

I guess my point, Sire, is that people are finding that old post because they ‘re already searching for that term. So, let it continue getting hits as it is, and maybe this post will send new people who hadn’t thought about it before over there. In general, this is my own of repurposing an old post; I’m sure it could be done other ways as well.

Sire Reply:
September 11th, 2009 at 7:44 PM

Yep, I’m hearing you, but I still like my way better

Mitch Reply:
September 11th, 2009 at 8:03 PM

Of course you do; it’s hard to change the minds of you old guys. lol

Sire Reply:
September 11th, 2009 at 10:58 PM

Hey, don’t forget you’re not too far behind me Mitch, that and the old adage about respecting your elders
.-= Sire´s last blog ..A Whole Lot Of Link Luvin Going On =-.

Mitch Reply:
September 11th, 2009 at 11:03 PM

Yeah, that phrase came from an old person. lol

September 11th, 2009 | 2:38 AM

rajagiri:

I don’t see it as competing against yourself at all.
.-= rajagiri´s last blog ..How to avoid mistakes in keyword strategy for SEO Beginners =-.

Mitch Reply:
September 11th, 2009 at 9:41 AM

I guess that just proves we all interpret things different, Rajagiri.

September 11th, 2009 | 7:56 AM

Raphael:

I read about this discussion before. The author cited few reasons why a site owner must do this one. One of the most important one is to help readers find the topic without digging too much in your archive. I believe it’s true. If there are hundreds of post, readers won’t spend too much of their time finding all related post. And yes, it seems like you’re competing against yourself, but the good thing is that it’s you and not other people. lol
.-= Raphael´s last blog ..How to Find Out If a Subject Is in the Hypnotic Trance =-.

Mitch Reply:
September 12th, 2009 at 10:22 AM

Interesting point, Raphael, but truthfully, I’m betting that, for that particular term, I probably am competing against many others. I hope the advice I gave there is helpful also; always want to be helpful. And something I’m pretty good at doing is deep linking my own sites, which I do often with each post. If I ever get my page rank back, I think my site is going to show some great results.

September 12th, 2009 | 6:38 AM

Julia:

Cool idea. I like to idea of going into my site analytics to see where I’m getting traffic and going back into those posts to pump it up with some more links or ads. Easy way to get a few extra dollars every day.
.-= Julia´s last blog ..Red SwissGear Computer Backpack Review =-.

Mitch Reply:
September 12th, 2009 at 10:23 AM

Thanks Julia. Of course, this blog doesn’t make as much money as my other sites do, but as long as the possibility is still out there, we do what we can, right?

September 12th, 2009 | 6:39 AM

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