17 Ways To Capitalize On Your Most Popular Blog Posts

As a small business owner, you know you've got to consistently add fresh, new content to keep your audience interested and invested. But sometimes, that's not always possible. If you're short on ideas or time and don't want to compromise quality just for the sake of putting something out there, repurposing your popular content is the way to go. It saves you the effort of having to create something from scratch, all while extending the life and the message of the original post. There's no need to let your best stuff get shoved down into cyber oblivion. 

Here are 17 tried and true ways to make the most of your popular content.

1. Recycle

Why let all that great content be a flash in the pan? Bring it back for an encore by digging back and recycling your star content either verbatim, in excerpts, or by expanding upon it. You can do this by putting together an ebook compiling them into a piece of content marketing, using them to create new resources [either as a paid offering or as a free opt-in], or in any of your teaching materials.  

2. Monetize

You can easily make a few bucks by capitalizing on the popularity of your top posts. Strategically insert affiliate links or better yet, link to your own offerings. You can also sell ad space to relevant products or services where it makes sense. If you don't have your own affiliate program yet, here's how to get one started. We know first-hand that this strategy is a winner because sales of our guide, Get Retail Ready, soared when our post, How Do I Get My Product In Stores?, was shared on The Huffington Post.  

3. Suggest

Use popular posts to encourage people to keep reading and stay on the site longer. Just add a prompt at the bottom of your most visited posts linking to a suggested, related topic with a phrase like, "If you liked this, check out...".  

4. Re-Share

Share your top content again on social media. We regularly repost some oldies but goodies every Saturday morning on our Facebook page using the hashtag #goodasnew.  

5. Recap

You can create a single new post by gathering several older, popular posts under a common heading or theme. Things like 'Top 10' Lists, 'The Year's Best', 'Reader Favorites', etc. are always fan favorites. You can also send the list out to your newsletter subscribers. Here's an example of a recent roundup we did.  

6. Convert

Webinars are all the rage these days. You can convert your existing content into a webinar simply by recording yourself reading the post and adding imagery, slides, and other graphics. Not sure how to do a webinar? You can get one up and running on your site quickly with WebinarAlly. You can also convert it to a podcast or expand upon the information an spin it into a paid course.  

7. Compile

If you do guest blog posts you can collect quotes/bits of advice from the most popular ones and create a publication of 'quotes from the experts'. Just make sure to let them know you're doing this and get their blessing first. Chances are, they'll be happy to promote it on their site, too. Everyone likes being called an expert.  

8. Give It A Makeover

Not everything stands the test of time. Even your best blog posts may be in need of a makeover. Go through your posts and refresh them. Check for broken links, outdated pictures, new or revised info, stats, or graphics, etc. Update and expand upon them. Think about what's new since the original publication date, and how you can enhance the post with that information.  

9. Syndicate

You can republish your posts on other venues to capitalize on a new, more expansive audience. Sites like Medium allow you to republish your blog posts in whole or in part, placing them in front of a whole new spotlight. Here's our page on Medium. You can also save your post to StumbleUpon. We do that, here.  

10. Flashback

People like to see how things have progressed and changed. You can take the information from a popular post and put together a 'then and now' post using old content, then repost it as new. You'll wind up with a new post that links back to the old post. Here's an example of how we did this.  

11. Team Up

If any of your popular posts are guest posts or interviews, you can share them again and ask the original author to do the same. This way you're capitalizing on their audience while sharing your post with your new fans and readers who may not have seen it yet.  

12. Visualize

Statistics show that images are shared far most often that words alone. Make the most of this by creating a shareable graphic using a popular quote or statistic pulled from one of your posts, then link it back to the post URL. Share the graphic on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, and your other social media outlets. You can create your own graphics using Canva and PicMonkey. Here's an example of how we used this tactic to successfully promote Peripheral Vision, our passive income guide for photographers. Note how we offered a discount code to encourage further sharing.  

13. Slideshare

Transforming your posts into a slideshow is another great way to showcase it. Darren Rowse discusses this tactic on on LinkedIn, here.  

14. Follow Up

Scroll through the comments your popular posts have received and follow up. If someone had asked a question or needed advice a while back, check back in by commenting in the form of a reply, asking them how things turned out.  

15. Think outside the social media box

Social media is a great way to get your posts in front of people, but don't confine yourself to the traditional stages like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Take it one further and post on Google+, LinkedIn, and other emerging social media venues that have gained popularity since you last shared. You can also encourage others to share by placing share buttons on the post itself.  

16. Get Quoted

Let your readers decide what's most shareable about your posts. We use the Highlight and Share free plugin that allows a user to highlight and instantly share a segment to Facebook or Twitter. They choose the phrase, the plugin reposts it with credit.  

17. Advertise

If one of your popular posts was written by a guest author, you can ask them to share a badge on their blog linking back to it. This serves a dual purpose. It's a subtle form of advertising helping get you in front of someone else's audience, while at the same time gives the author a credibility boost for having penned a fantastic post on your website. These are the badges we encourage our authors to use: 

    Promoting your content, both new and old, will help get you in front of your existing readership again and will help you gain new followers at the very same time.  

How can you make the most of your posts using these strategies?