10 Ways To Mix-and-Match and Repurpose Your Content as a Writer

Part of producing a lot of content as a writer is reusing what you’ve already created

This week, I did something that took me back to grade-school art class: I took three existing pieces of material, cut them into pieces, and put them back together again. Those existing pieces of material were previously published articles, all roughly on the same topic — and the finished product was a new original piece.

One of the original pieces of content had great quotes that I reused. Another had the explanation of terms I could just copy and paste. And a third had a great story to weave it all together.

Clip-clip here, clip-clip there, a new title, a great new picture, and I had a brand new article in about 30 minutes of what felt like art class!

It was challenging in a whole different way than is writing an article from scratch. It exercised creative muscles that definitely needed the workout. And, overall, it was just a smart thing to do.

Being a writer isn’t only about producing new content. It’s about taking existing content and reworking it over and over again into new and different shapes. I learned this well enough through the process of editing my first book which, once the main content was written, where, for two years, I kept returning to the same chapters, paragraphs, and sentences and making them better. Personally, I think it was while doing this work that I became the writer I am today.

If you arrive at your writing desk feeling uninspired to write something new, how about taking the day to repurpose content instead? It will still provide the creative outlet you need, plus, doing that work might well spark a new idea for tomorrow!

Do you have a post that never went anywhere? Pull it up, grab the good stuff from it, and use it in other ways! Maybe it’ll form into a new article, or maybe there are a few gems in there you can grab for something else.

Here are 10 ways to repurpose your content:

1. Create an Instagram slideshow Using Canva, Photoshop, or another photo editor tool, match up some photos with the best quotes from your article, and share it in a series of Instagram slides.
2. Update your website All that new content — there’s bound to be a quote or two you can highlight from your work! Perhaps add a few of your favorite quotes to your About page.
3. Update your blog I found a service that pulls my Medium work—content plus picture—right into my blog draft queue. All I have to do is look them over, add some categories, try to get it SEO optimized, and hit publish!
4. Create Facebook Posts for your Facebook Profile, Groups, and Pages Take stand-alone segments of your work make it into a questionnaire or how-to on Facebook!
5. Update your Linkedin Several options here. * Share a link to your post with a personal message. * Copy/paste the content into a new article on LinkedIn (it’s your work; you can reuse it like this) * You can highlight an article in the Featured section of your Linkedin page.
6. Pinterest Carousels While you’re making photos for your Instagram slide show, make some Pinterest size as well. You can create carousels on Pinterest that allow you to pull together a series of slides into one experience! You can give a link back to the article, or you can present it as though it is fresh content on Pinterest! Either way, Pinterest is an often overlooked tool to share your work!
7. Create a Substack account, or try Vocal! Substack is a newsletter service, so you do need emails to send to. But if you have a list, you can import that into Substack and share your articles here. Vocal, too, is another place to repurpose content. The more places your content lives, the more likely people will see it!
8. Twitter Thread Break up your article into 280 words or less, and share your ideas on Twitter!
9. Create a Shortform A shortform is an article that is less than 150 characters. I’ve used it to link stories together into a greater whole! It’s a great way to keep older work alive and relevant. Here’s more information on how to do this.
10. Do what I did: get out your metaphorical scissors and glue, and create an article mash-up!

I’m sure there are many more ideas than this out there, but by now I’m sure the wheels are turning! You’ve put some genius ideas out there, don’t let old work get stagnant—reuse it!