Summary

The author describes a method for revitalizing underperforming stories by repurposing their content into new articles with updated titles and subtitles, and using the original posts as backlinks.

Abstract

The author, facing the challenge of stories with minimal readership, introduces a creative approach to give these pieces a second life. By extracting key points from lengthy, overlooked articles and crafting them into concise, new stories, the author aims to increase visibility and earnings. This strategy involves transforming the original articles into shorter versions that serve as backlinks to the fresh content, ensuring no duplicate content and adhering to platform rules. The author emphasizes the importance of engaging titles and subtitles and shares personal examples of successfully applying this method, noting an increase in views and revenue. The approach allows for leveraging past work while complying with content regulations and potentially reaching a broader audience.

Opinions

The author believes in the potential of older stories to gain traction with the right strategy.
They advocate for the use of backlinks within older content to direct readers to updated versions.
The author suggests that a well-crafted title and subtitle are crucial for a story's success.
They emphasize the importance of avoiding duplicate content to comply with platform guidelines.
The author is optimistic about the possibility of past stories contributing to future success.
They encourage writers not to abandon their unread stories but to find new ways to present them.
The author sees this method as a way to compete effectively in a saturated market of content.

Here’s My Solution to Reviving Stories that Never Got a Chance to Live!

Do you give up on your stories when no one has even read them?

I read a great story recently, about things you can do to help “revive dead articles” and bring your stories back to life. Medium writer Thomas D. has the right idea about finding ways to make those stories live again, and hopefully gain you a few more dollars.

The sad truth of the matter, is that sometimes, those stories never even earned a red cent when they were first posted. Out of my more than 500 stories, I have lots and lots of titles with under 10 views.

Many of these stories were written when I first started on Medium, and I wrote primarily long form stories — anywhere from 5–9 minutes on average.

Needless to say, those stories provide enough content and enough leeway for me to use the following method, when it comes to bringing them back to life.

My solution to breathing life into stories that have a great topic

Just like everyone else, I’m constantly looking for smart ways to breath life into older stories. But I decided to do things a tad bit differently.

Rather than hoping readers will make their way back to some of these older stories, instead, I try to use them in a similar way that people use back links online.

Back links are links placed in older content, and they have the ability to lead readers to newer posts on the same topic.

So my strategy is to strip the main details from the long form stories, and leave just enough information to direct readers to the newer version of the story.

In essence, I turn the original story into a short form story, and insert a link, pointing to the new story.

Here’s the way I explained it in the comment I left on David’s article:

Great tips Thomas. What I've found works for me and my older stories, is to cherry pick the most relevant points and use them for a new story, exactly like they are. I delete those detailed points from the first stories - which were mostly 5 to 7 minutes or even longer. I replace them with an abbreviated statement, thus shortening the original story, and using it as a back link to the new story. I do this with stories that got less than 10 views when first published, that way the new story will never be seen as a duplicate. Of course, I create new titles and subtitles, and hopefully get a new response :-)

The great thing about this method:

I’m not breaking any Medium rules, because I don’t end up with any duplicate content
The older stories have a second chance to start gaining views
The older stories can link to and help generate views for the new versions
The new stories get the opportunity to have a more effective title and subtitle
Even if the older — now shorter — stories don’t receive anymore views, the new versions have a chance to do well

How to use my story revival method

For anyone who’s interested on how to use my story revival method, I’ve provided an example of how I did a previous story.

This is what happened:

On August 8th (2021), I published the following story:

You Can Help Fight Alzheimer’s By Joining the August 29th Virtual Bike Ride

Originally, this story was about 9 minutes long, and it contained lots of details about Alzheimer’s. Thus far, the story has gotten a whopping 3 views and earned zilch.

On December 16th, I extracted all the details about what the disease is, along with other relevant points. I created a brand new 3-minute story titled:

Do You Worry about the Mental Health of Your Elderly Loved Ones?

So far, the story has gained 9 views and earned .08 cents. Of course, I also have to consider the fact that now, I have more followers, so this may end up affecting the views.

But whatever the case, the story about Alzheimer’s has another chance to possibly be successful and garner more reads.

As an added opportunity to try and earn more, I inserted the link to the new story in the original one.

Now I’ll watch and see what happens.

Final Thoughts

With so many awesome stories being written and published everyday, the competition is steep. All too often, you may even find yourself competing with yourself.

Don’t allow your new stories to steal all the glory, and prevent you from benefiting from previous work. Get creative and think of ways to benefit from both.

My solution for reviving stories that have a great topic actually works for me, but each writer has to decide what’s best for them and their stories.

My advice to writers who don’t want to give up on the stories that no one has gotten a chance to read, is this:

Start taking advantage of the various ways that you can help your stories and the awesome topics you write about, get another chance at life.

HAVE YOU READ THESE RELATED STORIES:

Revisiting a Major Question About How To Treat Your Older Stories! — Are you prepared to make your stories more profitable in 2023?
Should You Delete Older Stories So You Can Publish them Fresh? — Some writers wonder if deleting older stories is a good idea
How to Turn a Previously Published Story Into An Evergreen Money Maker! — Do you want to know how to make your stories more marketable?

I invite new members who are just getting started, to read my helpful stories and take my writing advice about how to make money on Medium.

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