This is a guest post by James Martell from AffiliateMarketersBootcamp.com.
Let’s face it. Starting any business is difficult, but starting a business in this economy is downright scary. And starting an online business has its own set of particularly challenges.
You’ve got to always have your eye out for ways to improve your SERP ranking, not to mention think of new ways to drive more viewers to your site. While we all know that there is nothing like new and exciting content to get people’s attention, creating great read material is not always as easy as it sounds.
The main problem with creating content is that it typically takes about three times as much time to research and outline what you want to write about as it does to actually write it.
Of course, you have to do your due diligence if you want to write a good article, but there is a great way to make your hard earned research go further: use it to write more than one article.
Let’s say that you have a really well researched outline for an article you wrote last month. You can take that outline and use the information in it to write another article. Or maybe even many other articles. This is called repurposing the material. This works for anything you’re writing about from wooden crates to paper weights to Cuisinart 4 qt slow cookers.
No One Can Write Just One
When you choose to repurpose an article you make the conscious decision to say the same thing you said before, but in a new and unique way. The first time I tried this; it involved an article on the horrors of modern article marketing.
I spent about three hours carefully putting together all the information I needed to convince any thinking reader that article marketing, as it is practiced today, is for the birds. And the bird brains.
As I though more about the article, it occurred to me that it would likely mean different things to different readers. I knew that someone just getting into internet marketing would benefit from being warned away from unsavory article marketing practices.
At the same time, someone who might have already fallen for some of these schemes would find encouragement in the article to put aside his past mistakes, correct the problems, and get his business back on track.
So I reasoned that if the article could appeal to different types of readers, I could use the information I already had to write several different types of articles.
Articles and Websites: The Toddlers and Tiaras Version
As you have probably already noticed, article marketing is committing slow, interminable suicide by refusing to acknowledge that companies are no longer falling for the “ten different words for fish” style of article spinning. I made this point in my first article, which was based on a 3,000 word outline I had developed. Then it hit me: why should this precious little article be an only child. What he needed were siblings.
So I romanced the outline a little more and what do you know? She gave birth to another article, a sister for my first. Sure, the new baby was shorter than the oldest, but it doesn’t matter to a loving parent. I was able to send both to a couple of the best websites in the industry.
That’s right. No low ranking, everyday sites for my babies. While one went to a PR3 site, the other made it into a PR6 ranked website. I couldn’t be more proud.
Now, unlike human children, my little darlings quickly began to pay me back for all the care I’d given them. They drew traffic to my website and landed me with a great SERP ranking. They also showed off the anchor text I’d attached to each, which really got people’s attention.
More Help Comes Along
Once my two gorgeous articles were out in the world, many people found 
them irresistible. They Tweeted their URLs all over cyberspace, which brought even more people to my site. One of these folks was from ABC Affiliate. He liked what he read so much that he interviewed me on his podcast. Even better, that interview was picked up and rebroadcast by Geekcast.
By this time I knew I wanted a big family of articles. However, I was busy with other tasks, so I decided to hire a couple of surrogates to bear the rest of my offspring. These two freelance writers each produced five more articles from their relationship with my original outline. Like their siblings, these 10 articles each had two backlinks, and were sent to only the best blog sites. And, like their siblings, they produced amazing results for my business. Those 24 little backlinks are still out there today, showing people the way back to my site.
So, that’s my “article marketing is bad” based family. What will you’re topic be? Fast food, snow boots for girls, Cuisinart food processors? Whatever you choose, this method will work for you.
But Remember, This is Not Article Marketing
I love my articles, and think of them as children. OK, maybe not as children, but I still respect their value and the value of the time it will take others to read them. I truly believe that if I write something that people want to read, they’ll believe that I am selling something that they’ll want to buy. So no, this is not just more article marketing.
Nor is it SEO writing. My articles are full grown, interesting pieces of writing. They are not puny little 450 word articles in which the same five keywords are used 80 times. They are informative and interesting and worth a read.
Finally, this is not spinning. I use humans to do my rewrites, not machines. So you will not find one article that says, “The cat was cold.” Followed by another that says, ‘The feline was cool.” And another that says, “The kitty was chilly.” That’s just not my style.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Once you’ve worked up several articles, do me a favor and show them and yourself a little respect. Don’t send them to one of those low class content farms that promise to forward them onto hundreds of directories each day. We both know that that’s just going to send them to the very pit of search engine hell.
Instead, do the right thing and send them so where respectable, with a PR# rating or above. I know this takes a little more effort, but your diligence will be reward when you see your new SERP ranking.
So, that’s all I have to say. Why don’t you talk now? Send me a message in the comment box below and let me know what you think of this process.
Hi James,
Really interesting and informative article, Whenever you research for any topic to write an article you search for its history, present and even future and that makes you infomation hub on that topic and you can’t share all these info in one article.
You can simply start a series on that topic or write many short articles related to that topic. Great advice.
Hey James,
Got you point, Article marketing is full of sales pitch which forces you to buy or subscribe something, generally people don’t give much attention and don’t like to read it. On the other had simple and geniune articles share your experience, skills and that’s what people like to read.
Nice idea its like becoming more productive with your research. You may say its not seo related but somehow it will affect serp since there are unique keywords can be found on both article even if they are written differently.
Hi James,
Another superb article from you, repurposing content that you have already used is a great way to add new content on your site without spending a lot of time in research. Of course another thing you could do is to make a video presentation or podcast of your older articles without actually writing any single word , it’s really simple and it’s certainly new content…
Hey James,
I love re-purposing content. It just makes sense to get the most out of each and every article you write. After all you spend a lot of time and effort on writing the article, so you should try to get as much as you can out of it. Thanks.
Well said- There are many different perspectives on each topic so there are many different ways to convey information. No need for manipulation by software when human creativity is so much more powerful.
Hey James,
Being a newbie in this modern way of making money online. I am searching for a job which are adequate to my specific course. After tackling this article of yours, a bulb came out in my head saying ” This is it!”. Article Marketing. Thanks for this article. 😀
I like your point, i.e. recycling the material. However, as a non-native English speaker, the most time consuming task for me is to get the grammar and the articles etc. right. Luckily Google helps as I pretty much google every phrase that I’m not sure of.
Of course, you have to do your due diligence if you want to write a good article, but there is a great way to make your hard earned research go further: use it to write more than one article.
So I reasoned that if the article could appeal to different types of readers, I could use the information I already had to write several different types of articles.
James,
Great points on repurposing old articles for new fans. It is far different from article marketing and ultimately gets the job done in a far better manner. In general it is a losing word to think about the content you’ve written. Chances are if you take care and effort with it there are lots of things you can do with it, from giving a complete rewrites to slightly editing and putting it into an e-book for giveaway or even using it as the basis of YouTube videos. You do not have to reinvent the wheel every time you write just have to make sure what you do is original.