It Doesn't Have to be a Tedious Bore to Rework Material into Great New Articles

How to rework material into new articles without it becoming a tedious bore

So, you've got some great content and you want a How To Wiki, a blog post, a Hub Page and a Squidoo lens but hold on, replicating this stuff word for word is a search engine no-no. I know what you're thinking: writing this post in the first place was struggle enough, now I have to do it over again and again?

When forming an article I advocate creating what I call 'skeletons.' I just list the main ideas to communicate along with the material that supports it. This makes a structure for the article onto which ideas and researched material (links, photos etc) can be stored in the same file. These are the ingredients for creating new articles. Just as small variations in ingredients can turn out cakes rather than bread, or stews rather than curries, this information can be used to create fresh alternatives.

First off, How To Wikis are the easiest to do. Just list the process steps to getting something done from start to finish and you've done the main work. Find or create some relevant photos, come up with some references and maybe a handful of tips and links and you can post the Wiki. What's more the Wiki can lead to good ideas for a more detailed article that explains the background information that the How To Wikis leave out.

To make sure that fresh content is created using things that you've already written about, here are some things that can help:

• Change the structure of an existing article, swap around the paragraphs, change adjectives for synonyms, use alternative verbs. This is quick and easy but doesn't really add value.
• Use Title Templates to come up with alternative slants on familiar content.
• Each piece of content should answer a question so next time around answer a different question (Timesavers for bloggers/writters)

• Articles have great appeal when they satisfy a psychological need. Sometimes slanting the article to focus on the opposite need can create an interesting stance, e.g. instead of taking a very positive outlook take a very negative outlook so that hidden dangers are spotted and catered for. (The Secret of Writing Great Article Headlines)
• Aim for a different market segment (age related, interest related, geographical location, professional alignment)
• Have a different 'editorial style' so that you have some articles that are technical or academic and some that are light-hearted and folksy
• Focus inwards on a sub-section of an existing article and expand upon it
• Take an element of an existing list and write an article just on that one item
• Focus outwards and do a more general article
• Look for highly topical events that relate to your articles and write a short piece about how the latest news relates to it and then put in links to those timeless articles that you already wrote on the subject

These variations allow you to create genuine new articles that add value, build a reputation as someone that adds value and doesn't just churn out the same old same old, and makes the process of writing all of this content more personally rewarding.