Putting Your Old Stuff Back to Work

I’ve done quite a bit since I’ve been working on the web. Among other things, I’ve written tons of articles for my old content sites. Those sites aren’t up anymore since I started using mini-sites, but the articles and pictures are all still there.

That doesn’t change the fact that I’d already put a lot of work into those two sites. When I took them down, a lot of what I did over the year they were posted went away. Or would have, if I didn’t find new ways to put my old stuff back to work.

When you’ve been working online for a while, you’ll have old stuff too. When that happens, it doesn’t mean that’s work you’ve wasted. You can reincarnate it into something new, and put it to use again.

So how do you do that?

• If you had a content site or blog that’s no longer up, recycle your articles. Make an ebook out of them, or turn them into free traffic-driving articles. You might even find you can rewrite them to be better than they were before.
• Did an old content site of yours have a lot of pictures? If you took them, consider some social bookmarking with a Flickr account. Share your pictures with the world, and send some of the traffic that drops by to take a look at them to other places.
• Turn some of your old pictures into a slideshow video. Some of my old painted miniatures pictures wound up on YouTube, and now I’m happy because I’m displaying them again. It could be that some of your old stuff could be driving traffic as a video to your newer stuff or current projects.
• Not using an old WordPress blog template you made from scratch? Package the template, and let someone else use it. Remember to put your link in it, and anyone who does use it links back to your site.
• Use content crossover for old and new stuff. Your articles might make good videos, or good MP3 audio files. Furthermore, you might make one of your YouTube videos a viral article with a resource box. If you go through the trouble to do that, you increase the reach of your work.

I reincarnated quite a bit of my old stuff, and you can too. You did the work, and if you can find a way, you shouldn’t waste it.