My Workflow on How to Repurpose Old Content into New Podcasts

I love to figure out ways to syndicate content. Once you are down the road a bit in your blogging journey, you should think about ways you can begin to repurpose the work you have already done.

The options are just about endless. I must say from the start that this is not about being lazy or taking shortcuts because you don’t want to put any effort into what you are doing.

This process is all about leverage.

Assuming your goal is to out-teach your competition, you already have awesome content that can be presented in different formats.

3 Primary Ways We Consume Information

When it comes right down to it, we primarily consume information in 3 fundamental ways. Understanding this truth will begin to open your eyes to the possibilities that exist.

• Text through reading – some of us prefer to read. It is the primary way we learn and grow. I personally love to read. At any one time, I have my head in 3 or 4 different books. Blogging and writing books is a great way to get your passion out to the world.
• Audio through listening – I have also discovered that many people prefer to listen. They love podcasts and audio books. It is difficult for them to read because the learn better through listening. Turning your old blog posts into podcasts is a great way to reach out to a whole different group of potential followers.
• Video through observing – others of us love to learn by watching. If someone can show us how to do something on video, then we can go do it ourselves. We desire that visual stimulation in order to learn best.

My Step-by-Step Guide to Repurpose Old Blog Posts into Podcasts

Now that you have a beter context for the subject, I am going to share with you my exact workflow for how I go about this process.

Step 1. Gather a list of all your blog titles in a single spreadsheet

There are a few ways you can go about doing this. If you want a non-technical way and you are yet to have hundreds of blog posts, then just open up WordPress in a different window and type in the titles of your blog posts to date.

If you have more blog posts, then consider using a little formula along with a google docs spreadsheet. Using this formula will auto-fill the titles of your blog post. To get the complete list, you will need to re-use the formula adding “/page2” to the end of your domain.

Here is the formula you can paste in your spreadsheet:

=importxml(“http://yourdomain.com”,”//h2[@class=’entry-title’]”)

After a little bit of work, you should have all of your blog posts in a single spreadsheet. From there, I went a step further and did a copy and paste into a Google Doc, but you do not have to. Here is what it will look like in your spreadsheet (see pic).

Step 2. Highlight old blog posts that would make great podcasts

I will then go down through the list of all of my old blog post titles and highlight those I believe would make a great podcast episode. I often look for step by step or instructional posts as I believe people enjoy hearing this type of content. I know if I am listening to a podcast that is titled “5 Amazing Reasons for x” it keeps me more engaged.

Step 3. Copy and paste the old blog post into a podcast show prep document

I have a podcast show prep document I use to keep me on track. I find that it works better for me so I am not searching for words on the fly. I am better at ad-libbing if I have plenty of content in front of me. It also makes transitions go much smoother as well.

Once I get the old content into the show prep, I work through it and update or tweak the content. I may have new thoughts or new discoveries since the day I originally wrote the content.

Step 4. Record your podcast show

I won’t spend a lot of time here as this is not the focus of the post, but after my show prep is good I record the podcast and get it uploaded.

Step 5. Add your podcast to the old post and advance the date (optional)

When it comes to publishing your new podcast, you have two choices:

1. Write a new post and add the podcast.

2. Add the podcast to the old post and move the date forward to today.

I personally have been doing the 2nd option. The choice is up to you. One thing you want to be careful of is if you change the date and schedule your old post for a new future date, your old post is no longer live. People coming from the search engines to that old post will get a 404 error. If your old post gets a ton of traffic, you may want to wait for the date you want to go live with the post and then change the date.

If you are struggling with coming up with content for your podcast or looking to start a podcast for your blog, then consider using this strategy.

I have been using this system for awhile now with my Simple Life Habits blog and my downloads continue to grow as a result.

Question: What are some ways you have repurposed content on your blog?