When you write a lot of content in advance, you occasionally find yourself with extra content. This is content that you may have decided not to use, or may simply not have a place for on your website. Wasted content can be frustrating, because you invested in this content and now it doesn’t appear to have a purpose. In content marketing, wasted words are like wasting money.
The good news is that there are many things you can do with unused content. Consider the following:
- Add it to a Blog Anyway – You likely have a blog, and chances are the content was supposed to go on that blog, so this may seem like a silly idea. But the truth is that as the months pass, the content you had on your blog will be forgotten. You can replace it with the new content and voila – it’s no longer wasted content. If the content was meant to be a homepage or designed for some other part of your site, adding it to the blog is a no-brainer.
- Guest Posts – Assuming the post is of a high enough quality, turn it into a guest post. There are many websites, such as MyBlogGuest.com, that allow you to post content that some other blogger will place on their site with a link back to your website. Guest posts are a big part of content marketing, and a great use of unused content.
- Article Directories – Article directories have been losing popularity of late because the Panda and Penguin updates have reduced the value of directory content, especially when its posted on less reputable websites. But that doesn’t mean it’s useless. If you have unused content that wasn’t going to find a good home anyway, there’s no harm in putting it in a directory and getting some use out of it.
- Sell It – Finally, if you have enough unused content, there are some websites that allow you to sell your content as PLR, where people buy it in bulk and use it for various purposes. This isn’t the best use of content you’ve paid for, especially because it may get into the hands of a competitor, but the option is always there.
- Start a Secondary Blog – Blogs like Blogspot.com aren’t the best for marketing your website, especially if you can create a blog directly on your site itself. But they’re not useless. If you have a lot of unused content, post it to a blogspot page with a link back to your site. The chance of it amounting to anything is very small, but there is no harm in trying.
Content never has to go to waste. The internet is an unlimited space that allows for anyone to post anything at any time. If you have content that hasn’t been used, you can always find a place for it if you know where to look.
