When I wrote on trying everything, there were ideas to:
- Repurpose your blog posts into an ebook, with some new bits to freshen them up
- Read your posts aloud for an audiobook, or have them read aloud for you
And I did exactly that last week. Whenever I needed a break from product research, I recycled our favorite Big Bright Bulb articles into audios and a PDF. And it was darned cool in lots of ways:
- Cool to work with the other side of my brain,
- Cool to make something I can share (research is always so sooper sekrit),
- Cool to create a product that’s small (which the Shopping Cart Guide in-progress is not)
And best of all:
- Cool to fiddle with stuff I had on hand instead of starting from scratch
Using content I already had left me free to enjoy making the container, ya know? Believe the hype. It is way satisfying to revisit your old stuff to make new stuff.
You might enjoy it, too, so here are 3 ways I’m recycling content for sale, plus some tips and ideas—
Compile and compose an ebook
I first saw this when Leo compiled a bunch of posts into Zen to Done. The notable bit? He added FAQs and links and resources and forms and commentary that wasn’t on the blog. So while it was more convenient than website reading, I feel like the (very reasonable) price is for the extras.
The next notable was Darren’s 31 Days to Build a Better Blog from his month-long challenge series. To me, convenience was everything for that one. For 65¢ a day I can print it out, jot notes, and check things off without sidebar ads blinking at me. Totally worth the money.
From those guys, I’d guess the keys to selling blog content as an ebook are—
- Emphasize convenience (especially for a series)
- Inject new, exclusive content
- Include relevant extras and resources
- Make it pretty (and maybe even printable)
- Price it under $20
BBB Radio 1 has two new posts not published online, useful links, highlights my favorite comments, looks pretty good, and it’s $16. Here’s a sneak peek:
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Record yourself reading aloud
This isn’t something I see folks doing, but I sure wish they would. My iPhone is stuffed with MP3s of courses and teleseminars, but they’re 30-90 minutes and sometimes I just want a taste…like, 5-10 minutes.
For me, recording a read is only a few extra steps because I read every post aloud while I edit it. But I’m not a pro by any stretch, so I was hugely grateful for Christy’s PDF on getting good sound and her sound editing series when I set out to do this.
I considered having someone else narrate it because, like many people, I don’t much like hearing my voice. But I figured it’s worth a try…while we’re out here trying everything ;-)
From my experience over the weekend, my tips for recording your blog are—
- Rehearse, even though you know every word you wrote
- Relax, you’re talking to your friends, so have fun with it!
- Smile, because we can hear it in your voice
- Edit loosely, an um or ah means your human
- Follow the advice at Online Sound Advice
Publish your own magazine
I haven’t done this one yet. But I got Issue Zero of 48 HR magazine in the mail and it’s darned sexy. I’m gonna do it, somehow, sometime.
They used MagCloud, a bit of genius from HP. It’s scary simple: upload a PDF, set a price, and they ship copies of your magazine as folks order them. Nothing for you to print or store or package or mail…just watch for their monthly PayPal deposit.
Some ideas I’m chewing on for a magazine-from-blog—
- Assemble a monthly or a quarterly issue of everything published
- Do an annual at year’s end that highlights greatest hits (and their comments)
- Compile a special interest publication, like Better Homes & Gardens does:
Select a category from the blog, pull out the best posts, lay ‘em out and load ‘em up - In the same vein: Rally a bunch of writers for a niche mag of related posts (like pricing, creating ebooks, scheduling, client relations, etc.). Split the earnings or give them away.
Et tu?
Photo credit: Urban Woodswalker
