The Books to Billions Playbook
As if the Legally Blonde star wasn’t inspiring enough already, Reese Witherspoon and ‘Hello Sunshine’ won millions of hearts (and a $900 million exit) with her mission: “I want to make a lot of women a lot of money.”
In 2015, Witherspoon used her star power to kick off a book club that became a sensation. She’d spotlight books, especially those featuring strong female protagonists, and built a fan base of 2.5 million readers who eagerly anticipate her monthly picks.
Here’s the lowdown on turning book love into content gold, Reese Witherspoon style!
- Snag the Rights: Before unveiling her monthly book pick, Reese would chat with publishers. In exchange for showcasing their book to her audience, she’d get the rights to turn those books into movies and TV shows.
- Adapt to a Different Medium: Once she got the rights (and helpful reviews from her club), she pitched the adaptations to Netflix and Apple TV to create hit movies and series.
- Keep The Content Machine Going: She’d hand over the show rights in exchange for more funding, and voilà—more content magic.
Of Reese’s 54 picks, 30 made it to the New York Times Best-Seller list! Her company turned bestselling novels like Big Little Lies and Little Fires Everywhere into critically acclaimed series.
Behind the scenes, her team would constantly be on the hunt, evaluating over 1,000 books, articles, pitches, and scripts each year.
Then they’d repurpose this content into podcasts, social media gems, and branded partnerships, building a never-ending thriving ecosystem around amazing women’s stories.
Recycling Isn’t Just For Soda Cans
So you wrote a killer blog post?
Congratulations! You’ve just created a content goldmine.
Now, why not mine it?
It’s time to make your posts work harder for you.
Content repurposing is just like working with leftovers… but for your business. Just like you wouldn’t throw out a perfectly good steak, you shouldn’t let a blog post gather dust after you hit “publish.”
Take that awesome post on a world tour, introduce it to new audiences on different platforms, and squeeze every last drop of value from your content.
- Consider Brianna Wiest: At 25, she published 4 books after writing thousands of articles across multiple online and print publications.
- The ‘Zoe Report’ Blog doesn’t just give fashion advice. It also shares seasonal ‘guides’ and other downloadable gems. These eBooks, like ‘Living in Style’ with a foreword by Diane von Furstenberg, are used as lead magnets to reel in a subscriber list.
- If you want to see old articles reborn, ask Neil Patel how to do it. The marketing whiz turns articles on SEO stuff into video guides for his YouTube channel’s 1.3 million subscribers. HubSpot’s the same: ‘HubSpot Academy’ is run by pros converting articles into video tutorials. Talk about reaching a wider audience.
- Car platform Edmunds prefers infographics, turning snooze-worthy ‘history of cars’ or ‘car depreciation’ blog pieces into eye-catching visuals.
- BuzzFeed’s blog content lives multiple lives on the internet; the team transforms posts into quizzes, irresistible lists, and memes that spread faster than you can say “viral.”
Content repurposing is your new BFF.
It helps you save time (yes, it’s hard to write a new masterpiece every day). It helps you reach new people. It boosts your SEO (because more content means more chances for Google to notice you). Lastly, it reinforces your messaging. Repetition is key, baby!
How to Repurpose Your Blog Posts Like a Pro
Time to turn that blog post into a content-creating machine!
Here are some easy ways to repurpose your blog posts:
- Turn your words into videos (because everyone loves a good show). Explore explainer videos with voiceovers, talking head videos, or streams on Instagram Live.
- Turn dry things like stats and tips into infographics; pretty and easy to digest!
- Slice and dice your blog post into bite-sized pieces for social media. Include numbers and questions to spark conversations in the comments.
- Turn your posts into a series of emails or create juicy email newsletters summarizing your best content.
- Combine multiple posts for the ultimate content upgrade: eBooks and guides.
- Spread your expertise (and your links) with guest posts.
PS: There’s never been a better time to create scalable content – if you’re open to embracing AI.
You could take ChatGPT or Gemini, for instance, feed it your article, and ask it to generate “100 engaging social media posts” (or whatever other format you want). With the first cut, most of the fast results will likely be cheap and scrappy, so you’ll have to work with the AI tool a little more, say, by explaining to it the exact brand voice, tone, and style, you’re looking for.
Sure, there’s work to do, but if you actually do well, you can get great content (and reach a whole new audience) every single day using AI.
The Blogger’s Secret Weapon
Even with AI tools (and a lot of passion!) creating a new piece of content from scratch every single time can get exhausting.
Many a brilliant blogger has burnt out – or gotten stuck in a creative rut.
Luckily, there’s something called PLR (Private Label Rights) to the rescue.
Heard of ‘Private Label’ or ‘White Label’ product licensing in, say, fashion? A brand can purchase ready-made garments from manufacturers, tweak the designs, add their own branding, and voila – sell the clothes as their own.
PLR is like that – for the content world.
Private Label Rights (PLR) is a type of license that allows you – the exhausted blogger – to buy pre-written content online, which you can then edit, rebrand, and publish, as your own – as if you wrote it.
Sweet! Right?
It’s a way to instantly get your hands on content that an author is willing to part with. Most come with resell rights, some come with ‘giveaway’ rights…and you get to keep the proceeds!
Here’s how PLR can help you in content repurposing:
- Rev Up Your Schedule: Having a bank of PLR articles is like having a backup dancer ready to step in whenever you need. It helps you stick to your schedule without breaking a sweat.
- Boost Your Sales: Use PLR to craft content that’s aligned with your products or services, adding in affiliate links to watch your sales soar.
- Become The Expert: PLR can keep you relevant and on-point with niche-specific topics.
- Get Pocket-Friendly: The cost of PLR content is often a steal. More traffic and sales for less cash – why not?
- Save Time: PLR cuts down on prep time, so you can focus on other areas of your blog.
A little heads up, though. Overloading PLR content straight out of the box can land you in hot water with Google’s dreaded ‘duplicate content penalties.’ Plus, some platforms, like Kindle Publishing give it the side-eye. So, do yourself a favor and double-check before diving in.
Think of PLR content as your rough draft, not your final masterpiece. Give it a serious glow-up—slice and dice the paragraphs, toss in some visuals, and slap on titles that scream YOU.
Make it fresh, make it fab, make it yours, and then hit “Publish”.
Takeaways
To keep your content machine humming and your audience hooked, don’t shy away from content repurposing.
Give your oldest posts a refresh (or a farewell!). Update your best posts for the upcoming holidays, tweak links and titles for a click-boost, track performance, optimize for SEO, and make sure to redirect any deleted content with the right plugins.
Fresh content means a happy audience—and that means your blog-based business soars to new heights.
