Many people want to get more traffic from old blog posts. That makes sense since one of the top rules of success online is to do the work once and profit from that work many times.
But how can you take an old blog post and bring it back to life so it gets you brand new visitors?
While there are many ways (we will eventually explore them all) one of the best is to republish your work on top sites that will take your existing articles.
You may be thinking “Wait, publish my existing articles on other sites? Won’t that create a duplicate content penalty with Google?”
Fair question, so let’s clear it up.
Most talk about duplicate content penalties is marketing hype designed to sell a product or service.
It’s true – Google does penalize when you break any of their rules. But they also allow, even encourage, duplicate content.
Think of if this way; if the duplicate content penalty was as real as some make it seem no one would be able to syndicate content online.
And we know that’s just not true.
If you want to know what Google says about duplicate content, click here to read it from the horse’s mouth.
Moving on from the duplicate content myth, let’s focus on the big kahuna. The question to ask now is this …
Where can I get more traffic from my existing blog posts?
The answer is to start with Medium.
NOTE: I say start with Medium for three reasons.
- They are huuuge.
- They are easy to start with.
- Their site will connect you with new audiences.
Great reasons, right?
So let’s look at getting started with them.
NOTE: I published an article on Medium today in literally 7 minutes. Gotta love that!
Step 1 – Go to Medium
Here’s the easiest part. Click here to go to Medium.
Step 2 – Get a free account
Signing up is easy and free. Here is what the signup page looks like.
Once you sign up you will be able to log in easily and begin publishing in mere minutes.
Step 3 – Publish an article there
They make this incredibly easy. I actually copied my existing article and pasted it right into their window. And I mean I copied it all … no editing needed.
The formatting and links held up perfectly.
I’ll show you a screenshot of the article on Medium in a moment.
Here is what their editing window looks like. Notice the helpful guide at the bottom.
Step 4 – Share with your audience (if you have one) that you are now on Medium
If you have an audience, let them know you are publishing on Medium. This is good form for a few reasons.
- Your social post might get shared, meaning more audience for you.
- Your current contacts can follow you in Medium, which means more engagement.
- It will look good to Medium that you are sharing. Not required but like chicken soup … it can’t hurt!
There are many ways to do this. Here are some of my favorites.
- Write a short blog announcement mentioning that you are now on Medium.
- Share socially and repeatedly using a tool like CoSchedule or Meet Edgar.
- Put a link in your blogroll or on your blog.
- Make a short video about your excitement and share it on YouTube.
- Send an email announcement to your list. You might even teach them the technique!
No matter how you do it, getting the word out there is a good idea as it will build momentum for you.
Step 5 – Repeat as often as you like
Here’s the beauty part, publishing on Medium is free and you can do it as much as you want. If only chocolate was the same!
Below my signature is a copy of my article on Medium. If you look at it and then look at this link, you will see they are identical in every way, including the image.
There are more things you can do with Medium of course. Things like categories, cross posting and such can all be explained by their site and used at your choosing.
But the key is this – now that you know about Medium go there now and take action. You will be able to sign up, sign in and post in mere minutes.
And when you do that you will reaching a potential new audience by reposting an existing blog post.
That’s called leverage. And leverage is a beautiful thing indeed!
My post on Medium
