How Do You Reuse a Blog Post? Get Your Archive Out of the Closet
You’ve been blogging for years. Somewhere in that archive is the tutorial you spent an entire weekend on, taking step-by-step photos with one hand while your seam ripper was in the other. The free pattern you tested three or four times before you dared publish it. The quilt you finished the night before guild so you could take it to show and tell.
Every so often you get a little nudge: shouldn’t I be doing something with all of this? So you make a graphic, pin it to Pinterest, and leave it alone. Is that really all you can do?
Picture a finished quilt, labeled and folded in the back of the closet. It’s done, but it isn’t keeping anybody warm. That’s your blog archive. Here’s how to get it out of the closet without starting over and without spending the next year on it.
What you’ll learn in this post/episode:
Why every blog post holds three to five pieces of content, not one
Which five to ten posts to start with (not the whole archive)
What a tutorial, a finished-quilt story, and a free pattern can each become
Five steps to repurpose old blog posts, including a one-post-a-week schedule
How the Break-It-Up Bot speeds up the slowest step
Why Isn’t One Pinterest Graphic Enough for an Old Blog Post?
This question came from an anonymous listener with years of tutorials, free patterns, and finished quilts on her blog. She knows she could be making better use of that content, and she can’t see past re-pinning a graphic. Thank you for sending it in. You are not behind. Three things usually sit underneath a question like this.
You’re treating each post as one thing. Every blog post has three to five anchors: the core lessons, the tips, the examples you used, and the stories that make it worth reading. A graphic captures one of them, maybe two. The rest just sit there.
The size of the archive freezes you. So you do nothing, or you do the one doable thing. You don’t need to repurpose the whole archive. You need to repurpose the right five to ten posts.
The post isn’t part of a bigger system. Someone finds your free pattern on Pinterest, downloads it, loves it, and then what? They leave. More repurposing just sends more people to a dead end. Your old posts are only as valuable as the next step you give people.
Inside the DMMC, I call the fix Break It Up: you take your long-form content and break it into pieces you can reuse. It’s something I learned from a lot of other experts. Experts don’t create more content all the time. They reuse what they have in a better way.
What Can a Tutorial, a Finished Quilt, or a Free Pattern Become?
A tutorial. I have one on adding borders that’s still out there. Its anchors: why borders can stretch a quilt, how sewing from the center out fixes a wonky long seam, how to pick the right border width, and how border color changes the whole design. From that one post I can make a carousel on three border mistakes that make your quilt crooked, a Reel called “stop sewing borders like this,” a graphic reminding people to sew borders from the center out to keep the quilt square, and an email with a mistake and a quick fix. One tutorial, four pieces, and the full tutorial stays on the blog.
A finished quilt. These posts are stories: why you made it, what inspired you, what went wrong, the colors that almost didn’t make it. People want to hear those decisions because they’re making the same ones. Just give them a reason to read by pulling out the tip hidden in the story. I once broke up a post on color and emotion into a Reel about choosing your quilt’s mood in five seconds (warm palette versus cool), plus an email on choosing the mood of your next quilt.
A free pattern. These may be your most valuable posts, because people already want them. The anchors are who the pattern is for, the finished size, the fabric pool, the variations, and the one tricky step. Even in a simple half-square triangle quilt, that’s how not to lose your points. Each one can be its own piece. Then put the printable pattern behind a simple name-and-email form, so the post works as a lead magnet.
And Pinterest? Keep it. It works more like a search engine than a social feed, which makes it a good home for evergreen content. What changes is that every image in a post can become its own fresh pin linking back to the same post. Five posts, five weeks, at least three pins a week. Instagram is my main platform and I’m not as current on Pinterest best practices, so check those as you go.
How Do You Repurpose Old Blog Posts in Five Steps?
Here’s what I would do if we were on a coaching call together.
Step 1: Pick five to ten posts
Check your blog analytics (Google Analytics if you need it) for your top posts. If Pinterest is your main platform, look at which pins get saves and clicks. Look for evergreen posts, like a technique, a tutorial, or a pattern, rather than a dated recap of a quilt from 2019. Start with your best posts, not necessarily the oldest, and ask yourself if you’re still proud of them. You can always rewrite a dated story, and refreshing old posts is good for search, too.
Step 2: Polish before you promote
Add two things if they’re not already there. First, a way to join your email list near the top of the post, not the bottom. One sentence, a box, or a button linking to the form is plenty. Second, a link to a newer post on a similar topic, so readers have somewhere to go next. Many website platforms let you tag related posts, kind of like the “up next” suggestion on YouTube.
Step 3: Break it up
For each post, pull out the three to five anchors. Do it on a sticky note or in a Google Sheet. I keep a table for content planning. When I mapped a 90-day launch for the DMMC and my book, Workshops Unleashed, I built carousels in Canva and linked them right in the table. Now every time I launch, the content is already made. I refresh it and repost. Keep it all organized, even if that’s just one folder, because a carousel, Reel, or graphic can travel to other platforms, not only the one you first used it on.
Step 4: Give every piece a place to land
This is your lead strategy: bringing people into your world. Every piece of content should point to a next step. For a free pattern, that’s the email-list download, then a bonus like a printable chart of fabric requirements for other sizes, tips for the block, or an invitation to a workshop. For a tutorial, it might be the next tutorial. If yours is on a 12-inch block, what can they do with it? Turn it into a pillow? Finish quilting it? Nobody should reach the end of your post and leave. Email is ideal, and a second spot on your website is next best. It helps with SEO and with their experience, and it makes them more likely to come back.
Step 5: Put it on the calendar, not in your head
This is where a burst of energy becomes a system. Schedule one old post a week, or every other week. Ten posts is ten weeks (or twenty). A sample week: Monday, the email about the post. Tuesday, the carousel. Wednesday, a Reel or short. Thursday, a graphic. Friday, look at what people responded to and jot down ideas. Then rest. A VA can schedule all of this and find matching images, too.
In a busy season, send the email and post on your main platform, or keep up three pins a week on Pinterest. Save the asset-making for your slower seasons. We call these the seasons of content inside the DMMC. Your content rhythm should match your energy, not the other way around.
How Does the Break-It-Up Bot Handle the Slowest Step?
Step 3 is where most people burn the most time, staring at a post and writing everything from scratch. DMMC members have the Break-It-Up Bot, a tool I built on my Break It Up framework. Give it an older post and you get three Pinterest pins, each with a description and a text overlay, from three different angles, which means three different images from one old post. You get Facebook posts with a photo suggestion, an Instagram caption in my story framework, a carousel laid out slide by slide, and short-form video ideas with a hook, key points, and a call to action. Think of them as director’s notes. Grab images you already have that fit. No re-shooting required.
I never copy and paste what it gives me. I read the suggestion, close it, and type out what I’d say in my own words. Not in the DMMC yet? The Beyond Social Media episode shares prompts for a version of this.
HEY TORI TAKEAWAY
Your assignment: 15 to 20 minutes.
Pick your best-performing old post. A tutorial, a free pattern, or a finished quilt.
Grab a piece of paper (paper is great for your brain when you’re learning something new) and write down:
3 to 5 anchors you think live in this post: a core lesson, a tip, an example.
The story behind it. Is there a lesson learned? Inspiration to pull?
The one thing you want a reader to remember when they finish the post.
Every line you just wrote could be a piece of content: an email, an Instagram post, a YouTube short. Want a little help? Grab the free Break It Up, Market Like an Expert worksheet:
If you recognized your own hesitation in this listener’s question, this is exactly what we work on inside the Digital Marketing Magic Coaching Program. We work through all three pillars together: lead strategy (bringing people into your world), nurture strategy (building relationships with them), and launch strategy (turning those relationships into revenue).
Members get a personalized roadmap, live group coaching every month, tools like the Break-It-Up Bot to make the content side faster, and one-on-one coaching if they want it. It’s built for quilters and crafters, because our industry has its own rhythms and generic marketing advice usually doesn’t fit.
The best first step is a free 30-minute strategy session. We’ll look at your business together, talk through where you’re stuck, and find your clearest next move. Book yours here.
Want me to answer your question? Submit a question here!
About the Author: Tori McElwain is a digital marketing coach for quilting and creative businesses. With 24+ years of quilting experience and a Master’s degree in Education, she helps quilters attract more students, sell more patterns, and grow their businesses online — without losing the joy of creating. She’s the author of “Workshops Unleashed” and cohost of the Quilting on the Side podcast.
Comments