This is the first part of a great guest post series from Steve over at SteveScottSite.com, fantastic advice and tips, Steve over to you;

I’m going to start this guest post by making a confession…

I don’t like to work very hard.

Yeah, I know.  This goes against many of the principles that James discusses on this site.  Work hard, try harder, and increase your productivity. All of these are great pieces of the advice.  But the sad fact is I’m a pretty lazy person and I like to give the least amount of effort whenever possible.

Unfortunately you can’t be lazy and still have a successful online business.  You’ll fail if you’re not willing to work hard.

Now with all this being said, I’ve learned over the last few years to take advantage of my natural laziness.  Instead of working harder, I’ve learned to work smarter.

In this post, I’m going to reveal one of my ‘smart’ techniques.  This will help you for increase your productivity while reducing the amount of time you spend on “work.”

So let’s talk about this technique…

  • Introducing…Leverage

I’m a firm believer in the idea of “leverage” when it comes to an online business.

Leverage is a simple concept.  It means is you should focus on the activities that’ll bring you the maximum amount of results.

For instance, it’s a good use of your time to spend an hour writing an email that produces $1000 in sales.  But it’s a bad use of your time if you spend 5 hours submitting an article to no-name directories that produce only a handful of web visitors.

The core principle behind leverage is the idea of time. The only true limited resource we have in life is TIME.  This means that the time spent on your online business should produce the maximum amount of results.

With this idea in mind, let’s talk about a technique I personally use to ensure that I work smarter, not harder…

  • Leveraging Your Existing Content

As James discusses, we’re all Infopreneurs.  We’re in the business of providing quality content to the people who visit our websites.  The content we produce is what draws them in and makes them check out our offers.

I recommend taking things one step further.  I consider every bit of content to be my personal asset.  When I finish an article, I know I’m in possession of valuable piece of property that has value.  I consider it to be valuable because I know it can be reused many different ways.

As I mentioned, I’m a lazy person.  So whenever I create an article, I look for many different ways to reuse it.  The reasoning is simple.  I’ve already spent an hour or so writing, so I might as well maximize the results I receive from the time I spent on this content.

To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, here are five different ways I use to recycle a piece of content that I’ve created…

  • Recycle Method #1- Create a Blog Post

Okay this is an obvious one…The first way to use your content is to post it on your blog.

The important thing with a blog post is to always include a few anecdotes.  Since blogs are personal in nature, it’s important to discuss your experiences with the topic you’re discussing.

To really maximize things, you can add an image that graphically represents the topic at hand.  Or you could even find a related video on YouTube that’ll help create a specific emotion.

To be perfectly honest, there are a couple of posts on my site that I’ve recycled from other sources.  All I did was include a few stories and added some pretty pictures.  The end result is a quality blog post that draws the reader in.

  • Recycle Method #2- Use as a Guest Post

Okay, it’s time for confession #2…

This guest blog post was originally part of the training that I give to affiliates for my information product.

Yes, I’ve completely rewritten it.  But the general theme has remained the same.

Now it’s a guest post on this blog.

A great way to recycle your content is to reuse it as a guest post for another site.  But with that said, it’s important to remember one thing—Make it 100% original.

It’s an honor to have someone let you post an article on their site.  And the quickest way to break this trust is give them an old crappy article that’s been used somewhere else.

So if you decide to reuse a piece of content as a guest post, make it completely unique.  But this doesn’t mean you have to completely change it around.

For instance, let’s say you wrote an article about weight loss.  You could change around this piece of content and use it as a “weight loss for busy entrepreneurs” guest post on a blog that discusses success.

Furthermore, you could take what you’ve written and turn it into a video or audio.  This is the same content, but it’s presented in a different format from the original.

  • Recycle Method #3- Submit as an Ezine Article

All online businesses need web traffic.  Without a steady stream of visitors your site will wither and die.

So whenever I’m creating content, I always come up with ideas for reusing it to drive traffic to my website.

One of the techniques I use is to take my content and turn it into an ezine article.  Contrary to what you might’ve heard, ezine articles are still an excellent way to get visitors.  By regularly submitting content to certain sites, you’ll develop a long-term source of web traffic.

Now I have one piece of advice before you go out and submit your article to hundreds of different sites.    Always rewrite your content—at least 30% of it. This will help you avoid the dreaded “duplicate content penalty” that Google has in place.

If you’re pressed for time, you could easily hire an outsourcer on Elance.com to lightly edit your content and turn it into something completely original.

  • Recycle Method#4- Create an Audio Version

One of the super-ninja tactics I use is to create audio versions of my content.

Now creating audio doesn’t have to be this crazy ordeal.  All you need to do is record yourself reading your content.  If the information is good enough, people will want to hear it.

Why do I consider this to be a super-ninja tactic?  Well, it’s a matter of perceived value.  There are lots of blogs with excellent articles.  But there aren’t many that offer audio versions of their articles.  Those that do, really stand out from the crowd.

To ramp-up this method you could take all your web content and turn it into a regular series of podcasts.  Submit these to all the major podcast directories and you now have a major source of traffic to your website.

Again, creating an audio isn’t as hard as you think. (I personally hate the sound of my voice, but I’m still going to spend all of the next month taking my content and turning them audios.) To get started, all you need is purchase a headset for your computer and download a free audio tool like Audacity.

  • Recycle Method#5- Create a Video

Hey, remember that audio you just created?

Well now you can take this audio and add a few Powerpoint slides…Then you have a video!

To be honest, video marketing has become THE method for driving traffic to a website.  The problem is many people are completely intimidated by the idea of making a video.

I’ll tell you right now, you don’t have to be a professional videographer to take advantage of this trend.  I’ve created lots of piss-poor quality videos that still drive tons of traffic to my affiliate site.

There are many options you could do with video.  The obvious is to take your pre-recorded audio, add a few PowerPoint slides then use a free tool like Windows Movie Maker to create a video.

Another option is to use the free version of CamStudio to record your desktop as you demonstrate a concept.  (This method is great for step-by-step tutorials.)

Like I said, video is an incredible way to add value to your content.  You could easily take all your articles and turn them into clips that you post on a site like YouTube.  Then you’ll have another major source of traffic to your website.

Conclusion

There’s one take-away I hope you get from this post…Develop the “leverage mindset” with the content you create.  Don’t waste your time by using it only once.  Use your imagination to come up with different ways to recycle everything you create.

Finally, I have one last confession…

This is my first attempt at a guest post.  So I’m kinda nervous about how much use you’ve received from this type of information.  If you enjoyed this topic, comment below and let me know your thoughts.

The truth is I have five more ways to recycle content and I would be more than happy to provide James with a follow-up article.  I just need to know if this is something you found helpful…

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