The Dangers of Content Repurposing

Now well this is a newsletter about content repurposing, so obviously I am all for it right? Yes, and well no.

There are certain things to worry about when it comes to repurposing, that you should account for when doing it.

Why is it important?

The benefits are numerous FOR DOING repurposing, and we talk about those a lot. Today we need to talk about the dangers or things to look out for when doing it. Taking your content and chopping it up is the idea.

What happens when you chop up bad content? Then your microcontent is probably, if not definitely, going to be bad too.

What happens when you are just starting out. Haven't made much content, and you don't really know how to make Great content? That means you need practice. Both with creation, AND repurposing. However it should be about 80/20.

How can we avoid the dangers?

The first thing we should ask, is this piece WORTH repurposing? A lot of repurposing creators, including myself, will probably say yes. As we have this repurpose everything mentality.

However it is hard to remember what it was like when you first start out. Making crappy videos, or overtly short blog posts. Not knowing how to really find your own flow.

Making sure you make a bunch of content that is actually worth people's time. Doing that enough times, then you can focus on repurposing.

Here is the kicker too, if it IS good content (even if early on), then you can always repurpose it LATER.

What other dangers?

Overly relying on automation tools. Look I love things like Repurpose.io, Zapier, and a variety of other tools out there. In fact Repurpose is one of my favorite tools, and I stand by it; But even that tool screwed me over at one point.

However I was posting a ton of interviews in a short time span, and I think at this time Repurpose's servers were still on the smaller side. At one point I pushed too many videos through, and the automation was to take my FB Video to YT.

This is because back then you couldn't download from youtube, meaning I couldn't make clips from my videos with that tool yet. Unless they were posted on FB first.

However since it was TOO FREQUENT, inside of pushing through full HD quality. It pushed through the lowest 144p and 240p resolution. For some really great videos. Now because I was so busy I didn't really notice this until a month or two later.

Again this isn't indicative of how the tool is now, and they have made a lot of changes since then. Also Youtube opened up their API more, and you can download directly from there instead. Which made me drop FB altogether.

My point is that this can happen WITH ANY TOOL. Even the best ones, and if you are trying to rely on a tool for repurposing. Instead of a stack or combination of tools for redundancy, then you are asking for trouble.

Shoutout to Hani and Repurpose team for constantly making the tool better!

Highlighted Tool of the Week: AI Transcriptions by Riverside.fm

I'm already a fan of the actual Riverside.fm recording tool. I use it for every interview nowadays. However Riverside also came out with a free tool for people to use to transcribe their videos/audio.

AI Transcriptions

Use Riverside to Transcribe your Content FREE

You don't even need to sign up for their main tool, but I suggest you should IMO!

🥡 Takeaways

The tone of this post is more of a negative one, but I wanted to paint a picture that it isn't always rainbows with repurposing.

It is still a SKILL, it is still an ACT you have to do, and it isn't something you can just pawn off.

I love all of these new tools that are coming out, but part of my agnostic philosophy is that if you rely on just one thing. In other words "put all of your eggs in one basket", then you leave yourself up to disruption.