Evergreen Content

By Susan Reichert, Editor-in-Chief, Southern Writers Magazine

Do you like plants? Do you like plants that their leaves stay green all year? I know, you are wondering what this has to do with writing.

According to Rachel Deahl, Media Careers Expert, she gave the following definition: “Evergreen content is content that is perpetually relevant. The word evergreen most often is used by editors to describe certain kinds of stories, stories that, because of their topic, are always of interest to readers. The idea behind the evergreen stories is that they're always fresh, i.e. forever green. For example, at a fitness magazine, which often runs stories about effective workout routines, the topic of new abdominal workouts is an evergreen one.Although an evergreen story features a topic of perennial interest, these stories still need a strong hook.”http://mediacareers.about.com/od/glossary/g/evergreen.htm

The thing is when you write the evergreen pieces, they will hang around…but remember you can repurpose them.

Megan Marrs said, “…Reformatting your content for different mediums means appealing to more audiences and extending your reach.” Megan went on to say, “Some people are just so great that we can’t stand to see them leave the earth. Buffy was brought back to life so she could keep staking vamps. Gandalf was resurrected and given a color change. Your top-notch content deserves the same treatment, but only the best will do.”http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2015/02/03/repurposing-content

Pamela Vaughn wrote some interesting information about it at this website if you would like to get more information:http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/31501/Why-Every-Business-Blog-Needs-Evergreen-Content.aspx

All of us who have blogs get tired sometimes of trying to find things to write on our blog. That’s just normal. Maybe looking at evergreen articles might give us a boost. So let’s look at our blogs a minute. What articles do we have in our archives that we can recycle? What different medium can we use to reach a different audience?

We’re writers, so it should be a little bit easier than we think. Try it out. Look for one of your pieces that would be considered timeless content. Now, when you find it, dissect it a little bit…what would be three ways you could recycle the content and reach what three different audiences?

You are wondering why you would want to do this as busy as you are. Well, because it stretches your imagination.

Try it; what do you have to lose?