What would you say if I told you that you could take one idea – your book – and turn it into a gold mine? Well, that’s the principle behind repurposing, or turning one idea into many.

Repurposing is used a lot in the interior design business. It’s taking an item that may have one purpose and then finding multiple uses for it, like taking a traditional glass flower vase and using it as storage vessel for lemons and limes or other objects. A recent news story I saw told how one chronic speeder found his 2000 Dodge Viper repurposed as a DARE vehicle for police to use in their educational programs to keep kids off drugs. Repurposing is everywhere, and you can do it too.


Let’s say you’ve written an instructional book. You can repurpose that book in an unlimited number of ways, and each of those ways can appeal to a different market base. It’s so much easier finding and appealing to a new market than it is writing a new book. And each new market brings new income. Repurposing is an ingenious way to sell more books or information products more rapidly, superior and with less effort.

From your hard cover book you can release a soft cover book, an Ebook and an audio CD of your book. With one idea you’ve just appealed to four different markets. From there you can create editorials or articles based on chapters of the book. You can also start a blog, eZine or website.

When people ask you questions about your work, jot those questions down. Those can simply become entries on your blog or eZine or the topic for future articles or even another book. If your content is appropriate, you can develop workshops and seminars or a series of teleseminars. Then you can create workbooks, guides and 3-ring binders as supplementary materials. You can even move into personal consulting and group coaching. And the closer and more private access your audience has to you, the more you must charge.

Repurposing can really have a domino effect. The broader the consumption of your message, the more money you make. Broad consumption is being read, being listened to, being downloaded, being printed and being in demand.

These are just some of the ways content can be repurposed – there are many more. You can create an empire starting with one book. Let your mind go crazy with all of the ideas out there and all of the possibilities, and get started at the present.