I’m a big fan of reusable blocks. I’ve even gone so far as created an entire website from $180 worth of content & seen how far I can stretch it using reusable blocks & AI-generated content.
You can see that abomination of a website at https://damngoodemail.com now referenced as BDE.
BDE is also serving as the examples provided for this article.
In the video, I talk about why I didn’t continue with that website, but the tl;dr version is I already have a website that’s performing in 1 industry; why branch off when I can create a sister site to cross-promote.
Anyway, the three uses for reusable blocks are advertisements, boilerplate text, and entire chunks of articles.
For context, and assuming you never went to the BDE website, is it is a review site for cold email outreach tools. They offer a pretty healthy commission structure (15-30% recurring), so I figured why not try and stretch ten or so reviews into as many articles as possible.
Boilerplate text
By definition, the boilerplate text is
Boilerplate text, or simply boilerplate, is any written text (copy) that can be reused in new contexts or applications without significant changes to the original. The term is used in reference to statements, contracts and computer code, and is used in the media to refer to hackneyed or unoriginal writing.
Dang Wikipedia
This can be something like the about section of a product or service or its pricing structure. And that’s exactly what I use it for.
One of the great things about creating niche or authority websites for B2B products is instead of having to come up with new products to promote as you would with typical B2C sites (top 10 spatulas, top 10 sporks, top 10 lava lamps for introverts), you start with a handful of products that you know about.
So instead of writing the same about section dozens of times, you throw it into a reusable block and plug it in when you need it. It saves time and adds to the word count with a click of a button.
Advertisements & calls to action
Another excellent use case for reusable blocks is for your in-article advertisements and calls to action. No matter what action you want your reader to take, you can change it on the fly and have it reflect on every single page.
These can be an opt-in to your email list, a new partner you’re trying to promote, or a new service you’re offering and want customers on day 1.
Either way, it’s great to have a place that you can update a slot in your articles to whatever the hell you want.
You’ll have to keep this in mind if you go this route because you will want to start adding these blocks sooner than later. Trust me, retroactively adding one block to 240 articles is less fun than it sounds.
Entire sections of articles ๐
This is the mack daddy (or daddy mack) of what I like using reusable blocks for. It’s a formulaic approach to creating content that makes it incredibly easy to reuse them multiple times on your site.
So, for the sake of explanation, we’re going to look at the BDE site.
See how there is a reusable block for
- About, or the boilerplate section
- Deployment, or how the software is accessed
- Support, or how users can get help
- Training, or how users can learn the software
- Features, or what the software can do
- Affiliate program, or how users can earn additional income
- Pricing, or how much it costs (duh)
- Integrations, or what other software it connects to
There are a few more, but the screenshot cut off. Every single program hits on these topics.
Now, I can take those sections and create several articles while only writing an intro and conclusion and nothing more.
So let’s say I’m working with ten platforms. From them, I can create
- Complete reviews/overviews of platforms
- The Complete Review of [Platform] (10 articles)
- Vs articles, comparing two platforms
- [Platform A] vs [Platform B]: Which Software For You (45 articles)
- Alternatives of articles, listing the other 9 platforms I have about sections written
- Top Alternatives for [Platform] (10 articles)
- Integrations articles based on which platforms integrate with other platforms
- [Software Niche] Software That Integrate With [Other Software] (Variable, a shitload though)
- Some sort of pricing type piece, like best [Software Niche] Under $20 a Month (also variable)
And the list can go on. All starting with ten articles. TEN!
But what about duplicate content? Won’t I get dinged by Google!?
This is not like college, where you can get in trouble for academic plagiarism (submitting a paper you wrote in one class for another class). Look at sites like G2, Capterra, or any of the clones. They all reuse text on multiple pages and are essentially dynamically generated. We’re just doing the same but for long-form content as opposed to tables.
That and you’re genuinely helpful, which doesn’t need to be original content to answer search queries.