There are two types of bloggers: those who plan their content in advanced and those who merely wing it on a day-to-day basis.
For those who identify as the latter, this post is dedicated to you!
Now, there is certainly nothing wrong with spontaneously posting. In fact, I am pretty sure most bloggers will do this because planning content in advanced takes time - and who has time these days? However, in case you are looking for new organizational ways to plan your blog content, I am here to help! Here are the answers to your most asked questions regarding blog content creation.
Why Bother?
If you need some convincing, planning your content ahead of time is highly beneficial. True, it requires dedicating some time to plan everything out at once, but the benefits are hard to pass up. I love planning ahead because you can get an early start on tasky things that consume a lot of time, like photo shoots, copywriting, and optimizing content for social media. Most importantly, it guarantees consistency!
Personally, I find that I work better with clear guidelines and due dates. It puts more pressure on myself to deliver quality, relevant content as promised. This is important if blogging is or will be your full-time job because you should want to hold yourself accountable. Not only is this organization beneficial for yourself but for other people and brands you happen to be working with.
How do I get started?
The hardest part is always the inception of planned blog content. It requires you to sit down and think ahead. You need to consider what your reader’s expectations are, what you want to deliver, goals you want to accomplish, current trends, and any other scheduled events/sponsored posts/content you deem relevant. From this, you can derive topics, keywords, and formulate post titles carefully!
Once you have developed a multitude of content ideas, my favorite way to organize the information is through an editorial calendar. This can be created on Excel, handwritten, downloaded from a template, iCal – whichever method works best for you. If you’d like to try a useful app, be sure to check out Trello (my favorite!), which I spoke about here.
You should work on plugging in your content in regards to post date optimization. For example, if your post is about a Halloween DIY costume, make sure to schedule this on your content calendar in a timely matter. Not the day before Halloween when time has run out or their costume has already been decided.
Now what?
If you have successfully crafted your blog editorial calendar, the next steps should be to continue to follow and to update it. Use it to your advantage to work ahead and regularly pump out quality blog content. As a side note, just because you have planned your blog material in advanced, does not mean you can’t change it either. Say an idea comes to you that needs to be posted pronto – go for it. Make changes as you see fit.
I hope this helps you organize your blog scheduling and posting better! It can be a tricky thing to manage. However, I have learned that some organization is truly better than none. Having a clear picture of what is ahead for your blog is better for business and for your state of mind!
xo,
Susan
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