Have you ever woken up in morning in a panic about what you were going to write about on your blog that day? You see the clock ticking down and you need to get a blog out. In desperation you have to throw a post together, whether it turns out good or bad, is really in the lap of god.
Have you ever experienced the nightmare of writer’s block where you have gone days, maybe weeks unable to post a single article? What about those days where you just feel uninspired, nothing you write seems to work.
As bloggers we expect that we can run at 100% of our capabilities all of the time and, when we never for whatever reason seem to prepare for the eventuality of falling ill, or maybe that family holiday where you are made to leave your laptop at home. It’s important to remember that, even if blogging is your business, that life can get in the way and things like illness, family matters and time off will get in the way.
“Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning” Winston Churchill
Planning is everything when it comes to a successful business; that applies equally to running a blog. We must consistently create and publish great content to have any chance of achieving our blogging goals.
One thing that each blogger should have is an editorial calendar or in other words a blog content plan where you plan out month’s blog posts in advance. Planning as in any other business will have the same positive effects for your blog as well.
Today I want to show you how to save time, and reduce stress by implementing an editorial calendar.
By knowing what post will go out on which day, you’re able to spend time creating brilliant content. You’ll also be able to create a more organised blog strategy because you’ll be looking ahead at your blog rather than in your normal day-to-day panic. By working ahead of time you can brainstorm and set the course for your blog. You’ll find more time to do that dreaded marketing.
Creating an editorial calendar is a great way to get in control of your blog. Obviously, you want to keep up with time-sensitive topics and breaking news, but by adding an editorial calendar you’ll allow yourself to always be a step ahead and a more relaxed blogger. When comments or events inspire me, I will change my schedule and write and post an unplanned article, as flexibility is important to any blogger. But on a normal day you will find me posting an article I had planned about a month ago.
I set aside the last Sunday of every month to plan out my content for the month ahead. This enables me to write articles and get ahead. This is important when I need to write 5 blog posts a week for my blog, as I post Monday to Friday each and every week. And is even more vital now that I have more than one blog.
I work out my title, category, keywords, etc. and write them up on a calendar for the day I plan to post them. This also gives me plenty of time to research each subject and put together my article. So I schedule my posts out for a month at a time. This ensures that I produce well-researched, quality content. Once the calendar is completed for the month ahead, I then turn my attention to the content itself. I create a mind map of all the ideas I have relating to each post which will give me a week’s worth of post ideas at my fingertips which gives me a real head start and means that I can usually get right down to business and start writing on the days I need to do the writing of posts.
Do you blog with a plan in mind, a monthly map of the topics you want to cover, or do you just wing it? While there’s definitely a place for impulse in blogging, there are massive advantages to planning out your content in advance. By mapping out a plan of posts, you can reduce your stress, work in advance, maintain consistency, and build anticipation.
So get on top of your blog. Build some structure to what you do. Start by using an editorial calendar on a monthly basis. Your blogging life will become much easier.
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