Why You Need an Editorial Calendar to Grow Your Blog
Are you tired of writers block? Can’t think of a single thing to write about on your blog? Enter the editorial calendar. You need one if you want to get serious about blogging. It sounds fancy but it’s really just a calendar of your upcoming blog post ideas. I’m not a paper and pencil girl so I have a sheet in Google Drive with all of my blog post ideas. When I want to write about something I go to my list and pull out one of the topics and fill them into my upcoming week so I can start brainstorming and creating images.
Once you’ve narrowed down your niche, can your brainstorm topics that you can cover on your blog in upcoming posts? Perhaps you want to set aside a day for specific themes or topics, if you cover several topics this will help you ensure that you write about each of the other topics as well.
I like to use a mindmap app (mindmeister) to brainstorm new topics, I have my main topic in the middle and I branch off from there into new topics or various subtopics. If you answer all the basic question words about your topic: who, where, what, when, how, you’ll find that you come up with a lot of new ideas.
If you need more ideas try some of these popular blog post ideas.
Blog post ideas
- tutorials
- how to _____
- case studies
- best….
- worst…
- seasonal content
- printables
- answer reader questions
- list posts – top 10 ___
- free resources
Once I have my schedule and use the Editorial Calendar plugin and plop the blog post ideas into my site so that I can see what I need to work on for the week. I like looking at the calendar format.
I have my editorial calendar planned out for the remainder of the year. I want to ensure that I’m posting seasonal content 6-8 weeks prior to ensure that my posts have time to get picked up by the search engines and build up momentum on Pinterest.
My spreadsheet for the year, contains dates down the side with my blog topics that are color coded by category for my printables, homeschool, reviews and sponsored posts. You’d have to come up with your own system that makes sense for you.
Once you’re ready to write, all you have to do is look at your list and get writing, no more worries. Less stress means it’s more likely to get done.
You can see the other blog posts in this series: Best Ways to Grow Your Blog.
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