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If you are a blogger, then you know how hard it is to do it all — social media, promotion, photography, editing — and of course, planning content. Sometimes the hardest thing of them all is coming up with content. I used to be the type of blogger that would scurry last minute and throw a post together the night before. While, I’m definitely not perfect, this does still happen from time to time. But what has changed, is that now, I plan content at least 1-2 months ahead of time. By knowing what I’ll be posting 3 weeks from now, I can prepare myself better…and that’s all thanks to my editorial calendar. Since it’s been so helpful for me, I’m here to share a few of my tips for you.
But First, What Is An Editorial Calendar?
An editorial calendar is also known as a content calendar, which serves as our guide for weeks or months ahead of time.
Is It Really Beneficial?
Absolutely, especially if you hate working under pressure and don’t want to be scrambling last minute to come up with content. You are also more likely to avoid blogger burnout and be stress free. Also, if you have your content planned ahead of time, it’s easier to reach your goals and also reach your target audience.
These are just a few of the things that have helped me along the way.
Choose The Categories You Are Blogging About
Once you decide exactly what your blogging categories will be, planning content is so much easier. Since my blog is about beauty, fashion and lifestyle — that’s exactly what my categories are. Lifestyle is pretty broad, but I tend to work well with it because I can fit so much into that category and make it work for my readers.
Commit To A Schedule
So you’ve gotten your categories down, now it’s time to nail down a posting schedule. I like to post Monday’s, Wednesday’s and Friday’s, for the most part. Recently, I’ve been trying to stick to Beauty Monday’s, Fashion Wednesday’s and Lifestyle Friday’s. Obviously, it doesn’t work out that way every single time, but it gives me an idea of how many beauty posts I’ll need for the upcoming month. Once you’ve decided how many times a week you will be posting, you can plan around your categories and days.
Choose Your Planning Method
I’m a pen and paper kind of gal, my planner goes everywhere with me, along with a couple of notebooks. But if you are more on the techy side, there are tons of options out on the internet — Google Calendar, Phone, Trello — use what works for you. I’ve mentioned many times that a planner has helped my blog grow and keep me super organized.
Plan Around Upcoming Holidays
Use this to your benefit, start planning ahead of time or at least brainstorming ideas. Fall seems like ages away, but in the blogging industry, it’s really not that far out. Think about it, the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale is around the corner and it’s ALL Fall clothing, you can use the sale to your advantage to stock up on NEW Fall clothing and you won’t have to worry about buying more once cooler weather approaches. That’s essentially how planning ahead works. LOL
Work Around Successful Blog Posts
Go back to your older blog posts and see what did really well, now build off of them. For example, my Drugstore Makeup Starter Kit Under $100 did really well, so I wrote a second post to that, Makeup Kit Essentials, that goes into more detail.
I hope these tips have helped you in some way and perhaps inspired you to start creating your own editorial calendar.
Do you have an editorial calendar? What method works best for you?
If you found this helpful, why not pin this image below and help others!
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