Using Editorial Calendars for Productivity and Profit

I’ve said it a few times already.

Staring a blog is easy… keeping it filled with good content is a whole other story.

There’s no shortage of gurus telling you how to start a blog, what platform to use and themes. Or what plugins you must have. While some will tell you to brainstorm a bunch of ideas, they don’t actually tell you how to plan, generate and publish all the content your audience needs. Day-of-day. Week-after-week. Month-after-month.

When it comes time to instruct you on creating content, they’re often just as lost as you are about the process, so you’re left struggling in front of your audience.

Letting a Reader Down

A few months ago, I found a pin that directed me to a great blog post. It drew me in immediately with was filled with ideas and written with style. I was hooked and wanted more from this blogger. I read all the articles from the “Recent Posts” from the sidebar and they were amazing.

But there weren’t any more posts available. This blogger only had six posts that she put up within three weeks and then she…

Quit. Had life get in her way. Hit writer’s block. Or maybe got lost in the process.

All of those scenarios have happened to me at one time or another in my blogging career. You know why? Because creating good content consistently that always hit’s the mark is hard work.

But I should have known better.

I’ve been a writer most of my life. I understand deadlines. I understand editorial consistency. I understand meeting publication and production dates.

That’s why I had to go back to my roots and start using an…

Editorial calendar.

Back in the day, I never dared go into editorial or production meeting without one.

What is an Editorial Calendar?

How an Editorial Calendar Should Work

You have to take a three-pronged approach to blogging. First, get everything organized. If you’re scattered on your blog, it confuses the readers, search engine spiders – and even you.

Then you want to map out a schedule for your blogging efforts. Having a deadline for yourself can benefit you and help you work towards a specific goal, not just something vague.

Last, you want to begin creating your content – and we’re going to cover three options for you to choose from – a series, an individual post, or a guest blog post (and you can mix these up – you don’t have to choose from just one).

Oh, and here’s something you need to know… editorial calendars don’t have to be fancy, complicated or cost a thing! Here’s editorial calendar I created for myself.

This editorial calendar is one page that I print out for each month (you can just write on it old-school style or put it in a photo editor like PicMonkey and add the info you need.

I’m trying hard now to make sure each of my categories gets (mostly) equal time and I can schedule and see that at a glance with this calendar. Then I add my titles or sometimes just long-tail keywords. And, of course, I have lots of notes.

Then I check off when I’ve finished the first draft, final draft and then when the content is published.

And I’ve given myself a notes section that I can use for other types of due dates that keep me on track for other product launches.

Do You Want this Editorial Calendar for Yourself?