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Making Friends With An Editorial Calendar

ByBlogPaws Team

Guest post by Blog Manager Robbi Hess

I know I've written about editorial calendars in the past, but some information bears repeating. The
Picture1 reason I was struck again this past week with the benefit of this powerful tool is I was under some tight deadlines for my clients and that, coupled with an impending cross country trip, could have caused stress if I didn't have my editorial calendars to fall back on. Whew! Saved by the calendar. 

If you haven't taken the time yet to embrace the beauty and productivity your pet blogging can reap from an editorial calendar try these steps: 

  1. Writing fresh content is not an easy
    thing to do even when you’ve been doing it daily for years. One problem many
    pet bloggers run into is “have I already written this post?” syndrome. After a
    while, believe me, content runs together; your editorial calendar helps prevent
    that. Keeping track of your content on an excel spreadsheet, is a great way to
    track what you’ve written and what you want to write.
  2. An editorial calendar will help you
    focus on a monthly theme. Remember, your themes for your blogging should be
    focused on what the readers want and expect from you when they come to your
    blog. Know your audience is a mantra you should repeat often.
  3. Set up your editorial calendar for a
    calendar year. Quickly fill in topics you know you want to blog about. Look for
    holidays or obscure celebrations and fill those into your calendar. Holidays
    can lead to great traffic for your blog because you’re writing about something
    timely and trending. Once you’ve filled in an overarching monthly theme, ie. January
    is the month you’ve chosen to blog about, “how to choose the best puppy for
    your family.” Once you’ve chosen the theme, you can fill in the days of the
    week in that month on which you will blog with topics that enhance and expand
    upon the theme.
  4. Your editorial calendar should also
    be used to help you adhere to a publishing schedule. If your readers have
    gotten accustomed to seeing a new blog post from you every Monday, Wednesday
    and Friday, fulfill their needs and stick to that schedule. When filling in the
    editorial calendar make certain you have a headline or article idea for each of
    the days on which you blog. Use your editorial calendar, too to fill in guest
    bloggers on your site.
  5. You may need more than one editorial
    calendar. This will depend entirely upon the type and amount of blogging you
    do. I currently maintain an editorial calendar for each of my clients and one
    for my personal blog and one for my pet blog, without those calendars I would
    be constantly scrambling for topics every time I sit down at my keyboard – with
    them, writing is a breeze.

Use your editorial calendars to help
you market yourself on your social media sites. Note your social media
platforms on the calendar and check off the dates that you’ve updated your
social media with information from your blog. Do you use an editorial calendar?
Is it helpful? 

 

 

 

 

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10 Comments

  2. I just started using a calendar and it is helping to balance out my topics. I’m just getting use to the idea of using it every day. But yes I think its an excellent tool.

  3. I have a loose calendar, sketching out a topic per day of the week. For me this is being organized, unfortunately. Maybe I’ll graduate to adulthood and make a real calendar for myself. It certainly would help. Thank you. 🙂

  4. I recently was designated to create a facebook page for our company. I’d be lost without what facebook calls a “content calendar” to keep me up to date and organized for our page content. Why didn’t I think of THIS for my blog???? DUH. Thanks for your suggestions! I gotta go, my new blank editorial calendar awaits!

  5. Loved this! I have been using an Editorial Calendar since i first began blogging. I have TWO….one for EACH blog 🙂
    Nothing on it is “etched in stone” but it gives me direction and helps prevent me from scheduling TWO book reviews on the same day (when I read the books the weekend before I do the review….2 in one day would be a nightmare!)

  6. I use an editorial calendar that comes as a WordPress plugin as well as a paper calendar. It is a useful tool.
    That said, I’m going to gently disagree with your first point.
    It’s not always bad to write on the same topic. Many of your current readers wouldn’t have seen an old post. So it’s a good idea to revisit topics.
    Although I was embarrassed once when I wrote two posts with the exact same title, my readers found the information useful (it was about deciding whether your pet should travel with you or stay home) and no one realized I had written two very similar posts.
    On one of my blogs, I’m planning to go back and revisit a bunch of posts and publish them again with updates.

  8. Oh, very nice tips, thank you. I use spreadsheets for the blog, radio show and newsletter. Helps me see at a glance what’s going on where.
    I like to visit the same topic also. What I find is that many times my experience has changed, allowing me write from a different point of view.
    Thanks so much!

  9. This is a good article for all bloggers to use editorial calendar for managing their contents effectievly.
    Did you get a chance to check the website http://www.ezedcal.com to manage editorial calendar easily for your blog and show your editorial calendar in your blog easily (optional)
    Thanks & Regards
    ~Jo

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