How to create an editorial calendar
As an author we all know that blogging is important to building our platform, building our brand, and increasing our exposure. However, it can be difficult to figure out what to blog about, at least for me. With the novels I write I have an idea of what's going to happen and although it may be loosely structured, I have at least some idea where I'm going and I can write down that path. With blogging I have found it makes it so much easier when I have a planned calendar of topics and things to blog about. I have read and researched how others put together their editorial calendar until I finally have reached a formula that works well for me. So well in fact I thought I would share my tips and best practices with you in hope it may be helpful.
For the purpose of this post I am assuming you have a target reader in mind, a topic your blogging about, a focus. If not, before you create your editorial calendar you need to decide what that audience and focus will be. Click here for an informative article on choosing your focus.
Step 1 – Decide what types of blog posts you want to have. Informative, promotional, lists, product reviews, personal rants etc. Here is a great post by Karol K with 52 different types of blog posts. Choosing what type of posts you feel comfortable writing will help you when it comes to scheduling.
Step 2 – Chose how often you wish to post. Most people say 3 times a week minimum is what you should post to get yourself noticed. It's better to err on the side of caution because whatever you chose to do you need to stick with as consistency is the key. Better to commit to posting 1 time a week, on Mondays, and holding to that than being sporadic (although we are all guilty of it at some time).
Step 3 – Let's say you have decided you want to post 3 times a week, Monday-Wednesday-Friday.. So now you want to create a cadence of what type of post you want to post on each of those days. For example Mondays will be informative posts, Wednesdays a list of your top 10, Fridays a product review. Now you will know what type of post you need to write and just need to determine the topic.
Step 4 – Brainstorming ideas for each of the types of blogs you are going to write. As I go through the week things will happen that make me think "I should blog about this" and of course I write them down. But brainstorming or mind mapping will help get a bunch of ideas on paper. Not all of them may become a blog but you would be amazed at how many great ideas you will come up with.
I plan a week in advance and therefore on Fridays I am planning the follow week. I schedule at least 2 hours to create a list of ideas and then make rough notes for each day I am going to post. I keep all this information in a simple excel worksheet. I will then write Mondays post and schedule it. On Monday I write Tuesdays post and so on. On the weekends, time permitting, I will often write an extra post or two that I can throw in if my schedule gets off kilter.
Now I know none of this seems very difficult and it's not. For me, and I know it's the same for many of you (based on feedback from my blogger friends) that it's staying on task to the calendar you have set up. It can be easy to get sidetracked but with creating the calendar, and therefore a routine, it will be easier for you to stay on track.
Because I by no means have the best method for creating a editorial calendar, it's just what works for me, I would love to hear your thoughts on how you decide what to blog about.
Laina
