How To Create An Easy Blog Calendar and Stick To It
By: Rachel Thompson
Tags: Marketing, Blogging, Social Media, Productivity, Writing

You want to blog regularly. You need to. Yet, you can’t get it together.

Why? Oh, several reasons:

I have so many topics running around in my mind. I can’t settle on one.

I can’t find the time.

I’m completely blocked. I’ve already written about everything.

I started blogging in 2008, so I’ve experienced all of the above. I coach clients as well on this and I hear these statements a lot. We are all busy, so the best way to handle all of the above is to get yourself organized. How? It’s a simple approach to what is honestly a simple problem: have a system.

Let’s discuss a few options.

Keywords/KeyPhrases

One of the biggest mistakes I see writers and bloggers make is not identifying their author branding, which is the very foundation of everything they will do on their social media and in blogging.

They just want to talk about and sell sell sell their book. We all know these authors. We all avoid these authors. Maybe you’re one of them. Let’s change that.

By identifying what interests you, what you’re an expert in, what you’re passionate about, what you want to learn more about (aka, your keywords and keyphrases), you are creating a roadmap for yourself. A plan to follow. A system.

These topics are what you will blog about.

I suggest 5–6 main branding keywords/keyphrases, and 3–4 “back-ups” — topics that are fun, lighter, yet still make you, you.

Remember, we’re talking personal (aka, author) branding here. We brand the author, not (only) the book. Why? You’ll be writing more than one book. If you talk only about the book you’ve written, what happens when the next book comes along? You have to create all new accounts. Save yourself the trouble.

People connect with people, readers follow authors, so build relationships with readers by being the person you are. You’ve been doing it your whole life. Be authentically who you are. That’s what personal branding is all about.

Want to learn more about personal branding? Read here:

Example: For my writing account, Rachel Thompson, Author (aka, @RachelintheOC) my keywords/keyphrases are the following:

surviving childhood sexual abuse

relationships

love and loss

women and children’s health

mental health

writing

My back-up keywords are:

my cats

my lack of cooking skills

my love of Nutella, reading, and champagne

You won’t see me writing about champagne or my silly cats on my blog, however, I will share photos of them on my social media. This is how the keywords/keyphrases work across our entire platform. This also solves the issue of having too many topics.

Narrow your focus to help your readers know what to expect from you, yet don’t make it so incredibly restricted that you’re only writing about one thing all the time because, boring.

First Assignment: Write out a list of what interests you, as I mentioned above. Pick your 5–6 major topics and your 3–4 back-ups. Keep it handy.

Creating Your Topic Lists

Now that you know your 5–6 main keywords/keyphrases, create topic lists. I do this in my business blogging idea notebook in columns. Do what works for you. I spend about 10 minutes each week coming up with blogging ideas and just keep adding to my columns.

If it’s a blank-idea day, that’s okay. I know I’ll come back to it.

Here’s a super high-tech image of my super high-tech blogging idea notebook:

Courtesy of Rachel Thompson, Author

No need to try to figure out what I wrote. Point is: get it out of your head and onto something, whether that’s a computer program, a Notes app on your phone, or an actual notebook.

So in the example above, I have four blog post ideas under the heading of BLOGGING, and four blog post ideas under the heading of SOCIAL MEDA.

This takes a few minutes out of my week. Surely you have the time to take a few minutes to write down blog topics instead of futzing around on social media.

This is your second step in getting organized.

Once I’ve written down the blog ideas under the main topics, I transcribe them into my blogging calendar (see more below), and start again with more ideas. Stuck for ideas? Even when you think you’ve written everything there is to write, I guarantee you haven’t. I’ve been consistently blogging for 12 years.

Where to find ideas, beyond what I’ve mentioned above? Social media is a great place. I asked my @BadRedheadMedia Twitter which of these four topics held the most interest for them (all on my blogging calendar already), and “creating a blogging calendar” was by far the most popular, so this is what I’m bringing to you this week.

Courtesy of Rachel Thompson, Author

Honestly, this is my favorite go-to way to assess interest. I received over 25 responses and then went over to Facebook with a more specifically-worded question: do you have a blogging calendar and if so, what do you use and if not, why not? Those responses helped me create this post as well.

Some folks go to Quora, a Q&A platform. See what topics interest you and dive in.

I also find great topics here on Medium when I read what someone wrote and feel inspired, or, more often, read the comments and completely disagree!

Inspiration is everywhere, y’all.

Create Your Blogging Calendar

Step number three. There are many, many ways of going about this. Fancy, simple, and somewhere in-between. I’m a practical girl, so I go with something that works for me and isn’t difficult to learn: Google Calendar.

It’s free, easy to use, and easy to share, in case you have an assistant or accountability partner.

Take the lists you’ve created in your blogging notebook (or wherever you stashed it), and now add your topics to an actual calendar, which takes only a few minutes. I keep it short and sweet:

Research and outline on Mondays

Fill in on Wednesdays

Finish and submit on Fridays

Here’s what my October calendar looks like: