Coming up with great blog content is not always easy. Ideas are everywhere, but not all of them are good. Winging it will not always work. To stay sane and organized, plan ahead and create a content calendar.
The Benefits of a Content Calendar
Fact: writing a blog post can, sometimes, be a challenge. A small one or a massive one – it all depends – but a challenge nonetheless. People plan their meals ahead of time, not only so they won’t veer off their eating plan, but to make their lives easier. They create shopping lists not only to stay on a budget but to make things quicker. Notice the trend? Planning ahead usually works in all different kinds of situations and blogging is not an exception.
A Content Calendar to Grow Your Blog
It’s easy to think of your blog as something you’ll do whenever you’re inspired and just write about anything that comes to mind, but if you want to engage your audience, the content you post should be well thought out. Winging it won’t cut it.
Stay Organized
Rather than having your posts scattered all over, consolidate them within a content calendar. It will help your keep better track of your topics, deadlines, and all the important stuff.
See the Bigger Picture
If you set up a good content calendar, you should be able to see what you’ll be blogging about for a given amount of time. This will also allow you to have better balance in the content you post and the frequency with which you post it.
Stay Consistent
Research has shown that 42% of people achieve their goals when they write them down first.
Having a plan will help you stay on track and will also reduce the amount of guesswork around what you’ll be writing about.
Creating Your Own Content Calendar
Building a content calendar from scratch can be overwhelming. The key is to have all the information you need in one place.
The sections of your content calendar can include a page with specifics such as:Blog topic idea
Category
Suggested headline
Idea development (subheadings and topics you will be discussing)
Keywords
Image source
Your call to action
Idea for a content upgrade
First edit
Editing tool (like Grammarly or Hemmingway)
Published date