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Posting consistently and on a set day is hard work. Many of us keep searching for the perfect Editorial Calendar option, the perfect Scheduling App, anything to help lessen the workload - and there are so many options available, how do you begin to try and decide? And what is best for you?
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Let's start with the basics
WHAT EXACTLY IS AN EDITORIAL CALENDAR?
An Editorial Calendar is precisely a calendar (d-uh) to help you organize your blog or business and keep track of posts and tasks. From any old notebook to the most advanced options (e.g. CoSchedule, WP Editorial Calendar Plug-Ing, etc.) there are countless ways to build up your editorial calendar, each different option comes with a different price tag and different functions that might or might not suit you.
Today I'll be sharing how I organize my Calendar so that I'm always up to date with my content creation.
But
WHY SHOULD I HAVE AN EDITORIAL CALENDAR,
I hear you ask, well:
- Keep on Top of What You Need to Be Writing - Organize your ideas, plan in advance and set deadlines.
I upload new Blog Posts every Wednesday and Friday, which means that when Brainstorming post ideas I schedule them around that and plan for any life events that might take time away from working on the blog - like my full-time job - and also consider how much time the post is going to consume. For example, if I plan to write about a DYI project, I will need to plan to 1) Do the Project, 2) Shoot the Project, 3) Write the Article - it will consume more time than if I write about Instagram Hashtags To Grow Engagement, where I would share a list of Hashtags that I'm bound to already use and will only need to create a PDF List with the information. Given this, I would schedule the DYI Project for the last week of the month and the Instagram Post for the First Week - this way I could split my bigger blog post into tasks and distribute them throughout the weeks around my work schedule. - Plan Your Social Media around your post dates - An organised calendar helps you get a clearer view of what you should be sharing in your social media that relates to your blog topics.
Having a set date for posts can also help you keep on top of your social media, by allowing you to know when to create content that will relate to your new Blog Post. - Never run out of content - Be in control of your content by analysing your Monthly Views, brainstorming new content when it is actually necessary and adhering to a content creation plan that suits you!
- Have a visual map of all your tasks and keep all the information acessible and known
These are the main reasons I use an Editorial Calendar. Also, of course, another big positive is allowing you to create more content in one go, and consolidating the time you would spend daily working on content into one single time block (more depending on your posting frequency) and lays out all you need to work on to finalize your posts - which ultimately saves you time!
USING TRELLO AS YOUR EDITORIAL CALENDAR
Now, I have used and tried countless different mediums and platforms throughout the years, and just recently settled on Trello. From notebooks to journals and agendas to Google Calendar, ThunderBird Mail and others, I have truly tried out several calendar apps and options, but ultimately there was always something missing that made me stop using them.
Trello, however, is super-easy to use, full of interesting functions and perfect for small bloggers.
So exactly is Trello and how do you use it as an Editorial Calendar?
Trello is a website that allows you to keep your life, blog or business organized through boards. You can create several To Do Lists with different names, categorize your tasks, add deadlines, share with team members, etc. You can also add "power-ups" to your board that allow for more functionalities.
Why you should use Trello:
- Visual Interface - Super intuitive and allows you to organize your tasks however you like
- Add Labels, Checklists, Comments and Deadlines to each entry - You can truly build up your post ideas by giving yourself progress checklists, categorizing your entries, adding comments with new info or input - the possibilities are tremendous
- Share with a Team - Customize who can edit boards, send team-wide messages, build projects
- Add cool features - automation, calendars, there is a big list of "power-ups" to choose from! - one downside to the Free Plan is only being able to add one power-up.
They offer a Free Plan and a few Paid Plan options that start at 9.99$. If you want to try Trello out, click here to get started completely free!
With the Free Plan you can:
- Add unlimited lists of your making to your board,
- Add one "power-up",
- Add up to 10MB of file attachments per card
- Customize your Board's background.
Here's how I organize each post:
- Add a deadline: What day is that post going to be Uploaded
- Label: What Category is that post inserted in?
- Checklist: I add a personalized Blog Post Creation Checklist to each blog post to let me know what still needs to be done
- Description: I use the description box to write in any links I want to add to my blog post.
Okay, so I wrote my ideas down, categorized them, gave them a deadline and added a completion checklist.
But that doesn't seem very visual as far as being an editorial calendar goes.
That's where their "Calendar" Power-Up comes in. Calendar pulls up a monthly view of your deadlines, allowing you to focus and prioritize your tasks by date.
I do recommend choosing the Calendar as your single power-up if you are going for their Free Plan, so that you can truly embody Trello as your Editorial Calendar.
It is working wonders for me, as I am a very visual thinker - having every month available as one block helps me plan better and create content ahead of time!
To help you keep organized, I created this Post Checklist based on the one I embed in my Trello Cards. Grab it now below!
Completely work out every step of your post and stay ahead of your Calendar by keeping track of what needs to be done until your deadline and where to promote your posts once you have published!
How do you plan your blog and what is your preferred software for keeping organized?
