How to Fill in Your Editorial Calendar for a Year!

Do you plan your editorial content for a year? Does the thought overwhelm you?  At first, it sounded impossible to me. I’m a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kinda girl when it comes to writing and publishing posts.  The most I’ve ever gotten ahead is a couple of weeks!  

The thought never occurred to me until one of my friends mentioned filling in her editorial calendar for the next year.  So I gave it a shot.  Guess what?  It was easier than I thought and you can do it too!

Snag a beautiful free calendar here if you need one! Here are steps to take to plan for an amazing year.

Step 1:  Think about your goals.  Are there changes you want to make? Are you narrowing your niche?  Have you thought about writing a series of posts or working on collaborations with other bloggers or brands?  Jot down some notes and see what your goals look like on paper.

Step 2:  Decide how many times a week you are going to publish.  Since I already co-host a weekly link-up party, my goal is to have 2-3 original posts published a week.  Thinking about your posts in bite-size pieces will help.

Step 3:  Start by filling in your calendar with previously committed posts (if any).  For instance, if you are a part of a link up party, contribute to other sites, or have posts planned with brands.  If you don’t participate in any of these, think about joining a link up as a co-host or guest posting on other blogs monthly.  Facebook groups and blogging tribes are great places to look for collaborations.

Step 4:  Mark all of your holidays and seasons on your calendar.  Write in-post ideas relating to specific holidays and seasons.  Since my niche is home related, these are easy ones for me.  Perhaps your post ideas are recipes, entertaining tips, decorating/DIYs, or activities.   Look back to see what holiday and seasonal posts were popular in the previous year (s).  Color coding topics, seasons, and holidays by highlighting them in different colors is a great way to keep these posts organized.

Step 5:  Now you should have a few posts scattered here and there.  Take another look at your goals and fill in weekly or monthly posts pertaining to a topic (a series).  Go ahead and take a break, sleep on it.  You will probably come up with more ideas for a series or topic-specific posts.  It’s the end of the year, and now is a good time to ask your readers what they want to see more of!

Other ideas:

• Think about round-up ideas (penciling these in early will give you time to ask permission to use images and links from other bloggers).
• Rework older posts (especially your most popular ones).
• Share a weekly list of favorites pertaining to your niche (I love seeing Etsy favorites, Pinterest favorites, or other bloggers’ work. Again, make sure you have permission if you are sharing images!)
• At the end of each month (or the first of the next month), write a review of your month’s posts and maybe upcoming happenings.
• Join or start a blogging tribe for more support, post ideas, and collaborations like blog hops.

Step 6:  It’s okay to leave some blank space!  Opportunities are going to come your way so it’s good to have a little open space and be flexible.  Write in pencil to make those changes easy.  Those open days might be the right inspiration for you to reach out to brands!

For tips on dealing with a blogger’s slump, click HERE.

To see my top favorite resources for bloggers, click HERE.