Staying on top of everything you have to do as a business owner can be overwhelming.  And keeping your blogging going  sometimes takes a backseat to your other work.  If you would begin using an editorial calendar it would be easier to maintain your blogging efforts.  It will also be easy to tie your email marketing, social media and other marketing together with your blogging.
An editorial calendar is a planning tool used by bloggers, editors, and publishers of periodicals such as newspapers and magazines. It is a content plan within the publishing schedule that shows not only the publication dates, but also the content for each issue. The calendar often begins with a list of main topics and then becomes an intricate outline of the contents of each issue.
The purpose of the calendar is to make sure the content is published on a regular basis, and that the material is of current interest to the readers. Editorial calendars also make it easy to publish content in different media.

An editorial calendar:

• Helps in advance planning of content
• Allows assignments to be given to writers in advance
• Assists in making content seasonally appropriate
• Gives a stronger voice to creativity
The primary element of a successful blog is a well-organized calendar. When developing an editorial calendar, first define your criteria. Do you need to consider topics that are seasonally appropriate? Is it necessary to devise content for specific individuals? Use the criteria that are most important for your specific enterprise and don’t forget those all important keywords.
Make notes of all raw ideas; you can then transfer them to a worksheet in your calendar. You will have a list of key topics from which to choose. Decide how frequently you’ll post, on which days of the week, define your type of content, and identify this information in your calendar. Schedule your content slots with specific topics. Schedule posts for a week, or a month, whatever works best in your situation.  I have discovered a excellent WordPress Plugin that is an awesome editorial calendar within your blog.
Once you have hammered out a basic strategy, look at the trends and the patterns that engender those trends. Do you receive the most traffic on specific days of the week, or when certain topics are highlighted? This simple data can give you important insights that will reinforce your content plan and your calendar.
Creating a planning calendar can help organization, efficiency and strategy. However, it is a good idea to keep a calendar flexible to some extent, in case last minute modifications are necessary.  My editorial calendar is often modified because of a new strategy I discover, new technology that becomes available or I simply feel like ranting on a specific subject.
Make no doubt an editorial calendar will give you peace of mind and make you more consistent in your blogging and marketing.

About the Author: Donna Amos


I believe you can achieve anything you truly want to achieve. “It might sound trite, but time and time again, I’ve seen it happen with my clients. They overcome the fear of exposing themselves to the possibility of failure to creating profitable exciting businesses. My clients do great work, and sometimes it only takes someone else believing in them to give them the confidence to step out and take the chance.”

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