At the end of last year, I had no idea what an editorial calendar was! I was completely unaware of the whole concept but as I am a massive lover of organisation and order naturally I wanted to find out more! After discussing with lots of other bloggers how they organise their blog schedule I was very interested, intrigued and inspired by the whole concept and I definitely wanted to see if I could apply it to my blog to help me stay more organised and efficient with blogging! After making the big decision in my blogging goals post which you can check out here, if you haven't already- I decided I wanted to upload every day/ every other day for the whole year! In order to do this, some kind of organisational strategy needed to be implemented! Today, I am going to share with you how you can make an editorial calendar, in order to keep your blog more organised! Enjoy!
WHAT EARTH IS AN EDITORIAL CALENDAR?
Okay, although it may seem fancy the basic concept is very straightforward! However, I know many bloggers like myself at one point find it very hard to stick to a strict uploading schedule, often just trying to fit in posts when you can! This works fab for some people! Some people don't even like to have a routine for that blog and that is absolutely fine! However, for me, I needed to have a strict routine and schedule in order for everything to stay in tip top order!
#1 CHOSE THE SOFTWARE
The best thing about an editorial calendar is the freedom you have! Last summer I tried to get into using a diary and pen but really struggling because of all the mistakes I would make! I have also tried to use various calendar apps buy nothing seemed to work until I came across Google calendar! I don't remember the girl who told me about it but honestly I couldn't thank her enough! It's been my life saver! I have two versions of this, the desktop version and the app on my iPod!
#2 CHOOSING WHAT GOES IN IT
If you are like me and you want to have a separate diary for everything you can do that with this app! As you can see I have two calendars! All the blocks in pink are in relation to college. If I have a due date, an assignment I need to do or homework set I will record it in my calendar. Now the main aim of this calendar was to organise my blog content! On every other day, I have a box on my calendar colour coded, stating the name of the post that is going up that day! As well as these, in another colour (grey), I also like to record any non-blog or college related things like appointments or meetings etc.
#3 HOW TO KEEP IT ORGANISED
I get way too excited for colouring coded than I should do but I love it! My editorial calendar is no expectation! For each type of post, they all have an assigned colour meaning that I know what type of posts has been going up on my blog, as a result, I won't produce too many of the same posts in close concession! For example, purple for beauty, blue for lifestyle, yellow for blog tips etc. Everything related to college is in pink and all life-related things are in grey! This way, I can clearly see what is what and it helps me keep a track of all my blog content!
#4 HOW TO USE IT/ HOW OFTEN TO UPDATE IT
I often find myself planning my calendar out on a Sunday if I have a lot of general life things happening on the other hand, I tend to plan all my blog content half way through the previous month, which usually takes around a day and then I will begin to write the posts if that month has all been completed. I will often consult my calendar as one of the last things I do at night, often filling in college work that I want to complete tomorrow! As well as this, I am planning my next photography blog shot there is a section for notes on each event! In this section, I like to record what props I will need for the each photo just so I can gather them all before hand and not feel horribly unorganised!
And that's it! I hope you enjoyed this sneak peak into my editorial calendar! I hope you found if useful and maybe I have even inspired to go and set one up yourself! Honestly, you will love it!!! I could not recommend it more!
Do you have an editorial calendar? What do you use to create yours? Or are you more of a pen and paper gal?! Let me know in the comments below!
Thank you for reading, as always x
