Question: What is a blog editorial calendar? Do I need one?
An editorial calendar is a tool many professional bloggers use to keep track of and organize their daily blog posts. It can be as simple as a grid of post-it notes on the wall or as intricate as an Excel spreadsheet. A dated Excel sheet, but a good resource can be found on Andy Wibbels’s blog.
The month is broken down into days, and each day is assigned a particular category of blog posts to help the blogger think of topics for that particular day. Underneath the days are different blog topics you have written or intend to write.
Another page on the spreadsheet could contain all of your blog ideas for future posts. When you are ready to write and publish a post, it goes from one spreadsheet to another.
Many bloggers don’t use an editorial calendar, but it can definitely be useful if you are having trouble finding a blog topic for a particular day or to keep track of possible topics for future posts.
Organizing different blog topics for different days can help overcome the dreaded “what am I going to write today” obstacle. For instance, on a web design blog you might have assigned the following topics to the days of the week:
- Monday: jQuery examples
- Tuesday: Site of the day
- Wednesday: Tips and Tricks
- Thursday: Cool Tools
- Friday: News from around the web
- Saturday: Off
- Sunday: Off
Categorizing your main toipics this way will help direct your posting, plus it will also provide consistency for your readers.
Whether you use a formal editorial calendar or its all in your head, breaking your blog into definite categories for different days of the week can greatly increase your producitity.