The most successful online writers will tell you that one of the most important aspects of their online business is having a content (editorial) calendar, making sure it works for you, your business, and your lifestyle while sticking to it long-term.

If you want to take your blog, online magazine, or business postings seriously, then you need to treat it like a business. A business is serious, so why are we allowing ourselves to be so flippant when it comes to the content we’re pushing out? Together we say, “no more!”

Wait, I have ideas for content, giveaways, and collaborations, but where do I start?

That, my friend, is where we come in! You are reading the first part of a series which will help you create a content calendar that actually works for you. We’re going to start with the basics and move into creating your content calendar throughout three articles, each posted on Tech Thursday (like today!). Plus, we have a goodie for you at the end which will help you through the process, so stick around!

How Creating a Content Calendar Benefits You

1. It’ll boost your productivity.

Let’s be honest. Sitting down to plan out your content calendar will take time. It will require focus, and it will stretch your mind, requiring you to be creative and really LISTEN to your audience. Yet sitting down for an hour or two in one month will be completely worth it when you’ve got content roughly planned out for the next month or two, or three! And the more you continue to plan, the faster you’ll become the next time around. This will release you to be more productive in other areas of your business. Yay for increased productivity!

2. You’ll become more effective, and gain better focus.

Once you know your goals for growing your business and plan your calendar accordingly, you’ll be able to see a visual representation of those desires, and become more motivated to see them come true!

You’ll no longer be wasting an hour sitting in a chair thinking, “what should I write about today?” You’ll see your next article well in advance and really have no excuses not to prepare ahead of your set date to publish.

Not only will your content calendar help you be more effective, it will also help you gain more focus, with a realistic impression of how your business is growing (or not).

3. Your mind will be stretched, causing you to be more creative.

When you sit down to plan your content calendar, there are several different methods you can use to help conjure up the necessary titles and outlines you need to fill the days which you’ve allotted for publishing. Questions and inquiries from your audience or ideal client, forums, blog post generators, etc., will help you be more imaginative.

For example, you might try using HubSpot’s Blog Topic Generator.

I typed in the noun “exercising,” which gave me five different title ideas (yours may vary):

• What Will Exercising Be Like in 100 Years?
• 15 Best Blogs to Follow About Exercising
• 14 Common Misconceptions About Exercising
• How to Solve the Biggest Problems With Exercising
• Why We Love Exercising (And You Should, Too!)

Now, perhaps only one or two really strike you, but “How to Solve the Biggest Problems With Exercising” is something you could put your own twist to (in chimes creativity!), and you’ve made some changes so your new blog post idea becomes “How to Use Exercise to Lessen Stress and Anxiety.” It’s more specific, and will be relevant to many!

Bonus Resources for generating post ideas:

• Portent’s Content Idea Generator
• Build Your Own Blog Idea Generator
• Content Row Link Bait Generator
• Content Ideator
• Built Visible Content Strategy Helper Tool (shows the most popular existing articles vs. pure concepts)
• BuzzSumo (same as above, but one of my favorite!)

How Creating a Content Calendar Benefits Your Business

The Content Calendar isn’t for meetings, appointments or other such things (unless you have a partner, team, or outside collaborators for writing, planning, or posting content). So it almost sounds a little silly that a content calendar might at all affect your business. But remember how we said it helps you be more productive, thus you’re more available to focus on other business aspects? That’s only one of the bonuses from taking your content calendar seriously! 

1. You can better strategise your content marketing.

When you can visually see each upcoming articles, giveaways, or guest posts, it becomes so much easier to plan your content marketing strategy, which you can choose to include or keep separate from your content calendar.

Not exactly sure what ‘content marketing’ is? You can pick up all the knowledge you need in no time by starting here with another helpful and informative mini series.

2. Your planning, publishing, and sharing woes are resolved.

Without a calendar, we kind of just sit down and write one day, and then when we have time or feel like it we’ll edit, maybe make a graphic and publish. We might push it out onto social media platforms here and there, but there’s no strategy, there’s nothing in place to track growth, and there’s no consistency (a big no-no if you’re looking to become an influencer).

Again, the visual representation of your content goals can kick you into the right gear. You’ll know how to prepare (not try to write an article, edit, proofread, make a graphic, and plan social media all at once), you’ll be able to publish and share on time, and within the right times for your ideal audience.

Bonus Resources for Social Media Management:

• Hootsuite (Learn more from Michaela Anchan here)
• Buffer
• IFTTT
• SocialOomph
• TweetDeck
• Tweetpi
• Social Flow
• SproutSocial
• SocialBro
• CrowdBooster
• ArgylSocial/ViralHeat
• Meet Edgar (Michaela is tech savvy, I tell you! Click here)
• Komfo
• Sociota
• Mr. Social
• Plumlytics

TAKE ACTION: Go over the resources listed in the two sections above. Come back next week with 20-40 blog post ideas, and decide on which social media management tools meet your current needs.

Next read How To Create A Content Calendar That Works Part 2.

Have a question? Write me in the comments below and I’d be happy to chat with you!

If you need more specific help with any of these content offers, join the Connected Women community (it’s free!) & feel free to reach out to our experts in the group!