How to fill out your blogging calendar

Your blog is up and running and you’ve finally designed the theme to your liking. Now all you have to do is write on a regular basis and the traffic will start pouring in, right? Unfortunately, it’s a bit more complicated than that. Researching and writing a new article every day is difficult. It’s even more of an issue when you have to figure out the topic to write about on the spot. Successful bloggers set up a blogging calendar in advance to maximize productivity. Consider these categories when you’re making the calendar:

Holidays and other notable dates

Take out a regular calendar and take a look at the notations for holidays and other important dates. Use these to come up with post ideas and add them to the calendar. The post can be about the holiday itself, news that usually happens around that time, or you can just use it as a springboard for a themed post.

Sales and promotions

If your blog is attached to a business then you’re going to have sales and promotions throughout the year. You might not know the dates for everything right now, but you can plan for whatever is on the calendar now. Depending on the nature of the sale or promotion you might even be able to write two posts, one as an introduction and another at the end.

Announcements

Again, businesses usually have announcements throughout the year. The announcements can range from new team members to new products or services. Your readers should know about new things happening at the company and it’s your job to make sure you get the content out there.

Series

Almost every blogging category covers complex topics on occasion. Instead of writing a 5,000-word post, consider breaking it down into a series. You can run the series on consecutive days, or even wait a week between updates. Don’t wait too long because your readers might forget the last post!

Guests

Many bloggers use guest writers to give readers expert advice and insight that they might not otherwise be able to offer. As an added bonus, the guest posts help fill out the calendar. You could set up a regular day for guest posts, or plan for them during times when you’re in need of more content. Whatever the case, make sure your guest writers create original and high-quality content so it doesn’t affect the quality of your blog.

Look at the competition

If you’re still struggling to fill up the calendar, look at other blogs in your niche to see what they’re doing. To be clear, don’t republish their content. Instead, look to see what they’re doing and how you can do something similar but better.

Your calendar should be full by now, but if not then go back over everything above to fill up any holes. Stick to the calendar and write ahead when possible. Blogging is much easier when you plan and use a calendar.

Author’s bio: Carolyn is a guest writer and expert on inventory management tools that work with Shopify order management.