Today’s blogging challenge is to build a blog editorial calendar. Your blog editorial calendar will help you to save time while developing a strategy to drive a tremendous amount of traffic to your site.

How To Create a Blog Editorial Calendar

Every Sunday I come up with the next week’s posting schedule.

First I take a few minutes to analyze what posts are the most popular and generating the most traffic.

I take the information I gather into consideration when I am planning out the next week’s schedule.

If you develop a routine like this, you will be able to provide valuable content for your audience by studying the results of your older posts.

All of the information you need will be available for you to see on your editorial calendar.

Two editorial calendars

I am going to share with you two different editorial calendars you can work with. You do not have to use both. Find one that will work best for you and stick with it.

How To Create a Blog Editorial Calendar

I am going to show you how I create an editorial calendar using Excel. This is going to be easy to do and will allow you to see all of the information quickly.

On the top columns going across add:

• Post Name
• Date Published
• Keywords
• Word count
• Info

After you have created your calendar, simply add in the post titles, info about the post, keywords you will be focusing on, and the dates you will be publishing the posts.

Schedule

First, you will want to decide on how many times you will be publishing your articles. You might choose to write once a week, twice a week or even three times a week and that will be based on your schedule. More important than how many times you publish is the consistency of your publishing.

If you decide to publish every Monday, in time your audience will start to look forward to your Monday posts. If you are inconsistent, you have a better chance of losing your reader’s interest.

Keywords

Include the keywords you will be focusing on and a brief description of the post. When it is time to sit down and write you can review the notes for the post you will be writing. The brief descriptions you have documented will create a spark, and you will be ready to start typing.

For more information on keywords read these articles:

• Keywords 101  Generate Traffic to Your Art Gallery
• Sell More Art Online Keyword Research Introduction

Word Count

You will not be able to add in the word count until you have finished writing your post. When you are done writing your post and have published it, document the word count. You will be able to determine if the length of your posts have any reflection on the traffic or rankings in search.

For more information on post length and SEO read these articles:

• How to Write Pillar Content and Why it is Important for Artists
• How To Increase Art Sales With Great Pillar Content
• SEO Basics What Artists Need to Know

Title

Do not be too concerned with coming up with the perfect title at this point. You might want to consider changing it after you have finished writing the blog post.

I usually write a generic title including the keyword phrase. After I have finished writing the content and editing, I start to work on the title. Many bloggers get excited to publish their post and do not put any thought into the title. The title is the first thing your readers will see and will be the key factor if they read any further or move on.

For more information on how to write great titles read, How to Write Great Titles That Generate Blog Traffic.

WordPress Editorial Calendar Plugin

If you are using WordPress for your blog you can use the WordPress Editorial Calendar plugin.

The plugin is free and you will have access to the calendar right on your WordPress blog.

To install the plugin, Login to your WordPress dashboard, hover over Plugins on the left-hand side and click Add New Plugin. 

In the search box type in WordPress Editorial Calendar.

Click to activate.

You will find the calendar on the left-hand side under Posts.

Note: If you already have posts published, they will automatically appear on the dates you posted them.

This plugin makes it easy for you to see what you have already posted so you can decide on what you would like to write next.

You can even put your ideas in the calendar so when it is time to sit down and write you will be ready to go. There will be no more time staring at a blank screen.

Extra Benefits

In time you will start to see posts that can become part of a series or you will be able to include an inbound link to provide more value to a particular post.

Eventually, you will start to notice what keywords are performing better.

Focus on what is working. You want to get the most return for your efforts. Many people write articles because they are interested in a particular subject. This is all good, but if the readers are not interested in the topic, the post will not be read.

Visit your Google Analytics every week before you decide on what you will be putting on your calendar. See what is trending. Try to come up with things to write about that relate to the posts that are performing well.

Many people write articles because they are interested in a particular subject. This is all good, but if the readers are not interested in the topic, the post will not be read.

I always recommend writing for the reader. They are the ones who will be paying your bills. Provide them with something of value.

Conclusion:

The more organized you become the more productive you will be with your time.

Scheduling post ideas ahead of time will help you to develop a strategy that will drive a tremendous amount of traffic to your site.

Your objective is to sell art online, right?

Take some time to plan. Stop wasting your time on things that will not work.

Once you are done reading this article, set up your editorial calendar If you do not do it now, it will never get done.

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