Pitching Like a Pro: How to Find Magazine Editorial CalendarsThis is the kick off to our annual January Blog Challenge: 31 Days To Clean Up Your Blog. What better time than January to sit down and review your blog? Over the 31 days we'll be sharing 31 tips, ideas, and strategies for you to deal with all those pesky maintenance tasks, take steps to grow in the new year and make blogging easier. This is Day 8.
Plotting Your Editorial Calendar
Before tackling the task for Day 8 we strongly recommend you read this resource post from Stephanie Eddy on Setting (and Achieving) Goals in 4 Easy Steps. Go ahead... we'll wait...
Ok... goal post read? Now it's time to start writing your goals down and putting them into action.
An editorial calendar can go a long way to helping you achieve your goals, among many other things.
Once you have your goals determined you can start planning your content to make achieving your goals a reality. And let's remember one very important thing:
Blogging goals do not have to be about earning income!
They can be about connecting more with others, growing your readership, defining your niche, injecting more fun into your blogging, becoming more of a creative outlet - the possibilities are endless. It's totally up to you and what you want to get out of blogging.
Whatever your goals are, it's time to turn them into actions. Sit down and plot out your editorial calendar for the next month, two months, or three months (or longer if you feel the need!). If you want, or plan, to work with brands, include that. If you're planning a series of related posts or a themed month, plotting that in a calendar can be invaluable to ensure you get everything done. Editorial calendars are also great for reusing old seasonal content.
For more help, be sure to check out this post: Editorial Calendars: What are They and Why You Need One. It even comes with a free downloadable editorial calendar you can print and start filling in! For even more info, read our post on how to build your editorial calendar in 3 month chunks.
You can also use the FBC Food Blog Planner to help you plan out your content - it comes with 100s of national food days, food blog planning templates, photography templates and tools to help you track your goals!
Take Your Editorial Planning Further
Consider writing posts in bulk weeks before you need them. Batching content can save you time and free up your calendar. Consider having one or two days a month where you do all your cooking and photography for the next 4-8 weeks.
If you shoot videos, set aside a couple of days every month just for video creation and get it all done. Then you can batch your editing as well.
This can be especially valuable if you plan to take some mat leave this year, go on an extended vacation or if you simply want to take the summer off to spend with your kids!
More Reading
- 8 Ways to Systematize Your Blog and Make Life Easier
- Pitching Like a Pro: How to Find Magazine Editorial Calendars Online
- FBC Food Blog Planner
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