This is a guest contribution from Nicole Avery, ProBlogger expert.
Creating a blog content plan is one of the best things what you can do to ensure your blog has quality content that is created efficiently in the time you have available.
A common cry I hear from bloggers who don’t use a content plan is that if plan their content would stifle their creativity. I like to challenge that premise and argue that creating a blog content plan allows you more creative freedom.
Having a content plan means that when you sit down in front of your screen to write your post, you have a idea or topic to write about it:
a). has had time to reflect and meditate beforehand making writing easier
b). you can ignore it because you have something else that interests you more to write about.
But if you don’t have a plan and have little time to blog, you can often find yourself sitting in front of the dreaded blank screen no idea what to write. Plans can be changed, but only if you have a plan to change in the first place.
Where to get blog post ideas
The first stage of Creating a blog content plan is idea generation. Most bloggers will have post ideas floating around somewhere. Time to bring them all together in one place.
I use a simple Google Sheet as my master planning tool for my blog. I assign a tab to be the home for all my blog post ideas. Being on a Google Sheet means I can access it from any device and add ideas on the fly if it inspires me.
Before scheduling ideas into your blog content plan, think of as many ideas as possible. can and list them on your sheet. If you need help coming up with ideas, try these strategies:
Survey your readers
Every year, I poll my readers on the blog. This process is not only to get feedback on how you found the content I posted over the past year, but also to learn what your key issues are currently and what questions you have for me.
Ask Make sure you have specific questions in the survey to get ideas and topics for blog posts. Just asking them “What do you want me to write about?” You may not generate many ideas, but ask them something specific, for example, “What is your biggest distraction when it comes to working online?” however, it would make for a lot of topics to write about if you are in the online work or productivity space. For every distraction your readers share, you could create a post that helps them solve this problem.
Ask readers questions
Throughout the year, readers may have asked you questions via email or Facebook. Even if you’ve responded to them in those outlets, the responses you’ve written may be applicable to your broader audience and could become a blog post.
Use magazines for inspiration
Depending on your niche, you may want to look at magazines for inspiration for blog post topics. For example, if you’re blogging in the gardening niche, for the first two months of 2017 (which is summer for us in the southern hemisphere), check out the summer issues of gardening magazines to see what topics they cover. You can write your own opinion about some of these seasonal ideas.
Think about having a theme for the year
Every year on my blog I have a theme overview of content throughout the year. Not all posts will be related to the topic, but about one a month will, and I will also have a series on the topic.
A topic can allow you to explore topics in a deep and informative way or entertain readers through of a connected narrative.
How to Create Your Blog Content Plan
Now that you have a sheet full of awesome blog post ideas, it’s the moment to create the content plan of your blog. Here are the next steps:
Determine Posting Frequency
How often you post will be different for each blogger. My personal philosophy on frequency is that quality always trumps quantity, so if you’re new to blogging, I’d start conservative and build up, rather than running out of steam and posting “filler” posts.
In the example below, you’ll notice that there is only one post per week. I take a vacation in January from the blog, so schedule only one post per week. Once I return in February, I’ll be back to posting three times a week, so adjust your posting frequency to account for when you’ll have a vacation from the blog if necessary.
Create schedule sheet
Once you know your frequency, create another tab on your planning worksheet like the one below.It has columns for:
- Week, so you can keep track of how many weeks of the year it is
- Date – so you know when to post!
- Focus – if there is something happening at that particular time that you need to be aware of, such as school holidays, the course is launched. etc
- Post Type – I write a mix of post types on my blog, some will be list style posts, some will be recipes, some will be long form, some will be about planning, some will be about parenting, for example. Keeping this in mind allows me to offer a mix of content throughout the week, month, and year.
- Subject/Title: Sometimes I will know the exact title of a topic. post, other times I’ll know the topic as “2017 goal setting” and the title will come after I’ve written it.
Add seasonal posts
The first posts I add to the plan are seasonal posts. Posts such as:
- New Year posts
- School holiday posts
- Easter posts
- Halloween posts, etc. .
The beauty of having these posts planned means you can post them ahead of the event, making them relevant and timely to your readers and hopefully search engines as well.
Add Regular Posts
If you post regularly on specific topics, schedule them below. For example, I write a monthly review on the first Friday of every month, so I’ll write that topic down. Since I won’t know how the month turned out compared to my goal, I only have the general topic “monthly review” and fill in the rest as the date approaches.
Add in any series you want create
If you know you want to write a series throughout the year, assign it to the days you want to publish the posts that will be part of the series.
Add sponsorship work if you know of it
If you’re a blogger working with brands and you know of some of the brand-related commitments you’re making throughout 2017, add those to your plan as well .
Add Product Launch Posts
Many bloggers now have products they sell from their blogs that require product launches. Schedule any known launches you have planned for 2017 and if you are in the process of creating a product, set a deadline and timeline in the posts is for release.
Add key personal dates
If you share personal stories on your blog, note those events on the relevant dates. For example, if you have vacations planned in July and November and you’ll blog about them, schedule them for August and December.
Add key business events
If you have a brick-and-mortar business or an online business, schedule any posts that relate to key events happening in 2017. These can be events like Black Friday sales, financial year-end sales, etc.
Add thematic posts
If you chose to have a topic on your blog for 2017, please add posts about your topic below.
Add the reader input
Add post ideas that came from your readers’ questions and your reader survey.
Add posts you missed from the last year
If you had a blog content plan from last year, add any posts you didn’t write in 2016 to your plan for 2017.
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By the time you get this far, hopefully you’ll have complete content. and for 2017! This will be a creative guide for you to use as a foundation to make the blog writing process as efficient and easy as possible.
Do you create a content plan for your blog every year?
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