There’s no magic formula when it comes to building the perfect blog. Let’s get that out of the way first. No silver bullet solution exists to make your blog that much better than everyone else’s. That doesn’t mean you can’t stack the cards in your favour, however. Perfection is elusive, but nothing beats coming out with quality content at a consistent pace. This is why we covered the importance of editorial calendars. They allow you to plan, strategize, and remain consistent. You get to break your work up into manageable parts and plan ahead of time. Making sure that your calendar doesn’t suck is the least you can do. So here are a few must-dos when building a functioning editorial calendar.
Choose the Right Platform for Your Editorial Calendars!
A schedule is about much more than simply sticking your thoughts into some spreadsheet. You should pick something that fits the nature of what you do. A calendar is supposed to keep you and your team in line, but there’s no reason why you shouldn’t pick something that’s super-useful to the way you work. Don’t go with anything that’ll complicate your content-producing process. Editorial calendars are supposed to make things easier, not harder. There’s plenty to choose from. Google Sheets are probably the most popular tool in this case, and the most customizable. But it leaves a lot up to you. Check out Trello or CoSchedule for something more structured. They have tools that give you a chance to view your projects from multiple perspectives, which may come in handy depending on what you’re doing.
Schedule to Optimize, but Don’t Overcommit!
It doesn’t matter if you’re creating videos or writing blogs. Consistency is always easier when you set your goals at a reasonable pace. Overwhelming yourself is likely to lead to a lot more disappointment than you think. Don’t let the initial excitement lead you or your team to over-extend. That being said, schedule your work and production to match your strengths. If you’re better off picking your photos and links to a blog ahead of time, then do that. If you’re writing is better when you do it in the morning, then do that. Understand what you or your team members do best before labeling your calendar in a way that reflects these strengths. This will help you buckle down and do what’s already been planned rather than sitting around wondering what the heck to do next.
Delegate Your Tasks Reasonably.
Now that you’ve taken the time to plan out your work in a way that fits your needs, make sure your team members have the kind of tasks that they’re going to be good at. This seems obvious, but it’s too easy to just outsource something you don’t like to someone other than yourself. You’re much better off delegating according to skill. Chop up your activities accordingly and make use of the functions on your calendar that allow you to organize what you have to get done. Some calendars allow you to divide projects up into different stages. Others allow you to make lists of tasks and delegate accordingly. The point is to find the easiest way to get a larger job done by having certain people focus on one specific thing. Calendars allow you to do this, while also allowing everyone to see the overall project and to track its progress.
Plan Future Content Based on What’s Most Successful.
There are a lot of variables involved in the making of a good blog that gets lots of traction. Review your work regularly to see what’s working. Look at your timing, the topics you’re writing about, and the graphics that you’re using. Are your headlines grabbing people’s attention? Is your SEO up to par? Schedule your next steps based on what’s working. If the circumstances around you haven’t changed, then it’s safe to say that some formulas can be repeated to produce similarly successful results. Get your editorial calendar to reflect this. For example, make sure that the authors keep writing about the stuff that’s making their posts most successful. Go with the length that your audience likes best. Post and publish on dates that get you the most traction. These are some important steps to follow when you’re putting together effective editorial calendars. It should help you consolidate all your tasks into one pile of work. It makes things a lot easier to plan and should give you a better idea of what’s working. Given all these advantages, it’s pretty amazing that some still choose to work without one!
