A Tip for Using a Blog Editorial Calendar

by Robbie Schlosser · 29 comments

Thanks in advance for reading this article. I appreciate your interest and hope you get a few good ideas. I'd love to hear what you liked. Please write me a little COMMENT below. Start a conversation. Tell me what you think, and I'll reply. Promise.
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CalendarDo you blog?  Use a Blog Editorial Calendar?  Experts recommend that successful blogs contain great content and post consistently.  The first quality is largely up to you, but a few simple tools can help you with the second.  Let me recommend one I’m starting to use.

First let me say that I’m no blogging guru, but I try to learn from the best.  I’m just a musician, blogging about how my band helps weddings and parties and what my life is like leading a jazz band in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The tool is called the WordPress Editorial Calendar, and simply put, it helps me get organized and stay on schedule with my blog posts.  For example, I just began a 30-day challenge to post to my blog every day this month.  Yesterday the first thing I did was schedule daily posts on my April calendar.  Next, I wrote the first post and published it.

Now, the second day, I go to my blog editorial calendar, write THIS post, and I’ll publish it in a few minutes.  Simple, and I’m keeping a consistent schedule.

So far, my favorite feature of the WordPress Editorial Calendar lets me create and format my own “template” of content that I include in each of my posts.  This is a few lines at the end, thanking my readers and suggesting what they might do next (for example, leave me a little comment).

I’ve pasted this template into each of the posts on my April calendar.  Now every day all I do is go to the calendar, open that day’s post, write the new content, and publish it.

What a wonderful tool for my blog! How about YOU? Are scheduling your posts yet?

Thanks for reading my blog. I appreciate your interest and hope you get a few good ideas here. Please comment and continue this conversation. I’ll reply to you, and so will others who share your interest. You’ll make new connections.

Here are four things you can do:
• ”COMMENT” (Tell me your thoughts in the “Comment” box below),
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• ”SUBSCRIBE” to this blog for more of my thoughts (Click the “RSS”).

The Magnolia Jazz Band entertains at weddings and parties throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. If you are nearby, you’ll love catching us in action, seeing and hearing us create a great mood. In the meantime, please join our Facebook fans to receive daily tips for planning wedding and party music and to receive reminders for our public events.



Thanks for reading this article. I appreciate your interest and hope you get a few good ideas here. Got one or two? I'd love to hear what you liked. Please write me a little COMMENT below. Start a conversation -- I'll reply. Promise.

By the way, does a friend need help selecting wedding or party music? Do them a favor: EMAIL this article, or SHARE it on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+.

And if you find my blog useful, please LIKE it, TWEET it, and SUBSCRIBE for more ideas. Use those cute little icons below.

Meanwhile, the Magnolia Jazz Band entertains at weddings and parties throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. If you are ever nearby, you’ll love catching us in action, seeing and hearing us create a great mood.

How can I help you? Call 408-245-9120 or use Robbie@MagnoliaJazz.com. Planning a celebration? Ask about our availability.

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Mycreativeedge

I liked this particular post. It helps me blogging!! WOW. I will try this today when I go home.

thanks, SV.
http://www.mycreativeedge.com

Robbie Schlosser

Thanks, SV, and good luck getting started with this calendar.  You’ll find it’s a great help.  Any questions, please let me know — I’m no expert, but if I can’t help, I know some people who CAN.

Jennifer Grigg

Great way to stay organized. I think I need to try this.

Robbie Schlosser

Thanks, Jennifer.  
I agree — personally, I find if I can’t stay organized, nothing gets done.  You too?

Nicole Bandes

I’ll definitely check out that plug in. One of the reasons I first switched to Wordpress (a few years ago) was because Wordpress (vs Blogger) allowed me to schedule the day and time my posts would go out. I’ve already written and scheduled 8 posts for this month.

Robbie Schlosser

Thanks, Nicole.  Sounds like you’ve got your blogging well under control.  Are you already using any tools to schedule everything?  BTW, I agree about WordPress, and I used to call Blogger “WordPress with training wheels”.

Marriage Restoration

Blogging calendars are definitely helpful when you blog on a regular basis. Thanks for sharing the reminder.

Robbie Schlosser

Thanks, Rhonda.  Sounds like you’re blogging regularly, or would like to do more.  Are you already using a calendar?

Heather

Didn’t realise a calendar like this existed, I am going to check it out. 

Robbie Schlosser

Thanks, Heather.  Please check it out and tell me how you like it.  It’s not the only calendar around, but lots of blog experts rate it highly.  As do I, and I’m just a regular person.

Michelle Shaeffer

This is one of my very favorite plugins, Robbie, for just the reasons you listed.  🙂  It makes it so much easier to stay organized and consistent. 

Robbie Schlosser

Thanks, Michelle.  Your recommendation was the most recent one I received, and reading so many experts praise WordPress Editorial Calendar, I finally decided to get smart and join the crowd.

Kelly

I have a feeling if I scheduled my posts I’d still be checking to make sure it was posted at that exact time, so I might as well just do it myself.  Plus, I usually have a few drafts started and even if I think I’m going to post a particular one on a particular day, I often end up changing my mind or writing something brand new anyway.  I love the idea of it though…I just can’t really see myself using it.

Robbie Schlosser

Thanks, Kelly.  
Sounds like you like lots of flexibility.  Like a calendar that lets you “drag & drop” items among days of the week and change the post time with one click.  Or a calendar that lets you work on several posts at a time, until you’re ready to publish one of them.
You can still schedule posts the hard way.  This calendar is the easy way.  If you try it, please let me know.

Kelly

I probably should amend that…I can’t see myself using it *at this time*.  I’m not going to say never, because then I’d probably have to eat my words some day.

Robbie Schlosser

🙂

Flora Brown, Ph.D.

Thank you for encouraging the use of the editorial calendar. I just recently installed it and have already begun to enjoy it. It really helps to hear how you are using it too.

I would love to hear your jazz band. Although I’m in So. CA, that cover photo above makes me want to catch a plane, and fast. In the meantime, however, I’m going to Like you and stay tuned to see what else you’ll share during the blogging challenge.

One tip you could share with us is the questions and concerns we should ask entertainers before we hire them for important ceremonies, like weddings, etc. Are there some tips that
will make the experience happy for the entertainer and the customer alike?

Robbie Schlosser

Thanks, Flora.  Glad you’re enjoying this calendar plug-in already.  What’s YOUR favorite new plug-in?  And for tips about what to ask entertainers, I’ve been posting a few every day on http://www.Facebook.com/MagnoliaJazzBand.  Which one catches your eye?

Shawn

This little plug in saves my life so often. Just a little check and I know if I’ve done my work for the day or not. 

Robbie Schlosser

Thanks, Shawn.  I bet each of us can tell a story… BTW, what’s YOUR favorite new plug-in?

Kimberly LoSavio

I, too, started using this plugin after being referred by Michelle 🙂 I use it to sort out my theme for the weeks as well which is especially helpful during challenges 🙂 Thanks for sharing!

Robbie Schlosser

Thanks, Kimberly.  However we discovered this handy plug-in, it’ll have a hundred different uses, once we adapt it to what we need.  In the meantime, what’s YOUR favorite new plug-in?

Kimberly LoSavio

that is a good question, Robbie 🙂 But I have to say right now it’s the “Tweet Old Post” — gives life to older posts on your blog … I will see what a difference it makes over the next couple of weeks though LOL Have a great week!!

Gwen Tanner

I’ve never heard of this plug-in, thanks for recommending it. I will definitely check it out.  I tried creating an editorial calendar in Google Docs before, but as you can imagine that never took off (after I created it, I never went back in to it).  Going to install now!

Gwen

Robbie Schlosser

Thanks, Gwen.  I’m glad I could help you find this gem.  At least, I think it’s a gem.  Sure beats having a Google Docs calendar that you never look at.  Tell me how you like using the WordPress Editorial Calendar.

Kelly

And update from when I read and commented on this when it was posted.  My first comment was this:
I have a feeling if I scheduled my posts I’d still be checking to make sure it was posted at that exact time, so I might as well just do it myself.  Plus, I usually have a few drafts started and even if I think I’m going to post a particular one on a particular day, I often end up changing my mind or writing something brand new anyway.  I love the idea of it though…I just can’t really see myself using it. 

I then added another comment, which was this:
I probably should amend that…I can’t see myself using it *at this time*.  I’m not going to say never, because then I’d probably have to eat my words some day. 

Today I am back to say that this morning I started feeling a little unorganized because I’ve finally been able to start drafting posts earlier than the day I want to post them and decided to use my google calender to be organized.  I went through and put the post titles from what I’d already done on the days I did them, and as I have drafts started in blogger, I put those titles on the calendar too on the days I think I want to post them.  

I also decided that instead of keeping a google doc of post ideas, to use the task list instead.  I have a general idea list for vague topics and a couple of task lists for the different series that I am doing.

I just started doing this today and will try it out and see how it works for me.  If it doesn’t work well, I can always use something else.  

I still don’t think I would like to schedule posts to post automatically, for a couple of reasons.  1) I like to give them a read-through right before I post them to see if I have any last-minute changes.  2) Sometimes I change my mind about what to post.  For example, until yesterday afternoon, I had another post in mind for today.  I then saw a tweet about a video that inspired me to write something brand new and post it instead.

Robbie Schlosser

Thanks, Kelly.  Glad you’re getting more organized for better productivity.  Any kind of “calendar system” you use is bound to help — anything, from a simple ToDo list to a spreadsheet to one of those online calendars with all the bells & whistles.  Start with the easiest, and soon enuf you’ll want more features.  

I wish a calendar would help me solve everything!  I’m having one of those days over here — too many tips, too little time.  Today’s big challenge:  Deciding what’s most important and where to begin.

BTW, about automatic posting, it’s my understanding that nothing gets posted while in “draft” mode.  When you finally decide to publish a draft, you click either “post now” or you click “schedule” and select the time and date you want.  At least in WordPress.  Is it pretty much the same in Blogger?

-Robbie

Kelly

I have seen a way to schedule day and time for the post in Blogger but I haven’t used it.  Blogger also doesn’t post any drafts unless I tell it to post.  I can also view all of my posts by All, Published, or Drafts.  This is handy because it then reminds me of posts I started writing and forgot about.  

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