How to Plan a Year of Blog Content in an Hour
Have you ever struggled to write content for your blog?
Do you keep pushing back the task until you realize it’s been months and you haven’t created anything new?
I have.
I literally used to dread writing blog content.
It felt like this huge task and I struggled with what to even write about.
Today, I want to share with you my process for planning a year of blog content in an hour.
I like to rely on a data-driven approach with a mix of my own creativity and ideas.
This post will break it down into a manageable plan so you can schedule it into your calendar and create consistent blog content.
Step #1 - Blog content planning sessions
You need to set aside time in your schedule to actually plan. Literally, take out your planner or open your digital planner and mark off a few hours to do nothing but plan.
If you don’t schedule in the time to actually do it, then it will never happen.
The first thing I like to do is pick a date and time and mark it off in my planner. I always allow myself a few hours, but it never takes that long.
When the time comes, I like to be free of distractions so I make sure I don’t have my cell phone and I only have my spreadsheet open (more on this below).
Another thing that helps me plan my blog content is to be in a different environment then I normally work in.
I am much more creative (and less distracted) when I switch it up.
For me, this means grabbing my laptop and sitting in our living room on the couch.
For you, it could be heading to a coffee shop or local co-working space.
Step #2 - Categorize your content topics
Once I am ready to start planning my blog content, the first thing I do is open either a notebook or a Google spreadsheet to use to brainstorm ideas.
To help me get focused I always list out the topics or categories I write about on my blog.
For example, on my blog, Frugal Fanatic, my categories include:
Saving Money
Making Money
Budgeting
Printables
This helps me to start seeing my blog from an aerial point of view.
You may have two categories, or you may have ten depending on your site, but write down each category so you can start to come up with your content ideas for your blog.
This will also help you to start narrowing down your market.
Step #3 - Establish a consistent content schedule
If you are just getting started you might not know how many blog posts you are capable of creating per week.
In that case, I would just start with one.
You can always add in more once you establish a blogging schedule that works for you.
The key here is to be consistent with your blog content. You want to be able to put out consistent QUALITY content.
If you can write one AMAZING blog post consistently each week then you will be able to grow a loyal following.
You may already know that you are able to do two posts per week, that’s great, as long as you can be consistent.
Let’s say you decided on one new blog post per week, that means you will need to plan out 52 blog posts for this year.
If you have 4 categories as I do, then you’ll want to come up with at least 13 ideas under each category so that we can create your content calendar for the year.
I don’t like to plan my business yearly. I focus on each quarter. You can read more about my 90-day blog plan to achieve your goals faster.
Even though we are going to come up with content ideas for a year, I want you to plan for the next 90 days.
Step #4 - Brainstorm post ideas
Now that you know how many posts you need to write per week and you have your blog categories, it’s time to start coming up with your post ideas for the year.
For right now, I just want you to start filling in any ideas that pop into your head.
Don’t worry about creating the perfect headline.
There will be time to refine all of it.
Just use this time to pull out all the ideas you have that you want to write about.
You don’t want to just rely on what you think your audience would love to read from you.
I like to rely on data to help me plan out the content that I write.
Here are a few places you can use to research ideas:
FAQ’s - Make a list of the most frequently asked questions from your audience. What are you always asked about? What topics do your audience seek your help with frequently?
Pinterest - Use the Pinterest search bar and type in specific keywords that you know your audience is searching for on Pinterest. Click on some of the suggested search results buttons at the top or scroll through the images that pop-up. See what ideas inspire you.
Facebook - Head over to Facebook and check out some of the groups you are a member of. What questions are people asking? Make sure that these groups contain your target audience.
Google Trends - Check out seasonal trends or how well keywords are performing. Use the related topics to come up with blog content ideas.
BuzzSumo - You can use BuzzSumo’s topic explorer to see the suggested topics or popular content ideas.
Google Analytics - Open up your account and go into Behavior > Site Content > All Pages to look at your most popular content. Think about related blog posts that you can write.
When you are brainstorming ideas and looking at the data for popular content you can start to fill in your blog categories in your spreadsheet.
Again, you are just listing out all the ideas you come up with.
A good way to expand your blog post ideas is to write about the same topic, but create several different posts for it.
Here is a list of the different types of posts you can write about on your blog:
How to
Case studies
Step-by-step
Interviews
Reviews
List posts
Myths
Common mistakes
Top tools
Best tips and tricks
Let’s say one of your categories is organizing and when you did your brainstorming and researching you want to write about organizing a small closet.
You can create several different posts about organizing a small closet:
How to organize small closets to maximize space
Before and after organizing a small bedroom closet
A step-by-step process to organizing your small closet
Top ways to organize a small closet
The best solution for organizing a small closet (review post)
5 Organization hacks for small closets
See how quickly you can come up with six different blog post ideas?
You don’t have to use every different post idea from the above list.
You may want to choose a couple and then rotate your ideas for your content each week.
Step #5 - Create a schedule
Now that you have a spreadsheet full of content ideas it is time to schedule them into your calendar.
The first thing I like to do is take a look at my entire year and check out any important dates or launches I have planned.
Are there any key dates that are happening with your blog that you need to be aware of when planning your content?
For example, if your content is centered around holidays, seasons or other important events you’ll want to make sure you plan your content accordingly.
Like I mentioned above, I only focus on 90 days at a time.
Even though you are looking at the entire year, I want you to focus on the next 3 months of content.
You will be able to come back to this spreadsheet next quarter to create your content calendar again.
This is when I move to my content calendar spreadsheet that looks like this:
It is time to start refining your ideas and putting a date for when the content will be posted. You already decided how many times per week you will be putting out a new post.
Now, you can pick the day of the week that your posts will be going live. For example, you may want your post to go live every Monday so that you can promote it throughout the week.
This will allow you to get exact dates and place them into your spreadsheet.
Do this for the entire quarter.
Remember to plan the content around the important dates or projects you have happening with your blog.
You now have an entire year’s worth of content ideas to pull from for when you are creating your content calendar each quarter.
Once I have this spreadsheet filled in for the next 3 months, I then go to my planner and block of time to actually write this content.
I personally like to batch my content so I will plan days that are dedicated just to writing.
Doing this helps me to get ahead on my content so that I am not writing a post the night before I have it scheduled to go live.
I love using Asana to put in the due dates for all of my new content and to keep me on track. Check out my top 10 blogging productivity tools here.
I want to hear from you! Tell me in the comments below how you plan your blog’s content.