Last Updated on January 15, 2018 by Chef Mireille
Blogging Tips – Why & How to Make an Editorial Calendar – Why to create an editorial calendar and tips for making a food blogger editorial calendar!
Most of us when we start blogging it is just a hobby. It is only in the past few years that some people regard it as a business from day 1. Like all businesses, it needs planning. Since many of us started as hobbyists, we would just blog whatever our hearts desired without considering SEO, trends and other contributing factors.
One of the ways to plan accordingly is to develop an editorial calendar. You can do it for the whole year or just do one quarter at a time.
There are wordpress plug ins you can use or use a paper calendar or use a Google calendar or use a MS Office template. Whichever method you use, there are some tools that can help you determine your editorial calendar.
Editorial Calendar Tips
1 – Food Holidays – Practically every day of the year, there is some kind of food holiday. On these days, you will find the hashtag for the holiday trending all over social media. Plan in advance so you can take advantage of these food holidays. I use this guide to keep on top of daily and monthly food holidays.
2 – Religious and Cultural holidays – Food is a big part of these so these so recipes around these should also be included on your editorial calendar.
3 – Consistency – It will help you keep consistent on your blog as you know what you are doing from week to week. You don’t have to sit there and think what the heck am I going to post this week? Just look at your calendar and you will know what to do. This will help you keep consistent.
4 – Check trending topics. If you want to generate $ as a blogger, following trends is an important tool to use. Here is a list of some tools you can use to search for trends.
5 – Keyword Search – Searching for keyword popularity can also help you fine tune your post topics. Using Google and Pinterest as a search engine are the best tools for using this.
6 – Check your analytics. See which posts have the most likes, shares and engagement. Include posts on your editorial calendar that are in the same genre.
In order to get you on the right path for 2018, I want you all to put together your editorial calendar at least for the first quarter of 2018. Leave a comment and let me know when you’ve done it. Is it helping you feel more organized? Less stressed out?
Wow Mir, love this idea. I m slowly into planning now!will definitely try for the blog!! Thanks for the lovely post, very thoughtful!
thanks – I’m glad you found it helpful!
Thanks for the post on editorial calendar. I only do some planning and maintain a Google sheet when I do month long blogging marathons or bakeathons. I started
organizing my social media shares in sheets. Will come back again to look in other the other tools you mentioned to better organize my social media and blog posts.
yes this is the first time I am trying to be more focused and intentional with my blogging so I hope you join too 🙂
I do the same thing, however in a bit different way. I mark out first my challenge post dates, ie. BM and themes, if I have a guest post being featured for the month, the book review post for the month, and other challenges I am participating… then I fill in the rest based on my drafts plus new recipes with seasonal ingredients… I agree to you on holidays and festivals, but I believe it is more of personal, so I always choose to only highlight the two Eids… 🙂 I am sure that many will find this guide very helpful… 🙂
I appreciate your comments but if you are thinking of your blog as a business, while you need to be authentic, you also want to find avenues that you can market and piggybank on. You don’t have to follow the religious aspect of the holiday if you focus on the food and the culture. To me, it’s about creating engagement and community among my readers all over the world. Let’s find something we can connect on – We can all enjoy a delicious meal right!
Thanks, Mir! I think I need this most. You are so busy yet you find time to make some important inputs like this one. Since I am planning to be more consistent this year this post is very important to me. Slowly getting into planning and being regular in using social media. Will come back to the other posts you have mentioned.
I have made it an absolute mission this year to get serious with blogging as a business so I hope you enjoy and find the increased content informative