Practical Hacks For Planning Your Blogging Calendar
Writers Write creates blogging resources and shares blog writing tips. In this post, we give you practical hacks for planning your blogging calendar.
If you blog, or write for social media, you need to create some sort of calendar to help you plan your year.
Practical Hacks For Planning Your Blogging Calendar
This helps you to think about what is important to people at different times. Knowing this gives you an angle. It also gives you ideas when you don’t think you have another post in you.
What are you going to share?
The best way to do this is by breaking your blogging diary into topics and types of posts.
Examples:
- Lists
- Informative Posts
- Interviews
- Infographics
- Worksheets
- Questionnaires
- How-To Articles
- Quotations
- Templates
Must-Read Post: 40 Types Of Content That Will Make Blogging Easier For You
When are you going to share?
Regular Monthly Posts
We have monthly posts that are regular features:
- Writing Prompts For The Month: Example: Writing Prompts For December 2017
- Book Reviews For The Month
- Top 10 Writing Posts From The Previous Month
- Upcoming Courses
We also have a few yearly posts, including: The Top 42 Posts (in January), Writers Write Reviewers Choose Their Top Books (in December), Forbes Top-Earning Authors (in August).
Regular Weekly Posts
You could also decide what you are going to blog about on different days of the week. Use social media hashtags to inspire your choices. Reading suggestion: 85 Hashtags Writers Need To Know
Examples at Writers Write:
- Monday: We have a Social Media Monday at Writers Write. We post about blogging and social media on Mondays.
- Tuesday: We post about business writing or grammar on Tuesdays at Writers Write.
- Wednesday: Mia Botha chose to post about short stories on Wednesdays in 2017 under the Short Story Challenge tag.
- Thursday: In 2016, Anthony Ehlers posted a series on Write Your Novel In A Year every Thursday. In 2017, he posted a series of inspirational posts for writers.
- Friday: We try to feature guest posts on Fridays.
- Saturday: Optional – we have no set posts for Saturdays.
- Sunday: Optional – we have no set posts for Sundays.
You would need to decide which days of the week you will share content. You may decide to blog three times a week, or you may decide to post every day.
Which days will you choose?
Another great way to plan your blogging and social media calendar is by noting important holidays, and national and international days of interest to your audience. You can plan posts using these holidays or days as themes. This is also great for marketing.
For example, writers and readers will be interested in the following days (sometimes weeks or months):
Writing-related Days
- Banned Books Week – September: Example: The 10 Most Challenged Titles Of 2016
- Book Lover’s Day – 9 August
- Famous Authors’ Birthdays: Example: Margaret Atwood’s 10 Rules For Writing Fiction
- International Literacy Day – 8 September: Example: 12 Inspiring Literacy Quotes
- International Plain Language Day – 13 October
- National Novel Writing Month – November: Example: NaNoWriMo: A Writer’s Checklist For The Final Stretch
- National Author’s Day – 1 November: Example: The 25 Best Quotes About Authors
- National Book Week in South Africa – 1st week of September: Example: National Book Week South Africa
- National Buy a Book Day – 7 September
- Nobel Prize in Literature (& any other important prizes): Example: 13 Female Nobel Laureates In Literature
- Oscars and Golden Globes – especially if books are nominated: Example: Based On The Book By
- Punctuation Day – 13 December
- Roald Dahl Day – 13 September: Example: 5 Quite Interesting Facts About Roald Dahl
- Short Story Day – 21 December
- Short Story Day Africa – 21 June
- The Ides of March – 15 March: Example: The Ides of March – What Does It Mean?
- Winnie The Pooh Day – 18 January
- World Book Day: Example: International Day Of The Book – 23 April – William Shakespeare’s Birthday
- World Poetry Day – 21 March
- World Social Media Day – 30 June
General Holidays
- April Fool’s Day – 1 April
- Black Friday – October
- Christmas – 25 December
- Father’s Day – June: Example: 15 Fascinating Fathers From Fiction or Father’s Day Writing Prompt
- Halloween – 31 October
- May Day – 1 May
- Mother’s Day – May: Example: The 15 Most Memorable Mothers in Literature or Mother’s Day Writing Prompt
- New Year’s Day – 1 January
- St. Patrick’s Day – 17 March
- Valentine’s Day – 14 February: Examples: 10 Perfect Literary Dates For Valentine’s Day or 12 Literary Couples Whose Love Will Last
Seasons
- Spring
- Summer
- Autumn
- Winter
Miscellaneous Days
Remember that you can use any day that appeals to you and your audience.
- All Saint’s Day – 1 November
- Friday the 13th
- International Cat Day – 8 August: Example: 30 (or so) Famous Fictional Cats
- International Coffee Day – 29 September: Example: The Top 10 Quotes About Coffee
- International Tea Day – 15 December: Example: 12 Literary Quotes About Tea
- Earth Day – 22 April
- International Women’s Day – 8 March
- Star Wars Day – 4 May
Public Holidays Worldwide
Use this calendar if you need to know holidays around the world: 2018 Calendar of Public Holidays
Useful Calendars
If you’re looking for ideas for days that might be of interest to your audience, use this useful calendar:
Calendar Templates
Download a free calendar template – or use your outlook or google calendar – to fill up the days that you may want to use.
If you enjoyed this post read:
- More Than 100 Blog Headlines That Will Boost Shareability
- Why Content Creation Matters Most In SEO
- Everything You Need To Know About Blogging
- How To Create Quality Content On A Deadline
- Create The Correct Headline For Your Blog Post
- How To Think Like A Writer Every Day
- 85 Hashtags Writers Need To Know
Top Tip: If you want to learn how to blog, join us for The Complete Blogging Course online.