Six Ways That I Plan And Organize My Blog
My blogging, like most peoples, has evolved so much in the past year or two and I’ve gone from posting sporadically when I felt like it to strategically planning my blog like every other area of my life. I don’t force myself to post every day but it just happens that way, I have the content, I have the things to say so why not. If I know I’m going away or just need a day or two off I give it to myself and try not to put on the pressure, but I find that planning and organizing is the way that I manage to keep my blog ticking along at a rate I’m relatively happy with. Here are some of the ways I keep my blog organized.
Google Sheets
I started to plan my blog posts within a calendar function in a journal/ bullet journal but found as I was constantly amending days of things and swapping stuff over it wasn’t practical to write things down as it got messy. I have created through Google Sheets a table which has each month in calendar view and I can organize where my blog posts go and it allows me the flexibility that if a PR approaches me and wants to work together on a post next week I can see what I had originally planned for then and see what I can move around. Mine is completely colour coded so I know what is PR work (products/ sponsored etc), what’s complete and scheduled, what’s written but may not have photos and what is waiting to be written. Having this code helps me see at a glance what I need to do.
Scheduling
Writing posts in advance and scheduling them is a complete godsend as some days I just find myself in a particularly creative mood and I might end up writing four posts. By adding images, optimizing them etc and scheduling them in advance I know sometimes okay if I don’t write anything new for two weeks I know I’ve still got posts going up every day and I am sorted. This particularly helps when I need time off to relax for me, or when unexpected plans come up as I know that I am scheduled and my blog won’t suffer.
Bullet Journal Stat Checks
In 2016 I had a blogger planner which had sheets at the end of each month to record stats, for me some of them weren’t relevant such as YouTube as I don’t have a channel etc. In preparation for 2017 I created a years’ world of stat checks where I can record followers and stats which I track and mean something to me. The great thing about having them all on the same page means I can quickly glance over the months’ and see how much my blog has grown, which months’ peaked etc. I can’t wait to start recording more in here.
Bullet Journal Checklist
Another thing I have in my bullet journal is a double list with one side listing items I am waiting to receive from PR’s for potential inclusion, I tick them off when I receive them and then tick them again when the post has gone live. On the other side I have a sponsored posts list stating what the post will be, the price agreed and the PR’s name so I can tick when the post has gone live, and tick again once I’ve received payment. This again gives me a great overview so I know what items/ payments I am waiting for.
Hootsuite
I bloody love HootSuite because you can schedule Instagram posts on here. Whenever I take a batch of photos or upload stuff from my camera I work out which things I think would be appropriate for Instagram and which images I want to put up. I’ll schedule a bunch of stuff in advance, leaving the odd day for spontaneous posts if I know I’m going out. The app then sends a push notification to my phone when it’s scheduled time has arrived and I can then open it in Instagram and go from there. This has been a godsend as I used to find my posting was really sporadic.
Tax Spreadsheet
A tax spreadsheet might be one of the most boring aspects to planning a blog but it’s a great practical to get into. As I work freelance and take on copywriting tasks I had this anyway but I adapted it to include any monetary earnings I make from blogging. At the moment it’s still minimal but everything you earn is subject to tax depending on amounts/ circumstances. Every time an invoice is paid I note down details such as dates, amounts, any fee’s taken out, invoice numbers etc so at the end of the year when I file my returns I don’t need to spend hours working out what I earnt and when.
How do you organize your blog?
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26 responses to “Six Ways That I Plan And Organize My Blog”
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All About Me
Rhian Westbury
Travels and Destinations
Nothing currently planned
Rhian you are far too blooming organised. I thought I was good at just managing my scheduling!
I definitely need to be a little more organised, a google sheet is a great idea.
It feels good to be more organised! I think the book on stats is needed, as don’t think i promote the blog at best times. I also need to schedule more! x
Love scheduling – I try and have all my posts written in advance and it’s a godsend. Love hoot suite for twitter but haven’t tried it for Instagram. Will have to look into it!
Some really nice tips here! I have to admit I actually don’t do any of this! haha
I post as and when, and I usually get paid for content out within a couple of days if it’s not a review. But I do actually want to start making more income from the blog – so I think I’ll have to have a looksie and see if I can’t get more scheduled.
Do you have any tips for a good plugin that will automatically post to my FB blog page? One that has a nice intro and large photo preview?
We need to do more scheduling we tend to find we binge write posts and then are waiting to take photos (or retake) in order to publish our posts. We’ve got 9 drafts line-up already in our pipeline!
You are so impressively organised and I love it! Thanks for sharing Rhian, I will be following your lead as i am currently attacking it in a chaotic manner!
You are very organised, I need to start being more organised I think. I will have to start scheduling more and using hootsuite
Great organisation here. Well done. I do these too.
These are awesome tips, I’m super un-organised with my blog- might have to take some of your tips on board 😀 x
These are awesome tips to help you become more organised, I’ve only started using a spreadsheet after 3 years of blogging and feel loads better about my content, knowing what I’ve got to etc!
Emmie
These are great tips – you are very organised! I try to keep a list on my phone so whenever an idea comes into my head I don;t forget it!
Em
I also use google sheets to keep everything blog related under control, including one sheet for links to FB so that I can keep on top of comments, twitter retweets, insta likes etc.
There’s some really great points there I have to get around to checking out Hootsuite. 🙂 kx
I really need to get better at organising, but a tax spreadsheet is so important. You don’t want to drop the balk when it comes to tax.
Oh wow! You are so organised! Literally I’m a ‘flag’ in hotmail type person lol.
Wow, you are so organised! I still feel like my posting is a bit random but I should try to be more aware of scheduling. I love the Google sheets idea!
I have a separate calendar for blog post planning but yeah it does get quite messy and it’ a bit of a nuisance to have to cross things out, even if I’ve done it in pencil, don’t know why I havent thought about creating a spreadsheet for myself!
Great tips. Despite the fact I constantly work on a computer I still like my old diary to keep track of everything! Hootsuite is amazing and saves much needed time during the week.
This is so interesting and motivating me to get more organised
Bullet Journalling stat checks is something I should do as it can show me how much progress I have made each month. I might do that tomorrow x
I would love to bullet journal for my stats too I think. I might get into this
It’s great being organised isn’t it? There’s no better feeling than a few posts in the bank! I wouldn’t cope without my to-do lists, journal etc x
Love this. I am SO bad about orginization – I feel like it’s the final big step to getting everything in order on the blog! I’m going to dig abit deeper into your tips. thanks!
Oh gosh, you are so organised. I really wish I was much more organised with my blog. I am trying to get there. I think I need to look into using Hootsuite for my Instagram. And I love the sound of your check lists in your bullet journal. Hugs Lucy xxxx
I really need more organisation in my life especially with the blog so this post is just what I needed! L x