Blogging as a hobby can be a stress relief. However, if you’re blogging to make money, good organization of your blog is everything.
It’s essential that professional bloggers create a posting schedule, not just for personal consistency, but to ensure you don’t impact your Google ranking or lose potential leads to competition. A posting schedule is relatively easy to create with the right set of tools and can make any blogger’s life a lot less stressful.
1. Create a list of potential topics to write about.
Before you start blogging, it’s good to “idea dump” into a word document or Google doc. Idea dumping works twofold — it both helps you remember potentially good blog ideas and helps you weed out ideas that sound good at the time but might not actually be so great later on down the line.
To “idea dump,” open a document and write out a list of potential blog topics about which you’d like to write. A good rule is to try for at least 50 different topics and make these topics relatively diverse under the umbrella of your industry or general blog theme. For example, a blog writing about WordPress might include topics like:
- How to start a blog and make money
- Tips for SEO research
- How to navigate WordPress plugins
2. Research SEO keywords related to your industry.
After thinking up ideas for your blog, it’s good to research SEO keywords that could potentially go along with these topics. Use a search engine optimization (SEO) tool like Moz or SE ranking, which has free trial options for those looking for only a little SEO help. Coming up with a list of related SEO keywords will also help you evenly space your posts, so you’re maximizing the efficacy of SEO keywords.
3. Use the built-in SEO tool in WordPress to guide your monthly blogging choices.
WordPress is an innovative platform for blogging because it has built-in SEO tools designed to help your blog rise above your competition. Create post drafts on your blog built around SEO keywords to use these tools effectively.
SEO tools will be at the bottom of the draft when you build these post drafts. You’ll want to input a keyword of focus for your blog and enter a meta description and title that effectively showcases your keyword. If you have a blog that covers a range of topics (say, you’re a movie blogger who specializes in horror and science fiction), make sure to include keywords in a month’s worth of posting which has to do with both topics.
4. Plan your blogging schedules at least one month ahead.
Once you’ve started creating drafts on your WordPress which focus on those topics, create a separate document with a schedule that plans which days you’ll post, what topics you’ll post about, and what potential keywords you’ll be using. You can always switch your topics around as needed, but having a set schedule will motivate you to keep up with your posting and ensure that you’re creating quality content for your readers.
Remember: SEO and frequent posting only bring people to your site. What converts site newcomers to loyal followers is the quality of your content. Planning content out is more likely to lead to that quality content followers are looking for.
Once you plan one month of blogs, you can quickly turn that into a blog posting template for months to come, saving you time.
5. Stick to those schedules.
It’s essential to stick to your schedules, especially once you get followers. First and foremost, your followers are going to expect consistency, and it’s an unfortunate reality that a lapse in consistency can lose you existing followers. However, on top of that, not posting consistently can negatively impact your Google rankings.
6. Adapt your posting schedule as you find out more about what works and what doesn’t.
One thing to remember is that while planning your posting schedule ahead of time can take some stress off your shoulders, you’ll eventually need to switch up the topics and keywords about which you are posting. After all, industries constantly evolve, and blog readers are looking for the most up-to-date information — which means bloggers will have to adapt to those changes. The good news is that having this in the back of your head, and having a list of potential blog topics at the ready, will have you prepared for changes and keep your ears open for the latest innovations in your industry that are worth blogging about.
Blogging doesn’t have to be complicated, and having someone who knows their stuff can make blogging even more straightforward. Meet with a professional today to see how your blog holds up to your competition.
