If you’ve been following me on INSTAGRAM, you saw my post about organization and keeping track of my writing and posting using a content calendar. It’s been instrumental in keeping my writing on track, especially the last few weeks. That’s why, today, I want to share with you How I Plan A Month’s Worth of Content in 60 Minutes!
The biggest challenge for most authors is balancing writing with promoting. You have to know what to post, when to post, and how to post it.
It sounds really daunting, I know. You see the 30-31 blocks on a calendar and immediately think: I don’t have that much content to share, or that it’s too much work. I’m here to tell you, you don’t need that many and it’s not! It’s a tool that you can make as complicated or as simple as you want.
Let me show you.
This is my actual June calendar. Everything on here is everything I am going to share with my readers in June. As you can see, I have whole days where I have nothing posted, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to be scheduling posts on those days.
Let get into it.
Looking at my calendar, I know that I will be posting a blog post every other Wednesday and a newsletter every other Thursday. To me, that means that a week, or two before hand on a Tuesday (because I only work half days at my regular job on Tuesdays), I will have those written up and scheduled to go out right on time.
Because my personal schedule is light on Monday and Tuesdays, those are the days I will sit down and hammer out a month’s worth of content. I am not going to push for more than that because I don’t want to exhaust myself, neglect my family or my writing by sitting in front of the computer for 18hrs.
Disclaimer: This is just the steps I take to plan what I’ll be posting. Putting together content, writing posts, creating graphics, etc, take me literal HOURS, but putting the plan on paper keeps me focused, organized, and in control of what I’ll be producing.
Okay, onto…
The steps I take to keep my content organized
STEP 1
You can print my free content calendar I made up just for you (see button below) or you can use literally any calendar. I personally like having a physical draft and a digital. That way, it’s always with me. And, if I need to update something, I make sure I do it on both copies.
STEP 2
Once you have your calendar open in front of you, you’re going to label all the important holidays. For example, in June, Father’s Day is on the 20th, and Indigenous Peoples Day is on the 21st. For me, both of these are very important, so, they go in my calendar first. From there, I build in all my big promo days.
The Baby Saga is a heartwarming (and sexy 😉) contemporary surrounding family and love. That would work great as a promo on Father’s Day. Also, I have Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley on my TBR list. I’ve heard so many great things about it. It would make a perfect review to share on Indigenous Peoples Day. Finally, Octavian’s Undoing is going to be six whole years old on the 23rd!! Of course that means a weekend of celebrating the Maxwell brothers. So, I make sure that my smaller (micro) posts will be centered around those key points.
STEP 3
Now that we know roughly what we’re going to share and when, let’s get our micro posts in.
by smaller posts, I mean the graphics, memes, videos, reels, you’re going share on your social media surrounding the posts above. So, On Wednesday, I will share that I wrote a post on my blog. On Tuesday, I’ll remind everyone that a newsletter went out. On Friday-Sunday, I might do another post reminding readers to check out my new post, or an older post, or a post/meme that supports my post. I try really hard not to spam my readers by keeping to the 80/20 the rule.
Don’t forget to make several different image versions of your posts for each platform. That way, readers aren’t seeing the same graphics, but you’re still getting attention and putting your blog/newsletter/post out there.
STEP 4
Color code!
I give every item its own color and it’s the same color no matter where I have it marked. Facebook will always be a dark blue. Twitter a light blue. Instagram pink, etc. That way, when I see that color, I know I need to be posting something there during a specific time.
Now that I’ve broken that down, I’m going to explain why I think having a content plan is so important to me.
- I have very few days off and the ones I do get, I don’t want to spend freaking out over what to post.
- It gives me flexibility over the month. By seeing what I have planned, I know what’s coming, what needs to be addressed, and how to better adjust my day/week/month.
If you don’t have time, or are feeling intimidated by the idea of hammering out content for an entire month, start with a week, or two weeks and once you get the hang of it, build on it. Like I said, this isn’t set in stone or something to fear. It’s there to make your life easier and help you save time so you could be writing instead of wondering what to post on Instagram.
Do you already use a content calendar? How do you organize your schedule?? I’d love to hear about it. Let me know in the comments below!
