An essential part of running an organized food blog business is creating an editorial calendar for your blog so that you are able to plan in advance and work toward goals.
Hi! My name is Kadee and I blog over on www.ohsodelicioso.com. An essential part of running an organized food blog business is creating an editorial calendar for your blog. Knowing what is on the horizon and being able to plan in advance and work toward goals is essential. I’m here to share some tips and tricks about creating and maintaining an editorial calendar.
Choose A Calendar That Works For You
At Oh So Delicioso we use Google Calendar. It is easy and allows us to share the calendar with more than one person. You can also set reminders and send emails to those involved in each event. For us, this method works. There are many other calendar solutions available – even some that work inside of your blogging platform. (CoSchedule is also a great resource.)
The most important things in picking an editorial calendar are:
- it works for you
- it is located somewhere that you frequent
- helps you meet your goals
Set A Schedule
I think setting an appropriate expectation is just as important as using a calendar that works for you, when creating an editorial calendar for your blog. Some bloggers are comfortable creating:
- one post a day
- a few posts per week
- one post per week
Set a schedule that is obtainable for YOU. At Oh So, we do a combination of a few posts per week, and a post each day during special holiday-themed weeks.
Create Relevant Content
The good thing about scheduling your posts ahead of time, is you can plan for holidays and events before they sneak up on you. At Oh So, we like to have our calendar scheduled about three months in advance so we can be sure we are creating content people will be looking for. This also gives us an opportunity to schedule sponsored content and make sure we have a good balance between sponsored posts and organic posts.
Creating content people are searching for is essential to having a successful food blog (or any blog). Feeling like you’re stuck in a rut and don’t know what recipes or topics you should create? We will help you get out of that with some pointers!
Pointers for Finding Ideas
- pick a popular category relevant to your food niche and audience—in this example we will use “cookies”
- conduct a Google search to see what keywords pop up in your search when searching “cookie recipes”
- do a Pinterest search to see what types of cookie recipes people search for most
- do hashtag research for best cookie recipes with most engagement
You will have a large group of recipe ideas to work with after putting in a couple hours of research, and often times that will lead to more inspiration and ideas. It is there that you will pick the relevant content that works with your editorial calendar.
Set A Time To Review Your Calendar
At Oh So we have two full time bloggers: myself, and the founder of Oh So, Des. Des and I like to meet each month and review what is coming up. It gives us a chance to change items and make adjustments where needed. We also review the week coming up each Sunday. This ensures that everyone is on the same page, and no deadlines will be missed. If you are a solo blogger – have these check-ins with yourself as well.
We discuss blog organization and working as a team on a panel at Tastemaker Conference. Make sure to stay up to date with sales, promotions, and Early Bird pricing to future conferences! This way, you will never miss our amazing food blogging events and gain access to insider info.
