How to Create an Editorial Calendar for Your Blog

Editorial Calendar

As an entrepreneur, you’ve got meetings to attend, employees to manage, and sales to make – it can be quite a chore to update your blog. If you’re a solo-preneur or can’t afford to hire an assistant then it can become more challenging than you thought.

The fact is, blogging for business is not dead and is still a fantastic way to boost sales, build a brand, and market to your target audience.

Enter the editorial calendar

And editorial calendar is a simple tool that will help you to;

Plan your blog posts in advance,
Schedule your blog posts,
Help you stay organized,
And keep your blog up-to-date!

There are many tools that you can use as an editorial calendar. One that I use all the time is the Editorial Calendar plugin for WordPress. If you don’t use WordPress as your blog platform [or you want something different], Google Calendar is a fantastic way to start and manage your editorial calendar!

Below is a 17 minute video tutorial that will show you exactly what an editorial calendar is, how I use it to keep quality content here, and how to get started with Google Calendar.

If you like the video, please subscribe to this blog to receive other useful tips, advice, and tools via email. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: We will never share your email address with anyone, period.

About The Author

Rod Kirby

Rod Kirby helps entrepreneurs, small business owners, and organizations take advantage of social media marketing and new media through his company, Kirby Enterprises. Follow Rod on Twitter here.

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http://www.homesprosperity.blogspot.com steveborgman

Rod, thanks for some absolutely awesome content! I loved the video, especially the part of how to repurpose older content. I also like the idea of posting something light on Friday mornings. I'm wondering if you have considered a future book you are writing: breaking it down into outline form and writing posts that could be future chapters for your book?
http://www.rodkirby.com Rod

You know what? A book is definitely in my evil plans to take over the world. It's really a matter of doing it at the right time. But, I've got some ideas I'm brewing. . . stay tuned sir!
nilantha

Good one. i love it.
http://www.taylormade-weddings.com/ Darlene Taylor

Thank you, Rod. This was very helpful. I just started blogging for my wedding business and this is a great way to plan and stay organized, which is a MUST for me. I also signed up for your weekly newsletter. Wishing you much success!
http://www.rodkirby.com Rod

Thank you for the well wishes, Darlene. I appreciate it. You and I have similar habits, I like to stay organized as well. Do I always stick to the plan? Not all the time, but it still pays to have one to begin with. Glad you enjoyed the video!
Kristin

Rod,
thank you for the video demo – great information. May I ask what software you used to create/edit it?
http://www.happenchance.net/ Seth M Baker

Thanks for making this video, so glad I found it. I'm trying to put together a calendar, and seeing what you have done gave me plenty of ideas. I like how you're using the 'tasks' feature in gcal and putting in the article ideas in the notes. Happy to see another Chrome user as well. Cheers.
http://www.rodkirby.com Rod

Sorry for the late reply, Kristin, I use Camtasia Studio 6 which is friggin awesome as you can see. It also lets you do camera in camera with a web cam so you can train and be seen as well. I love it.
http://www.rodkirby.com Rod

Thanks, Seth, I'm glad you found it as well. I like to maximize ever tool that I come across, and until I find something better, G Calendar will have to do. Chrome wasn't my favorite browser when it debuted, but it's come a long way and I'm using it more and more. I'm still a major fan of Firefox, but If I want to get on the net really quickly, I don't hesitate when opening Chrome. Glad to meet you here, stay connected and be sure to share the video with your friends! Thanks!
latoshajohnson

Rod,

This is a great video and if doesn't get people motivated to use an editorial calendar–I don't know what will! Another, way I like to give life to my old blog posts is by using the LinkedWithin WordPress plugin (http://www.linkwithin.com/). Great advice!
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http://www.blogussion.com/ Seth W

I think this video is a fantastic example of offering useful content to your readers. Its new and fresh and I am glad I watched it! Thanks for letting us see how you do it.
http://www.rodkirby.com Rod

Hey, Seth, thanks for the great comment. It's my goal to produce quality content that really makes a difference. Thanks for watching and be sure to share it with your friends!
manishfusion

Hello everyone i am completely new to this forum.
Interested in learning many new things. Hope we all will share our
knowledge and talk about different concepts in this forum.

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http://www.rodkirby.com Rod

Thank you, glad you enjoyed the video. Hope you stick around for more or
visit again.
http://www.rodkirby.com Rod

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http://www.rodkirby.com Rod

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http://www.delicatefortress.com/ Karyn

This is fantastic! I'm just starting out with blogging for my new business, so I'm going to have to bookmark this site to review in the future. Thank you so much!
http://www.rodkirby.com Rod

Hey, Karyn, thanks for leaving a comment. Glad I could help you out.
If you have any questions or need help, feel free to ask.
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http://www.zimliu.com Jimmy Liew

Hi Rod,
This movie is really fantastic. I can see that how you grow your creativity and ideas. I love the way you manage your task and calendar. That prove that you can handle more task at one time. I really appreciate your post.

Thanks for sharing and have a nice day!
http://www.rodkirby.com Rod

Thank you, Jimmy! Having an editorial calendar really gets my creative juices flowing. I highly recommend it for your blog and business.
http://twitter.com/SusanBilheimer Susan Bilheimer

Great job. This was so helpful. Did you use Camtasia to produce this video? This was exactly what I needed to help me create my own calendar.
http://www.rodkirby.com Rod

Hey, Susan, thank you. Glad you enjoyed the video. I did use Camtasia, I love the quality video it produces.
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Thank you for wrapping all of this up in a neat, digestible package. You are right on the money with your advice and I especially like the consistency line. It’s not consistent ‘crap’ but consistently churning out thoughtful content which serves others and meets their needs. People shouldn’t be afraid to experiment and try new things here.
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http://www.killersharkmarketing.com Joseph Doughty

Rod, Thanks for putting this together. I immediately followed along and got my editorial calendar in place. For what it is worth, I found your through a link on comprehensive post regarding blog calendars, editorial guidelines and other journalistic know-how.

http://www.reachcustomersonline.com/2010/08/20/09.16.39/#learn-more

http://www.rodkirby.com Rod

Hey, Joseph, I’m glad you found the video helpful. You might even try the
new Editorial Calendar plugin for WordPress. Unfortunately, it wasn’t
available when I made this video.

Cheers!

Rod

http://www.killersharkmarketing.com Joseph Doughty

Rod, Thanks. I was aware of the Editorial Calendar plug-in and already loaded it up. I like the Google calendar solution too as it allows me to use it with others without involving them in my WP site. some people I work with, it is hard enough to get them to create a Google doc and look at a Calendar. : ) Thanks for the follow up.

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Neat!! Wow pretty much sums it all up in how to create an editorial calendar. By they way, do you know of any tools that take blog post and crunches them into automatic tweets by chance
Blogger Jen

I like your voice
http://www.shemogul.blogspot.com Waitersshameka

Rod,

I just stumbled on this post and I would like to say that it really taught me alot. I have just started my blog, my vision is to make my blog into a brand that evolves into a magazine. Your video really help relieved some of the stress that I was feeling. You helped me understand how to organize my creativity.
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