Can A Blog Planner Help Your Blog Grow

When I first started blogging, I didn’t have any formal way of keeping track of the tasks, or projects that I was working on.  I simply had a little note book, where I’d jot down high-level points and work from that information. 

There were times when it got overwhelming, since my notes were not very organized and I had everything crunched together like my notes for the post, for marketing, my affiliate details, my passwords, and other tasks related to running a blog site.

To add to that, I’d sometimes forget to work on those tasks. I didn’t have a proper way of keeping a schedule, so my posts were not completed and posted on time.  I was falling back on my social media posts, late on responding to emails, failing to keep track and updating my affiliate links, and all of these were impacting my blogging business.

I had to act.  I had to do something so that I can better manage my blog and be serious about it if I were to make money.

Taking a break from writing the content, I started working on my Blog Planner.  I had to have a plan for my blog.

Again, I came up with a list of all the categories that are important for running my business and I designed the pages for each of those categories. I’ll explain those categories or pages in more details but first let me share how my blog planner helped me.

As mentioned, without a Blog Planner I had challenges finding topics, hitting deadlines, keeping my work organized and missing on other tasks that were important to grow my blog.  

Once I started using my Blog Planner:

I got more organized. I had all my information organized by the category.

More convenient. I was able to find information more easily without digging through papers.  I had all my info readily available whenever I needed it.

Met deadlines. With my planner, I was getting ahead and already knew what tasks needed to be completed that week. I was able to publish my posts consistently and stayed on schedule.

Helped with content writing. Knowing what topics to write about, and what research is needed, helped me write posts more easily.

Helped me stay on track with trending topics due to proper planning.

 

These benefits were very helpful for my overall blogging business and I’m so excited to offer my Blog Planner to you!

If you are experiencing the following, you need a Blog Planner.

Struggling to understand the blogging strategy and unable to make sense of what needs to be  done to make it profitable

Unable to accomplish your business goals and unable to figure out what is that you are doing wrong

Don’t know what marketing strategy to use

Tracking maintenance items

 

My Blog Planner includes the following important items:

About My Blog

You probably have heard this before, businesses without any plans fail. Planning is the most crucial step for any business including blogging. You need to have a thorough understanding and an easy to follow roadmap of your blog business. 

What is the purpose of your business? What are your business goals? Who is your audience?

ABOUT MY BLOG will help you:

Set the goals

Set the mission statement

Describe the theme

Determine the target audience

Decide which features will your blog support (example: newsletters, social media, etc)

Determine the email accounts and their purpose

Determine the social media channels and what you will use them for

How would you reward your audience? Giveaways, Discounts, etc.

 

The Post Planner

Once you have a plan for your blog, now it’s time to plan your content. What topics are you going to write about? What you need to do before writing your blog? What needs to be included in your content to make it more presentable and marketable. 

THE POST PLANNER will help you address the following details:

Title

Category

Publish details

Type of post

Description

Checklist

Keyword research

Social media channels

Affiliate/sponsors

Offers

Links

Additional notes

 

The Newsletter Planner

Is your newsletter providing outstanding value to your subscribers? Are their repeated offers that are not very helpful to your subscribers? How often should you email the newsletter?

THE NEWSLETTER PLANNER will help you:

Set the goal of your newsletter

Decide on the theme

Decide on the Send Date

brainstorm a catchy subject line

Provide brief introduction

Decide on the content, links, images, announcements

Set the Stats (goals)

Include any other important information

 

Social Media Strategy

Defines how you are planning to use social media to achieve your goals. How often are you going to post on social media, what type of content you planning to post.

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY will help you:

Define the goals for your social media channels

Create a basic social media content strategy

Decide on publishing/posting schedule

Research the keywords and hashtags.

 

Blog Finances

If your goal is to make money with your blog, it is very important that you track your income.

BLOG FINANCES will help you track (monthly):

Date the transactions occurred

The expenses

The income

Balance

Memo

Total Revenue for the month

Total Expense for the month

Profit/loss

Was the result expected?

Notes (anything to note on any of the transactions or ways to reduce expenses or increase income, etc).

 

Brainstorming Ideas

You need good ideas to make your blog, newsletter, more interesting. Think about what type of post you’re going to write, when you plan to publish it. Jot down your ideas so you don’t forget about them. Are the titles engaging enough?  How are you going to drive traffic to your website?

 

BRAINSTORMING IDEAS WORKSHEET will help you:

Write down ideas for your posts and decide on publish dates

Write down content ideas for your newsletter and decide on the send date

Brainstorm engaging titles and sub-titles for your posts

Find ways to increase traffic

 

Giveaway Details 

If you are planning to host giveaways for your audience, you need to put all your details together for that as well.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS will help you:

Set the goal

Giveaway start and end dates

Giveaway description

Set rules of entry

Platform or channel that you’ll use for the giveaway

Number of entries you expect

Number of entries received

Winner announcement date, etc.

 

Maintenance Checklist (Weekly & Monthly)

In order for your blog to be successful you need to make sure your blog stays in great shape along with all other things that are linked to your blog.

MAINTENANCE CHECKLIST (WEEKLY & MONTHLY) will help you ensure:

Your plugins are working correctly

Your page load time is efficient

Your pages are displaying correctly

Your menu links are working

Your posts are up-to-date

There are no broken links or 404-error pages

SEO is working

Social Media links, images, profiles, pin boards, etc., are working as expected

 

ACCOMPLISHMENTS (MONTHLY/YEARLY) will help you track:

Number of posts that were posted

Number of emails sent

Number of visitors

Number of pageviews

Income

Number of guest writers

Number of freelance writers

Number of giveaways

Number of Social Media followers (for each channel), etc.

 

Keyword Research Worksheet

Keywords are so important for driving the traffic to your website and using Google Analytics you can research the keywords which you can include in your posts.

Affiliate Details

Do you have the passwords written down so it’s easier for you to look them up. Do you remember which affiliates or partners you’ve signed up with.

AFFILIATE DETAILS – will help you create a list of affiliate networks and partners you signed up with along with the userids and passwords that you use to login to their affiliate program and any other special notes or requirements that you need to know for that particular affiliate. Keep this log in a safe place.

 

Additional:

Weekly/Monthly Calendars – these calendars will help you write down any important tasks/events that you need to take care of for that week or month.

Contact Details – do you have all the contact info for your blog. Do you know who is your technical support team, your hosting provider, etc.

 

Social Media PLANNING

How often do you update your posts or announcements? How often do you connect with your followers?  How many new followers you got? 

Under this social media strategy category, you will have the following pages:

Social Media Planner

Objective/goal, target market, advertising, etc.

Monthly Calendar

To-Do List

 

Income Planning

If your goal is to make money with your blog, it is very important that you track your income. 

In order to plan and track your blog you would need the following:

Income worksheet

Affiliate Programs

Sponsored Ads (Sponsors)

Products

Monthly Calendar

Checklist

Marketing Planning

Every business needs a marketing plan in order to be successful.  You have to market your business, in order to get your services or products to your potential buyers.  To get your blog to your readers or target market, you have to promote your blog. You have to reach out and tell your target audience what you have to offer. 

Under Marketing Planning category, you’d get the following pages:

Checklist

Facebook Ads

Pinterest Pinning and Tracking

Promoted Pins

Worksheet: Advertising Fees

Email Marketing

Follow-ups (calendar)

Growth Planning

How are you planning to grow your blog business?  Should you create your own product and sell to your audience?  Network with other bloggers who are in the same niche. Get more training? Create YouTube videos?  Podcasts? Digital Informational Products?

You will get:

Growing Plan

Product Planning

Media Relations

Networking

Contacts List

Monthly Calendar

Annual Review

At the end of each year, an annual review will help you get a good insight into your blog business.  What worked well and what did not work so well and can be improved?  What should you continue doing that brought more visitors to your site or helped you make money.

Annual Review worksheet

Achievements

Need Improvements

Reinvent Options

 

What’s my goal to achieve with Blog Planner?

I’d like those who use my Blog Planner to:

Have a practical business plan for their blog

Set their blogging goals

Create useful and engaging content

Focus on social media planning

Know their audience or target market well

Track and grow their income

Gain a good understanding of how their blog is doing

Build relationships with other bloggers

Be proud about being organized

 

 

A bog planner helps:

Maintain a consistent posting schedules across website and social media channels

Avoid last-minute rush to find content or information to share with your audience

Stay on track with trending topics due to proper planning