Planning your content

There are several considerations when it comes to planning the content for your blog. Some components include:

• Brainstorming topics
• Identifying top level categories, sub-categories and the more granular tags
• Establishing a content calendar

Don’t worry if this information seems a bit overwhelming at first! The lessons in this module will cover these topics in more detail. As you work through them, be sure to make notes on different ideas that you come up with regarding how to tie it all together.

While learning the ins and outs of each component can be done separately, at the end of it all, each of the strategies you’ll be learning will intertwine to create the bigger picture of your content plan.

Your topic brainstorming will lead to ideas for categories, sub-categories and tags. Your work on categories and tags will prompt even more topic ideas. Higher level ideas can then be broken down to yield topics for individual posts or even a series of posts.

The same applies while you’re creating your content calendar. New ideas will be sparked as you consider specific dates, months, holidays, and seasons, all of which can be added to your pool of topics. These, in turn, help you flesh out your category and tag organizational structure. It’s just like we said! Each component of the process ties into the others naturally, keeping the ideas flowing.

Planning takes time

As with everything for your website, this is not a one time task. It’s not a done and dusted type of thing.

This is a process you will continue to revisit over and over throughout the journey of creating your blog – and it doesn’t have to be a linear process. So, while the lessons are presented in a particular order, feel free to jump back and forth and revisit lessons over and over, for idea refreshers.

We recommend setting aside a notebook, or a spreadsheet, or some kind of document for tracking the progress you make in these areas. It will be a living record that you’ll continue to update each time you sit down to work on your content planning. It will be your go-to each time you sit down to create.

How often you hold planning sessions will depend on your own style and approach, how much content you’re producing, and at what frequency. If you’re creating daily content, you might consider a planning session at the beginning of each week. If you’re creating weekly content, perhaps once per month will be sufficient.

Either way, the more often you plan, and the farther in advance that you plan for, the easier you’ll find the process to be. For many people, figuring out their topics and specific post ideas is the most challenging part. If you dedicate specific time for planning you’ll nip this challenge in the bud, empowering you to get down to the business of creating. You’ll also find that your creation process will be faster and more efficient when you have a predetermined game plan laid out for you.

But also remember that a plan is fluid. It’s not a rigid, carved in stone type structure meant to stifle your creativity. The idea is to know in advance what you’re going to create and when – which will free up your creativity for the process of creating. But if something surfaces unexpectedly, or a new idea finds its way to you – you can adjust your plan, you can add in extra pieces, you can swap out weaker ideas for stronger ones.

Learning Action

Decide on the method of recording that suits you best, and get it setup. 

• Label the front of a notebook, dress up the first page with some art or an inspiring quote, use sticky labels to create sections; 
• Format a spreadsheet (Google Sheets works for this) with sheet tabs, columns, and rows (you can even add in conditional formatting if you really want to get detailed with it); 
• Setup a Google Doc and utilize the Heading text styles to create sections and an automatic table of contents.

Whichever method you choose, having a place to record your ideas and planning will help to keep you organized and ensure that you don’t forget any of the great ideas that pop into your head along the way.

This exercise applies whether you’ve been blogging for years or are just getting started. It’s never too late or too soon to get organized and create a plan.