Why & How To Create Your Posting Schedule 3 Weeks In Advanced

Why & How To Create Your Posting Schedule 3 Weeks In Advanced

First I’d like to thank everyone who voted last week on which Pillar Article you wanted me to do next. Choice #2 came in second place, so the “audio recording” article will be published sometime in early January – so keep a eye out for that.

Today we’ll be covering a few areas on posting schedules; Why I recommend you create one, how it’s helped my productivity and ultimately a video on how to create your own.

I hope you get a lot our of this post, and please help me spread the word about this topic by sharing it, retweeting it, stumbling it and digging it – I’d really appreciate it.

Why I Recommend You Create Your Own Posting Schedule

There are a few reasons, some are strategic while others have to do with your own motivation. Both are very important because I believe that having the right mindset, while being strategic will give you the most benefit.

So here they are; posting schedules help you:

Organize your thoughts - Sometime we have so many ideas that we forget a good chunk of them because we didn’t organize them. With this posting schedule, you’ll be able to note down what your ideas are, what type of post will best fit that idea, and by when you should have it ready.

Get Strategic – Different blog post types have different functions. Knowing what type of post will get you more traffic, comments, exposure or links will allow you to strategically create the response you want.

Focus on the Task-at-Hand – Having a posting schedule will clear your mind of the stuff that doesn’t need your attention right now, and help you focus on the ONE post that needs to get done.

Develop a Good Posting Habit – I’ve also noticed that when I started posting the same three days out of the week, my momentum kicked into high-gear. I’ve also heard that readers like consistency, and like to know when the next post is coming, but that rule has been challenged on this blog , and many other blogs.

Post Types & Their Functions

Below is a list of post types that I’ve used and that you can use to populate your posting schedule. Knowing the blog post functions is important because then you can schedule them strategically throughout the month.

Some blog posts get you more traffic than others, while those other blog posts can help you create a sense of community around your blog. I incorporate as many of them as possible, because they give me a lot more to work with, in terms of ideas for blog posts.

Pillar Articles – These are basically very meaty “How-To” posts (like this one) and are very special. They shouldn’t be used too often because the amount of information in them can overwhelm your readers.

List Posts – These are what they sound like, a post with a list in it. These types of posts are more likely to get shared and linked to.

Product Reviews -You gotta get paid, right? Reviewing products you’ve used is a great way to share cool info and get paid. You won’t get much comments or shares but if you make one sale, at least the time you spent writing the review paid off.

Crowdsourcing – To learn more about crowdsourcing read this post. I’ve noticed that these posts get you a nice spike in traffic.

Ask The Readers – These are cool. I recently used this type of post to see what topic you guys wanted me to write about. This type of post gets your readers engaged and build community.

Blog Series – If you want exposure, you should consider doing a series with the help of 4 to 6 other bloggers.(I’m in the middle of one right now)

Interviews – These need a bit of preparation and can lead to a lot of referral traffic if the interviewee has a captive audience.

Challenges/Contests – Having contests and challenges are great to increase engagement and exposure from people linking back to the contest or challenge rules.

2-Day Question & Answer – Use this 2 part post to get loyal readers and build community. When you deliberately give you audience exactly what they asked for you increase the chances of them coming back.

Round Up – With this post you collect 10 to 20 posts from around the web (that you enjoyed reading) and link to them directly. The blog owners will most likely come back to your post and leave a comment.

Podcast - Last but not least are Podcasts. Providing your audience with a different type of content (in this case audio), increases the likelihood of them coming back because no one else is doing it.

Print It Out & Plug ‘Em In

Below is a video showing you how I use the blog post planner. Before you watch the video, be sure to print out a copy of the planner so you can work right along with me.

In this video I share with you how I schedule my content and why I choose certain days for different types of posts. It’s very strategic but you don’t have to follow my “rules” for posting; it’s always fun to make up your own. Enjoy!

Check out the video here..

Right Click here to DOWNLOAD the 3 week blog post planner

On To You…

So there you have it. That’s how you create a posting schedule to stay on track and gain momentum. Hope you find the PDF planner very helpful. Be sure to bookmark this article so you can come back to it again and again, whenever you need to.

Please leave me your feedback or questions in the comments section.
All the best…