It’s 2019 and you need a blog! The art of blogging is not dead and today more than ever people are consuming information through blogs. People are spending their time Googling questions and utilizing blogs to answer those questions.
Content is king and blogging is the first step when it comes to getting ahead of the social media game. Writing and keeping up with a blog can seem extremely overwhelming but if you make a blogging plan and commit to sticking to it — blogging can be a breeze!
Today, we’re talking about the importance of planning your blogging content ahead of time and actionable steps on how to plan your blogging content!
Why planning your blogging content is important
You would never walk into your yoga class to teach without a plan and you should never get into blogging without a plan either. When you first started out as a yoga teacher you planned your sequence, you didn’t just wing it!
By planning ahead you save your sanity and you’re more confident with the process and outcome. You’ll never regret giving yourself a roadmap or an outline — they’re always helpful!
How to plan your blogging content
1. Set yourself up on Google Drive
Ready to crank out at least one year’s worth of awesome blogging content? First things first — let’s get you set up for success. I highly suggest using Google Docs as the tool to create and plan your blogging content.
There are a few reasons why I suggest Google Docs and one of the main reasons is: what if your computer dies? Not “no battery” dies but “will not turn on, black screen of death” dies. When you work in Google Docs, everything is saved in the cloud and on their server. If you run into computer issues, all your documents will be saved in Google!
When you access your Google Drive, which is free with any sort of Google or Gmail login — create a folder dedicated to your blogging files. For example, a folder simply called “Blog”.
2. Decide on a blogging frequency
Now that we have a central space to store all your documents and ideas, the next step is deciding on your frequency. Decide how often you want to publish a blog — but be sure it’s a frequency you can commit to.
If you’re new to blogging and want to start slow, begin at blogging once a month. That’s only 12 blog posts a year and a great place to start. If you want to commit to blogging weekly — even better! No matter the frequency you commit to, the key is to actually commit. Let it be something your audience can rely on. Then, decide what date or days you want your blog posts to go live.
Let’s assume for the rest of this step by step guide that you are committing to once a month, 12 posts a year. Now let’s get to brainstorming!
3. Brainstorm your topics
Step one of brainstorming is to understand your niche. What will people who visit your blog be coming for? It doesn’t make any sense to blog about prenatal yoga if your yoga niche is yoga for stress relief. So always keep this in mind!
With your niche in mind, think about what your dream student wants to learn about. What are they asking about at the end of class? What do you want your dream students to know more about regarding your niche?
Set a timer for 30 minutes and brainstorm as many topics as you can think of. Just 30 minutes of your day! If you find yourself thinking of more than 12, keep writing. If you find yourself short of topics at the end of the 30 minutes, don’t worry — practice makes perfect! Topics will come to you.
If you go over your 12 topics, great! Don’t scrap them. What you’ll find is that you’ll be able to combine topics into bigger blog posts or use some as social media content. They won’t go to waste.
4. Assign brainstormed topics to a month or a date
Now that you have written down your topics, assign 12 of them month. Then go into your Google Drive folder and create 12 documents, with the month and the topic as the title. For example, “January: Best clothes for yoga class”.
5. Jot down key points for each topic
While you’re still in this creative brainstorm mode, “brain dump” the topics and content you want to talk about within those separate Google Docs. It doesn’t have to be pretty or organized, just write down all the points you want to mention! Jot down 3 main points, or the steps for any “how-to” lists.
Most importantly, identify what you want your audience to gain after they read your blog. What are you going to ask them to do with the information you just gave them?
6. Plan when you’ll work on writing the blog post
Now that you’re organized with the initial ideas in mind — it’s time to plan a date to work on your blog! Whatever date you want your blog to go live, plan on the writing process to begin one week before that date. That gives you time to write it, walk away and think, write again, add images, edit and schedule the post.
7. Go live with your blog post!
It’s go time! Time to hit publish. Once the blog post goes live, be sure to post about it on all your social media channels. Publish the link on your Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter...wherever you are active.
Viola! You just created a 12-month blogging plan and know the actionable steps to make it happen.
If you find that this system isn’t for you, no worries! Everyone has their own creative process and their way of doing things. I think you’ll find that once you get into the world of blogging, it will become easier and easier and you’ll enjoy it as time goes on.
Happy Blogging!
