Use This Blog Content Planner Template To Make A Blogging Calendar [Ep. 30]

Looking for a powerful blog content planner template that can help you map out a blogging calendar?

Well, you’re in luck, as that is exactly what we’ll be covering in this episode of The Profitable Travel Blog Podcast.

In fact, by the end of this episode, you’ll understand:

How to create a blogging content calendar that actually helps you reach your goals
A fun exercise for uncovering your blogging goals when you feel stuck
My favorite method for fleshing out a blog content strategy
What to actually put into a blogger content calendar
Tips for creating a blog posting schedule
And more!

On that note, let’s dive into the episode.

Table of Contents

Blog Content Planner [Podcast Episode Audio]

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Free Travel Blogger Resource Library

To help you really jumpstart your blogging success, I’ve added 55+ blogging resources like printables, video tutorials, and workbooks into a FREE resource library for travel bloggers.

blog post promotion checklist — Click here to snag instant access!

Travel Blog Content Creation & Promotion Workflow Freebie

Now, I realize that even when you have a ton of blog post ideas it can still be challenging to understand how to create and promote your content.

Luckily, I’ve got a freebie that can help!

It’s a Content Creation & Promotion Workflow Trello Board that will help you plan your blog posts as well as write them and promote them for maximum engagement.

You can grab the free Trello board here.

Click here to snag the free Trello board

Grabbed it?

Then let’s continue with our travel blog content strategy.

Create Your Blogging Content Calendar [Episode Transcript]

So in the previous three episodes, we’ve been building on the content creation process — how to plan your content, create your content, and promote your content. The goal is to really help you overcome writer’s block as a blogger and get strategic with what you create and how you promote it.

In this episode, which is the last I have planned for this series, at least for now, we’ll bring it all together to actually map out your blog content calendar that can help you grow your blog fast through strategic planning.

But first:

I want to direct your attention to the show notes where I’ve shared a link to my free Travel Blogger Resource Library.

Inside you’ll snag access to 45+ resources from cheat sheets to workbooks to video tutorials that can help truly turn your blog into a profitable business — including a Content Creation + Promotion Workflow Trello board to help you really streamline your content creation process. It shares the exact steps you should step when planning, creating, and promoting your blog posts.

I’m all about implementation and I really want to make sure you don’t just listen to the episode and forget about it, but that you actually use what I share to make your blogging life easier.

Inside the library, there are a number of printables and tutorials that will help you take what I share in this episode, and efficiently implement it.

Feel free to even pause this episode to go grab those resources.

You back?

Then let’s get started.

How To Come Up With Content Ideas Quickly

Before we dive into how to create a content calendar and fill it with blog post ideas, I want to share a super easy strategy for coming up with topics to write about.

You can save time without sacrificing quality by using a tool like Jasper AI, which utilizes artificial intelligence to help you quickly and easily come up with topic ideas, create article outlines, and even draft content.

In fact, if you’re wondering how to write blog posts fast, this tool is the answer.

You can click here for a 10,000-word free trial of Jasper.

Pinpoint Goals To Map Out In Your Blog Content Planner

Now before physically writing anything onto your content calendar, it’s important to sit down and set your blogging goals.

If you’re someone who has trouble planning a blog strategy and defining your blogging goals, I have an entire episode on this, which I’ll link in the show notes, but one thing I find helpful is grabbing my journal and writing out the answers to a few questions, including:

Why did you start a travel blog?

For instance, was it to help empower women to feel confident traveling solo? To promote local businesses around the world? To push the sustainable tourism movement forward and make it mainstream? As a way to use your platform for good?

When you picture your blog in three years, what do you envision?

What about five years? How about 10?

Pro tip here:

I recommend not judging your visions, but just letting them play out.

For instance, if you envision yourself running retreats around the world through your blog, or hosting a popular web series, don’t then stop these dreams from coming forward by telling yourself that you don’t have the experience necessary to accomplish them.

Realize that you can always learn new skills and that a lot can change in a few years.

Also, know that recognizing these dreams can give you insight into what you enjoy.

Going back to the example of leading retreats around the world, maybe you recognize that you love building a community or leading workshops, which is information that can also help you pinpoint goals.

What do you see as being your greater purpose in life?

Is there a way you can use your blog to fulfill that purpose? For example, maybe you feel like your purpose in life is to bring people together in some way.

Realizing this might drive you to start an online membership or grow a Facebook group.

When you think about working on your blog, what are the activities, projects, and tasks that you enjoy most?

One personal example here is that I’ve realized I absolutely love teaching — I love content planning and then filming blogging tutorial videos for YouTube, creating online courses, leading live calls in my Travel Blog Prosperity membership, and speaking at travel blogger conferences.

And so, I’ve created a framework for my blogging business that puts these tasks at the center.

By the way, utilizing creative journaling prompts and keeping a regular journaling practice can help you discover your true passions, and can help constantly remind you of what you really want in your blogging business — and in your life.

Implementing The SMART Goals Framework

Okay, so once you have some general goals, it’s wise to turn them into SMART Goals; as in, goals that are:

Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time-based

These SMART Goals will then be the driver of your content marketing plan.

So, you might say that you want to get 100 students into your travel hacking course during next week’s digital product launch, increase your blog traffic to 20,000 pageviews per month by the end of the year, or that you want to grow your email list to 1,000 subscribers within the next six months.

Once you have a few goals pinned down, you can work backward to pinpoint what milestones — or smaller goals — need to be reached to accomplish the larger goals.

With a goal of growing your email list to 1,000 subscribers, that might mean creating an opt-in freebie or lead magnet that gets people onto your list and then promoting the heck out of it. Possibly, it means hosting a giveaway on your blog where people need to subscribe to enter.

This content promotion would be something to put into your blogging calendar.

What To Put In Your Content Calendar

Okay, so once you’re crystal clear on your blogging goals, you can create a blogging content calendar to bring them to life.

You can use whatever you’d like to create this — a paper calendar, a spreadsheet, a digital tool like Asana or Trello — but basically I recommend mapping out a few items.

With each of these, you should always be keeping your big picture goals in mind.

Sure, maybe not every piece of content will bring you income and subscribers; however, you can always be working to create valuable content that helps you get blog followers and that attracts the people who would eventually subscribe and/or purchase from your shop or via your promotions.

On that note, here is what you will map out in your blog content planner:

Deadlines & deliverables for your SMART goals.

I gave an example a few moments ago regarding email marketing, but let’s look at another.

Let’s say your goal is to create a blog content plan that increases your affiliate income.

In this case, you might put in the blogger content calendar that once per month you write a blog post that promotes an affiliate partner, which you then repurpose into an email and social media shares to expand your reach and increase your chances of making money.

With this, you’ll come up with content ideas that benefit your audience but that also entice them to buy — which can help you reach your goal sustainbly.

Relevant holidays that make sense to create content around.

There are the obvious holidays, like Black Friday and Valentine’s Day, though you might also consider niche holidays like National Picnic Month and International Beer Day. Of course, you should also create gift guides for your blog during the holiay season.

Depending on how closely related the occasions are to your niche, you might simply promote them on social media, or you might go deeper to promote them on your blog — particularly if the holiday tends to trend.

For instance, if you blog about camping, doing a roundup of clever S’mores recipes on National S’mores Day could be a fun way to provide timely value to your target audience.

Promotions you’ll be running.

This might mean a product launch if you sell digital products, a sale run by an affiliate partner, tickets to an event you’ll be hosting, or something else.

For instance, the past few years I’ve opened the doors to my Travel Blog Prosperity membership in December to bloggers start the new year off right with their blogs.

In my blogging business, I typically focus on one main promotion per month.

Content that brings your main blog themes to life.

I’ve discussed this in previous podcast episodes, but to recap, you might consider how you can break up your content into three-to-five themes or content buckets to keep things focused and help people know what to expect.

So if your mission is to help couples plan the perfect honeymoon, you might break your content up into romantic hotels, destinations, experiences, and tips.

Consider high-converting content types.

These are the types of content that help to grow your email list and income, such as a content series you can monetize, a collaborative post that brings in a lot of traffic that you can place your opt-in freebie in, and posts focused on affiliate marketing.

My Strategy For Creating A Blogging Content Calendar

Keeping the above in mind, here is how I personally map out my content calendar.

First of all, I plot out all the upcoming holidays I want to promote.

Then, I’ll input any promotions or launches — as well as any goal deadlines — I’ll be creating content around.

Note here, that I keep a piece of paper taped to my wall that provides a quick list of my promotional plans for the year so that I always know what they are.

This list changes from time to time, but it helps me have a big picture plan so I can move things around accordingly.

What I mean by this is that if I see I’m promoting a big bundle in February, I’m going to try to avoid promoting another one in March.

Okay, once that is plotted, I then map out my regular blog content.

Let’s say you have four content buckets. This might mean plotting those onto your blogger content calendar, and then making sure that every month at least one of those is an affiliate-optimized post targeting buyer intent keywords — as in, doing niche keyword research to find words and phrases that target people who are looking to purchase — and at least one is a collaborative post.

You might also make a note on your blogging calendar that every quarter or twice per year you do a blog cont e nt series. Moreover, your should also include time spent updating older blog posts so they’re relevant and factual.

Of course, these are just a few ideas to help you start creating your blog content strategy and mapping it into a calendar.

Feel free to take what works for you, leave behind what doesn’t, and adjust the strategy to really make it fit your vision for your blog.

In fact, if you have another way you like to map out your content or any advice to add, please share it in the comments of the show notes or on social media using the hashtag #TPTBPodcast.

Alright, now I hope you enjoyed this episode.

I hope you feel inspired and empowered to take this free content planner template I’ve provided and create an editorial calendar that helps you meet your blogging goals and grow your business.

Don’t forget to grab access to the free travel blogging resource library that I’ve linked here. There are a ton of resources in there on growing your community and increasing your blogging profits.

And of course, make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes sharing these bite-sized strategies for bloggers who want to turn their blogs into profitable full-time businesses.

Happy blogging!

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How To Grow Your Blogging Income Through Facebook Ads
How To Land Paid Press Trips As A Travel Blogger
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#TPTBPodcast

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