Blogging schedule: How to create one — and stick to it

Ready to start blogging for your business? Great! But before you begin, it’s best to take a moment to properly strategize how you’ll roll out your fresh new blogs. Use these ideas, hints, and tools to create a blogging schedule that will help you plan, promote, and stay on track with your writing.

Why are blogging schedules necessary?

It takes time and effort to make a new habit, and blogging is no exception! By creating a blogging schedule, you can hold yourself accountable and ensure blogging doesn’t fall by the wayside on your busy to-do list.

A blogging schedule also helps you see all the topics you have planned at a glance. This way, you can ensure each piece you write is unique and that you’re changing up how frequently you write about certain topics.

Finally, a blogging schedule is an effective way to make sure that all your marketing activities are aligned. For example, you might want to produce blog posts to showcase other things you have going on at your company. It also gives you the opportunity to properly plan social media posts, email blasts, and other activities to promote your blog.

How to define your blogging goals

Any strong blogging strategy begins with defining your goals. Whether you want to blog for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes, to create buzz on social media, or to convince people to take action, your end goal shapes what you write about and how often you plan to write. Here’s what that could look like:

If you’re blogging for SEO purposes, your goals may include writing content that targets certain keywords. You’ll also want to write with the potential of earning backlinks in mind.
If you want to create share-worthy content for social media, your focus may turn to hot topics with headlines that generate conversations — and conversions.
If you want someone to take action, like subscribing to your email list or scheduling a consultation, you may use the blog to build the case for why the reader should take that extra step.

Photo by Ronnie Overgoor on Unsplash

How often should I publish blog posts?

How often you publish blogs is truly up to you, but what’s most important is to be consistent. Whether you publish two blogs a month or 10, what matters is that you regularly release content. This is good for search engines that interpret that as a signal that your website is worth seeing. It’s also good for readers who learn to expect fresh, new content on a regular basis. It’s okay to start with a small number and work your way up. This way, you’re less likely to feel overwhelmed by blog writing.

That being said, how often you publish blogs can be industry-dependent and influenced by what your competition is doing. Take a look at how often your competitors publish blogs and use that as a metric, all while keeping in mind what you can realistically take on.

6 considerations as you build out your blogging schedule

Blogging is not just about writing. There’s a lot of work that goes into deciding what to write about and how that blog gets out into the world. Keep these considerations in mind when building out the blogging schedule that works best for you.

1. Factor in research

Take into account that you’ll have to do your homework while writing a blog. Once you’ve settled on your blog post ideas, it’s good practice to take a look at what’s already been written on the topic. You’ll also need to set aside time to find facts and figures that make your case. This process could add as little as a few minutes or as much as a few hours to your scheduled writing time.

2. Think about how long it takes to write

Are you a fast writer or a slow writer? Can you focus on one blog per day, or are you able to produce multiple entries in a day? Your own writing style affects how much you can create. Understanding this has a strong effect on your motivation to write, ensuring you don’t burn out by taking on too much at a time. If you already know how you prefer to work, you can schedule your time appropriately.

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

3. Edit your work

Always read through anything you write before publishing! You may want to proofread right after you write or look at content with fresh eyes the next day. Take that into account while planning your blog schedule. If you don’t love to read your own work, you can ask a friend, family member, or team member to take a look at your blog and give feedback.

4. Take time to upload content

You may need to learn how to upload content to your website, or perhaps you’re already a pro. Either way, taking your time ensures your content is uploaded free of mistakes, is formatted correctly, and looks great to the reader. You can take this time to test different layouts and structures that work best for readers, too. An intuitive website builder tool like Namecheap Site Maker makes uploading content easy and can help cut down this process to just a few minutes.

5. Add assets to your blog

Liven up your blog with photos, embedded video, and links to other supporting content. Photo and video add interesting visual elements that keep readers on the page longer. And if you’re not in the business of creating photos or videos, you can use royalty-free image sites or embed related videos from YouTube. 

Linking is an essential SEO best practice that should be included in any blogging strategy. You can link to other relevant content on your own website as well as resources from other websites that help back up your claims.

6. Promote your blog after it’s published

Once your blog is live, it’s time to share it with the world. Whether through social media, an email marketing newsletter, or texts to your business contacts, there’s no shortage of good ways to get eyes on your new blog post. 

Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash

How to create a blogging schedule

Schedule blogging like you would any other important appointment in your calendar. Set aside periods for brainstorming, research, posting, creating assets, and promoting your blog in addition to setting aside time to write. You can use a calendar or project organizing tool to help — more on that later in this blog.

Depending on your working style, you may want to set hard deadlines, soft deadlines, or a mix of both. A hard deadline is one that can’t be missed and may be good to reserve for tasks like publishing on time. Soft deadlines have some flexibility and can be moved around a bit as other more pressing issues arise.

As for how you write your posts? This is totally up to you! You might want to sit and write several blog posts in one setting, or you may want to pace it out over time. Choose the working style that’s best for your schedule, work patterns, and attention span.

What tools can you use to stay on track?

There are plenty of platforms and software options you can put to work as you build out your blog schedule. Some of these tools are free, while others are paid. With the right tools in your corner, blogging doesn’t need to feel like a full-time job.

Project management tools

A project management tool is a platform that can help you schedule each stage of a project. These tools are particularly useful for planning and allocating adequate time for each stage of the blog production process. As a bonus, many of these project management platforms have collaboration features, so you can invite others on your team to take part without losing a beat.

Some popular project management tools include:

Monday.com
Asana
Trello
Notion.so
Zoho

Writing assistants

Do you feel stuck on a topic? Are you unsure which “there” to use in a sentence? Writing tools can swoop in and lend a helping hand. Content topic tools can suggest keywords, questions, and search queries that you can use as inspiration for your next blog topic. Spelling and grammar tools are your digital second set of eyes, catching common mistakes and saving tons of headaches.

Photo by Michael Dziedzic on Unsplash

Helpful writing tools, whether for spellcheck or for generating ideas, include: 

AnswerThePublic.com
Grammarly
Microsoft Word spelling and grammar tools
Google Docs spelling and grammar tools
Buzzsumo
Build Your Own Blog topic generator

Content management systems

Your content management system (CMS) is how you publish your blog content. This is the software used to build and add content to your website. You can use the embedded tools to customize how your blog looks, add photos and videos to your blog, draft your content, and schedule completed entries to publish at a later date. The scheduling tool is especially helpful for saving time as you write your blogs.

Some content management system examples include:

Wordpress
Webflow
Magento
Joomla

Performance tracking tools

Knowing how your blogs perform online can provide incredible insights about your customers. The available data can get quite granular, helping you paint a picture of who’s coming to your website and which content interests them. When you see which blogs perform best, you can develop more topics likely to reach your audience.

Some handy performance tracking tools include:

Google Analytics
Google Search Console
Bing Webmaster
SEMRush
Screaming Frog

Design tools

You don’t need to be a professional graphic designer to create eye-catching visuals for your blog. There are many design tools out there, from easy-to-use graphics builders to professional software, that can help you create graphics for your blog. You can also design related graphics to share via social media and email to help promote your blog.

Some examples of these design tools are:

Visual
Canva
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator

Digital calendar

Photo by Omar Al-Ghosson on Unsplash

From setting deadlines to blocking out periods of writing time, a digital calendar is one of the most effective tools you have at your fingertips right now. This way, you can set aside time for blog writing and research, discouraging you from pushing work on your blog to a later date.

Some examples of digital calendars include:

Google Calendar
iCal
Microsoft Outlook

Blog scheduling: Set it, and stick with it!

Proper planning for your blog pays off in spades, from SEO to winning new customers. And with Namecheap’s family of content management, design, and social media management tools, creating and publishing your blogs is easier than ever. With intuitive builders, easy drag-and-drop designs, and automation capabilities, you can get your blogging on track in no time.