Planning Tips Every Blogger Should Know

How do bloggers decide what to post, and when?  It seems so effortless when you are reading a blog, but do you ever think about the behind the scenes planning that must go into place to provide consistent content?  Bloggers usually aren’t strapped for what to write about.  Sometimes they think of ideas in the middle of the night. The problem becomes keeping these ideas corralled so they can be used effectively in the future.

Here is my process for planning for blogging to ensure I keep all the creative “right brained” ideas I have floating around at bay, while still maintaining a sense of structure.

First, make a running list of every single idea you have for blog posts, writing prompts, content and ideas.  This method could also apply to planning lessons, or planning for any type of writing.  Mine looks something like this. Recently I revamped it, because it wasn’t as organized as I would have liked. The list had gotten so HUGE I couldn’t find my ideas anymore.  Sometimes ideas do fall into my Brain Book and eventually get transferred to this list.

Break your master list down into categories so when you need a new lesson idea post, you will know just where to look. Here is a sample of one of my lists.

Next, I lay out the month or week by days and decide which posts you’ll feature that week. I’ve already talked a little bit about how I plan for blogging by pre-scheduling out my posts and working on the weekends when I may have blocks of quiet time to write.

The participants from our Blogging for Art Educators class in June learned some tricks and tips to keep their blog content alive, as well as strategies to make their posts more engaging.  But first, we must plan!  A great idea is only valuable to others when there is a plan in place to get it exposed, and, from all the research I’ve done on blogging, a blog is not appealing when it goes weeks or months with no content. Again- This is where planning helps.   I recently sorted out my Google Reader and put blogs who post regularly at the top and those who don’t at the bottom.

Even if you are not a blogger, writing is important to share and connect with others about our discipline. The Teaching Palette recently posted a wonderful article – Why Art Teachers Need to Write and How to Do It, that might be of interest to you as well!

What systems do other bloggers use to organize themselves?  

Maybe you just post when the feeling arises? Maybe you have a strict daily plan? I’d love to hear!