Contents
This post will be sharing how to populate your blog content calendar.
One question that I find pops up very frequently in blogging groups is ‘how do I find topics to write about?‘. This is a valid inquiry because you shouldn’t be writing random articles except you’re a hobby blogger. You should be blogging intentionally from the onset by having a solid SEO Content Strategy for your blog. This saves you so much time and headache in the long run. Plus it helps you achieve your blogging goals of traffic and monetization quickly.
So, even if you have created your content strategy, you need to know the exact topics to write about. If you don’t have one already, you need a blog content calendar. Some people prefer to use online calendars/planners like Trello, Asana, Google Calendar, Notion, etc. But I use a printable calendar which I print out every month. I’ve used all of these tools in the past but have recently gone back to pen and paper.
Whatever blog content calendar you’re using, make sure it is detailed enough. I prefer to go with a monthly version split into weeks and categories. This gives me an overview of all the content I’ll be creating that month. This saves me time by helping me brainstorm and research my topics ahead and plan them accordingly. In the long run, this system which I’ve been doing for the last six months, helps me stay consistent.
Now that we have understood the importance of having a blog content calendar, let’s learn how to populate it with topics.
Here’s A Step-By-Step Method To Populate Your Blog Content Calendar With Relevant Topics
A little background about me; I currently have about nine years of Digital Marketing experience and I’ve been blogging for about the same amount of time in varying degrees. I recently went back to professional blogging and I’m happy to share all the tips and tricks I used to run three blogs including this one.
Break your niche down into 2-3 categories.
If you have a new or existing blog, I’m sure you have a niche that is your central theme. There are all sorts of blogging niches including Lifestyle, Personal Finance, Parenting, Fashion & Beauty, etc. While it is definitely possible to cover a niche in its entirety, you don’t want to spread yourself too thin. This is why it is important to break down your niche into 2-3 categories for starters. Start with the categories that you can easily write on with little to no effort to populate your blog. Then you can later advance to the more technical categories which would require more effort. For instance, if my blogging niche is Personal Finance, I’ll break it down into Budgeting, Saving & Debts and leave topics like Investing for later on.
Research topics in each category.
Let’s say you’re blogging about budgeting and you’re not quite sure what topics to write about that your audience will find useful and relevant, you’ll need to do some research. This method works every single time I want to blog about a topic and I’m not sure how to go about it. Typically, at any time (which is most times) I get topic ideas, I just document them immediately and they’re usually enough for a few weeks. But sometimes, I get stuck and need a little help. This is where I use any of the following;
- Pinterest Search Bar
- Pinterest Trends
- Tailwind Pinterest Planner
- Facebook Groups
- Google Trends
My favourite combination to use is the first three which involve Pinterest followed by Facebook Groups and occasionally Google Trends. If you’re not using Pinterest for content ideas, you need to start doing so. While I don’t centre my entire content strategy around Pinterest topics because everyone and their mum is writing the same thing, it acts as a perfect guide. The Tailwind Pinterest Planner is amazing for planning seasonal content while Facebook Groups are great for FAQs.
Undergo A Keyword Research
Now, you have an idea of what topics you can write about but how do you know the exact keywords to write about? How do you know exactly what people are searching for? I’m sure you know that the priority is writing to be discovered by search engines. This is a more sustainable method that will bring you continuous traffic even after several years.
So, you’ve gone on Pinterest and typed in your keyword ‘budgeting’ into the search bar. In return, it has given you several results including potential topic ideas such as ‘budgeting tips’, ‘budgeting money’, ‘budgeting for beginners’, etc. Great! Then you go into any keyword research tool and plug in ‘budgeting tips’. But then it gives you a search volume of 100,000/month with high competition. As a small growing blog, you really have no business with that keyword (yet) because you’ll definitely struggle to rank or bring in any traffic. So, you’ll need to search for a longer-tail keyword with low competition. After looking around for a bit, you’ll find the perfect keyword, ‘budgeting tips for beginners’ with decent average monthly searches and low competition. You need to do this for all the topics you’ll write on for that period.
As you can see, this process takes a bit of time so you’ll need to set aside some time for it. Personally, I like to do this at the beginning of every month. Over time, the more, you do it, the faster you become.
Add all verified topics with keywords to your blog content calendar.
By this point, you should have decided how often you want to post on your blog. If it is once a week, it means you have to prepare four topics ahead for the entire month. Again, doing this ahead saves you time and helps you stay consistent. If it is twice, it means you need to prepare eight topics for the month. Write them all out in your blog content calendar and highlight the keywords you’ll be writing on so you don’t forget.
Write optimized SEO articles for your keywords
Now that you have gotten your topics, it’s time to write solid articles that are well-optimized for the search engines. Make sure your keyword is placed in all the relevant positions including permalink, title tags, meta description, headings and in the body of the articles. Also, make sure you sprinkle a few inbound and outbound links with relevant images to finish up.
In Conclusion,
Populating your blog content calendar might seem tedious but it is so important to get it down and out of the quickly as quick as possible. I hope you have found these tips very useful and helpful in your blogging journey.
