Last Updated on by Michael Brockbank
Whether you’re a blogger or a YouTube creator, experts all agree on one immutable truth to success: consistency matters. Being able to remain consistent when blogging works to your benefit in a variety of ways.
Today, I’ll share how I keep a good flow going on the site as well as how I plan blog content for weeks, if not months, in advance.
In fact, this is the same practice I use for clients with planned content for the next six months.
How Often Should Bloggers Post Content?
In reality, a blogger should post content according to his or her target audience. Some bloggers experience a great deal of success pushing out something new every day while others prefer a weekly schedule.
It all comes down to what you’re capable of in terms of creating quality pieces and what the audience expects in terms of publishing times.
And that’s one of the most important things to keep in mind: the quality of your work.
With the development of push notifications, alerts, newsletter subscriptions, and other forms of marketing, people have become accustomed to consuming blog content at specific times of the day.
It’s much like how television stations broadcast certain shows and specific times. The audience is able to rely on when the entertainment or information is released.
And blogging works similarly in regards to consumerism.
However, you want to be aware of blogger burnout. Trying to push out more content than you’re capable of will lead to stress, poor quality, and eventually giving up altogether.
I’ve seen many bloggers throw in the towel after a year.
If you can provide what your audience wants on a daily basis, then, by all means, write! But if you’re not able to sustain high levels of productivity, try to create a publishing schedule that is ideal for both yourself and your audience.
Why Consistent Blogging Matters
The reason why a lot of people get into blogging is to make a bit of money on the side. Others will blog simply because they want to share a journey or interact with an audience on a friendly platform.
But in all cases, it’s all about attracting an audience. Otherwise, why have a blog in the first place?
And this is where consistent blogging comes into play.
Getting the Audience Used to Publishing
As I mentioned earlier, a consistent routine of publishing gets your audience used to content being available at specific times.
Although you can still have success by publishing randomly, having a set schedule can do wonders for traffic. Especially if you use push notifications on your site.
You can see when the best times are to publish on your blog by taking a look at Google Analytics.
Perhaps Used as a Ranking Factor?
A lot of experts attest to how a routine schedule for consistent blogging is used as a ranking factor. In fact, I’ve experienced this myself on both my personal blogs and client websites.
The more regular your content is published, the better your site does overall in search results. This is because it lets Google know that your blog is in constant development. As a result, it’s crawled more often.
I only say, “perhaps” because Google isn’t forthcoming with how the algorithm actually works. After all, they don’t want people gaming the system and ruining the results page for everyone.
Demonstrating Professionalism and Dedication
And lastly, there is something to be said about creating an online reputation for the content you’re creating. And a regular flow of that content, from blog posts to videos, helps solidify that reputation.
Yes, the quality of your content matters greatly. But so does consistent blogging of what you specialize in creating.
I know I trust sites less if there isn’t a published article in the last month or so.
How to Plan Blog Content
Planning out your posts doesn’t have to be a difficult chore. Personally, I find it quite fun as I can go deep into a myriad of topics. Then, I get excited about the articles I have planned in the future.
Yes, I am a bit of a dork when it comes to collecting data.
This is the process I use for myself as well as my clients when it comes to planning blog content over a long period of time.
1. Set Up Your Spreadsheet
Use a spreadsheet to keep track of the articles you want to write. Usually, I’ll have headings within the spreadsheet that cover:
- Focus keyphrase I use in Yoast SEO
- LSI terms I want to include in the idea
- Search volume of those keywords and phrases
- Possible title for the blog post
- The low-range bid of keywords according to Google Keyword Planner
- Notes about what I want to cover in the article
Is it a requirement to use a spreadsheet? Absolutely not. Use whatever method works best for you. I just find it convenient and easy to keep track of what I want to write in something like Google Docs or LibreOffice Calc.
The idea is to keep track of the articles you want to write.
2. Brainstorm Your Topics
OK, with the spreadsheet labels ready, it’s time to do some brainstorming. I often use the Mindomo Mind Map app to plan out many articles in a short amount of time.
Start with your primary niche or topic. Then, start branching out with ideas that are relevant. Write down any idea that comes to mind. You can delete the ones you don’t like later on.
The idea is to just get the creative juices flowing and coming up with articles your audience might want to read.
Another method I use to find topics for clients is by searching Google trends for certain phrases. This depends on the client, but you can go pretty deep at what people are searching for right now.
3. Do Some Keyword Research
Once you have a slew of ideas ready to go, start doing some keyword research. Usually, all of my ideas are written down in the form of a possible search phrase. Then, I’ll copy those over to Google to see what comes up.
Using tools like Keywords Everywhere can also show similar terms, searches, and relevant ideas that you might want to consider.
Then, I’ll often take those terms and feed them through Google Keyword Planner or Ahrefs. This gives me an idea of search volume, cost-per-click, and other factors that might help me decide which are the best ones to use.
Honing your research skills will vastly help you keep consistent when blogging. The less time you spend looking stuff up, the more time you have to write.
4. LSI and Search Intent Research
While I’m looking up search volume and keyphrase ideas, I’ll also look for latent semantic indexing terms and search intent.
For instance, using a keyword like “wordpress contact form” can go a number of ways. Do you want to engage people on how to set up a contact form, or people looking for the best plugins to add one?
This is part of search intent…knowing who you’re trying to target and why.
5. Make Notes on What You Want to Feature
As I’m researching every potential article, I’ll make short notes in the spreadsheet about things I want the post to feature. If it’s a WordPress tutorial, what plugin am I using? Do I want to include a “why” section? Will I add a certain header layout?
Sometimes, a client will want me to “skyscrape” an article. Skyscraping is when you write a similar piece to one that is published (preferably in the top positions of Google), only you focus on what you can do to make it better.
At which point, I’ll add notes on how I can improve on a high-ranking article.
The idea here is to jot down immediate notes of ideas for each article. That way, you won’t forget a vital piece of information you want to include.
6. Add it to Your Schedule
Once you’ve added your ideas and fleshed out the spreadsheet, add it to your writing schedule. Personally, I prefer to use Asana. However, there are a lot of apps on the Internet for productivity.
Every day, I can see what articles I need to write and then check them off as I go. And I can tell you that it’s made a massive difference with keeping consistent blogging.
And because I know that users are more active on my blogs at a specific time, I schedule them to be published at specific intervals.
For example, I am almost a week ahead of a Monday, Wednesday, Friday publishing schedule. I try to write four blog posts per week for each of my blogs, but only publish three of them.
This way, the site has a constant and consistent flow of content even if I don’t have time to blog one day.
Case in point, this article will be published on December 28th. But, I’ll finish writing it on the 21st.
7. Write the Content
Once you have the articles scheduled, all that’s left is to write them.
The tasks I have in Asana include all of the information from the spreadsheet. This way, I never forget what I’m writing about and what terms I need to include.
Then, I’ll focus on writing the blog post before doing anything else.
Sometimes it doesn’t happen that way, though. For example, my client might want me to start a new vital project. At which point, the blog post gets postponed because my client pays me well.
But, by keeping track of it in Asana, I can then reschedule the writing time for when I am free. And since I have a surplus of consistent blogging for the site saved up, I don’t have to stress about getting something new in front of visitors and followers.
What about publishing an article in addition to the scheduled posts?
At the very minimum, I’ve trained the Google algorithm that new posts are up every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Anything extra is simply icing on the cake.
I’ll often add new articles outside of the schedule if it relates to something that is time-sensitive or an important piece of information I feel the audience needs at this moment.
And this practice has served my clients exceptionally well. We grew one website from 20,000 visitors per month to 100,000 in less than a year. Then, we grew another 100k in less than 8 months.
And most of it was because of consistent blogging with high-quality information…even though we often add stuff outside of the set schedule.
Consistent Blogging Helps Drive Traffic
Consistency is paramount in just about anything you want to excel at. In fact, I’ve noticed YouTube subscriber growth happens more often when I publish at least two or more videos per week.
Once you get an idea of how to plan blog posts for yourself, you’ll find the flow much easier to manage. Just remember not to push yourself too hard.
Blogger burnout is real. Be patient with yourself as well as those you’re trying to engage.
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