Editorial Calendar is the single most important document for any content writer. Whether you’re running a personal blog or writing content for clients or your own company, one of the biggest challenge is to come up with topics on a regular basis. It is never easy to churn out articles like a content generation machine, but in this article I will share 5 ways that helps me maintain a steady pipeline of articles using an Editorial Calendar.
Get started using my Editorial Calendar Template for FREE download here.
Clarity of Thought
As content writers, we often face writers block. The only way to resolve this is to have a steady stream of thoughts, but then again, our mind can wander off to fantasy land easily. Having the Topics written on the Editorial Calendar has ensured that I remain focused on the core topic and keeps me away from meaningless conversations.
Commitment
Yes, the dreaded word. But when it comes to content writing, it pays to have a targeted date. If you’re wary of having a particular date, ensure having the week. I started having the week stamped before each topics initially, but when I started putting a date, the number of articles that I wrote improved by almost 25%.
Content Strategy
While having the title of the article on my Editorial Calendar helped me channelize the thoughts, it greatly improved my content strategy as well. My research on the subject got even better and I was able to put some effective ‘Call-to-actions‘ on my articles.
SEO Strategy
As content writers, it’s our wish that our content is read by many people. But we live in the age of ‘Content Conundrum‘ and its not easy to catch the eyes of reader except that you have focused on certain keywords. Having them specified on the Editorial Calendar ensured that my story revolved around that keyword(s) and leveraged the power of search engines.
Target Audience
Unless you write fiction, not all content is written for everyone. You often find research reports that can be more useful for CxO’s of the world or the technologists of the world. Having that covered under the ‘Goal‘ or even as separate column in Editorial Calendar has vastly improved the way I write my articles.
So there are my reasons for having an Editorial Calendar which has helped me capture the ‘signals from noise’. All the random popping of thoughts are a thing of past now and it only keeps getting better. I do try to add few columns to make the calendar more effective, but if you’re looking for a simple yet powerful calendar, just hit the DOWNLOAD in the top bar.
Time to ‘Work Smarter not Harder’.
Your turn
1. How effectively do you plan to use the Editorial Calendar
2. If you already have one, what improvement(s) have you seen?
It would be good to hear your thoughts, feedback.
