How We Plan Our Blog Posts
We often get asked how we come up with topics ideas for our blog week after week. Here's a sneak peek at the back end! To reach our goal of posting at least five days a week on each of our blogs, we have to think ahead. And ideally, we like to know what will go live on Words of Williams at least two weeks ahead of time. Otherwise we feel like we are running dry and start to get nervous that our blog will die a slow death (at least until we have kids--then I'm sure there will be lots of stories!).
We use Google Calendar to keep our editorial schedule. The image below is from June 2011; the purple events are for Snappy Casual and the green events are for Words of Williams. Every single day I look at the calendar and add ideas or move things around as needed.
Idea Generation
It's awesome when someone leaves a comment on a post we've written with a question or something that they would like to read more about. When that happens, one of us will take ownership of the topic, draft the post and get it on the schedule. It feels very organic and natural when this happens. And it is usually obvious whether Eric or I should write the post. (Eric writes most of the posts, and I try to write one each week.)
Other times, Eric and I will have an argument, make a discovery in our relationship (something good like growing financial discipline muscles or something not so good like a problem in our communication), or want to share a funny experience with you. We'll look at each other and say, "Blog it!" (There isn't much we aren't willing to share with y'all!)
Editorial Calendar
Our editorial calendar is quite fluid, but we try to stick to this outline:
Mondays: Over the weekend Tuesdays and Thursdays: More serious posts Wednesdays: Fun post Friday: Fairytale Last day of month: Review of top posts and commenters
>> The Snappy Casual schedule is less predictable as far as topics go, but I plan to do at least four outfit posts each week and one additional non-outfit post (fashion or beauty related).
I like keeping the calendar electronically, although I know there are physical calendars made for bloggers. If you're a blogger, do you find the need for an editorial calendar? If so, what is your process?