If you are a blogger with a busy life, you know how important it is to have some sort of calendar. In Blogging 201, we were recently assigned the task to use our blog stats to set up a 30-day editorial calendar.
My stats show certain days are better for publishing posts. This may show different results for different bloggers. The stats can reveal a lot about your best posts, best times and best days to publish. If you use WordPress, the stats page is built in and easy to understand.
After several publishing schedules over the last year, I found that my best days to publish are Thursdays, Fridays, Sundays and Mondays. Not only do my stats reveal this to be true, my life and schedule work best around these days.
Creating an editorial calendar for blog posts may seem daunting to some folks. One may ask, “Why do I need a calendar? I just post on my blog when the feeling moves me.” Or, “I am not organized enough. If I try to keep a calendar I’ll just lose it or forget to write in it.”
If you fall into this category, then embrace that and go with the flow. That is your choice.
Being an organized and a time-oriented person, I cannot exist without a planner of some sort. I have tried a variety of digital calendars view-able on my phone, a try at “something”-note, and a good, old-fashioned notebook planner. Guess, what? I like the notebook planner. Above, the featured post shows an example page I used to illustrate my planner.
My blog’s “About Me”page explains what I blog about.
Here is the editorial calendar to which I adhere:
Sundays: Weekend Coffee Share
Mondays: A general post or a submission to a photo challenge*
Tuesdays and Wednesdays: No posts. On these days I still read others’ blogs via e-mail. I also spend some time on social media and link parties promoting my posts.
Thursdays: This is the day I focus on my Leisurely Thursdays feature and my link-up The Leisure Link. The Leisure Link restarts in October!
Fridays: Weekly Photo Challenge*. This is usually my best day for posts. I love photography and taking part in these challenges.
Saturday: No posts. Everyone needs a day off.
I still allow room for a random post if inspiration strikes me, like today’s post for Blogging 201.
*Images. I asterisked this because it takes time to create your own images. My post, How to Get 500+ Followers: 3 Reasons to Use Images On Your Blog was featured on Janice’s Mostly Blogging. Several bloggers commented that they found this information helpful! Be sure to plan your time accordingly. It takes me an average of two-three hours to write and prepare a blog post with an image.
I also schedule most of my posts ahead of time. I prefer to schedule my posts to publish at 6:00am Pacific time as I have readers all over the world.
For more, detailed information, visit WordPress’ article on editorial calendars.
Blogging takes time and organization. If you are new to the wonderful world of blogging, consider the time you have and what you want to write about. It is time well spent.
Second Wind Leisure Perspectives 
What is YOUR perspective? Please include your name if WP identifies you as “anonymous.