The Content Planning Process That Helps Me

Planning is such an important part of blogging. Scheduling time to write, pictures you need to take, social media promotion, etc. is what makes a post. As a restaurant blogger, I’ve learned that doing a lot on a whim doesn’t make me feel the best about a blog post. I need the time to sit, sketch, and visit places all before actually writing the post. Here is my process.

Note: If I find that I’ve missed a step or need to change anything, I will update this post.

Research places to visit.

As a restaurant blogger, I search for and save a lot of places to visit across the country. I put most of my energy into finding restaurants and shops in Washington, D.C. Metro Area. This often involves a lot of scrolling and swiping on Instagram and Yelp. Another great place to find places to try is a publication like Eater, Thrillist, or a local magazine.

It’s helpful to have something in mind. Having something like “Black-owned restaurants in (city)” or “best burgers in D.C.,” for example. It’s also okay to not be specific in the early stages of planning if you want to get a feel for what’s out there. This is also a great time to see if there are any events that you plan on attending and want to share.

Write a list of relevant national calendar events.

Nationaldaycalendar.com is one of the best tools to use when planning content in general. There’s a national day/week/month for everything, like National Brownie at Brunch Month.

You don’t have to plan your blog post for each of these days because you might end up with a calendar that’s all over the place. It can be helpful if you post one day a week and notice that a special day falls on your blog post day. These days also make it easier to post more often on social media, depending on what your niche is.

Write list of blog posts to publish.

It has helped me a lot mentally to have a working list of blog posts that I want to publish for select months. Currently, I have a least of four blog posts per month and one content-related post. This list has helped with staying on track with writing.

Create a draft of content calendar.

If you need a planner for this or prefer listing things, do what works for you. I prefer writing it on a calendar for the month I’m planning. First, I write out the relevant national days/weeks that are relevant to my niche. If there are any national months I want to highlight, I write those down on whichever day works.

Then I add the blog posts I plan to publish next. This helps me see if there are any gaps on the content calendar. Open days are my favorite when I have plenty of content that I have yet to share.

What’s your blog planning process like? Leave a comment below.