You Need a Timely Blog Schedule. Here's Why.
March is Women’s History Month, so what could be more fitting than talking about timely blog writing?!
In honor of women everywhere, from every walk of life, this month’s blog posts will be specifically focused on women.
Why is it important to strategize and plan special content throughout the year?
So what’s the deal with timely blog content? Why is it important to strategize and plan special content throughout the year?
Before we get to the why, we need to talk about the basics of timely & topical blog content.
How Do You Choose What to Write About?
Blog Organization When you look at a blog, you’ll usually see some primary categories blogs fall under. These are larger concepts that many subtopics can fall within, and allow a blog to maintain focus instead of just “braindump” about everything.
As readers, we usually come to blogs for information or to figure something out,
As readers, we usually come to blogs for information or to figure something out, and it can be pretty frustrating when we think we’re reading about one thing and all of the sudden it’s a different topic entirely.
Our category layout at Capturing Your Confidence is:
My Novel Experience
Personal topics related to my own experiences
Blog updates
Inspiration
Inspirational topics for writers
Motivational topics
General confidence-focused topics (not specifically for writing or teaching)
Special topics throughout the year (like holidays)
Writing
How-tos
Encouragement
Confidence-building
Honest problem-solving
Teaching College Writing
How-tos
Encouragement
Confidence-building
Honest problem-solving
Books
Reviews
General interest topics about books
Interviews with Published Authors
What People Want! Blogs also write about what people want to read! When a particular blog does really well with your audience, you obviously want to give them more and similar content so they want to keep reading.
Keep Readers Interacting When they continue reading, readers are more likely to engage with the content, which is the ultimate goal. We want to keep readers interactingin ways like:
Sharing on social media
Sharing via email
Pinning on Pinterest
Commenting
Linking on their websites and/or sending to friends
Visiting website again to read more content
Plan for “Timely” Content Last, but not least, most bloggers plan for “timely” content. These are special blogs outside of their normal content cycle that are typically in celebration or discussion with a current event. Timely content allows bloggers to benefit from conversations or hot topics that “everyone” is talking about.
What are “Timely” Topics?
Everyone has their own version of what a timely topic is for blogging. Most really successful bloggers use these kinds of timely topics to keep their blog relevant and mainstream:
Holidays Holiday content can be nationally or internationally recognized holidays like New Year’s Eve/Day.
It can also be fun trivial holidays like Pi Day on March 14th. Where the blogger is from and the audience to which their content is directed will drive their holiday content scheduling.
Big Events Timely content might also revolve around big or impactful events. For instance, this year is 2020 and began a whole new decade. This is a pretty big event for many people, and one worth creating special content for!
Where the blogger is from and the audience to which their content is directed will drive their holiday content scheduling.
Milestones As with most things in our lives, we like to celebrate milestones. For many people, we do special things for our birthdays because they mark milestones in our lives. I just planned a surprise birthday party for my husband’s 30th birthday (which was a great success!).
We also celebrate births and promotions.
So it makes sense that we would plan timely blog content about our business and blogging milestones.
“Hot Topics” or “Buzz Topics” Hot topics, or buzz topics, are those that “everyone” seems to be discussing. With it being election year, there are an especially high number of buzz topics going around. Creating timely content about these kinds of topics (that fits within your blog categories, of course) is a great way to be relevant and draw a wider audience than you might normally get.
How Do You Know When to Add a Timely Topic Post?
Ultimately, when bloggers create timely topic posts is completely up to the individual. That being said, keeping things timely is crucial if the blogger wants to be truly successful.
There are a couple of important times when it’s smart to create timely content.
Established holidays & loop topics play a big role in my content calendar.
Established Holidays At the beginning of the year, I identify what holidays I will write extra blogs for, and when those blogs will be published. Certain times of the year are busier than others, like November & December, because there are more holidays occuring.
In a time where we have very short attention spans, it’s crucial to keep your audience happy and coming back for more.
Loop Topics Loop topics are those that can circulate every year at a specific time. I like to create loop topics around the season changes, like spring & summer ideas. Since I also create teaching content, back to school, spring break, and end of semester are also important loops in my calendar.
Bloggers add these kinds of content to spice things up and increase audience engagement. It’s important to deliver timely and topical content, but not to let things get stale! In a time where we have very short attention spans, it’s crucial to keep your audience happy and coming back for more.
The best thing bloggers can do when figuring out when to post timely content is to consider anything they want to read during certain times of the year and make sure to plan for it. If you want to read it, others do, too!
What Do You Write in a Timely Topic Post?
It’s one thing to have a plan for all this great content, but what the heck actually goes in those posts?
PostsRelated to Your Categories The most important thing is that your timely blog posts are related to one or more of your categories or subcategories. Don’t just write words to join a movement if it doesn’t have anything to do with what you normally talk about. This is sure to confuse your audience and probably make them less excited than normal to read your content.
Relevant & HelpfulPosts Just like regular blog posts, your timely topics should be relevant and helpful to your audience. Remember, we read to get help and relate to others. Our content misses that connection if we don’t relate to our audience and help them with their needs.
Our content misses that connection if we don’t relate to our audience and help them with their needs.
Thought-Provoking & FunPosts Timely blog posts can also be thought-provoking and fun! Fun and thoughtful posts might also allow you to stretch your subtopics a little and cover things you might not normally cover. They can add a little zing to your content without taking away from your impact.
Posts that are lists or include guides can be excellent timely topical posts because people love to have tangible things they can come back to. Spring cleaning list? Sure winner! Fall back to school guide? Pretty much guaranteed interest!
“Pro” Tips
As a not-quite-new blogger, there are some things I have learned from planning timely content.
FIrst, don’t overwhelm yourself! Especially if you are a brand new blogger, it’s probably not reasonable to expect yourself to put out a brand new, good quality blog every day for every holiday. Quality is more important than quantity, and you don’t want to create built-in burnout for yourself by overscheduling.
Make sure to plan ahead. There will be some months where you are slammed with potential special content. While this can be a great opportunity, it also means more work for you. There will also be some months with just “regular” content. If you don’t have special content to create, what do you need to be working on that month?
You and your message are at the core of what you do. Don’t just write blogs to write them.
When possible, collaborate with others. This is sometimes easier said than done, as blogging can be a pretty solitary activity. Collaboration helps you create more quality content with less content generation time for you. It’s a win-win if you can find trustworthy co-bloggers.
Be genuine. You and your message are at the core of what you do. Don’t just write blogs to write them. Write blogs that add value to your audience’s lives. Your audience came to your blog specifically to read what you are saying - make it worth their while!
Last, but certainly not least, evaluate yourself after a few topical posts. We need to evaluate our successes and misses in order to grow and get better. You don’t want to work on your topical content for a whole year only to find out that you should have changed it 3 months in!
Do you read or write topical content? How do you plan? I’d love to hear about your experiences! Drop a comment below or email me at rachel@capturingyourconfidence.com.