Behind the Blog: Editorial Calendar

Just this last week I realized that I have been posting on this blog since February 21st, my blog is officially six months old. Yay!  While the realization is a little belated, it doesn't lesson the sweetness of the milestone.  When I started this blog I had a vague idea of what I wanted it to be about and no clue how to use blogger, HTML and links.  After six months I feel pretty proficient in posting, I know my way around blogger, I still for the most part have no clue about HTML, except maybe how to copy and paste it.


With those celebrations though come some reflection on what can I do to improve my blog moving forward.  I know that I am no-where near as prolific or productive as I want to be and I would also like to continue to build my readership.  Finding out what I can do better has led me to a few online communities that help inform and support bloggers.  One such community Independent Fashion Bloggers, frequently features articles on the "How to's" of blogging. After reading an article featured on the site about creating a weekly editorial calender for posting, I decided that I needed to start implementing that kind of structure in order to be more productive and consistent.  Here is the template for my editorial calendar:

Click here to download this Word document for your use.

The calendar is a weekly overview of what topics I want to post and what days they will be posted on.  I have found this to be an invaluable tool to helping me stay on task when researching, as well as focus my efforts on one post at a time.  Often topic ideas are swirling about in my head, by writing them down it solidifies them from an idea to something I'm going to write about say on Wednesday.  This weeks schedule looked something like this.

Monday: Covetable Closet - Item Winner

Tuesday: Design of the Times -Trina Turk

Wednesday:Outfit Post - Short Story  

Thursday: DIY - Jewelry

Behind the Blog: Editorial Calendar

Next week will probably follow a similar structure, which I have work to allow me to do more complex posts and projects on my days off.  Writing out my editorial schedule has given me a feeling of more control and hopefully will result in more posts, consistent weekly structure and better writing.  Feel free to use my template for your own schedule, editorial or otherwise and remember; as the subheading says on the document "Subject to Change", sometimes we make plans, but they are always subject to change.

I hope you have enjoyed the first six months of J. Rose Style.  I would love to hear from you.  What are you thoughts on the format? Can you relate to the topics covered?  Is there anything you would like to see me cover on this blog?

Again, thanks for reading! I am passionate about fashion, style, music and writing, but without out you all my ponderings would be hanging dead here in space, you reading it brings it to life.

Best,

Jennifer