Are you one of the 86% of bloggers who are planning to publish more content?
Yeah. We're planning to publish more content, too.
While creating and publishing consistent content may seem a bit tough at first, it'll really help you build reader loyalty and grow your audience - and that will ultimately increase your traffic, social media shares, and search engine rankings. It did for us at CoSchedule.
So, how can you actually create more consistent content? It boils down to a few things:
- Understand why you'd actually like to create more content.
- Plan your publishing momentum.
- Execute the plan.
Simple, right? Here's exactly how to create consistent content that will help you grow a successful blog.
Take A Step Back: Why Do You Want To Publish More Content?
If you want to publish more, you probably have your reasons - but publishing more, in itself, should not be your goal.
For example, you may decide to focus on something like increasing your pageviews, social media shares, email signup conversions, and even product or service signups.
It's really not complex, I promise, you just need to know the goal you want to reach and how an average blog post contributes to that goal right now.
Then you can use this algorithm to do it yourself:
Divide your metric's goal by what an average blog post currently contributes to that goal. That should give you a rough estimate of how many posts you need to write.
You can see this equation would work for pageviews, social media shares, email signups, product signups, or whatever you're measuring.
From there, you can look at how consistently you create content today compared to how much content you need to create to hit your goals:
Simply subtract the number of posts you need to write from the amount you're currently publishing. The result is the number of additional posts you need to write to reach your marketing goals.
While these calculations aren't a perfect solution, they're super helpful for gauging how much content you need to publish to hit your marketing goals. And once you know about how many posts you want to create, you can make a plan to create consistent content.
Creating Consistent Content Is Like Running A Marathon
So you're going to publish a ton of new content, right? Might as well just publish a bajillion posts right away.
Or not.
Creating consistent content is like preparing for a marathon - you're not going to be able to run it your first day. You need to build up your tolerance - and practice your approach - and eventually, you'll be able to run a ton of miles in a relatively short amount of time.
At CoSchedule for a while, we published three posts a week, then we cut back to two because we'd jumped the gun initially and had been publishing more content than we could handle.
After we cut back, our content became longer, we grew our subscribers and we had time to plan how we could publish three posts a week.
That's a true story about how consistent and quality content can build a loyal audience while building momentum for a successful blog. Now we're back to consistently publishing three blog posts of awesomeness every week.
From here, you need to figure out the pace that's right for you.
How To Build Up Your Momentum To Publish Consistent Content
There are a few things you need to do to prepare for your blogging marathon.
1. Consist-a-tize the content you're already creating
First, let's get the content you're already writing publishing consistent. Choose the specific days and times you'll commit to publishing.
According to your goals, there's research to help you choose the best times to publish your blog posts. Choose a day and time that will help you achieve your marketing goals.
Plan any posts you're already working on in your editorial calendar for that specific day and time for the next month at least.
2. Commit to creating consistent content
Before you add more content to your editorial calendar, get what you're already doing under control.
If you'll need help with anything to create the content, figure out how you'll overcome those challenges.
Struggling for content ideas? Figure out where you'll find your blog ideas. If you need graphics, work out how you'll create your visuals.
Planning the details ahead of time - maybe with a workflow - and getting everyone on board from the get-go is the best way to create consistent content. Even if you're a solo blogger, a workflow with a set of to-do lists can help you stay on track.
Here's an example of the workflow we use at CoSchedule, from beginning to end, to make sure everything is done at just the right time:
- Gather ideas: 21 days before post.
- Target a keyword: 14 days before post.
- Find a great headline: 14 days before post.
- Write the draft: 7 days before post.
- Create graphics: 6 days before post.
- Edit and prep the post to publish: 3 day before post.
- Schedule social media messages: 1 day before post.
- Publish post.
3. Plan how you'll add in more consistent content
Once the stuff you're already creating is publishing consistently, you're ready to add in more.
Like you did before, choose the next best days and times to publish your content. Then add one new post at a time to your editorial calendar - this is really where you should take your time to build up your publishing tolerance.
Creating more content isn't better - creating more content that's better is better.
So... maybe try an editorial calendar that looks something like this for your first 6 months:
Though this example is a bit specific, you can apply this same theory to your content creation process.
3 Ways To Actually Plan, Create, And Publish Consistent Content
There are 3 big ways you can plan consistent content and commit to your editorial calendar.
1. Plan ahead to save a ton of time
Plan ahead
The number 1 thing you can do to actually create content consistently is planning ahead. There is no better tool than an editorial calendar to help you do this.
Be selfish with your time
Use your time for what matters. We all get swamped in our workloads, but that's why you have to prioritize.
I read a book a couple years ago called Vital Factors: The Secret To Transforming Your Business - And Your Life.
The book had a very simple concept: Focus on the vital few projects that will actually make a difference rather than the trivial many that overwhelm your life.
Make it a point to stick with consistent content creation as part of your vital few and actively tell yourself to let go of what doesn't matter.
2. Enhance your process as you create more content
Eventually, you'll get in the swing of things and writing your posts will take less time. You'll have a repeatable process. Right?
Well, you'll probably want to save even more time.
Automate whatever you can
Manual processes are some of the biggest time wasters. You could use the time you save from automation for a bunch of other things.
Find tools, templates, and techniques you can implement to cut steps whenever you can (without sacrificing quality).
Stop doing what's not working
Even when you're creating content consistently, you may find your stuff's just not impacting your marketing goals. Take some time to audit your content and really figure out what to do to connect with your audience.
Is there something you can stop doing to spend more time working on something that will have a bigger impact?
3. Spread out the workload
This doesn't always mean involving a ton of people in your projects.
Rather, just make sure to assign tasks to be completed in advance of your publish date. This way, there won't be any hiccups when you're ready to publish... but your content's not complete.
Well... if you are in a company, ask for help
If you're in a larger company, you probably need help (I feel like I can say that moving from the corporate world to a startup). Ask for it.
Rely on your sales folks, your support peeps, and your front-line employees for ideas and content creation. If someone is willing to help you out, don't miss the opportunity to get their unique perspective.
Interview awesome people
Think of the rock stars in your industry - interview them for amazing content ideas.
Who are your best employees who just get your customers? Ask them why your customers love you.
Ask your audience questions to crowdsource your content - here's an example of how we did that to give you some awesome productivity tips.
Plus, when you involve others, it makes for really sharable content people like to engage with. You could probably make a short list of awesome people in a few minutes and that could help you create tons of awesome content for months.
Look into guest blogging
It seems like there's so much information out there to help you get started on guest blogging. But instead of you going out to do it, why not get some rock stars to blog for you?
Reach out to awesome people in your industry with an opportunity for them to contribute to your blog.
Write a "Write For Us" page like this, and you'll even get people asking you if they can write for your blog. Now that's an awesome way to spread the workload.
How Will You Create Consistent Content?
One of the best things you can do to create consistent content is to simply start with your editorial calendar. Plug in your content with a perfect publishing frequency for you, then execute it.