How to create an amazing blog content calendar
Having a (blog) content calendar is a must for every blogger or other content creator (for more details, check Why every blogger needs a content calendar).
This little tool helps you keep things organized, plan future content, and keep track of ideas.
Creating such a content calendar is fairly easy, and in this article, I will show you how you can create your own in Google Sheets in an easy to follow step-by-step guide.
Create your own (blog) content calendar
Basic version of your blog content calendar
You open a new blank spreadsheet by opening Google Sheets and selecting 'Blank Spreadsheet'.
This is the most basic version, and you can already use it if you want and add some extra columns to it, such as views, promotions, etc.
Now, let's go a bit more advanced and make it an amazing content planner.
Advanced version of your content planner
Suppose you have more than one category you blog about (on this blog, I have three different categories: 'Blogging', 'Etsy' and 'Productivity'). In that case, it will be easier to have a dropdown menu where you can choose the category instead of always typing it.
To get this dropdown list, right-click on the first cell below the 'Category' title, and from the menu that appears on the right, select 'Dropdown' (it can be that you have to scroll down until you see it).
And now, you want to have the background of the 'title' cells in the same color as your categories, right?
Again, that's easy to do. Right-click on the cell below 'Title', and in the menu on the right, scroll down to the bottom, choose 'View more cell actions' and select 'Conditional forwarding'.
You repeat exactly the same steps for every category by clicking 'Add another rule'.
Every time you use the 'category' dropdown menu, the background color of the title will change accordingly.
Another useful thing you can add is the amount of blog posts per category.
Therefore, you click on an empty cell, and at the top of the screen, next to the Formula symbol, you enter the following formula =COUNTIF(B2:B11,"Blogging") where B2:B11 is the range where your dropdown lists are and you replace Blogging by one of your categories. And again, you do it for every category you have.
This was a good basic introduction to creating your own calendar. You can extend it by adding a separate 'Dashboard' sheet where you get a graphical overview of your content.
Stay tuned: soon, I will release a free downloadable version of this shee.. And also a free Blog Content Notion template.
