A lot of people think that blogging is easy. It's not. We know from experience that travel blogging takes a considerable amount of time and effort to maintain, even if you're only posting once per week.
To be successful, it can't just be about the content; there has to be some strategy in place for how you'll promote your posts so they get found by other bloggers or readers who might share them with their followers.
In this post, we've compiled some ideas on how you can build an effective travel blog content calendar and keep yourself organized when it comes to scheduling and promoting blog posts and social media content.
Let's dive right in!
Our Top Tips for a Successful Travel Blog Content Calendar
- Make it Easy to Capture Travel Content Ideas
- A Kanban Board Can Be Better Than a Calendar (Example)
- Use it for Both Social Media and Blog Posts
- Have Easy Access with a Content Calendar App
- Integrate Your Travel Itinerary
- Add Content Deadlines Right Into Your Calendar
- You’re Better than a Content Calendar Template in Google Sheets
Each idea is explored further in the sections below with a template at the end that implements all of these best practices into one easy-to-use and FREE system.
Make it Easy to Capture Travel Content Ideas
In so many productivity frameworks one of the main concepts is capturing ideas to get them out of your head.
“Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.” - David Allen, author of Getting Things Done.
Therefore, one aspect of a great content calendar is your ability to easily save content ideas when they come to you!
While there are many processes and habits you can implement to do this outside of your actual content calendar, it works the best when it can all be done in the same app.
A Kanban Can Be Better Than a Calendar (Example)
When someone says content calendar or editorial calendar we have a general idea of what they mean.
However, the details on what exactly makes up a content calendar aren’t always clear and that’s partly why we’ve created this guide.
Just because it’s called a content calendar doesn’t mean you actually need to use a calendar. And it certainly does NOT mean you are ONLY allowed to use a traditional calendar to organize your content.
Your blog ideas and social media posts should be able to be organized in many different ways. Plus, you should be able to choose the methods that best fit how you work.
One of our favorite methods is to use a kanban board for organizing our content plan into a pipeline of productivity. Here’s an example of part of our content planning process organized into a kanban:
We use Airtable to create our editorial calendar because it’s free, super customizable, and you can see your content plan in so many great and useful views. More on that later.
For now, just know that calendars aren’t the only tool you have for planning when and how you’ll post content across all your different channels.
Use it for Both Social Media and Blog Posts
Using a separate social media content calendar and a blog post editorial calendar can be a huge mistake!
By the way, we have an article on the difference between a content calendar and an editorial calendar if you’re curious.
Now, seeing all your content goals across every channel and how they relate brings you out of the weeds when it comes to planning.
Find a tool that allows you to separate content by type, date, channel, or destination all in one place.
Sometimes you may want to see a list of every piece of content organized by date so you know what’s coming up.
Or maybe you want to batch all your Instagram photo editing in a single weekend.
That’s why having your blog ideas and social media content all in the same system is so important.
Have Easy Access on Your Phone with a Content Calendar App
This is a similar concept to our first idea of making it easy to capture content ideas. However, having access to your content calendar has more benefits than just quickly recording ideas.
Our phones come with us everywhere!
You most likely already use your phone for a large majority of the travel blogging tasks that run your business. Tasks like taking photos, posting to social media, sending emails, and interacting with your audience.
Why wouldn’t you have your content calendar readily available in an app on your phone as well?!
Now, while having a mobile version of your content calendar is important, there are also many times when having a distraction-free and feature-filled desktop experience is also critical.
There are a few options for apps that have both a mobile and desktop version and we’ve tried a ton of them. You can check out our full review of Airtable vs Asana for more info.
But in the end, we’ve chosen Airtable because it is easily the most powerful and customizable option with a killer free plan.
Below are screenshots of our free content calendar template in action on my phone.
So whether you use Airtable or not, having mobile access to a content calendar app is a great idea for everything from idea entry to on-the-go planning.
Integrate Your Travel Itinerary
Planning content alongside your travel itinerary was a game-changer for us at Vacation Victory.
Do you find yourself scrambling to create content while traveling? If so, we have a free template just for you at the end of this article!
The process of creating travel-related content can be challenging and time-consuming. However, it doesn't have to be.
With the right planning in place, your trip will flow with ease from research to post creation.
For example, when I plan my itinerary and activities ahead of time, I take note of potential themes or topics that might arise during my travels and then write them down in my content planning system for easy access later.
This way if an idea pops up while I'm out exploring the city or country's sights and sounds then I'll already have it prepared in advance!
You may also want to think about what type of content you should be taking at each landmark or tourist destination. Maybe you want to be taking photos at one point while jotting down detailed notes at another.
Integrating your itinerary into your travel blogging content calendar into a single system is one of the best ideas we have on this list!
Add Content Deadlines Right Into Your Calendar
Now, I know we mentioned using a kanban board instead of a calendar earlier in the post, and while I still believe that, deadlines are also very important.
Most people let tasks fill the time they’ve allotted to complete them. That means if you set big aspirations with strict deadlines, you’re likely to get more done so long as those dates are reasonable.
Again we use Airtable for this because it allows us to see our plan in so many useful ways.
When it comes to social media marketing and blogging, the question on everybody's mind is: how often should I post? It can be difficult to know when to schedule your posts and what frequency works best for you.
There are a lot of opinions out there, but the best answer is to be consistent. It's okay to have some downtime between posts, but don't go too long without sharing something!
If you're not sure what your audience wants from your blog then consider asking them in an email survey or with a post on social media.
You’re Better than a Content Calendar Template in Google Sheets
Searching for “free content calendar templates” online often leads to a Google Sheets template or worse… a sketchy Excel download.
You deserve better!
We’ve discussed a ton of ideas for you to implement into your blogging and social media system but this one incorporates them all.
The last idea we have for you is to use the app Airtable for your travel blog’s content calendar.
Airtable is a massive company that isn’t going anywhere and is used by companies like BuzzFeed, Medium, and even Netflix!
We’ve created a template that is completely free and has the following features of a perfect travel blogging content calendar:
- Beautiful kanban boards
- Complete customizability
- Calendar views
- An easy to use mobile app
- A generous free version
- And even automation capabilities if you want to get fancy
If you’re ready to take your travel blogging organization skills to the next level and grow your business faster with better results, then we’ve got you covered.
Enter your email then press the button below and we’ll send you a link to copy the travel blogging content calendar we use to get results.
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