Although this post is not sponsored, this post does contain affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy here.
If you’ve been following this blog for even the past couple of months, you’d see that part of my July and August goals included getting organized with the blog. I tried dozens of methods, I swear. Not just over these past two months, but over the past ten years I’ve been blogging. And no matter what I did, it never stuck for longer than a week or two.
And then came along CoSchedule.
I have no idea how I found out about it, but when I stumbled across it, I decided I’d give it a try since they had a free trial. My thought was I would check it out and most likely not extend it beyond the trial because I didn’t need to pay for yet another thing for blogging.
Except I had no clue how awesome it was going to be. And because I truly don’t know what I would do without it now, I wanted to share it with everyone. I promise that this is in no way paid or sponsored. It does include affiliate links, but beyond that – it’s just an amazing tool that I think every blogger should use because it has made my life so much easier.
What is CoSchedule:
In my opinion, words cannot do CoSchedule justice but I will try to convince you anyway. In short, CoSchedule is a drag-and-drop editorial calendar for WordPress that combines both blog posts and social media posts in one calendar. Not just Twitter and Facebook, either. Pinterest? Yep. Google+? You betcha. LinkedIn and Tumblr? Check. Buffer, too? Yep.
Want to see it in action? Check out this video.
How I use it:
So I covered what it’s meant for and how it works, but I thought I’d share how I use it. I have no idea if it’s how most people use it, which is one of the best things about it. It can be used in SO many ways and yield fantastic results every time. But here’s how I stay organized and productive with CoSchedule:
Planning: Once or twice a month, I plan the next month’s blog posts with CoSchedule. I open the CoSchedule calendar, click the edit icon for the day, type in the post title or idea, save as a draft and repeat. I don’t write the post or anything beyond writing down the post idea at this point so it’s merely creating a rough draft of what I think that month will look like. As ideas come to me, I save them on certain days and then can move them around to create a balanced schedule (i.e.: not having two recipes in a row, having enough time to take photos for a post, etc.)
This is the only Editorial Calendar that has worked for me because it’s so easy to get the ideas into a rough schedule that can easily be edited. I love being able to drag and drop the posts when changes need to be made to the schedule. So this is by far my favorite function of CoSchedule.
Writing: When I sit down to write the my posts for a week, I already know what I’m writing about so coming up with what to write about is never an issue. Plus if I feel like sitting down to write and am not sure what to write about, I usually have at least two weeks of ideas saved so I can take my choice from post ideas I already wanted to write.
Social Media Scheduling: This is probably my second favorite feature. The reason I’m so in love with CoSchedule is because of it’s duel purpose. I have the calendar function for planning and the option to schedule social media messages for those posts months in advance. You can schedule social media messages for Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and more as soon as you have the post as a draft. All you have to do is click on the post, create a new message, select the social media outlets and when it goes out. Choose from the same day, the next day, a week, a month, or even custom days and then select the time. It’s super quick and easy.
This not only helps ensure I actually promote my posts even well after they go live, but it also gives me the flexibility to plan ahead and gain some of my freedom back. For example: say you go on vacation for a week. Your posts are set and you want to make sure that they get the love and attention they deserve even though you’re going to be lounging out on the beach. All you have to do is spend a couple of minutes per post, scheduling your social media messages for the week you’ll be gone and you don’t have to do a thing. You can enjoy your vacation and not worry that your posts won’t be getting traffic.
What does it cost:
The cost is $10 a month which is insanely cheap to me considering how much it does and how much time it saves me. I understand that not everyone wants to spend money on their blog (and I completely respect that!), but if you’re looking to make money with your blog – I could not recommend this more. CoSchedule has freed up so much more of my time which allows me to focus on other aspects of blogging. Networking, finding opportunities, generating new content, etc.
So if you’re looking for something to free up your time, help you keep track of your ideas, grow traffic to your blog, and help make social media easier – I highly recommend CoSchedule. You’ve got nothing to lose by checking out their 14 day free trial anyways!