
Ask any blogger how they can be this consistent with their blogging effort, you can bet it’s all thanks to their blogging checklist.
Okay, I get that some of you seem to cringe at the thought of having a blogging checklist in place.
Heck, you probably cringe at anything that has the word checklist in it.
You prefer to do things at a spur moment.
So, having a checklist of any kind in place may feel like you have shackles on your legs.
Yes, having a checklist in place may seem rigid to some of you.
But if you want to get things done faster, efficiently, and consistently, then it’s important to have a checklist of any kind in place.
It also prevents you from procrastinating since you already know what to do.
Just follow every single thing you have to do in the checklist and you can get it done in no time.
And if you’re here for a blogging checklist, then this post will help you with just that.
What my blogging checklist consists of
When you think about blogging in general, you may have this notion that most of the time you spend will be more on writing and editing the blog post.
Well, you’re not wrong considering that’s what many of us tend to believe as far as blogging is concerned.
But believe it or not, writing and editing only make up a tiny portion of all the things you need to do if you want your blog post to work hard for you.
There are other things you need to do if you want to drive traffic to your website, build an email list, and have your target audience buy anything you offer.
So, what you see in the checklist will cover everything from the prep work to the final part before you hit the publish button.
Yes, it’s a little lengthy for sure.
But if your goal is to make the blog post do the heavy lifting for you, then consider refining your blogging process with my personal blogging checklist.
Come up with a blogging editorial calendar for your blog
Believe me, it’s not fun staring at the screen, not knowing what blog post you should write about.
It’s a total waste of time. And I’m sure that you don’t have that much time to spare either.
That’s where the blog editorial calendar comes in.
When you plan on what you want to write, it makes blogging less of a hurdle now you already know what you need to write for each blog update.
It also provides you with ideas on what the next blog update should entail now that you have a snapshot of a topic you cover during that month.
If it feels like you’re running a magazine editorial, it sure is.
But unlike the magazine editorial, your blog editorial calendar doesn’t need to be set in stone.
If there’s a topic that you want to cover but you already have another post planned for the update, then feel free to make changes to your blog editorial calendar.
You can always push the topic that doesn’t get published to another month.
Struggling with coming up with topics to write about?
You can take a look at this post right here if you need help in that department.
Do the keyword research for the blog topic
It’s a lot easier to do the keyword research when you already know what blog topic you want to write about.
Not only that you’ll know which keyword has a high search volume. But it helps with refining the angle of your topic too.
Remember that your post tends to do much better on the search engine if you nail the topic right.
Yes, doing keyword research can feel like a total mystery to many of us.
But the good news is it doesn’t have to be that way thanks to Ubersuggest.
In case you’re wondering, this is what I use to find the best keyword for my blog post and optimize my website for the search engine.
Just to be clear I only use the free version of Ubersuggest as I write this. However, I do intend to upgrade to the paid version in the future.
Come up with an outline for the blog post
Back then, I used to think coming up with an outline before you wrote the essay was a waste of time.
But guess what? Having an outline in place before you begin writing can help you to write faster.
Having an outline can also help with making sure you cover everything you want to say in the blog post.
So, it doesn’t hurt for you to have an outline in place especially when you want to go in-depth with the topic.
Create a graphic for the blog post
Pictures say a thousand words. And yes, even if they’re the free stock photo that you can get from Canva.
The reason for that is simple – people tend to notice the image first before noticing the headline.
Bored of the same old stock photos that you come across on stock photo websites?
You can use generative AI such as Midjourney and Stable Diffusion to create a unique image for your blog post instead.
Once you already found the image you want, use graphic editing software such as Canva to create an image for your blog post and social media.
Thankfully, Canva makes it easy for you to create graphics for social media posts since you can resize the image according to where you want to post the image.
If you’re currently creating an image for your social media post on X, you can resize the same image with a click of a button for posting on Facebook.
Keep in mind that the automatic image resizing is only available in Canva Pro, though. This feature isn’t available in the free version.
Just so you know that I’m no longer active on social media anymore.
That saves me even more time now that I only need to create a graphic for the blog post.
Write and edit the blog post
Wow, we finally reached the point where we had to sit down and write that blog post.
Hard to believe that there are a lot of things you have to do first before you can even get started with writing the blog post, right?
Shouldn’t it be the first thing you need to do before you do anything else?
Well, you’re right. But I find it a lot easier if you can get all that prep work done first so then you can have all the concentration you need to write the blog post.
You want to get it done without having other things getting in your way.
What’s more, you’re more likely to finish writing the blog post within a day too if it’s the only thing you have to do on that day.
Depending on how in-depth you want the blog post to be, it may take you a few days or so to get it done including editing.
And that’s alright if the blog post calls for it.
But I try to finish it within a day even if the publication date is within a few days or in this blog’s case, within a week.
Optimize the blog post for the search engine
Do you think that’s the end of it once you finish writing and editing the blog post?
Well, you need to optimize it for the search engine before you hit the publish button.
Don’t worry if the thought of having to optimize your blog post for the search engine feels like quantum physics to you.
If you’re on WordPress, Yoast SEO makes it easy for you to optimize your blog post or any other pages on your website for the search engine.
All you need to do is to follow all the guidelines that Yoast SEO provided for you and you’re pretty much good to go.
Now you see why it’s important to do the keyword research beforehand, do you?
Will doing all these things can guarantee the blog post does well on the search engine?
You already spend a huge amount of time and effort to write the blog post. So you certainly want the blog post to do what you expect it to do, right?
To be honest, it’s hard to tell if doing all these things will make the blog post do well on the search engine since it depends on so many factors.
But one thing I know for sure is consistency is the key if you want your blog to do well in the search engine.
Be consistent with your blogging effort and it will start to pay off eventually.
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