Yearly Blog Plan

I need to have a plan for my blog? That was a thought that never occurred to me until I was asked to review a blog planner. I had several blog planners to choose from, but decided on the "Yearly Blog Plan(her)" from Homeschool Creations. This is a free 60+ page printable organizer.

What is included in the 60+ pages? There is a year-at-a-glance for 2012 and 2013. There are 12 monthly calendar pages. These are completely blank and customizable. I love that! I don't always get right on buying a calendar in January, so it's great that I can start my calendar whenever I need it. Then, behind each month are two pages of weekly planning. Each page contains two weeks. However, again it is completely customizable, so if I don't use one page from February, I could move it to March where I need an extra. There is also the option to print out extras if needed. That's what is great about a printable. It also contains one page for each month for notes on reviews and giveaways. This is very helpful as I'm starting the reviewing process again. I can jot down all the information from the initial review request, then 6 weeks later when I go to write up the actual review, I don't have to go searching all over the place for it. At the end, there are some extras too. There is a tracking sheet for website analytics, a sheet to keep track of other blogs or websites you follow or need to reference, tracking for affiliate programs, hashtags, link-ups, income and expenses, mileage, and just general notes or ideas. If you are a serious blogger, I think this would be a very valuable tool.

How did I use it? Well, I've only had it for about a month, and I just started getting in some more reviews. I really like the pages that I can note all the review information though. That has been useful for keeping everything together. I printed the whole thing out, and put it in a 3-ring binder. I read other people actually had it professionally bound. I would consider that in the future, but this time I'm glad I used the binder option. I think I may end up rearranging some of the pages more to my liking. In fact, I may try a couple different ways of organizing it.

Overall, it is a very thorough planner. I'm not sure if I could think of anything I would add to it for the purpose of blog planning. However, I'm not sure I like the idea of having a separate planner just for my blog, another one for homeschooling, another one for business, and another for life in general. I have a feeling, that I will double book things and over commit. I am going to give it a try for a little longer though, to see how it goes. I may post an update in a couple months after I've finished some more reviews to see if it's truly going to be helpful. In the meantime, it is free, so go check it out.