Have ever wondered how companies seem to know what to write every week of the year like they are some sort of magic toad that never gets blocked? I'm about to blow your mind...
I print my calendar from my mac and write out how it all might work 3 months in advance but I haven’t done that for January onwards yet as I wanted to see how my December content landed. I always send my Notes from the Sea the first day of the month no matter what day that is and I love that structure.
I did used to do a linked in post Mondays and Fridays but I pulled back to just one now... still experimenting over there as it’s like a graveyard of career past with a lot of Substack enthusiasm! 😅
I like to write and it’s how I get out of my head so I don’t schedule downtime. I have many books I have written that I can pull from and I am scheduled through February right now so I tend to be happy when I am a month ahead.
So people rest by resting, but I prefer to do things early and get ahead. Generally though, I will just always write.
Weird, I wasn’t tagged in that podcast episode. Can you link me? I had no idea it launched
Thanks. However, can you go back spell my name right? There's only one L for most of these and not be a diva but I would prefer to have my named spelled correctly.
I don't have a content calendar, per se. What I DO have is my Drafts folder. When I get an idea, but I'm not ready to flesh it out, am not in the right place or don't have time, or I need to do more research, I start an article, and I just leave it in Drafts. That way, when I sit down to write, I have several pieces to choose from, and I can flesh them out, schedule them, and so forth.
Due to the nature of my illness, I can't commit to publishing or posting at specific times. I may WANT to post every Saturday and every Monday, but I can't guarantee from week to week that I WILL. I'm not really able to focus and write well when I'm sick.
I may change my habits, though, and at least maybe list what topics I'd like to cover each month. I'm also sure that, once things pick up for me, I'll be forced to create a content calendar. Until then, though, I'm happy with my current system.
Great post. As much as folks complain about AI, THIS is the kind of stuff it's a godsend for. Getting a machine to use data to make analysis about what you should or could be writing about is often SO much better than having you, an amateur data analyst, do it yourself. After all, we can say we *like* analyzing data (I mean, I don't, but some do) but that doesn't mean we're necessarily qualified or the best option to do so.
Exactly! Or even just stuff that would be painful to do - both on an author and audience side. Nobody wants to read me bumble through the same content over and over again, if my stats have anything to say about it. 😂
I love the shorter article. It almost all fitted in an email. Usually I refuse to jump to the app to read past the cut off (in private protest at how outrageously long you write) but this was so good that I wanted to see the footnotes and so succinct that here I am making a comment haha.
More like this please.
Btw I do a content calendar one month at a time but only for delegating social media posts. All other content is on the fly as putting my goals into a timetable and having deadlines, fucks with my mental health. (Which is why I can't make myself succumb to the allure of substack or selling anything subscription based.) I get lots of stuff done, strategically, but i just cant plan too far ahead.
Yay! Thanks you for voicing your opinion. I think a monthly content calendar makes sense for sure. I have already moved stuff around in my content calendar. I think it will also be useful next year to say "analyze last year's calendar and make something I haven't talked about yet". My big problem is just revisiting the same topics over and over again.
Maybe I’m not the target audience but there’s at least 3 terms I hadn’t heard before. I could easily take just being introduced to just one at a time. As i like to remind my dear wife about how to eat an elephant... “Eat a bit. Shit a bit” 🐘👄💩🤣
I’m sure most people, and domesticated pets, will have a higher capacity than me though.
I just came here to say I really really appreciate the angst that runs throughout this cornerstone content article while brilliantly getting the job done :)
A bit late to read this but this is a great article. I use Airtable and am a bit of a spreadsheet junkie (I love planning a little bit too much) but I didn't think of planning a few months/weeks ahead. I just kind of know (approximately) what I'm going to talk about in the next couple of weeks, plus I have a few 'evergreen' pieces in the draft folder that I know I could use any time I don't have anything interesting to say. I like the idea of planning a couple of months ahead, even if that plan will change.
I use an Excel grid. One tab is the content calendar for the next two months. I plan out which days are for brainstorming, drafting, and posting. The other tab is for me to jot down ideas/topics I want to cover. I add to the ideas/topics tab throughout the month. For me, it's helpful to have a list of potential topics that way I'm not Googling "What should I write about?"
This is a great example of what AI SHOULD be used for - automating the tedious tasks that we don't want to do, to give us more space to be creative! Sure, ChatGPT spit out all those topics for you, but YOU get to decide how to bring those topics to life in your voice. All it did was give you the space to be creative by taking care of the admin side. Brilliant!
Also I am TERRIBLE at planning...ANYTHING, but this year I'm trying to change that, and your article gave me a lot of great ideas of how!
I think this is an excellent suggestion to use ChatGPT to help plan out the content calendar for the year. Any tips on which prompts to use to get a useable calendar?
For instance, I played around with it a bit and found I had to specify which months I wanted to have included to get a 12 month calendar (asking for a 2024 calendar only generated topics from Jan through March). Additionally, I asked it to integrate SEO but all it did was add "SEO" into the topics, such as "Week 4 (Jan 27): 'Gandalf: SEO Secrets of the Wise.' Explore the SEO strategies behind Gandalf's wisdom and apply them to modern content creation." 😅 So I just removed that specific request from the prompt and redid it.
"You are a marketing/publicity/sales for a magazine that specialized in satricial Lord of the Rings content. Analyze this word document of previous articles. Then think step by step and create a content calendar for X time frame". If you tell it to think step by step and tell it to don a persona, it's much better.
Thanks for this, super interesting. I did a content calendar for the first time last weekend to cover 2024. Still in broad strokes but a base I can work from. Feels like a relief as I often scramble close to my set deadline. But putting ideas through Chat GPT for timing I wouldn’t have thought of. I’m also rubbish at sharing my newsletter on Notes or my socials: rarely do that. I should add to my calendar!
I use ChatGPT and other AI tools daily for my job in tech and saving hours for things that now only take seconds.
I find AI so useful for proofreading substack posts as I’m not writing in my first language and when I’m tired lots of mistakes happen that don’t need to be there for everyone to get annoyed by...
I’m also intending to share more AI usage learnings, I’m by no means an expert but think the substack community is mostly ignoring AI.
Yeah that’s not very forward looking of substack and I wonder when it will hurt them because other tools / competitors will implement AI more and more.
The tech space has no grace when it comes to progress, either you follow the advancements or you’ll be left behind.
I print my calendar from my mac and write out how it all might work 3 months in advance but I haven’t done that for January onwards yet as I wanted to see how my December content landed. I always send my Notes from the Sea the first day of the month no matter what day that is and I love that structure.
I did used to do a linked in post Mondays and Fridays but I pulled back to just one now... still experimenting over there as it’s like a graveyard of career past with a lot of Substack enthusiasm! 😅
cool!
Question - how do you deal with down time? Do you take a break from scheduling and “being online”? I know you pulled back from podcasting somewhat.
This question popped up in the comments of our podcast release today... I sent them to Rae Katz article with you. ✨
I like to write and it’s how I get out of my head so I don’t schedule downtime. I have many books I have written that I can pull from and I am scheduled through February right now so I tend to be happy when I am a month ahead.
So people rest by resting, but I prefer to do things early and get ahead. Generally though, I will just always write.
Weird, I wasn’t tagged in that podcast episode. Can you link me? I had no idea it launched
Ahh that is weird I’ve also missed a few tags - will circle back now...
Thanks. However, can you go back spell my name right? There's only one L for most of these and not be a diva but I would prefer to have my named spelled correctly.
Of course!! You know I have a mad issue with it and I was on deadline before the kids got up. I will do it asap! ✨🙏
Here you go you were definitely tagged but I've also added you as an author too - missed that this morning! https://open.substack.com/pub/sparkleon/p/selling-isnt-pushy-when-your-content?r=506nf&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I don't have a content calendar, per se. What I DO have is my Drafts folder. When I get an idea, but I'm not ready to flesh it out, am not in the right place or don't have time, or I need to do more research, I start an article, and I just leave it in Drafts. That way, when I sit down to write, I have several pieces to choose from, and I can flesh them out, schedule them, and so forth.
Due to the nature of my illness, I can't commit to publishing or posting at specific times. I may WANT to post every Saturday and every Monday, but I can't guarantee from week to week that I WILL. I'm not really able to focus and write well when I'm sick.
I may change my habits, though, and at least maybe list what topics I'd like to cover each month. I'm also sure that, once things pick up for me, I'll be forced to create a content calendar. Until then, though, I'm happy with my current system.
cool!
Great post. As much as folks complain about AI, THIS is the kind of stuff it's a godsend for. Getting a machine to use data to make analysis about what you should or could be writing about is often SO much better than having you, an amateur data analyst, do it yourself. After all, we can say we *like* analyzing data (I mean, I don't, but some do) but that doesn't mean we're necessarily qualified or the best option to do so.
100%. Great point. It's also great to just confirm things even if you are a professional. We all have blind spots, right?
Exactly! Or even just stuff that would be painful to do - both on an author and audience side. Nobody wants to read me bumble through the same content over and over again, if my stats have anything to say about it. 😂
I love the shorter article. It almost all fitted in an email. Usually I refuse to jump to the app to read past the cut off (in private protest at how outrageously long you write) but this was so good that I wanted to see the footnotes and so succinct that here I am making a comment haha.
More like this please.
Btw I do a content calendar one month at a time but only for delegating social media posts. All other content is on the fly as putting my goals into a timetable and having deadlines, fucks with my mental health. (Which is why I can't make myself succumb to the allure of substack or selling anything subscription based.) I get lots of stuff done, strategically, but i just cant plan too far ahead.
Yay! Thanks you for voicing your opinion. I think a monthly content calendar makes sense for sure. I have already moved stuff around in my content calendar. I think it will also be useful next year to say "analyze last year's calendar and make something I haven't talked about yet". My big problem is just revisiting the same topics over and over again.
Plus 1 for shorter articles please. 🙋🏽♂️😆
Maybe I’m not the target audience but there’s at least 3 terms I hadn’t heard before. I could easily take just being introduced to just one at a time. As i like to remind my dear wife about how to eat an elephant... “Eat a bit. Shit a bit” 🐘👄💩🤣
I’m sure most people, and domesticated pets, will have a higher capacity than me though.
Lovely read. Thank you. 🙏
Thanks for the input!
Thank you for doing the heavy lifting on very technical and specialised subjects. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
It might just mean us creative head-in-the-clouds folk can actually make some money at this! 💖💖💖
I just came here to say I really really appreciate the angst that runs throughout this cornerstone content article while brilliantly getting the job done :)
Yay!!! That's awesome. I love that you get that from it :)
A bit late to read this but this is a great article. I use Airtable and am a bit of a spreadsheet junkie (I love planning a little bit too much) but I didn't think of planning a few months/weeks ahead. I just kind of know (approximately) what I'm going to talk about in the next couple of weeks, plus I have a few 'evergreen' pieces in the draft folder that I know I could use any time I don't have anything interesting to say. I like the idea of planning a couple of months ahead, even if that plan will change.
Yay! Glad it resonated :)
I use an Excel grid. One tab is the content calendar for the next two months. I plan out which days are for brainstorming, drafting, and posting. The other tab is for me to jot down ideas/topics I want to cover. I add to the ideas/topics tab throughout the month. For me, it's helpful to have a list of potential topics that way I'm not Googling "What should I write about?"
Cool!
This is a great example of what AI SHOULD be used for - automating the tedious tasks that we don't want to do, to give us more space to be creative! Sure, ChatGPT spit out all those topics for you, but YOU get to decide how to bring those topics to life in your voice. All it did was give you the space to be creative by taking care of the admin side. Brilliant!
Also I am TERRIBLE at planning...ANYTHING, but this year I'm trying to change that, and your article gave me a lot of great ideas of how!
Yay!
I think this is an excellent suggestion to use ChatGPT to help plan out the content calendar for the year. Any tips on which prompts to use to get a useable calendar?
For instance, I played around with it a bit and found I had to specify which months I wanted to have included to get a 12 month calendar (asking for a 2024 calendar only generated topics from Jan through March). Additionally, I asked it to integrate SEO but all it did was add "SEO" into the topics, such as "Week 4 (Jan 27): 'Gandalf: SEO Secrets of the Wise.' Explore the SEO strategies behind Gandalf's wisdom and apply them to modern content creation." 😅 So I just removed that specific request from the prompt and redid it.
"You are a marketing/publicity/sales for a magazine that specialized in satricial Lord of the Rings content. Analyze this word document of previous articles. Then think step by step and create a content calendar for X time frame". If you tell it to think step by step and tell it to don a persona, it's much better.
Those tips for it to don a persona and giving it some direct input of past articles are solid: super helpful! Thanks!
I have studied AI extensively for over a year. If you just tell somebody those two things, they'll think you are a genius.
Thanks for this, super interesting. I did a content calendar for the first time last weekend to cover 2024. Still in broad strokes but a base I can work from. Feels like a relief as I often scramble close to my set deadline. But putting ideas through Chat GPT for timing I wouldn’t have thought of. I’m also rubbish at sharing my newsletter on Notes or my socials: rarely do that. I should add to my calendar!
You can also use zapier to take blog posts and share it, using ChatGPT as an intermediary to turn blog posts into shareable posts
Thanks!
This is gold and super practical, Russel!
I use ChatGPT and other AI tools daily for my job in tech and saving hours for things that now only take seconds.
I find AI so useful for proofreading substack posts as I’m not writing in my first language and when I’m tired lots of mistakes happen that don’t need to be there for everyone to get annoyed by...
I’m also intending to share more AI usage learnings, I’m by no means an expert but think the substack community is mostly ignoring AI.
they are. I feel like Substack's internal position is also very anti-AI, even though they offer AI transcription and reading, which doesn't help.
Yeah that’s not very forward looking of substack and I wonder when it will hurt them because other tools / competitors will implement AI more and more.
The tech space has no grace when it comes to progress, either you follow the advancements or you’ll be left behind.
If only there wasn't a huge chip on my shoulder about doing things my own way 😅
very relatable :)
Well, maybe today is the day you pick up your frogs again :)
Yay!