A year or so ago, I set out to try and organize with my blog a bit more.
That started with a blog planner.
I searched and searched and searched for a decent planner. I had no issues paying for one — if I thought it would be worth it. I settled in on one I found at the website Confessions of a Homeschooler. This place had many planners, but the blogging one was really nice — and free. The only thing I had to do was print it out and get it bound.
Pretty simple.
Cover of my new blog planner.
Not only did the designer come up with a nice monthly look at things — she also had a weekly blogging planner. The best part about this was more space to write things (which, it turns out, I didn’t really need!). The downside of this is having to manually put the dates in each month etc. But, on the opposite side of that, this is something one could print out yearly and have it ready from year to year.
Meanwhile, her normal blogging planner has the dates and so many extras (2015 version is on her website).
For those of you who are bloggers and really plan things out, I don’t see how you could go wring with this planner. This is the ultimate to planning out your blog week by week or month by month.
However …
When it comes to me, I need something I can write down ideas and when I might want to post something. Though the rest, in theory, should have helped me, I am not that organized. There’s reasons being that, though, as I’m a true personal/lifestyle blogger in that I write a bit of everything that’s on my mind and don’t do a lot of things many other bloggers will do.
The planner I used last year had extra pages all over the place for:
- Giveaways/reviews
- Advertising
- Extra information (each month, which included statistics for social media, inspirations, post ideas and notes, tweets, Pinterest, and other notes).
It’s colorful, useful and has everything one might need to blog, especially mommy bloggers, or those who do so many different things.
For me, though, it became hard. I wanted to use everything because it was there and it made sense. But it’s the size of your normal printer paper and such, so not the most portable. I can see having this on a computer desk, spread open to each day and jotting notes, ideas, statistics and such — if I could do all that.
In the end, it was almost too overwhelming because I didn’t utilize all the features and didn’t carry it with me as much because it wasn’t so portable.
(For the record, I had it printed at OfficeMax and had them bind it. It was easy and relatively cheap — maybe in the $30 range as I went all color and upgraded the paper a little).
The inside of the new planner.
For those of you totally in-depth with your blog and looking for something like this — go check it out. It’s a free download. The style and design is amazing. And, one day, when I settle in somewhere else and maybe have myself set up with the blog a little differently, I will definitely revisit this.
But I knew for 2015, I needed to change gears. I needed something smaller, more portable and with fewer bells and whistles.
Enter Blurb.
For those who don’t know, Blurb is a print-on-demand company where anybody can get books published for an affordable price. Since 2006, I’ve been using Blurb each year to create and print a photo book, which is gifted to some friends and family for Christmas. I’ve highly enjoyed doing it and it always gives me something to look back at.
I noticed earlier in the year that they now had the ability to do planners, too.
The beauty of doing this is being able to customize it, to a point. I added photos of mine and a couple extra notes pages, though the calendar pages and such were kind of there. I couldn’t add a few months into 2016, or have December 2014, either, which is too bad. I received the book a few days ago, and it’s closer to the “perfect” blog planner, for me anyway.
The pros:
- Smaller and more portable
- Personal photos inserted (one at beginning of month, and a small one at the bottom of each right-side calendar page)
- Cover and back can be customized
- Enough room to write things for each day
The cons:
- Not spiral bound
- Unable to add months to beginning or end
- No full ability for customized pages (at least that I saw)
As I continue looking at planners, I think eventually I am going to have to try and design my own each year to attempt and give me the full personal touch that I want. I somewhat want the best of both worlds between the one I have been using for 2014 and the one I have for 2015. We’ll see how this year goes and maybe I will tackle the project and come up with something in between.
The undertaking of creating my own planner would be a pretty big project, but if I get midway through this year and realize I need more than what I’ve done, it will be something I start working on early enough so I can have it finished and ready for 2016.
If you are a blogger — what do you use and how do you make it?
Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!
