Blogger Worksheets: Keep your Blog Growing
If you are a fellow food blogger or if you have ever thought of starting a blog I am working on a new section of the Maebells dedicated to Blogger Resources. If you are interested in starting a blog of your own take a look at the new tab at the top. It walks you though the basic steps to starting your very own site. I will be adding to this section a couple times a month. If you are an existing blogger, today’s post is totally for you!
As Maebells started to grow and I began work on other projects I found myself feeling totally overwhelmed. Sometimes I would sit down to work on things and not really know where to begin. Do you ever feel that way? You have a million thoughts but you can’t decide what to tackle first.
I needed a way to calm my mind, prioritize my work, and focus my energy. So I worked on developing worksheets to help me get organized. After several rough drafts, and a bit of fine tuning I decided a daily, weekly, and monthly work sheet would help me be more productive.
Weekly Worksheet (Starting on Sunday)
Weekly Worksheet (Starting on Monday)
Since using these, it has made a significant difference in every area of this blog. I am able to work at a more productive pace because I have a game plan. I don’t forget things because I have a written list. I no longer feel like I have to spend my entire weekend working on the blog because I am able to get a little done daily.
Here are some examples of how the worksheets work:
Since I wholeheartedly believe in the importance of being an active member of the blogging community I have all of the worksheets available to download. Print them, use them, share them and then let me know your thoughts! I would love to get some feedback if you decide to try them! I think they are a great way to not just keep your blog going, but to keep your blog GROWING, which is most of our goals.
For the best results change your printer settings to a .75 boarder on the sides
These are great resources, Annie! I find myself overwhelmed at times, too. But then I prioritize and it helps a bit. I also have a blogging binder full of worksheets, idea pages, ad pages, social media trackers, etc. that I downloaded through Etsy that has helped tremendously! That way, I stay very organized…and I can’t live without organization! 🙂
I love the resources that you put together for your new section. I always check out blogging resources whenever I see them on blogs that I follow. It gives me new ideas or inspires me to follow along!
I do too! I really like reading how other people work. Sometimes it is totally different from how I work so I love getting ideas on how to improve!
Annie, wow you are so organized! I wish I was as organized…I used to be able to get a few blog posts ahead so I wasn’t stressed but now I’m seriously flying by the seat of my pants LOL. I have a really, really hard time keeping up with comments and other people’s blogs, which is a shame. But I do have a massive long list of recipe ideas and a *rough* idea of when they will be published.
I’ll be following along with your growing your blog series 🙂
The comments get me too! Like major! Especially over a weekend, they really seem to build up! I do try to respond to all of them, but sometimes I worry a couple fall through the cracks!
These are great Annie! I really need to be more organized. I am in every other aspect of my life, but just can’t seem to get my blogging as planned out as I’d like.
I totally understand. I still don’t really have my schedule planned out, as far as how many I post each week and what days. I have a lot done in advance but my scheduling isn’t totally panned out yet!
Great post Annie, I need to be more organized and have been trying to set specific goals but it is a lot of work, especially when most of us have full time jobs, families etc. totally worth it bc it’s fun; fun to eat, fun to cook and fun to grow! Following these posts 🙂
Katie you are so right, it is a lot of work! More work than I realized before I started blogging for sure!
This is amazing, Annie. You have no idea how DISorganized I am! I seriously have no plan or system whatsoever and am constantly forgetting things and feeling like I can never keep up. I need to learn from you, but I feel like I need to take a week off blogging to spend time getting organized!
Good! I am glad they seem helpful. I know it is kind of basic, but I figure you don’t really want a gigantic complicated to do list! If it complicated you won’t use it and things still won’t get done. So a basic check list was kind of perfect for me! I hope it helps you too!
These are awesome, Annie! Thanks so much for sharing these, I’m going to print them out when I get a chance and use them 🙂
No problem Danielle! I hope you find them helpful too!
What great resources! It’s so tough to keep everything straight sometimes, so this is super helpful to keep organized! I find it incredibly difficult to stay on top of everything, especially since I have a full time job. This will def be a big help… thanks!
Great Chris! I hope it helps! 🙂
This is such good stuff!!
Yay! I am so happy to hear you say that Jaren!
Annie, this is such a great resource for bloggers, and such an awesome way to give back! I love helping other bloggers too, and I think this will really help bloggers get organized. Great job! I have finally gotten myself into a rhythm, but I can’t tell you how many times before that I was scrambling for a post. It’s so much easier when you’re organized!
Me too! I hate feeling unorganzied or that the product I put out isn’t 100% my best work so this has really helped!
This is such a great idea! I’m a compulsive list-maker and always love to see how other people organize their work flow. And how awesome of you to share with others–that’s so nice!
Elizabeth I am glad these seem useful! I also love seeing how others work, sometimes other people do things I would never have thought of!
I struggle with this too. Someone recently asked me to estimate weekly time dedicated to the blog and even I was surprised once I did the math. It’s a ton of work, usually all of which happens outside of real work hours. Great checklists!
Sometimes there is just SO.MUCH.TO.DO! This really has helped me to be able to just knock projects out instead of starting one and getting side tracked with something else. Now it is just bam,bam,bam and I am done!
I love this! I’m like you, and lists really help to calm me and feel organized. I’m going to give your worksheets a try!
Natalie! I have missed you while you were away! 🙂 Don’t you just feel tons better when everything is written out?! I do! I hope these help you too!
GREAT worksheet!! I know lots of people who need these – and I definitely needed one of these when I first started blogging. Now I sort of just have it ingrained in my brain! lol
This is awesome, Annie! Such great resources! I definitely struggle with staying on top of things so these sound perfect for helping me get more organized. Thanks for sharing them here, so glad they have helped you work more productively 🙂
I continue to be in awe of your organizational skills! Blogging really does take up a lot of time and can be so overwhelming if you don’t schedule things. I think I need to print some of your worksheets and starting using them! I feel like I am always forgetting to post to certain websites, but I just need to sit down and make some time for it. Thanks for letting us use your resources 🙂 Also, I am planning on doing the Liebster post next week, I didn’t forget!
I actually almost emailed these to you a couple weeks ago, but I didn’t want you to think I was being presumptuous and assuming you aren’t organized! 🙂 I just knew we had kind of talked about this sort of thing before! If you decide to try them I would love to know your thoughts! Any suggestions on how to make them more effective are more than welcome!
This really helpful. I haven’t started using worksheets but should. My workflow is haphazard and instead of promoting in an orderly fashion – I just hit all the food sharing sites (pinterest, food gawker, etc…) at once – and maybe accidentally forget one or two as well. I like the “goals” sections – I think that is something that will keep me motivated and on point so to speak. Thanks for the tips and ideas!
Thank you, Annie! What fantastic and organized resources you’ve created! Looks like you’ve hit all the major tasks to be done as well as the ‘little’ things that can sometimes fall through the cracks. While I am an organized person, I’ve had difficulty getting organized with my blogging time. There is so much to take care of and for a new food blogger, the learning curve is pretty steep. Especially parts like monetization, SEO and general tech issues. Thanks for helping me get focused and organized!
I totally agree! I feel like I have my general routine down fairly well now, but when it comes to things, as you said, like monetization, tech issues and SEO I am kind of lost. I feel like those are things that are really hard to learn about because you have to understand more of the tech side of blogging and I totally do not get that! I have a lot of learning to do!
This is such great advice. Now if I can only stick to it! haha
Thank you Tammy! 🙂 I hope it helps!