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This free blog planner is everything you need to plan, start, and maintain a successful blog in 2023.
It includes everything you need from a blog schedule planner to a blog content planner template.
Let’s face it, starting a blog is like drinking from a watering hose.
From figuring out the essential plugins all blogs need to learning the basics of SEO, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and fail to take action.
That’s why we created this free blog planner pdf download that includes multiple blog planner templates.
This free printable blog planner is exactly what I wish I had when I was first starting my blog.
It includes everything you need to plan and execute your blogging strategy.
Let’s take a further look at some of the benefits:
Key benefits of using free blog planner printables:
Like we said above, printable blog planners are a FANTASTIC tool for beginner bloggers.
And not surprisingly, there are hundreds of different free planners online.
So, why choose Samantha Digital?
We may be biased in some areas, but there’s no doubting these benefits:
This printable planner is broken up into three sections. This planner includes:
Related: Free On-Page SEO Checklist
A website planner template is a tool to outline your plan for your website and blog.
Have you ever played darts blindfolded?
That’s what it’s like to build a blogging business without nailing your website and blog’s foundations.
This template outlines the foundational yet critical questions you must answer as you start your blogging journey.
To complete the website planner template, respond to the following prompts:
A blogging goals template is a tool to identify, define, and achieve your blogging goals.
Achieving your blogging goals is hard.
It’s even harder when you aren’t correctly defining and tracking your blogging goals.
This blogging goals template requires you to get specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and timely (SMART) with your goals.
First, identify a blogging goal.
Do you want to reach your first 10,000 website visitors?
Do you want to earn your first $1,000 in blogging revenue?
Both are great goals and require different strategies.
We recommend sticking to one goal at a time.
Once you’ve identified your goal, determine why you want to achieve this goal.
What happens when you reach your first 10,000 website visitors?
Will you apply for an ad network?
This field primarily serves as the reason and motivation for achieving your goal.
Next, break out the goal and be sure the goal is specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time-bound.
Then, define the high-level steps you need to take to achieve these goals.
A blog password tracker is simply a list of all your username and passwords for your various blogging accounts.
The number #1 benefit of using paper and pencil to track your passwords is that they cannot be hacked.
Ensure you keep this tracker in a safe, hidden place where you won’t lose it.
Every time you create a new account online that will be used for blogging, add it to this spreadsheet.
A blog stats tracker monitors your blog’s key performance indicators (KPIs), such as website traffic, email subscribers, income, expenses, and backlinks.
Keeping track of your stats helps you stay focused.
Additional benefits include:
The benefit of a blog stats tracker is to monitor and analyzes your blog’s performance over time.
As trends emerge, you can quickly dig deeper and then adapt.
For example, if you published a free lead magnet in February, you may notice your email subscribers increase in April and then your affiliate income increase in July.
Based on these results, you may want to offer another free lead magnet and/or double down on your email marketing campaign to increase affiliate sales.
At the end of every month, update the record for the month:
A blog competitor analysis template is a tool to analyze your competitors and document your findings.
Conducting competitor analysis is a critical component of any successful business, and a blogging business is no exception.
To stay relevant in a rapidly changing digital world, it is critical to research your competitors to find out what is working and where there are opportunities for your business.
First, identify your competitors.
Leverage social media, YouTube, and Google to search for accounts and blogs relevant to your niche.
From there, narrow your findings down to 3 large competitors and 3 small competitors.
As a beginner blogger, we recommend leveraging the 3 large competitors for your own inspiration.
For the 3 small competitors, complete the competitor analysis template.
Review the competitor’s blog and social media to answer the questions from the template.
A domain name idea tracker template is a tool to research, brainstorm, and vet potential domain names before actually registering your domain name.
The benefits of this tracker template:
To learn more about this domain name idea tracker template, check out our blog post: Exactly How To Choose Your Domain.
A blog content bank is a list of keywords relevant to your industry that you may or may not target for your blog posts.
In other words, this is where all your blog post ideas will live.
The benefit of a blog content bank includes keeping all your possible blog post topics in one place.
A blog content bank also lets you compare various keywords to decide which to target next.
Start by choosing a keyword research tool.
The Ubersuggest Chrome extension is one of the best free keyword research tools for beginners.
The Keywords Everywhere Chrome Extension is the best paid keyword research tool for beginners ($10 per 10,000 queries).
As you conduct keyword research, update the content bank with relevant keywords that you think you may target.
In the search intent field, indicate if the keyword has informational or comparison search intent.
To learn more about search intent, check out our beginner’s guide to SEO.
Search volume indicates how frequently a keyword is searched.
The higher the search volume, the more competitive the keyword.
It depends on the industry, but as a rule of thumb, we recommend that beginners target keywords with less than 10K monthly searches.
To determine the search volume for a particular keyword, you must check out the keyword research tool you chose in Step 1.
A blog content calendar is your editorial calendar and schedule of upcoming blog posts that you will publish and update.
The benefits of a blog content calendar include:
Start by updating your calendar with holidays and any other important dates.
Next, establish your blogging publication cadence.
Will you publish twice per week, twice per month, or something else?
Make sure you choose a cadence that is realistic and maintainable.
Then, indicate the dates on the calendar where you will publish new weekly posts.
Next, pull vetted keywords from your content bank and assign them to a date for publication.
A blog content brief is a game plan for your blog post. It outlines your focus keyword, word count goals, related keywords, post title, and more. In other words, it helps you write an amazing post that’s optimized for search engines.
The benefits of a blog post content brief include:
First, determine which keyword from your content bank you will target for a blog post.
Next use google and your keyword research tool to complete the prompts within the template.
A monthly blog expense tracker monitors the purchase you make for your blog.
This includes purchases such as domain registration and hosting, LLC registration, blogging courses, subscription services, and more.
If you’re trying to make a business out of blogging, then tracking your expenses from day 1 is critical.
It will save you so much time when it comes time to file your taxes in April.
Whenever you make a purchase related to your blog, add a line to the expense tracker for the description, type, and amount.
Optionally, add notes that you don’t want to forget.
For example, “Canva subscription on auto-renewal”, so you don’t forget that your Canva subscription will automatically renew during the next billing cycle.
Use the ‘type field’ to group similar transactions, for example, ‘website maintenance’, ‘business administration’, ‘subscriptions’, and ‘education.’
A blog monthly income tracker monitors revenue from your blog.
This includes revenue related to products or services that you sell, as well as any affiliate income.
Similarly to the blog expense tracker, if you’re trying to make a business out of blogging, then tracking your income from day 1 is critical.
It will save you so much time when it comes time to file your taxes in April.
However, we also like to use the blog income tracker for motivation.
Being able to update your blog income early often helps inspire and motivate you to keep going.
Whenever you receive a payment related to your blog, add a line to the income tracker for the description, type, and amount.
Optionally, add notes that you don’t want to forget.
Use the ‘type field’ to group similar transactions, for example, ‘products’, ‘services’, and ‘affiliate sales.’
A blog affiliate tracker lists all the various affiliate programs you are part of.
For example, ShareASale, ClickBank, and Rakuten Affiliate.
As you begin to diversify your blog’s revenue streams, you will likely join more and more affiliate programs.
This can become a lot to track.
For this reason, we love our blog affiliate tracker –
Forget having another excel document or email folder with all your accounts.
This blog affiliate tracker makes things soooo much easier.
Whenever you sign up for an affiliate program, add a line to the tracker:
This template is coming soon! If you download the template today, you will be the first to receive this blog product/service template!
We hope you absolutely love this free printable blog planner!
This whole planner should do an amazing job at helping with your blog organization, staying organized, and meeting your blogging needs.
Download this template today and get started building your blogging business.
If you have any questions, post them below and we will get back to you ASAP.
And don’t forget to check out our on-page SEO checklist download.
We wish you blogging success and hope you enjoy this blog planning template!
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