One of the things I love about my productivity routine is the fact that it helps me stay on track when it comes to my to-do list. As a blogger, there are numerous blogging tasks that we need to do, if we must stay on top of our blogging goals.
In this blogging schedule today, I break it down into daily, weekly and monthly blogging tasks for the serious business-minded blogger.
This post contains affiliate links. If you click and use a product or service that I recommend, I earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Please read my Disclosure for details.
Technically, you can still apply a major number of these tasks even if you are blogging for pleasure.
The key to making the tasks work in your favour? Consistency. We’ll start with a daily process for managing a blog and move on to weekly and monthly tasks on the blogging checklist.
Read: My 7-Day Blogging Schedule Template Broken Down by Hours
[easy-tweet tweet=”21 Daily, Weekly and Monthly #Blogging Tasks for the Serious Blogger to stay on track.” user=”shyvish”]
Want a handy checklist of these tasks? Download the FREE PDF here
- Daily Blogging Tasks
- Weekly Blogging Tasks
- Write a New Blog Post
- Fill Up Tailwind Queue
- Reshare from Tailwind Tribes
- Track your Google Analytics
- Track your Income and Expenses for the Month
- Schedule Social Media Posts
- Make video content
- Optimise your Resource Library
- Make new Pins for Older posts
- Backup your Blog!
- Apply to Affiliate Programs
- Reply to Blog Comments
- Visit other Blogs
- Plan for the week ahead
- Monthly Blogging Tasks
Daily Blogging Tasks
Update one old post on the blog
Many of us already have content on our blog, am I right? If you update even one post per day, then you’d be surprised to see how much you’re able to complete in the space of 3 months!
Just one post a day. Doable, right?
Focus on titles, meta descriptions, adding more fleshed-out content to the body and some calls-to-action as well. Then, re-share the post on your social media channels.
You’d observe, that with practice, this won’t take you more than 15 or 20 minutes per day.
Work on a course/Read up on free content
As a blogger, I like to learn something every single day. It’s the one way I keep my brain cells from decaying.
Well, that and reading books, of course. 😉
I set aside 30 minutes a day to dive deep into a course that pushes the needle forward for my business. It really helps.
Seriously, if you are in a position to invest money then go ahead and buy a good course based on what your focus is for the immediate future.
READ: Paid and Free Courses that I Recommend for Every Blogger
Engage briefly on Social Media
As a blogger, while most of us would love to rely exclusively on traffic from Pinterest, Google search and e-mail subscribers, the reality is, a lot of us start off with social media readers.
This can be overwhelming if you tackle too many platforms at once. But it really helps if you can spend a minimum of 15 to 20 minutes a day engaging deeply with your audience on any one platform of choice.
For me, personally, that time is split between Facebook and Instagram since that’s where my audience is most interactive.
FIND OUT: Where does your audience hang out? Do you know?
Check and reply to E-mails
Ideally, you should be having an engaged list of e-mail subscribers, who connect with you and ask you relevant questions.
Don’t have an e-mail list yet? Learn how to get started with one.
Again, just 15 to 20 minutes of dedicated, distraction-free time on your e-mail list is more than adequate.
Reply to e-mails, answer questions, solve problems: in short, be human. This goes a long way towards building trust in you as a blogger.
Weekly Blogging Tasks
Write a New Blog Post
Okay, this is my favourite part of the week and I am sure every blogger can relate. 🙂
Typically, I blog at least once and at most, thrice a week. Of those, one will be a long-form, detailed post. The second could be a quick-tip tutorial or a video and the third is usually something I write on my other hobby blog.
Writing a blog post is something many people break up into different batches: writing, image curation, editing, formatting and more.
For me, it’s a single-day task. So I spend 2 to 3 hours on a post on the day it’s supposed to be published (like this one today). It helps that I have a skeletal idea of content that I want to post.
Everything else happens in real time.
Fill Up Tailwind Queue
Pinterest is the number one source of traffic I recommend, especially if you want high-quality, search-oriented traffic.
Since posting regularly on Pinterest is recommended, I prefer to use Tailwind to schedule out my content to all my Pinterest boards .
Tailwind takes the stress out of pinning and leaves me free to focus on other important blogging tasks.
*
Reshare from Tailwind Tribes
Tailwind Tribes, as the name suggests, are the best bet for niche bloggers to find high-quality content to curate for their own audience.
For instance, let’s say you are a parenting blogger. When you join a Tailwind parenting tribe, you only get parenting-related blog posts to curate for your audience! That’s a huge win, especially if you don’t want to spend time on Facebook share threads.
Learn more about Tailwind in my post here.
Track your Google Analytics
Yes, just once a week is more than enough to keep you on track.
Checking Analytics obsessively on a day to day basis leaves little time to work on your blog and improve what could be enhanced.
Take my advice: Set a time, once a week, to read and deep dive into your analytics. Look at the content that people enjoy. Use that as a feeder for more content on your blog.
Track your Income and Expenses for the Month
As a business blogger, you’re likely to be spending a little more than the average blogger who just shells out money once a year for hosting, domain and maintenance costs.
Ideally, keeping an excel sheet with your income and expenses all mapped out is a perfect way to determine if a future investment is both practical and worthwhile.
Read: How I use a budget plan for my blog
Schedule Social Media Posts
Tailwind is my scheduler of choice when it comes to Pinterest.
But for everything else- Facebook Pages, Facebook groups, Twitter, Linkedin- I rely on Buffer or MeetEdgar.
In addition to the fact that it frees up my time, I get wonderful analytics and insights into what kind of content resonates with my audience.
Plus, it leaves me free to focus on things that matter: content creation and audience engagement.
Seen this list yet? 12 FREE Apps I recommend for all Bloggers!
Make video content
This is the fun part of blogging. 🙂
If you have a YouTube channel, spend a little time each week working on a new video. Video content works way better than long-form written content, because visual tutorials and engagement work better.
Not comfortable being on YouTube? No problem!
Do what I do and do Facebook Live sessions or Instagram videos to get a hang of it.
Oh and you can still do YouTube videos if you’re like me and just conduct tutorials online. I love
Optimise your Resource Library
I started blogging seriously with the view to build a business in October 2017.
When I signed up for Mailchimp as my email service provider, I was fascinated with the idea of landing pages.
But in July 2019, I moved over to Mailerlite. This allowed me to build separate sign up pages for different resources. My free resource library is one thing I would update regularly.
So, if you have a resource library, use the weekly task list to add a new resource or update an existing resource in the library.
*As of November 2020, I’ve done away with my resource library. Here are 5 reasons I did that.
Make new Pins for Older posts
Once you’ve had some time to create content and you don’t have the energy to publish a completely new post (hey that happens) this is a favourite go-to activity.
Have an older post that is doing well?
Maybe a seasonal post on Summer or Spring that you can spruce up?
Easiest thing to do? Just create a fresh pin for the post.
For instance, here is my post on 62 Summer Activities for kids.
It performs well between March and July. So I went ahead and created a new pin for this post. See? 🙂 You don’t even have to add the pin to the post. Just add it directly to Pinterest and let the traffic do the trick.
Backup your Blog!
I cannot believe how many bloggers tend to overlook this very crucial task.
If you have a very reliable hosting provider who does daily backups (like I do), then you’re mostly safe.
But even so, all hosts insist that you have a backup of your blog content as well, to be on the safer side.
Set one day a week to run a backup of your blog. Use a good plugin and save the backup to your Dropbox folder. I use Updraft Plus. It’s free!
Apply to Affiliate Programs
One of the best ways to earn money and passive income, at that, is through affiliate marketing.
In order to get started with affiliate marketing, read my 6 Tips for Beginners first.
Almost all blog genres qualify for affiliate marketing if you’re clever about it. 🙂
Once a week, I check and apply to affiliate programs in my niche. These can include courses that I have purchased, products that I have used and of course, bundle programs that offer partnerships. (Click to view the ones I love!)
Do your research and pick the right ones. I will put together a resource on some of my favourite affiliate programs soon. 🙂
Reply to Blog Comments
Engaging with your readers- either on the blog or social media- is key to building trust and authority as an expert in your niche.
But more than that, it makes people feel valued and appreciated when you take the time to reply to their comments.
And while this is one task I can definitely improve on, I do try and make time on a weekly basis to reply to questions and enquiries on my blog. Keep the conversation going.
In late 2020, I did away with comments on my blog and I still get good engagement from my readers.
Visit other Blogs
I used to visit multiple blogs, every single day, when I was a pure hobby blogger.
This gave me plenty of scope to understand other writing styles and most importantly, helped me build my blogging community today.
While this can be a time-consuming task, restricting it to one day a week is totally fine.
Keep your blog hopping to blogs more or less in your niche or interest areas. Leave a genuine comment to engage with the blogger and don’t just do it for the sake of backlinks.
Plan for the week ahead
It would be impossible for me to work on my blog and my social media channels if I didn’t have a plan in place.
So, every Sunday evening, I chalk out my action plan for the week ahead.
That will include the posts I intend to publish, the blog posts I need to update, the social media content I should schedule and the analytics I need to track.
Keeping it all written down makes my life so much easier!
READ: Why I suggest an exclusive Bullet Journal for Bloggers
Monthly Blogging Tasks
Update or Delete Plugins
As self-hosted bloggers, we tend to install and activate a variety of plugins that make life easier for us.
The one downside? We end up having way too many plugins on our site and as a result, site speed suffers!
Inactive plugins and those that are not updated are equally dangerous for another reason: Backdoor entry point for spam and hacker attacks.
Once a month, look at your list of plugins and delete any plugin if:
- It is not updated to your latest version of WordPress
- A second, lightweight plugin does the job just as well
- It conflicts with another plugin on your blog
- A bit of HTML coding can do the work of the plugin instead
Track Goals
At the beginning of each month, set a series of goals spanning both your blog and your social media channels.
When you do, keep the goals smart and realistic.
Once a month, check in to see if you’ve managed to reach those goals.
This lets you assess whether or not the strategy is working for you. And that brings us to the last task on this list. 🙂
Review Content/Social/Email strategy
At every stage of your blogging journey, it is important to assess your goals and be honest about one thing: If something isn’t working, change it and go back to the drawing board.
Whether that’s your content marketing strategy, your email marketing method or even your social media marketing techniques, be ready to unlearn, re-learn and re-invent the wheel.
There is so much potential to keep growing as a blogger, if only we made the time and effort to do so.
Which of these tasks do you already have on your list? Which will you add today?
Enjoyed this article? I welcome you to let me know your thoughts on this post via email here: shailaja@shailajav.com
Shailaja V
Hi, I’m Shailaja, a blogger who’s been writing since 2007. My interests include books of all kinds, digital minimalism, veganism, health, nutrition, fitness and staying open to learning all the time. Welcome! Click here if you’d like an email when I publish new posts
That is a wonderful list of things to remind every blogger, Shailaja! Thanks for this very informative post!
Now, there are almost 97 % of these tasks I do regularly, except for Google Analytics and Affiliate programs. I will surely work on the free courses you have mentioned here.
But, there is a really silly question I need to ask. I know you say that no question is silly, but mine is because I didn’t think of asking it earlier and have been working like a donkey trying to complete this particular one everyday!
When you say, create new pins for Pinterest and share them–you don’t have to add it to the post, just share it on Pinterest–tell me, how do I add the link to that pin? I mean, if I create a new pin to an old post and want to share it on Pinterest, then what about the URL, the link which the readers can click on to reach my blog and read the particular post?
You just gave me the idea for this week’s YouTube video, Shilpa. Thank you! Sometimes I forget that I’ve omitted to explain what are potentially confusing things, even in a tutorial post. So watch out for the video on the channel this week and an update on the blog here. 🙂
As always, never a silly question.
A detailed post, Shailaja and useful pointers for everyone out there. Happy to say that I do all of these. There is one point I would like to add that there are some wonderful courses on Udemy and LinkedIn learning that I personally prefer and keep doing.
Thanks Rachna! I’d love to hear more about the courses. Udemy feels very overwhelming and I feel I have to wade through the directory to find the good ones. Linkedin Learning, is it? Are you referring to that or is there some other platform?
I totally love how organised you are, even more because it’s good fro me too :-). This is so very useful specially for someone like me whose blogging schedule is so random. Repurposing old content, clearing out plugins and backups, those are things I tend to forget to do.
I love the fact that blogging schedules can be completely different for each person and still work.
The plugin backup thing is kind of necessary, so don’t skip it, if you can help it 🙂 And yes, backups too!
That you follow all the tips mentioned in this post is evident from the degree of planning you put into your work. Everything turns out so organised. Kudos to you. And yes! taking away a couple of pointer for myself too.
Thanks a ton, Anupriya. 🙂 Thrilled to hear that. Do let me know which of these pointers worked the best for you.
I found this post very useful! Thank you 🙂
Thank you very much, Sonal. Happy you found it useful! 🙂
So many takeaways from this post. There are so many tasks that I still haven’t done yet. I have started spending more time in editing old posts and adding pins. The more I add, the more posts I find to edit each time. Writing is definitely the best part of blogging. I look forward to weekends when I can flesh out a fresh idea.
Editing old posts and adding pins are the perfect way to re-circulate your content back into the readers’ minds, especially the untapped audience. Good luck, Raj. 🙂
I love that you’ve started working on new pins. I admit the creative aspect of blogging- design/writing – is what I enjoy the most. All the tech and back end stuff can be tiresome but I am learning to tell myself it is worth it in the long run 🙂
What a great list you got there, Shailaja. This is so useful. I do many of these but not all of them. I have to start working on old posts. I am not sure I have any good content to repurpose I’m afraid. Also, I haven’t been using tailwind after the first week of using it. As of now my plate is full with other tasks, trying to balance it all however possible. Your posts always remind me to stay organized. ❤️
I hope you’re able to find the balance that works for you, Vinitha 🙂 Do what comes naturally and then step out of the comfort zone in tiny steps to make it happen.
Lots of great tips here, Shy. I do a few of these, some I need to add. My struggle is trying to fit in everything I want to do – blogging, art, writing, etc in the short little time I have on weekday evenings. Something always slips, simply because my art time has become non-negotiable. I have to spend some time, which can easily become all evening, painting everyday. It’s very fulfilling for me.
As you know I’m not blogging for profit any more but I do like some of these tips – the first one especially grabbed me. I think I need to focus on one old post a day to update because I tried doing that ages ago and it was overwhelming {blogging 10 years does that!} but maybe one or two posts a day is enough! Thanks Shy!
I am so touched that you choose to read, comment and always leave a thoughtful comment on my posts, even when they don’t directly impact you. That’s so much kindness that I am overwhelmed.
As for the updates, yes, I tried doing 5 a day and that burnt out really quickly. So yes, one a day is manageabl e and I intend to stick to this for the foreseeable future.
What a great list of things Shy- very informative and useful for tech retards like me! I do maybe 10% of all of this and maybe thats where it will stay 🙂 I love the idea of updating old posts – had done for some but now will get back actively to do more!
Ha ha you’re not as tech retarded as you think, Shalz 😉 You should just do a few of these over time and see the difference it makes to blog traffic. You’ll start doing 50% easily 😀
Great post, very informative. You reminded me of a lot of things I need to do to optimise my blog and keep it up to date. Cheers!
That’s great to hear. I do hope the blogging tasks become an integral part of your day, week and month. Thank you for letting me know.
Awesome article! Thank you for sharing this, very informative and helpful! 🙂
Loved loved the post!
I guess I’m guilty of the backup thing- have to check!
Besides, the flow of the post was too good!
I am really grateful, that I came across this post. I as a blogger got to know a lot of new things thanks Shailajav
This is great, thank you!
I love writing content for my online magazine for travel and romance, but never sat down and organized my tasks into daily, weekly and monthly tasks.
This helps so much. I am now using an editorial calendar so I’m going to add all of these things to it today. Thanks so much!
Thank you this is just what I needed! I started my blog dayinthevida.com in January, but have just recently decided I wanted to go all in with it and I needed kind of a list of what to do so that I can work on several tasks in a day! This is very helpful! One thing I know I need to learn more about is the HTML and plugins portion. Do you know of any good sources for this? Maybe you already have one!