I have had a blog now for almost 6 years!  The embarrassing thing about that is how long it has taken me to actually get consistent and have an actual system for getting content on my blog.  One of my goals for 2019 was to increase the strength of the Chelsy Weisz Photography brand. I’ve always known the power behind blogging, especially for photographers, but honestly, I haven’t ever found a system that has worked for me and held me accountable for getting blog posts written, scheduled, and promoted. Then I found CoSchedule!  

Blogging Calendar that Actually Works for Photographers!

This program has been such a game changer!  As a photographer, I’m a pretty visual person so being able to have a calendar showing all of the little things that go into creating a blog post and when they are due has been so eye-opening! I’m sharing an overview below of how I’ve been using CoSchedule so you can see just how powerful of a program it is.  I have now consistently been getting blog posts written and actually published for over 2 months, and I’ve seen my blog stats grow right along with that. My editorial calendar is now scheduled out all the way until May, and I’m actually getting ahead on producing content for the blog.

Plan out when you want posts to go live.  Then copy a blogging template or create your own to help break down that blog post into smaller manageable pieces. I am a mom to two, living on a farm and ranch while building my own photography business. There is always a lot going on.  I either forget about the blog post altogether or put off doing it all at once that I get panicked and create subpar content. But with CoSchedule I can stay on top of those bite-size chunks. A handy feature that comes with scheduling your item due dates is the ability to automatically ignore weekends so that you don’t have tasks due for Saturday and Sunday!  

Perks for Photographers

I use Katelyn Jame’s 48-hour workflow for weddings.  This means everything is based around the blog post!  I have created a wedding and engagement blog post item template that includes all those tiny tasks that create and execute the perfect client experience. Once I have weddings booked I can go in and set the date for their wedding blog post, and copy over my wedding blogging workflow template. Then I can plan any other blog posts around my weddings way in advance. 

Planning Series

I just finished up an 8 part series. Being able to schedule the time to work on that, as well as make sure I had other content going live between the series posts was such a seamless process with CoSchedule. From the calendar view, you can use color coding to get a visual layout for when items will go live. As a photographer, I am totally a visual person and seeing things laid out on the calendar is so helpful. This is helping me to create well-rounded content for my readers. Since I photograph weddings and families, not every post needs to be on wedding planning. CoSchedule helps to make sure I planning for my entire audience. 

Drafting posts

Something I wasn’t expecting to use was the ability to draft your blog posts within CoSchedule before copy and pasting into WordPress.  It seemed like an extra step.  This feature was definitely designed for companies with teams.  This gives all your team members the access to your content to collaborate on, and help with marketing.  I am currently a one-woman show, but when I do scale my business, I have an awesome system in place to help make that process much more simple. However, the main reason I am loving it right now is that my spell checking app Grammarly actually works really well with CoSchedule. For some reason lately, there has been a glitch in WordPress.  When I’m writing posts and then going through and proofreading my edits weren’t being saved.  This meant tons of spelling and punctuation errors that I had fixed were showing up when I published my blog posts! Co Schedule is actually saving my edits and helping me maintain my professionalism online. 

But Wait There’s More! 

While honestly, I started using CoSchedule for the blogging scheduling and accountability I have been pleasantly surprised and thankful for the many other features included in this robust program. CoSchedule advertises it’s self as an all in one marketing organizer.  You have the ability to link your social profiles like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. (you can link twitter too, but I’m not a huge tweeter) You can then create and schedule social marketing campaigns. Creating all that content without sharing or promoting it isn’t worth much. 

Link up to 8 social Profiles

While my main business is my wedding photography business, I also help my mother in law with her social media marketing for her Greenhouse.  This means I am able to add those accounts as well and keep the Weisz Country Greenhouse’s social media going at the same time! 

ReQueue

Smart use of evergreen content.  Evergreen content is content that you can share over and over again.  For me my Wedding Wednesday posts are evergreen.  These posts are designed to educate brides as they plan their wedding day.  ReQueue automatically can pull past Wedding Wednesday posts and schedule facebook or Pinterest “messages” so that content can continue to reach new brides! 

Idea Bin

The Idea Bin is a feature that was just recently added and I absolutely. love it! So often I have ideas for posts that are either seasonal, or I’m still working out the idea for it in my head, and I’m just not ready to schedule it yet. Before I was using Trello to keep these ideas stored, but the added feature keeps all my blogging housed under one roof!

Email Marketing

I have been wanting to actually utilize email marketing for over a year now, but again that consistency thing I struggle with goes into effect!  My goal is to send out a monthly newsletter with a roundup of top blog posts, as well as what events are coming up.  I have gone in and scheduled when those emails will go out, as well as set due dates for when to work on them! 

Linking Projects

Linked projects are extremely helpful when leading up to product launches, events, or even season openings. I just opened my 2019 family session dates.  There were a lot of projects that I linked together leading up to that launch, including blog posts, email campaigns, and social media campaigns.  

Treasure Trove of Information 

I’m just now starting to dig into the CoSchedule blog and I have no idea how this blog has flown under my radar for so long!  

Supporting Local

I was pleasantly surprised to hear that CoSchedule was started and still is located in North Dakota!  I don’t know about you but I feel like good old ND very seldom produces big and exciting things, that impact people outside of our state. CoSchedule Co-Founders, Garrett Moon & Justin Walsh started CoSchedule in 2013. “

Also guys where can I get one of these shirts?! 

Made With love From North Dakota

Uffda (pronounced “oof-da’), who says location is everything? We’re building the best product on the market from the most unlikeliest of places.”

-CoSchedule

Summary

• Consistency! 
• Plan in advance! – Color coding for us visual types! 
• Sync all your  tools and social platforms into one place
• Promote Like A Team Of Social Media Experts
• Automatically Re-Use Your Best Social Messages without the manual work.

Definitely give CoSchedule a try if you are really trying to up your blogging consistency, the marketing calendar is something you will fall in love with the more you use it!