Using Blogtober to plan November

Content 

• Introduction 
• Why do I need a plan and a schedule 
• Using Blogtober to plan November 
• The new schedule 
• Social Media 
• Current Statistics 
• Expectations and hopes
• November goals
• Summary 

Introduction 

During Blogtober, I realised that I needed a solid plan for my blog in November. A plan that allowed me to continue having fun while blogging while covering more areas. 

This blog post will share what I plan to do day-to-day on my blog, mainly as a guideline for myself that I will endeavour to stick to moving forward! 

Why do I need a plan and a schedule? 

I started blogging on the 19th of October 2020, so during the pandemic. The relevance of this is that I am finding it difficult to balance different areas of my life since everything has opened back up here in the UK. Work is busy again, social events are back on the calendar, and other personal commitments have to be written into my schedule. 

While before, I could spend my evenings and weekends planning content for my blog, engaging with others on Twitter and creating pins for Pinterest, now I am playing a balancing act with everything I have to do. This means that some areas of blogging have slipped through the cracks, which I why I need a solid schedule and plan, and not just for blog posts. 

Using Blogtober to plan November 

Blogtober was overwhelming. While it was fun to challenge myself, write varied content and connect with new bloggers and bloggers I’ve known for a while, it started to feel like I was a bad blogger. I wasn’t as active on social media as I felt like I needed to be, and I wasn’t reading as much content created by other bloggers, which is a huge part of blogging that I love. 

Blogtober taught me that I need a plan and a monthly schedule, not just for the blog posts. I need to schedule the time to read content, schedule social media posts on Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram. I want to have time to discover new bloggers by reading the content I relate to or enjoy. 

The new schedule 

Photo by Bich Tran from Pexels

Moving forward into November, I will be posting every Monday at 9 am. There are many reasons for this, the first being that throughout October, I experimented with different posting times, and since I posted every day, I saw which day did the best on my blog. Posting in the morning on a Monday yielded the best results. 

Posting on Monday also allows me to share the blog post throughout the week on Twitter, which means engaging in the threads which encourage bloggers to check out content created by other bloggers. 

I plan to spend a minimum of an hour each day, usually around 8 pm, checking out content created by other bloggers, engaging on Twitter and responding to comments. This way, I can keep up with everything and hopefully, it won’t feel as overwhelming like it did in Blogtober. 

I will also be introducing my ‘favourite blog posts of the month’ blog post again, as I really enjoyed writing them. It feels like I was contributing, in a small way, to the supportive blogging community when I write them. 

Monday will be my permanent posting day moving forward. However, I might post the odd blog post throughout the week if inspiration strikes. 

Social media 

On Sunday of each week, I will be scheduling blog post tweets for the following week. These tweets are the ones that share past blog posts. I like scheduling tweets, as it keeps your feed active. However, I do love posting in the moment tweets (I don’t know what else to call them). Scheduled tweets are great, especially if personal matters arise that stop you from actively tweeting. 

I said it at the start of last month, but this time I mean it! I will be more active on Pinterest. I’m not setting a set pin amount, as that can feel overwhelming at this point. Instead, I just want to get back into the swing of things. 

Instagram is always a challenge, but I loved seeing all the seasonal content in October, so I hope to continue my input in November. My growth is slow, and traffic to my blog is virtually non-existent from there, but I like challenging myself to grow on a new platform. For me, it isn’t as important as Twitter or Pinterest, so I’ll be honest, it might take a back seat when everything becomes hard to balance, but I will be more active on that platform. 

Current statistics 

Photo by Timur Saglambilek from Pexels

My blogging statistics might be small, but the only person I am competing with is myself. I would like to grow my current statistics, but I will be honest, I only look at them at the end of the month. I set goals at the start of the month and then check back at the end. Since I am blogging as a hobby right now, blogging stats are not my priority. 

Saying that, though, it still does feel nice when you have a numerical indication of your growth. 

Without further ado, my current statistics for October are: 

WordPress 

WordPress followers: 421

October views: 1,225

October blog posts: 31 

Pinterest 

Pinterest: 3.1k monthly views

Pinterest followers: 122 

Instagram 

Instagram followers: 268 

Twitter 

Twitter followers: 896 

Tweets: 304 

Tweet impressions: 22.7k 

New Followers: 68 

Profile visits: 3,212 

Mentions: 204 

Expectations and hopes

I am hoping that I can grow slightly on each platform. I know it sounds vain, but there is this sense of achievement when you gain a new follower or someone new leaves a comment on your blog post. Of course, you shouldn’t focus on numbers. Instead, you should focus on creating content you are proud of, but no one can deny how good it feels when you reach a new milestone. 

I hope I can connect with new bloggers and read the content I relate to in November. While I expect that views will go down on my blog because I am not posting each day, I hope my content will comfort some people, even just one person.

Blogtober did inspire me in terms of content ideas, so I have a lot of ideas and half-written blog posts waiting to be finished in my drafts folder. 

November Goals

💜 Reach 1000 followers on Twitter

💜 Reach 1000 page views on WordPress

💜 Reach 500 followers on WordPress

💜 Post a new blog post every Monday

💜 Read more content by other bloggers

💜 Be more active on Pinterest

💜 Post on Instagram

What are your November Blogging Goals?

Summary 

If you have read this far, I applaud you, as it was a long blog post! I really enjoy rambling, as you can tell, but I do believe in my new plan and schedule for November. I can’t wait to share the content I have planned. Some of the blog posts are fun; others highlight topics that I feel strongly about, which I am hoping others can relate to, and others will probably be a good ramble, just like this one. 

I hope you had a lovely October, and I hope you have an even better November. As always, I will end with a question, as that will never change. 

It could be a personal goal, a baking goal, a blogging goal, a fitness goal, any goal you have in mine for November; let me know in the comments. 💜