A Blog Planner Review

I have never gotten into the habit of planning my blog posts. I just wrote reviews and in between wrote about homeschool activities and other things my children did. While I have been blogging I always noted my review posts on my regular monthly at a glance calender in my lesson plan book.  This way I could see what was coming up in terms of reviews as well as other activities so I could plan field trips and writing commitments. I just wrote other blog posts when I thought of something or had the time.

Now as a member of Mosaic Reviews I once again have regular reviews to write and post on my blog. In order to keep from just having reviews on my blog I need to become a little more intentional about writing on other topics as well. Since I have more flexibility with those topics I need to be more organized in blog planning. Thus reviewing a blog planner is a great first review.


Recently I took a look at the Yearly Blog Planner created by Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations. She has graciously made it free to download from her blog.

In the blog planner download you will find:

• Monthly at a glance calendars
• Weekly calendars with two weeks on a page
• Checklist for reviews and giveaways
• A list to keep track of link up
• An Ideas in my head list
• A page for listing website user names and passwords
• Checklists for keeping track of affiliate information
• Social media checklists

There are other blogging help forms as well, but these are the ones I see myself using the most or first.

Jolanthe has described in detail how she put together her own blog planner in both words and pictures. These are very straight forward and simple, so it should be fairly easy to make a dedicated planner using the blog planner printables and a 3 ring binder.

I put my blog planner together somewhat differently. First of all I did not make a separate blog planner instead I put the pages I am currently using in the front of my planning binder. Secondly I printed them only on one side as I really don't like trying to write on the left side of a three ring binder with the rings under my hand. I know this will use more paper in the long run, but its not as annoying to me.
 
Most pages of the planner feature a simple plant or butterfly picture which enhances the design rather than distracting from the information on it. Thus it is designed to be printed in color. I like the simplicity of the page design as it is pleasing to look at, yet is not distracting. There is plenty of space for each entering information each day on both the monthly and weekly calendars. I did find the lines for the idea page and website info pages to be kind of small and when a number of lines were used on a page it became trickier to read. I really like the space for jotting down all the important details about a product for a review or giveaway. Being able to write down all the specifics about a website and product will save me so much time when writing a review and double checking my information. It will also help to have these specifics in one place on a full size piece of paper, not on scraps all over my desk.


This is a very comprehensive and complete blog planning system.  It features space for recording so many more details and information than a small time blogger like I would use, yet at the same times provides space for information necessary to blog growth and maintenance. This blog planner would be great for a blogger who would like to grow and improve their blog as it provides a lot of room for personalization and at the same time reminders of many things bloggers can do to make their work more visible.

Several other members of the Mosaics Reviews team also used and reviewed this planner. If you would like to find a blog planner, but don't think this one would work for you, other team members reviewed other planners as well. You can find links to all the reviews at the Mosaic Reviews blog.