|  Research, Imagine, Plan, and Take Action!
The holidays can be overwhelming - there's wrapping up this year, getting ready for the New Year, and attempting to maintain your "spirit" of the season. Plain and simple, an Editorial Calendar will help you avoid stress and achieve the next level of success. How? By creating a solid Editorial Calendar, you can: - Alleviate the pains that come with being unprepared and making last minute additions/subtractions.
- Save time because you're breaking down steps into easier-to-perform tasks.
- Stay ahead of the competition by being proactive (setting trends) rather than reactive (following trends).
- Prevent writer's block because you know what your plan of attack will be each week and day.
Creating an Editorial Calendar focused on the holidays is easy. Here's how! Research: What Is Your Audience Celebrating? Avoid forgetting about a holiday relevant to your audience by creating a basic monthly calendar. Consider the big days that are coming up for your audience. For those of us here in the United States, the kickoff for the holiday season is as early as Thanksgiving Day. Here is a list of December holidays as well as days of observance you may want to consider (feel free to tweak your list to match your audience's interests). - Black Friday
- Cyber Monday
- Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day
- Free Shipping Day
- Hanukkah
- Winter Solstice
- Christmas
- Boxing Day
- Kwanzaa
- College Football Games
- New Year's Eve
Use these holidays to brainstorm relevant, timely themes for your articles, social media posts, promotions, and more. Imagine: How Will You Break Down Each Week? After adding important days to remember into a basic monthly calendar, focus on how they will appear each week by brainstorming categorical themes that are relevant to your audience during this period. Use these categorical themes to plan weekly themes. For example, let's say you're an expert in the Self-Improvement niche. Week 1: Stress Management
Week 2: Inspiration and Happiness
Week 3: Seasonal Depression
Week 4: Goal Setting Next, brainstorm daily topics by narrowing the week's categorical themes down by holiday or seasonal influence. Continuing with our self-improvement scenario, we may consider the following topics: - How to relieve holiday stress (e.g., family, shopping, end of the year)
- Techniques to avoid becoming overwhelmed (e.g., how planning can prevent holiday meltdown)
- Methods to find joy and happiness (e.g., volunteer to help others)
Plan: When Will You Launch Your Articles? Set a submission deadline for each article and then block off dedicated time in your schedule to outline, write, edit/proofread, and submit. Depending on your membership level, ensure you provide yourself enough lead time for your article to go through the article review process. Once published, share it on social media, in newsletters, and more. And that's it! It's as simple as research, imagine, and plan. All you have to do is spring into action by writing timely articles that will outperform any disorganized, unenthusiastic articles written at the last minute. Do you use an Editorial Calendar? If so, do you have any tips you'd like to recommend? If not, how do you plan for timely topics relevant to your audience? Click here to share your insights, suggestions, and questions in the comment section of this post online! | 
To Your Article Writing Success & Passion!
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