“I wanted a “headquarters” for everything blog related, so I created one.” – Terra Black
Clair Vivier Laptop Clutch, Photo by Jeana Sohn
Here’s a bit of a secret: I am not a very organized person (cue all of my friends out there laughing) but I love love love organization. I love the three days when I actually put my keys where they belong and the two days after my house has been cleaned when I can actually breathe in my space. Here’s another shocker, I’m a pretty busy person. In addition to managing PR Couture, I have a full-time job (blogging on the lunch-hour anyone), go to yoga, dance class and other things that require, well time and different outfits. I have ten half-filled notebooks and rarely have the one I want when I need it. And sure, it’s my chaos, and sure, I manage to be pretty productive in the midst of my piles and scribbles, but it’s certainly not ideal.
Managing a blog is one-part planning and three-parts whatever comes through my inbox that is of interest in any given day. Thank goodness for priority inbox, my writers and those who patiently follow up again and again until I can carve out the space to work on a post. But sometimes….I forget things. I miss opportunities, and I hate that. I’ve tried using Google calender, tried many different note taking apps on my phone, but I have yet to find a way to stay on top of my blog that works for me.
However, I was recently gifted with THE EDITOR, and it’s the closest thing to a solution I have come across. Created by fellow blogger Terra Black, this annual planner has already received a shout out on WWD and has the potential to become as required (and knocked off) for fashion bloggers as a Miu Miu heel. Plus, it resembles a fancy spiral bound sketch book, and carrying it around allows me to pretend I am in art school, which makes me feel interesting, creative and organized all at the same time. I’m already thinking of ways to personalize it further – creating a mood board of inspiration on the inside front cover, and adding in an envelope for business cards, notes, stickers etc.
Terra sounds a bit like me, telling me that “I had post it notes everywhere and about four or five notepads filled with post ideas, inspirations, links to check out and anything else I came across and wanted to reference later, [plus] there was always someone or some online service asking for my Facebook or other social media account info, which of course I never knew.” She found a few bloggers who had created an editorial calender template, but says that only solves part of the problem, “there’s more to blogging than content management, the social media aspect is undeniably important and depending on the type of blog, there’s also monetization to consider as well as expenses, contests, give-aways, product tracking and more. ”
The planner is $25 and includes the following:
- THE EDITOR’ Page for notes and important URLs
- Bulletin Boards – monthly, for inspirations, to do lists and reminders
- Editorial Calendars – monthly, with sections for important dates and post ideas
- Post Manager pages – weekly, to manage daily posts, sources, permalinks & more
- Product Log pages to easily track the incoming & outgoing of featured products
- Revenue Tracker pages to calculate blog generated income monthly & quarterly
At first I was curious about the decision to make the planner a physical book. I just assumed it was more like a virtual service. However, I think I’m not alone as a virtual writer yet physical note-taker, list-maker and actually appreciate that I can write IN IT. I can certainly see the planner evolving – it would be great for Terra to offer additional, downloadable templates (recurring monetization opportunity!) as well as format that would allow you to add in additional components, like a FiloFax. While The Editor isn’t something you could fit in most purses, it’s feels and looks great and will definitely keep me more organized than I have been in the past. It would also make a great gift for a client who recently started a blog!
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