Plan, create and publish great content more consistently with this free content calendar template (available in Excel and Google Sheets). Perfect for individuals or teams, when you’re starting a new blog, or simply want to “scale up” your existing blogging efforts.

Why Use a Content Calendar Template?

One of the hardest things about publishing content is doing it consistently. That means getting on a schedule. And being organized enough to STAY on it.

At the same time, content has a lot of moving pieces. Blog posts have to be drafted, written, enriched with multimedia, and more. Videos need to be outlined, scripted, shot and edited. And so on.

If you’re doing it all yourself, it can be tough to manage.

And if you’re collaborating with other people, it’s easy to lose track of what’s next in the process. (And who’s in charge of it.)

This customizable content calendar template (also called an editorial calendar template) features two different views to help with every aspect of production and planning.

What’s Included

Here’s what’s included in this content calendar template:

1. Content planning: A view that walks you through the content planning process, including SEO meta tags.
2. Content workflow: A step-by-step assembly line for each piece of content. (This section is the key to meeting deadlines.)
3. Monthly calendar template: A view dedicated to showing what’s due and when.

How to Use This Template

1. Download the free Content Calendar Template on this page.
2. Add your content ideas to tab 1 of the template.
3. Fill in the month, year, and days on tab 2. (Note: you can copy the tab to create additional months.)
4. Choose a target publishing date for each piece of content on tab 1. Then add your content titles to the matching calendar days on tab 2.
5. Create and publish new content based on your deadlines, filling in tab 1 as you do.
6. Optional: customize the content calendar template based on your needs. With a few tweaks, you can use it to manage just about anything. From written articles to podcasts to videos and more.

How to Come up with Awesome Content Ideas

Creating content on a consistent basis can be tough. But sometimes the biggest roadblock is at the very beginning: coming up with a great idea. Here are some tips to help.

• Look at what’s being shared on social media. Twitter Explore is a great tool for this. Just type a topic into the search bar and see what’s being shared. Or scroll down for popular tweets organized by subject. Tip: don’t just look for topics. You can borrow headline formats, too.
• Check the news. Is there anything you can create that’s related to current events?
• Comments and emails from your audience. Your existing audience can also be a goldmine of ideas. If you’ve gotten the same question from a few different people, you KNOW there are others who’d be interested too.
• What have you saved recently? The best work comes from people who are truly interested in it. So if you use an app like Pocket, Instapaper or Evernote to save web clippings and articles for later, use those as inspiration for your own work. You can also check out your YouTube viewing history, or podcasts you’ve listened to recently.
• Use our tool, Exploding Topics. It collects and displays the newest trending topics, for an endless supply of content ideas. Plus, it shows you whether interest in each topic is going up or down.