Disclaimer: I received a copy of this planner from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This post contains affiliate links; thanks for your support!
I always have more to share than I have time to write. When the HEDUA was offering their pre-sale planner discount, I was having a really hard time waiting. REALLY hard time. I’m a planner junkie.
Well, an ex-planner junkie now, because I’ve been using the HEUDA planners, consistently, for going on 3 years now. That’s unheard of! Hubby has been impressed :). And I’m really glad I waited because they gave me a copy of the newest addition to their line of planners–My Blog Plan.
I’ve been using a blog planner that a fellow blogger made. I printed it & even got it spiral bound at a copy shop. But it only sort of works. My Blog Plan is truly a way to plan your blogging. Set up in a very similar way to their other line of planners, it is extremely functional AND beautiful. And spiral bound. A very important feature!
If you have never used a planner from HEDUA, they each have a beautiful swirly, flowery and/or geometric background or border. Each month has the same prints and pages but has a different primary color scheme, which is kind of nice because if its a color you aren’t fond of, you aren’t stuck with it forever. Oranges are in that category for me. My Blog Plan also has several inspirational and actionable articles on blogging, both in the beginning and each month.
If you have been blogging for a while or are serious about it, My Blog Plan will help you WORK your blog. There are forms for helping you plan the how and why of your blog, set goals and track progress, income, stats, parties, contacts, ads, colleagues, assistants, and contributors in the beginning. Then each month has a monthly view with major holidays that allows you to track whether each day’s post is to be promoted, is a giveaway, review or by a guest writer.
Each month includes pages to jot down ideas for social media or blog ideas and an article that you can use to help improve your blogging. Even blogging for 5 years, some things end up on my back burner and there are great articles of everything from SEO to social media and from giveaways to blog conferences. There are forms to track reviews & giveaways. There is only space for 6 of each, which I kind of like because I feel like I do a ton and would like a tool to make me really consider what I do. This would work well for me.
My Blog Plan also has week at a glance pages where you can plan your posts each day from the title, tags, social sharing, whether its scheduled, in draft, etc and even how many views it got! You also have room for reminders & to-do’s. I would use it to track posts that I need to write for other sites and clean-up tasks.
At the end of the month, you evaluate your work, by viewing the 5 most popular posts that month, checking your stats, tracking your income and even plan any strategies for next month. If you are looking for a way to take your blog to the next level without a massive time increase, this will help by keeping your focus in one spot. And there is also a place to plan for the upcoming year as well as evaluate how you did versus that plan.
There’s only one con. It’s a biggie. The thumb tabs between months are not cut out. Sigh. I know! Okay, so it’s only a very minor drawback but I do use them in my other two planners and I will miss them.
Okay, there are two cons. The other is that it doesn’t start until JULY. Oh the humanity! I’ve contemplated scavenging Oct-Dec so I could start using it now, but I don’t want to shoot myself in the foot later. Too bad they don’t have a printable PDF available for April-June. Hint hint! :). I did email my contact at HEDUA and this first planner is a extra-long for the first year only. The next planner will be released for January-December.
So, if you are in need of a blog planner or are thinking of trying to get more serious about your blogging, I would really recommend My Blog Plan. Yes, you can get a ton of pretty, free ones but this one is $20 for 18 months of use. It runs from July 2014 through December 2015. That’s just a little more than $1 a month! I’m sure I would use more than that in toner & spiral binding for a weekly blog planner with all the extra tracking pages for 18 months. Plus the articles are like a free once-a-month blogging class! I am SO in love with the details and monthly & annual evaluation and planning that went into this. I can’t wait to see how much my blog grows over the next 18 months!
2 Comments on Grow as a Blogger with My Blog Plan {Review}
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[…] Educating Family is a bi-monthly publication put out by the folks at HEDUA (Remember the My Blog Plan review I did? Those folks.). Each issue is about 70-90 pages long and contains articles about family, […]
Jenny
14 April 2014 at 8:19 PM (10 years ago)Hi, Jen,
Thank you for such a kind review! We are delighted you love the planner.
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