Another Month Of Blogging Every Day

August first. It took me by surprise, to say the least. Suddenly all this change in my life feels so real and so soon. However, one thing that will be remaining constant for me is blogging every day throughout the month of August.

In my July Favorites + Happenings I shared what a rewarding month July was for me. Blogging every day brought me so much joy. I was excited to be working, I was proud of the things I accomplished, and I was satisfied + pleased to have set a goal and to have finished it.

Today I’m elaborating more on how I managed to blog every day for a month straight. We’re talking the planning, the prepping, and everything in between. Get excited because YOU requested it!

The Deciding + The Inital Planning

I typically sit down ten days before the end of each month to start taking a look at the upcoming month at a glance. I like to get out a calendar and roughly jot down ideas for the month. I’m a very visual person so it’s necessary for me to sit down with a piece of paper and a marker and throw down every idea in my brain, move things around, etc. I begin by writing down every Weekly Wrap Up in the Sunday slots, followed by every blog post idea I have for the month in the Monday, Wednesday, Friday slots. Some months throughout the school year, four blog posts is all I have time for or all I have ideas for! So when my brain jogs enough ideas to fill up that Saturday slot too, I get really excited.

Basically, when I was doing this for the month of July I realized pretty quickly that I had enough ideas to bring content to the blog every single day. I thought for a while if this was the kind of commitment I wanted to take on. After all, I had already planned on going every day in August and would be traveling three weeks out of the month.

However, I took a look at the yearly goals sitting on my desk and reflected on the feelings I had been having towards blogging recently and decided this was just the kind of project I needed. I sat down with my calendar and began filling in the Tuesday and Thursday slots and just like that, I had a rough outline for the month of July and a goal that I was determined to meet.

The Actual Planning

Once I have a rough idea of what the month is going to look like, I basically take things week by week. Transferring these ideas to my planner’s calendar. In the weekly section of my planner I write down the post for each day and my agenda for each day is what I need to get done for the next day – I hope this makes sense, lol. I do not work in the summer, blogging practically is a job in itself, so this is a majority of my ‘free’ time in the summer!

Some days I get the list of things done and other days I don’t. I like to give myself that kind of freedom so that blogging every day doesn’t begin to feel like a chore and stays something that I’m excited about doing.

The Preparation

For months like August where I will not be traveling at all, I typically am only two or so days ahead. For example, right now, I have Friday and Saturday’s content filmed and shot. That’s all; in a few days, I’ll take the next two or three days worth and so on. August is chaotic for me because of cheer but I find that this is what works best for me, my schedule, and my sanity.

For months like July where I was traveling a majority of the month, I made sure to have two weeks worth of content filmed and shot before I left. I relied on plane rides and car rides for writing lots in one day, that way when I reached my destination I was able to relax and unwind with family.

However, the reality is that some days I have things pre-written and scheduled days in advance and others I’m rolling out of bed after sleeping in and not getting my post up until noon (like today)! Understand and accept that this is okay and it will happen.

The Shooting

Shooting can be tricky, especially when done in bulk. My sister takes all of my photos for me and most of them are taken right in our backyard. I love traveling out to take photos but it’s just not ideal for shooting large quantities of outfits in one day.

There are many bloggers who only upload one outfit at a time, but by now I’m sure you know I am not one of those bloggers. I like to offer many different outfits and ways to style things which call for a lot of outfit changes.

For example, when shooting in bulk (for a month like July) this is how I would do it – On Monday I would shoot next Monday, Wednesday and Friday’s pictures. On Tuesday I may shoot any collaboration pictures and film a video. On Wednesday I would shoot next Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday’s pictures. The reason I tend to alternate days like that is so I don’t look exactly alike in each blog post. On one shooting day, I may wear my hair and makeup completely different. This is a good way to break things up and is a method I found very helpful for me while I was shooting for the month of July.

Like I mentioned earlier, August will not be like that. I don’t #grind as hard because I’ll be home. I’ll typically only shoot two days worth of pictures in a day and spend the rest of the time planning out outfits.

Oh, I almost forgot about my outfits. After I plan out what I’ll be posting that week, I sit down and start writing out which outfits would be good for each post. Sometimes I try them on beforehand and take pictures of them on my phone, and other times I just wing it since I’ll be at home changing anyway, rather than in a car miles away from my house. Either way, I almost always have a written version of the outfit ideas.

Things To Remember

While doing this every day I tried to remind myself that this was supposed to be fun. Yes, it was work and it was tedious at times but at the end of the day I was really motivated and driven to bring you new content each day. August brings loads of back to school content which is one of the reasons why it’s so easy to blog every day – there are endless posting ideas AND it’s all stuff I couldn’t be more excited to share with you. Personally, I watch back to school videos like it’s my job in August.

Numbers matter but not really. Yes, numbers are exciting to watch but at the end of the day, your content is what matters. A person with 10k viewers a month and 1% engagement is less appealing than the person with 5k viewers and 10% engagement. Remember this and think about it as you are posting.

Working hard and consistency is only half of the recipe, engaging with others so they engage back is the other half.

And last but not least, remember why you started. Blogging every day made me fall back in love with the pride I carry so near and dear to my heart. It made me grateful for the summer when I have time to accomplish things like this. It made me excited to see where August will take me and for the final months of year number two here on StyledbyMcKenz.

With all of that being said, if you have any more questions about blogging every day for a month, ask away! I’m happy to answer them and share more with you if you so desire. Thank you so much for the endless love and support as I embark on another amazing month with you! I could not be more grateful or excited for what’s to come.

With love, McKenz

Latest Post: How To Wear These 5 Summer Trends
Related Post: How To Tackle Your 2018 Goals + Dreams
Instagram: styledbymckenz // YouTube: McKenzie Morgan // Pinterest: mckenzmorgan