386: What to Write on Your Blog as an Influencer: Your Guide to Content Pillars, Keywords, & Calendars

[00:00:00] In our last blogging episode, we chatted about choosing your platform and establishing your brand. So if you want to listen to that replay, it's episode 3 81 and we are continuing this series talking about blogging and talking specifically about what to write. Now if you do not currently have a blog, you want to have a blog or you have no interest in having a blog, but you do.

[00:00:24] Produce content for YouTube or social media. This is going to be highly beneficial for you as well, because we're just gonna talk about basically what to create. I am just talking about it in terms of what to write for a blog, because the part where a lot of bloggers get stuck is actually knowing what to write.

[00:00:44] Imagine just sitting down to write, you're excited, I'm gonna go create a blog post, and then you stare at that blank screen and start second guessing every idea. Is this even worth writing? Is anybody going to read this? That's where I get stuck in that loop of, okay, is anybody actually going to end up reading this?

[00:01:05] Right? How many of you have also felt that way? You have this great idea, oh my gosh, I'm gonna get it out and I'm gonna publish it and it's gonna be amazing. And then I get like halfway through or even towards the end and it's like about to cross that finish line. I'm like. Is anybody even gonna read this?

[00:01:20] What is the point? So by the end of this episode, you will have a system for never running out of ideas and a content calendar full of posts you actually want to write. Plus, we're going to address that problem of wondering if anybody is going to read this, and we're gonna make sure that your content is something that everyone wants to read.

[00:01:42] Before we get started though, I wanted to tell you that we opened up a way for you to get involved in the podcast because for 2026, I want to hear from you. We did something similar like this back when we had our five year podcast anniversary, but this is something I'm hoping to make more permanent, but I wanna be able to answer your questions here on the show, so you can now go to Thrive Together blog slash ask Bree, or just click the link in this description.

[00:02:10] Please go and leave me a quick message so I can answer your question in a future episode. I'm really, really excited about this, but it's not gonna work if nobody leaves me a message. So go over there and ask me anything. Hey there, I'm Brie P, content creator, coach, and your host of the Thrive Podcast. And I'm here to help you build a brand you're proud of with clear strategy and real support.

[00:02:36] Let's dive in.

[00:02:40] Okay, so let's dive into what to write. Let's first talk about why we freeze up, which I think is the real problem. It's not necessarily like you don't know how to write, or it's not that you don't have ideas, it's that you don't trust them. There are those fears, right? What if nobody cares? What if it's been done before?

[00:03:03] What if I'm not an expert enough? What if nobody reads it? And that puts us into this state of overwhelm and just wanting to quit and quitting before we even start, which is horrible. And what we're going to work through in this episode. There's also the overwhelm of seeing other bloggers and content creators just cranking out content, and you wondering how are they doing this?

[00:03:28] How are they able to be so consistent? The truth is they have a system and you're about to get one too. Let's build you a content plan that takes the guesswork out and makes writing actually enjoyable. Again, we're going to start with content pillars. What are the content pillars? You've probably heard me talk about 'em before.

[00:03:49] If you're new here. Hello. I like to talk about content pillars, but essentially they are the three to five main topics that your blog covers, and they're the core of what you're known for, and this needs to try. This needs to tie directly to who your audience is. The fun thing is your content pillars can be anything you want them to be.

[00:04:16] What I want you to do as you're choosing them is to think about what your audience needs help with, what you love talking about, and what aligns with how you want to monetize. If you're inside bold fluence and you've gone through any of those monetization plans, and through our help with picking out a monetization stream, I want you to really think about that as you are planning your content and as you are working through your content pillars.

[00:04:47] So for example, a mom blogger might have family activities, budget friendly meals, organization, and self care as her content pillars. A fashion blogger could have seasonal trends, styling tips, sustainable fashion and shopping guides. This matters because it keeps your content focused and consistent, and it also makes it easier to brainstorm because you're not starting from scratch every time.

[00:05:16] What you're able to do is kind of shuffle through. These different pillars as you're planning your content. So let's say you have four content pillars and you wanna release a blog post every single week. You can essentially choose from one of those content pillars. Every month and like that is going to fill in your content calendar so easily.

[00:05:37] We're going to really dive into filling out a content calendar towards the end of this episode, but having these content pillars established and decided for yourself is going to make things so much easier. It's also going to help you build authority in specific areas instead of being stretched really thin.

[00:05:59] It's like the saying, Jack of all trades, master of none, right? If we spread ourselves too thin with our content and we're talking about too many different things, we're not necessarily going to be known for a specific thing. I don't think that you have to super, super niche down from those examples I gave you with, you know, the mom blogger talking about family stuff, but differently meals, organization, self-care, like those are all very different in my opinion.

[00:06:26] And they could all be their own niche if you wanted to. Right? Like you could have a blog dedicated just to family activities, just to budget friendly meals, just to organization, right? Like those themselves are highly niched. You can, but you don't have to do that. I think it's more so important to niche into who your audience is and make sure that you are speaking to them.

[00:06:54] And that comes to the next part that I wanna talk about, which is letting your audience tell you what to write because your audience is your best content generator. Every time I get stuck, I head straight to past surveys. I've sent out my comments, dms, emails, our Facebook community, and I'm looking for what my audience is talking about.

[00:07:17] I'm looking to see what questions they ask in the dms or comments. I wanna know what they're struggling with and what they're searching for. That is a content bank goldmine for you. If you're new, you may not have it just yet, but you can still use this same type of concept and go to other content creators that you admire and that are in the same area as you.

[00:07:42] You know, their audience has the same audience niche that you want to have, and you can go and look through their comments and see what questions are they asking, and really get a feel for what people need by doing that type of research. So if you do have content already, I want you to look at your most engaged posts, what were they about, and also ask your audience directly, what do you want to learn about?

[00:08:10] What type of content do you want me to see? Make sure that those questions aren't too open-ended, because it can be a bit overwhelming to be like, Hey, I think you should talk about this, right? It can feel a little bit imposing. If you're not careful, um, or at least that's how I kind of feel whenever I see those boxes.

[00:08:28] I'm like, Ooh, I don't really wanna tell you what to create your content about. I wanna see your spark and your magic. What I love to participate in though, is polls. I I, I don't know if that's my, my inner millennial in me, but I love a good quiz. Love a good poll. So if you give me those type of questions, nine times out of 10, I'm gonna click something to answer that for you.

[00:08:49] And then pay attention to conversations in your niche. What keeps coming up? What is coming up with your peers? What is coming up with the audience that you are targeting? Where are they at in life? What is going on? Where can you step in and help? Because the magic is when you write for what your audience actually wants, because then you're gonna stop second guessing if it's good enough, and it's going to give you that purpose that we were seeking.

[00:09:15] Right? That validation of knowing, yes, someone does want to read this because you've already validated that, so then when you go to sit down and create that piece of content, you're not gonna hit that point. Midway a third of the way through where you're like, Ugh, is anybody gonna actually want to read this?

[00:09:32] You already have validated. Yes. This is something that everyone wants to read. The next thing you're gonna do is plan seasonal content. The next thing that we're gonna talk about is planning seasonal content, and when we get to the part of this podcast where we're actually going to like sit down and I'm gonna give you step by step on how to fill out a content calendar.

[00:09:53] Seasonal content is what is going to come first. We start with seasonal, because these posts have built in urgency and interest. They have a very specific timeframe, right? They're going to give your content calendar structure because it has to come out at a specific time. Christmas is not moving.

[00:10:12] Christmas is not all of the sudden going to be in April next year, right? So it is giving structure to our content calendar. They're also easier to promote because people are already thinking about these topics. So what you can do is open a calendar and mark major holidays, seasons, and events that are relative to your niche.

[00:10:34] Things that you know your audience is going to be interested in and participating in in some way. Don't just think about holidays, think about seasons, think about back to school, summer activities, new Year's goals, different things like that. Like there's so many different things that happen throughout the year that aren't just a holiday.

[00:10:52] And to also remember that seasonal content can be evergreen too. You can write it once, update it, and republish every single year. So keep that in mind as you are writing that post. I have ones that I do. Pretty much every year here on the podcast, and I do rerecord them because it's, we're talking about like 2026 now instead of 2025.

[00:11:16] But a lot of the structure of that podcast and what I'm teaching is the same. So soon I'm gonna come out with a podcast that is going to walk you through, you know, how to audit your past year and how to plan for a better 2026 or to plan on hitting certain goals in 2026. That's something that I repeat and that I teach every single year.

[00:11:37] So it's evergreen, seasonal content that I'm able to just go in and quickly update, and it's not taking me the full time to really like outline a brand new podcast episode. So you can think of it in those types of terms. The next thing when it comes to figuring out what to write is finding your keywords.

[00:11:58] So keywords matter because they're how people find your content on search engines. Google is one of them. Yes, it is one of the big ones, but there are tons of other search engines out there, and these keywords tell you what people are actually searching for. They also will help you write with purpose, not just like living on a prayer.

[00:12:20] I'm gonna shoot this blog post out into the internet and hope somebody reads it. Keywords is how we can ensure that people that we don't know and people that we are not like handing the URL to are going to find and read. So how to figure out the keywords. You can start with Google's search bar, start typing your topic and see what auto fills.

[00:12:43] Then you can also look at what are people also asking about that topic and related searches at the bottom of Google results. These are going to give you clues about what people are searching for and really help you explore that topic and make sure that what you are creating is something that is going to fill a need.

[00:13:04] My other low cost favorite tool is Key search, and we'll link that in a discount code in the description below for you, but it's like with our discount code, I think it comes out to like $13 a month, and it's a really, really easy tool to use. We also have a tutorial on that. I'll make sure we link that in the description as well.

[00:13:26] But here's where keyword research can get a little complex and can tend to make us a little overwhelmed, but once we figure it out, it's magic and. It's going to help so much with decision fatigue when it comes to creating blog posts. So the complexities are figuring out which keywords you should actually target, how competitive they are.

[00:13:51] How do you know if a keyword is worth your time? How to structure your posts so they're actually going to rank, and then, you know, how do I use them naturally? Without sounding like a robot, without sounding like, I'm just plugging these in. And then finally, okay, cool. I've plugged them in. How do we track what's working?

[00:14:08] And honestly, this is where a lot of bloggers start to feel stuck and maybe just to kind of ignore it, because knowing you need keywords is one thing, but actually knowing how to find the right ones, how to use them strategically, and how to optimize your content so it ranks, that's another level and.

[00:14:27] This is where I see bloggers give up or waste months trying to figure it out through random YouTube videos and blog posts. That unfortunately can all start to say something different if we're not careful. So that's why we created the SEO training for you guys and keyword research guides that are inside bold fluence.

[00:14:45] We walk you through the entire process step by. How to find the keywords that actually have a chance of ranking, how to use them in your blog posts, how to optimize for SEO without it feeling robotic, and how to track your results. Plus, we've got content planning templates that tie it all together, so things like we're talking about today, your content pillars, your seasonal content, your keywords all in one place, so you're not juggling a bunch of different spreadsheets.

[00:15:10] Honestly, the best part is that you're not doing it alone. Inside Bold Fluence, you get a whole community of content creators in there asking questions, sharing wins, troubleshooting, and cheering each other on the forums are one of my favorite places to hang out in there. If you want that kind of support and strategy, it's $49 a month.

[00:15:28] Just click bold Fluence in the description, or Head to Thrive together. Blog slash bold fluence. Now if you wanna try the DIY route first, I did a whole episode on SEO Basics. That's gonna be podcast episode 180 where I walk through keyword research and optimizing your posts in more detail. I'm gonna link that also in the show notes, but just know that if you listen to that episode and think.

[00:15:51] Sp this is a lot. We've got you covered inside bold fluence. Alright, so once you've got your topics and keywords figured out, let's talk about putting all of this together into an actual content calendar. So we're gonna pull together those keywords, the seasonal content, letting your audience tell you what to write, the content pillars.

[00:16:13] We're gonna pull all of this together into a content calendar. If there's five super easy steps that you can follow along with while you're listening, jot 'em down if you can. Otherwise, I'm gonna have all of this in a very detailed. Show note for you on our website. So step one is start with a simple spreadsheet or even a notebook.

[00:16:37] If you are a pen and paper girly, I recommend keeping this somewhere digital because I need it to be something that you can reference and that you can tweak and use over and over and over again. If you're anything like me, I will write something down in a cute notebook and then keep going in the notebook and forget to go and look back.

[00:16:58] At something that was important. I'm also gonna talk about that in a upcoming episode, talking about our CEO reports. So stay in tuned for that. But what I want you to put into this is columns that have a date. Topic, content pillar, keyword, and status within those columns. Okay. Then we're going to fill in seasonal content first.

[00:17:23] These are your anchors for your year, and this is honestly my favorite part because it makes everything immediately feel less overwhelming. So pulling out that calendar, pulling out the spreadsheet, something. As you're doing this, you do not have to have a. All of the nitty gritty details for the entire year.

[00:17:47] You don't have to have everything planned out to perfection. We're leaving room for creativity. What often happens though, is that we can get easily into that mindset of like, I can't plan too far in advance because I need to be creative, or I need to post in the moment. That is what feels best for me. I am all for that, but there are ways to set yourself up in a structure that is going to allow for that creativity to shine and to actually come to fruition instead of spiraling in your brain because you feel overwhelmed.

[00:18:25] I. So if that's you, then I really want you to make sure you're following along with this. So take out your calendar, your planner, your spreadsheet, whatever you wanna use and look at what are the holidays, events, and seasonal things that are happening throughout the year that is relevant to my content and my niche audience.

[00:18:49] I want you to mark those. Use a cute highlighter, use a pin, use whatever you want, but make note of when those are throughout the year, and then kind of have a rough decision of how much content you want to create around that. Maybe it's just one, one-off post, right? If you're like, Ooh, national donut day, love it.

[00:19:09] I wanna do something cute for that. That could just be one random post that you decide to do, right? Or if it's something more like. Easter and you're like, I want to do a recipe and I wanna do these decorations and I wanna make this activity for my kids. That could be multiple posts that you want to do.

[00:19:26] So kind of think through that and give yourself a rough estimate of how many posts you're going to want to create for that seasonal content. As you can see already, this huge blank calendar is already starting to feel a lot smaller. Now the next thing you're gonna do is fill in gaps with evergreen content.

[00:19:48] So based on your audience questions and those keyword research, I want you to start to go and fill in some of those big topics that you wanna make sure you prioritize. Talking about and posting about. This is where, yes, it could become a little bit more structured, but it doesn't have to be. Really super intense, if that is stressing you out, but really looking at like, okay, I really wanna make sure I do this really fun post that I'm excited about and that my audience really wants to see me talk about.

[00:20:19] Giving yourself the permission to create that post and to go all in and to have fun with it and giving yourself a time to do that. All of this is creating a space for your creativity to thrive rather than to feel stifled or overwhelmed. When our creativity runs too wild and we have too many ideas, we can easily freeze from overwhelm.

[00:20:43] This is allowing your creativity to have space to thrive and to do amazing fun things because you have dedicated time to do so. So fill in some of the gaps with evergreen content, and then notice you still have extra space where you can do a fun series you've been thinking about, or if you want to give yourself extra space for something, but now your content is starting to really come together so you're not sitting in front of a blank screen all the time.

[00:21:17] The next thing that I want you to do, step four, is to plan at least four to six weeks out. So if you've already, like, I kind of know like the end of the, the rest of this year is kind of dedicated to holiday stuff and just whatever I can get through, go ahead and do this for January. Plan, the month of January, plan, the month of January, and the first couple of weeks in February, maybe you do something for Valentine's Day.

[00:21:40] So that really is going to go into January content because. We all need to have our content up and ready for when our audience is ready to read it. This is also going to give you breathing room and reduce that. What do I write today? Panic. If you've already got it filled out and it's something you're excited about.

[00:21:58] Then you're going to actually follow through with it. And then this is something you can revisit and update monthly. So that's where I'm saying like, yes, you can do it on pen and paper, but it needs to be maybe a dedicated notebook, so where nothing else goes into it. And so that way you don't lose. Or you don't lose it in the back of another notebook.

[00:22:19] The final step here with pulling it all together is my suggestion to batch when you can write multiple posts in one sitting, edit photos in one sitting for multiple posts. I cover batching strategies in episode 62. If you want my full system, I'll link that in the show notes. The result of doing all of this, everything in this episode, is that you're gonna wake up knowing exactly what you're writing, exactly what you're creating.

[00:22:47] No more staring at blank screens. No more spiraling and stressing out. No more wondering if your idea is good enough because it's strategic. It's something you know that your audience wants, so therefore you are excited to create it and you know that your audience is going to be excited to read it. And that's what I wanna end with, is that your content plan should excite you and not exhaust you or make you feel like something you have to do.

[00:23:13] If you're dreading every post on your calendar, something's wrong. So it's okay to adjust, pivot, swap things out a hundred percent. I never want you sitting down and be like, Ugh, I do not like this post. I want you to be excited about it. Also to give yourself grace because some posts are going to perform better than others.

[00:23:33] That is completely normal. That doesn't mean that you did something wrong. You do not have to be perfect, and I am preaching to the choir there. Um, perfectionism is something I majorly struggle with. The truth is just that you need to be consistent. Your content plan is a guide. It is not cement walls that are closing you in.

[00:23:57] It is just a guide so that way your creativity knows where to focus and is able to just run wild and have so much fun. The goal of all of this is that you have posts that you look forward to writing because they align with your brand, they serve your audience, and they help move your business forward.

[00:24:18] So what I want you to do is pick your content pillars this week and really map out your seasonal content for the next few months. If the whole year like makes you overwhelmed, looking at seasonal content for the entire year is like, Nope, too much for me. Just look at the next three months and start building your calendar.

[00:24:37] And just remember, if you want more support with the SEO piece or content planning in general, we'd love to have you inside Bold Fluence, and I'm gonna leave that link also in the description. Our show notes are gonna have so many links for you guys, so you make sure that you head to the show notes on our website and get all of the links in this full outline.

[00:24:58] Thank you guys so much for being here. Next week we're gonna talk about planning at January content series. I'm really excited about that, so make sure you tune back in then, and I'll see you guys later. Here's your reminder to slow down for like 30 seconds. I know we're all hustling, editing, posting, engaging, creating, but my friend and I started the Cozy Post Club as our little rebellion against the constant scroll.

[00:25:25] For $9 a month, you're sent mail that matters. A note, a recipe, a poem, an art print, a surprise, things you can touch, keep pin up or tuck away for later. It's inspired by all those cozy moments that we forget to make time for, like handwritten letters, lazy movie marathons, rereading our favorite books, the stuff that fills us up instead of burning us out.

[00:25:49] You can gift it to yourself or send it to someone who needs a reminder that they're thought of. Head to the cozy post club.com to start your subscription. That's the cozy post club.com, your mailbox. Well, thank you.

[00:26:07] If this episode helped you, help us grow, leave a review, share it with a friend, and tag us on social media. We can't wait to cheer you on.