Incredibly Useful Publishing Tool

During my search for a plugin to help keep me organized and on schedule, I tested most of the editorial calendar plugins in the WordPress repository. Some were overkill for a single author blog like mine, some were priced out of reach, and others didn’t offer the flexibility, control and ease of use I require.

PublishPress checked all the boxes I wanted and a few I hadn’t thought of before.

Like most software in this category, it’s easy to add and update posts on the Calendar view.

If there is one feature I would love to see added to the calendar display, it’s the ability to select a primary category for a post. It’s probably not an easy thing to implement, I suspect, and adding the category by hand is hardly the end of the world.

Content Overview allows me to find holes in my content coverage instantly. This tab lists all primary categories on my site and lists all the scheduled content for each one. The categories with no scheduled content are immediately obvious. I LOVE this.

The Settings tab contains two useful tools: custom Statuses and custom Metadata.

While the base Status types will probably be enough for most users, I used this to add two additional types to assist my workflow. The ability to color code each Status type also gives a visual cue when viewing the calendar, making it easy to see where each scheduled article stands. Love it.

Custom Metadata help my workflow by allowing me to name the major deadlines on the road to publication, 1st draft deadline, featured image and publication. These are listed in the Metadata widget beside the post in the edit screen. Again, very helpful.

And make sure you also install the PublishPress Checklist addon. This little gem helps you ensure all the little things are completed before you hit “publish.” It’s easy to overlook proper category selection (instead of my site’s default), tags, featured images and excerpts. Not any more.

All of this functionality is free, making it the perfect choice for blogs like mine.

This category of plugin is directed at people running multi-author blogs, but I cannot stress highly enough the importance of an editorial plugin for people like me, as well.

If you run a single-author blog but haven’t considered adding an editorial calendar to your WordPress website, I encourage you to install PublishPress and test it out.

Where I used to struggle with what to do with article ideas and links to content I wanted to write about, PublishPress transformed this ongoing problem into a non-issue.

Instead of storing links in my browser’s bookmarks (the equivalent of a garbage can with good intentions) I now find a hole in my calendar, create the new entry and add the research resources directly into the “content” box in the popup scheduler window.

This has the added benefit of solving the “What will I write about today?” problem that can, far too often, stop us from from writing a new post.

I cannot speak highly enough about this plugin, it’s transformative effect on my blogging, or the responsiveness of it’s creator.

Christopher