CHAPTER 015 min
Set the monthly target
How many posts a month, at what quality bar? Decide, then design backward.
DO THIS
- Pick monthly volume (usually 4–8)
- Define the quality bar
- Confirm capacity
TIP
Ambitious volume with poor quality outperforms low volume of no quality. But not by much.
NEXT CHAPTER
02 · Auto-generate the opportunity queue
CHAPTER 026 min
Auto-generate the opportunity queue
Growth Opportunities ranks every Search Console signal by potential. Let it.
DO THIS
- Connect Search Console → Growth Opportunities
- Enable content-opportunity scoring
- Confirm the queue is populating
TIP
The queue is the calendar. Don't build a second one.
NEXT CHAPTER
03 · Assign owners to each slot
CHAPTER 035 min
Assign owners to each slot
One person per post, all month. No orphans.
DO THIS
- Map the month's slots to owners
- Confirm capacity per owner
- Publish the calendar internally
TIP
The owner is not the writer. The owner ensures the post ships.
NEXT CHAPTER
04 · Auto-brief from the opportunity
CHAPTER 046 min
Auto-brief from the opportunity
Blog Automation turns each opportunity into a brief. Owner reviews, doesn't author.
DO THIS
- Auto-generate briefs from top 8 opportunities
- Owner reviews and approves
- Assign to writer
TIP
The brief takes 5 minutes to review. It saves 5 hours of drift.
NEXT CHAPTER
05 · Draft in a shared voice
CHAPTER 058 min
Draft in a shared voice
The engine falls apart if every post reads differently. Set the voice once.
DO THIS
- Write a one-page voice guide
- Pin it to every brief
- Enforce in editor review
TIP
The voice guide is 80% “things we don't say.” That's the harder half.
NEXT CHAPTER
06 · Editor review before publish
CHAPTER 066 min
Editor review before publish
One editor, one pass, hard cutoff. No infinite revisions.
DO THIS
- Assign one editor
- Give a 24-hour turnaround
- Ship or reject — no third rounds
TIP
The third round of edits produces marginal improvement and kills the cadence.
NEXT CHAPTER
07 · Publish and syndicate
CHAPTER 076 min
Publish and syndicate
Publishing is the start, not the end. Get the post in front of the audience it was written for.
DO THIS
- Publish to the blog
- Cross-post to the audience channel
- Schedule follow-up promotion in week 2
TIP
If you publish and forget, you may as well not publish.
NEXT CHAPTER
08 · Read the data after 30 days
CHAPTER 086 min
Read the data after 30 days
Every post has a scorecard by day 30. Read them together, not individually.
DO THIS
- Pull impressions/clicks/rank per post
- Identify the top 20%
- Double down on that pattern next month
TIP
The top 20% teaches you the pattern. The rest teaches you what to stop.
WRAP UP
You've reached the outcome.
A content calendar that generates itself from data — and ships without a fire drill.