Product Review: 2013 Printable Blog Planner from Confessions of a Homeschooler

Welcome to my first official product review. I joined Mosaic Reviews Team a few months ago and my first assignment was to choose a free printable blog planner and give it a spin. Mosaic Reviews is a team of product reviewers who receive free products in return for a fair and honest opinion of those products in the form of a blogged review.

• Product: 2013 Blog Planner Free Printable 
• Publisher: Confessions of a Homeschooler
• Price: Free

It's funny, in preparing for this review, I quickly reread Erica's post at Confessions of a Homeschooler about her free printable blog planner and it struck me how very different we are. She begins her post with, "Hello fellow bloggers! If you don't know me by now, I'm a planner! I love planners, and I especially love pretty ones!" My original opening line for this post declared: "I'm not a planner and I have unrealistic expectations about what a blog planner can do for me!" Ironic, huh? So, here we go...

I'm not a planner and I have very unrealistic expectations about what a blog planner (or any other planner for that matter) can do for me! The Mosaic Reviews team members received an extensive list of free online printable blog planners from which to choose. I scoured the list trying to choose a blog planner that covered every scenario and possibility because obviously, if I had the perfect blog planner, I would be the

MOST PROLIFIC and AWE-INSPIRING BLOG 

WRITER IN THE UNIVERSE!

Obviously, this is where the unrealistic expectations appear. I implemented this blog planner last month and this post will be my first full post that I've finished in the month of February. I have about 5 drafts that I have begun from ideas that I jotted down in my notes section for the month. Wait a minute...in a month where I averaged 50 hours of work per week, I have 5 drafts begun and two more that are posting this week? This blog planner thing rocks! 

Let's take a closer look:

First and most importantly, let's recognize the amazing Mrs. Erica from Confessions of a Homeschooler she puts together so many sensational printables of which the blog planner is just one. Here is a link to the page describing the blog planner. It contains the link to the pdf as well.

Front Cover

The graphic design elements of this planner are beautiful. Even my 8 year old commented that she wanted a pretty planner. Once you delve inside, there are plenty of useful tools to develop your blog into a more professional, polished endeavor.

First, the year at a glance calendar is always useful. She has even marked the major American holidays on it. When you can't remember what day Thanksgiving falls on this year, you can find it quickly.

Next, the monthly blog plan. I love that the months are specific and the days are filled in already. I don't have time to fill in the dates AND all of our crazy activities. If I had one issue with this planner, I would love bigger boxes for the month, I could honestly use the month spread over two facing pages and lines in the boxes. Realistically, it would be difficult to make it work that way.

Each day has check boxes for "scheduled" for planning your blog. There are also check boxes for maximizing your blog's exposure which is an important step we often forget. These boxes remind you to share your blog on Facebook, Google +, Twitter, and to pin it on Pinterest. It also reminds you to post your giveaways and announce the winner.

Each month also has a notes page. Rather than using scraps of paper and the backs of grocery receipts to record ideas for future blogging topics, you have a place to gather those ideas and nurture them. The page includes a place for your giveaway and review due dates. Finally, the last piece of this useful tool is a place to record your monthly statistics for your blog. 

I'll be honest, I'm a novice. If there was a level below a novice, I would be that. I've only just started sharing my blog and many of these promotional tools will take me several months to implement. Having them all available to me is inspiring though and I know that in the long run, I will be a better blogger because I gave this blog planner a try.

Thanks to Erica @ Confessions of a Homeschooler for sharing her creative gifts for those of us who are less creative!

#Mosaic Reviews #blogging #homeschool