How to Structure an Article Production Board
Column #itSAMarketingThing 21: The Checklist to Produce Articles.
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Publishing blog articles regularly and strategically is a challenge for any modern business. Between planning topics, writing, proofreading, and publishing, it’s easy to lose track without an efficient organizational tool.
This is where the article production board comes in. As the backbone of your editorial strategy, it helps you structure your work, meet your deadlines, and maintain a clear overview of your content projects.
In this column, we’ll see how to create a simple yet powerful production board to optimize your publication schedule, better manage your priorities, and maintain the consistency of your digital communication.
Why Use a Production Board for Your Articles?
A production board helps you move from a spontaneous approach to an organized and predictable strategy. It provides a full overview of all your articles in preparation, writing, or ready to publish.
With this tool, you can better distribute your workload, respect your deadlines, avoid oversights, and balance your editorial themes over time.
In addition, by visualizing your entire editorial calendar, it becomes easier to plan coherent content campaigns, anticipate busy periods, and maintain a regular publishing rhythm, essential for building audience loyalty.
Key Elements of an Effective Production Board
Article topic
Each line in your board should start with the specific article topic. This lets you quickly visualize your planned content and balance your thematic coverage.
Responsible author
Indicate who is responsible for writing each article. This prevents confusion, facilitates tracking, and encourages accountability among contributors.
Writing date
Setting a writing date helps you distribute your workload evenly and avoid last-minute bottlenecks.
Planned publication date
Scheduling the publication date ensures editorial consistency and helps align your content production with your marketing actions (campaigns, launches, seasonal events).
SEO keywords and orientation
Assigning SEO keywords and a clear intent from the start helps guide the writing process and optimize each article’s natural search ranking.
Progress status (to write, under review, published)
Tracking the progress of each article provides a clear view of your editorial pipeline and allows you to act quickly if any step is delayed.
How to Structure Your Production Board
1. Choose a suitable tool (Excel, Google Sheets, Asana, Trello)
The tool you choose depends on your preferences and work environment. For personal use, a simple spreadsheet like Excel or Google Sheets works well. For collaborative team projects, tools like Asana or Trello offer greater flexibility and visual tracking.
2. Define the necessary columns
Your board should include essential columns: topic, author, writing date, publication date, SEO keywords, and progress status. You can also add custom columns like "Notes" to include additional ideas or special instructions.
3. Organize by month, theme, or priority
Sorting your articles by month, editorial theme, or strategic priority allows you to balance your calendar and cover important topics throughout the year. It also helps in planning for key periods (holidays, product launches, major events).
4. Update the board regularly after each step
A production board is a living tool: it should be updated after each step is completed (drafting, review, publication). This discipline helps you maintain full control over your content production and quickly adjust if needed.
Best Practices for Maintaining a Good Production Rhythm
Plan articles in advance. Planning your topics several weeks or months ahead allows you to smooth out your workload and avoid downtime. Proactive planning also supports better editorial consistency.
Group writing and proofreading tasks. Batch similar tasks — writing multiple articles or reviewing several pieces in one session — to improve efficiency and stay focused.
Set realistic deadlines. Deadlines should reflect your overall workload. Deadlines that are too tight can create stress and harm the quality of your articles.
Have backup topics ready for unexpected situations. Keeping a few simple, quick-to-produce article ideas on hand helps you maintain your publishing schedule even when unforeseen issues arise.
Tips: Avoid Common Mistakes
Not tracking article progress. Without regular follow-up, articles can get stuck at an intermediate stage. Updating each article's status ensures a living and reliable calendar.
Leaving topics without deadlines. An idea without a deadline often ends up postponed indefinitely. Always assign a target date to maintain a steady production flow.
Forgetting to align articles with marketing priorities. Your articles should always support your strategic goals: promotional campaigns, product launches, seasonal events. Writing without considering these priorities can reduce the overall impact of your content strategy.
Tools and Resources:
Production board templates to download. Many free templates are available to help you get started quickly. They offer ready-to-use structures you can adapt to your specific needs.
Tutorials for organizing an editorial calendar. Practical guides and online tutorials walk you through setting up an effective editorial calendar, helping you better organize and plan your content.
Collaborative platforms for marketing teams. Tools like Trello, Asana, or Notion make it easier to manage editorial projects collaboratively. They help track article progress, assign tasks, and meet deadlines more efficiently.
Conclusion
Consistency and quality in publishing articles are never a matter of luck. They are the result of rigorous organization and strategic planning.
By setting up a production board tailored to your needs, you simplify your content management, reduce stress linked to deadlines, and boost the impact of your digital communication.
Adopting this approach will help you maintain a steady publishing rhythm, align your content with your business priorities, and offer your readers a professional and cohesive reading experience.
See you in the Blog!
Jeff
Cr Images and production: W+M Services.
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I edit the content of existing sites via CMS in addition to creating sites with WordPress and Squarespace. I have been producing website content as a webmaster since 1998.
I help companies get their first website up and I improve the performance of existing sites.
Yes, I’m Mr. Analytics and my reaction time to new digital marketing is daily, which allows my clients to have optional and trend-cutting tools.
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Learn how to structure a production board for your blog articles and streamline your editorial planning.