Now that our marketing month here on Mitchelaneous is close to an end, I bet you are wondering, "How am I suppose to remember when to do all of this stuff?".  Well, I think the best route you should take is to create yourself a marketing to-do list calendar – so that this way you can always know what to do today to improve your blog, your brand or your business.

Now first, we have to find you a calendar.  You could use a traditional paper calendar, and just jot your notes down on it.  Then again, we live in a digital age, so let us turn towards some of the online calendar services.

Online Calendar Suggestions

Here are two of my personal favorites:

• Google Calendar
• 30 Boxes

Both of these great online applications will let you setup reminders and notes for yourself, so that you know what to do on each day of the month. Now, how do you break down the things you need to do? You can get as complex as needed, but here are a few guidelines to help you get started.

Daily Marketing Goals

Look at simple things you can do to help improve the big picture.  This might be as simple as contacting a new partner to see if you can get a deal going, or maybe spell checking one page a day.

Weekly Marketing Goals

For your weekly goals, look at tasks that might take longer to get done.  Mark down events that could take two or three days, such as a new website launch or a possible landing page redesign.  Set a goal for yourself here, but remember to keep it as flexible as you need.

Monthly Marketing Goals

Your monthly goals should be more in sync with "big picture" goals.  Did you sell more or less things that you did the month before?  What about comparing your stats this month to your stats a year ago to see how you stack up.  Give yourself a big monthly goal to work towards – that can be made up of your daily and weekly goals.

It might take a few months to work out, but once you find the right marketing schedule for yourself – you will find you are becoming more productive because you have that list of things to check off for the day, the week and the month ahead. 

I am not setting up business meetings. I am not planning every second of every day. I want a calendar that will allow me to do the simple task of leaving one note on a day saying that I need to do something. Just like you would write down on your traditional calendar.

Yahoo! Calendar

Now that you know what I wanted – now I will tell you what I looked at. Yahoo! Calendar was the first one I looked at, since I already use Yahoo! Mail for my E-mail needs. The major problem here is that they have yet to update the calendar interface to match the snazzy new Yahoo! Mail interface. It keeps transporting me back to the old ugly Yahoo! Mail interface to look at my calendar. Not good at all.

Final Thoughts on Yahoo! Calendar:
Built in functionality with Yahoo’s E-mail and Notes, too bad Calendar and Notes have yet to get a redesign to match Yahoo’s new webmail interface.

Yahoo’s calendar was easy enough to add to (just click the add link on the date) but it still asked me to fill in about five more boxes than I wanted to. I liked the fact that it had various views, but I want the 30 day traditional look. Maybe once Yahoo! updates it to match and work better with the new Web mail interface I will give it a second shot. Right now though it is not for me.

30 Boxes

Next up I tried 30 Boxes. This looks a lot better than Yahoo! Mail (cleaner interface, easier time getting started) but still seems to be lacking in a few areas. I don’t need a big social experience with my calendar. Nobody wants to know the dates I have marked and I am not sure I would want them to know either.

Adding an event was super easy, a two click process. I really liked that. 30 Boxes just didn’t give me the right vibe though. It is a nice tool, but not the one I am looking for right now.

Final Thoughts on 30 Boxes:
Quick and easy access to your calendars – but the customization is a little strange. I would like to see Yahoo! buy them out and build toss it in as a replacement to the calendar Yahoo! offers right now.

Google Calendar

So that leaves us with Google Calendar. Now I had looked at Google’s Online calendar before and was a little less than impressed. The idea of having different color coded calendars won me over though. It was as easy to add to as 30 Boxes and gave me the interaction with other services (which I was looking for at Yahoo with the webmail and calendar interaction).

I also was able to setup a widget-like thing on my Google personalized start page to show my calendar as well. This, plus having Google Reader on my start page are the reasons I use Google’s over all the others out there.

Final Thoughts on Google Calendar:
The king of the mountain as far as Online calendars go right now. Quick and easy interface – and then you toss in the fact it works with my start page? This one takes the best of the previous two and gives me something I can use.

So Who Was the Winner? You!

So when the dust settled and I was ready to make my mind up, I decided to go with Google Calendar. The good thing here is that many different people have many different needs. So with this many options, everybody should be able to find what they are looking for. You might just have to go out and do a few taste test with all of them before you find the one you really love to use.

Do you have a favorite? If so – tell me what it is and why you use it!