[ad_1] The Strive Content Calendar for WordPress aims to solve a problem that any content publisher will undoubtedly be familiar with: Managing the entire process of preparing, creating, and scheduling content as simply as possible without having to manage multiple platforms, apps, or endless spreadsheets. Rather than having one tool for planning your content, another for managing deadlines and scheduling, and a third for actually getting that brand new post lined up in the publishing queue, Strive brings all of that -and more- together in a single tool that you can use from within WordPress itself. The intended goal is a much more streamlined and simplified process that is easier to manage, meaning fewer editorial headaches and more time to focus on growing your sites. Does it achieve that goal? Let’s find out in this comprehensive Strive Content Calendar review. Strive Content Calendar Review Strive is a relative newcomer to the world of WordPress, having first hit the market in June of this year and aiming to give other content scheduling tools such as WP Scheduled a serious run for their money. Speaking of money, that’s one of the first things that really attracted us to this tool. The whole thing is available for the fairly low cost of $7 per month all-in. Unlike other WordPress plugins, there’s no upselling, nor are there multiple pricing tiers to choose from. Article Continues Below If you’re anything like us and sometimes find yourself scratching your head as you spend a long time trying to work out which features -and thus, which pricing plan- you actually need, you’ll no doubt appreciate this all-inclusive, one-size-fits-all approach as much as we do. There’s also a free 30-day trial which gives you access to all the features with no need for a credit card to ensure you don’t accidentally forget to cancel and end up paying for something you don’t need. Again, if you’re used to other plugins which offer limited features with their free trials, this is likely to appeal to you. How to Use Strive – Setup and Features So far, so good, but we’ve talked a lot about Strive’s features without actually saying what they are or how the platform actually works, so let’s put it to work on one of our own sites and look at exactly what this new content calendar has to offer. Getting Started With Strive After heading to the pricing page, select ‘Start Free Trial’ and select the payment option you’d prefer if you later decide to go ahead and make Strive your new content calendar. As you’ll see, things get a little cheaper ($5.83 per month) if you opt to pay for a year’s subscription in advance, and even cheaper still if you opt for the $199-lifetime subscription. For those wondering, we did the math: $199 is the same as paying for 2 years and 4 months on the monthly subscription or 2 years and 10 months on the annual subscription. Either way, this isn’t the most important factor to begin with, as you don’t have to pay a penny to get started, and you can always contact Strive later if you change your mind about your payment commitment. With that done, simply enter a few basic contact details, choose whether you want them to send you security and feature updates (usually a good idea), and hit “Start Trial.” Installation When you’ve done that, check your email address, where you’ll find Strive has sent you a download link and activation key to get started. Article Continues Below The plugin downloads to your computer as a Zip file which you can then upload by going to your WordPress dashboard and carrying out the usual three-step process: Go to Plugins – Add new Click Upload plugin Select the plugin from your hard drive and install it. After activating the license key (included in your email) it’s time to get into all of Strive’s features. Strive Features Calendar View The first thing you encounter when you first open Strive is the calendar view which provides an at-a-glance look at all of your upcoming posts and their scheduled publishing date. This makes it infinitely easier to view your current publishing schedule than scrolling through WordPress’ own posts menu and checking the date of each post. Instead, you can immediately see when content is due to go out, giving you a much clearer picture. The best part is that if you’re not happy with the way your schedule is set up, you can simply drag and drop posts around the calendar to a time that’s better suited to you, which is a far easier approach than opening up each post and manually editing the publishing date. Adding New Content If there’s a free date you wish to add content to, doing so is as simple as hoving over that date in the calendar, clicking on the ‘+’ icon, which shows up in the top-left hand corner, and then selecting to either create a brand new post from scratch or take one of your pre-written drafts and schedule it. Editing Posts If you need to make quick edits such as changing the title, slug, or editorial status or adding categories, doing so is as simple as clicking on the post to bring up the quick edit menu. If you need to make edits to the content itself, that’s as simple as hovering over the scheduled post and clicking the edit icon, which appears in the top-right corner. This highly visual style makes managing your entire content schedule much more straightforward, but it’s far from the only feature you’ll find with Strive. Article Continues Below Color Coding Another aspect of the calendar that we love is that each post is color-coded according to its publishing status as follows: Red – Not Started Orange – Currently writing Yellow – Editing Green – completed and ready to go. If you’re managing lots of content and need to be able to quickly see whether or not
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