How was your week? Contrary to popular belief, it is NOT sunny here in Philadelphia at all. Boo. We’re breaking back out the coats in the middle of spring, which is SO not even cool, especially when the sweaters were literally packed away to go home soon. Get your act together, Philly.
We’ve had a crazy week, between acapella hell week, another project we’re tackling together (since clearly we can’t get enough of each other), schoolwork cos that’s a thing, and all sorts of other craziness. Did we mention we’re both planning weddings? So today we’re just going to keep things short and sweet for this NYNB numero uno of April, because we’re imagining that some of you have had similarly obnoxious weeks.
This month’s theme is “Do 3 hours of work in 1” so today we’re sharing with you some of our favorite apps, sites, and other techy things that can help you get your life in order so you can tackle those hours of blog work in a lot, lot less.
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OneDrive/Google Drive – One is Microsoft, one is Google, but both are invaluable. We love saving our pics from our phones to the Drive straight from the mobile app, so that we’re never stuck emailing ourselves our latest post photos.
Evernote – The best note-taking, list-making, reminder-setting app that integrates across devices. We love it for quickly jotting down blog post ideas and making easy checklists on-the-go.
Tweetily – This plug-in for WordPress tweets out your old posts at random on an interval you choose to keep your followers engaging with oldie-but-goodie content.
Latergramme – Insta doesn’t allow scheduling via Hootsuite, so this is the next best thing. Schedule photos from your phone or computer, and get a notification when the Insta pic is supposed to go up so you can quickly hit “post.”
WordPress app – For those of you who are inclined to blog on the go, the WordPress app makes it simple to draft posts so that you can capture that next great idea. We especially love using it on our tablets.
Pixlr – This app helps you create gorgeous images quickly. We love it for creating Pin-able graphics and collages!
Hootsuite mobile app – If you don’t know what HootSuite is, read this.
Bloglovin’ mobile app – For the blogger who wants to stay in the know while on the go, Bloglovin’ lets you keep up with your favorite blogs on your iPhone or tablet. It’s easy to use and has a great mobile design.
Canva – If you haven’t jumped on the Canva train yet, you’re missing out. Canva is our favorite image editing app. Currently only online, Canva is how we design a lot of our images for…everything!
Pocket – For those of you that get distracted while surfing the Web (AKA all of us), Pocket is an app/Chrome extension that allows you to quickly save posts and pages to your “pocket,” where you can find them all later in one handy place for browsing.
Boomerang – This app for Gmail lets you schedule emails into the future, like a Hootsuite for emails. Perfect for sending time-sensitive emails, like that routine Monday morning check-in, or to not have “Sent at 1:42 am” in the descriptor. #keepingitclassy
IFTTT – IFTTT (If this, then that) lets you create “formulas” across multiple apps and platforms so that when you trigger one action, the other automatically happens. For example, Taylor uses a formula that turns every picture she posts on Instagram into a native Twitter picture and post – perfect for those who want to keep their Instagrams and Twitter profiles separate and/or private. It’s like magic!
Schedu.gram – For social media managers who are willing to pay a bit each month, Schedu.gram lets you actually schedule posts on Instagram. What.
Affiliate WP – An affiliate marketing WordPress plug-in that displays all of your paid and unpaid referrals and earnings, recent referrals and visits, and the latest affiliates to sign up. Check this site out for a step-by-step tutorial on installing the plug-in and getting the cha-ching:
HTML cheat sheet – This isn’t an app, but it’s something we all need, because ain’t nobody (or most people) got time to learn ALL of HTML.
We hope these links are going to save you time so that you can blog better, smarter, and faster. If you want to elevate your blogging even more, join our smart, savvy community of bloggers. Learn more here.
What’s your favorite blogging timesaver?
I’ll see you on Monday, Blog World. I promise to be more sane and more fun and more caffeinated. Sending love to you wherever you are, and hoping your weekend is top notch.