Ahoy! Yep, still ahoying… I don’t think I stayed long enough at the nautical-themed party on Saturday night.
This is the third and final post in my three part wrap up of my Fitting It All In preso at #pbevent 2014. You can find part one here (finding time to blog) and part two here (managing your blog time more efficiently). To wrap the whole thing up, I’m doing a quick overview of tools that are out there to help you manage all aspects of blogging. From managing your life better to find more time to blog, to getting better at writing, to beating procrastination and writer’s block, to scheduling and collating… there’s an app for that.
Let’s go!
Apple / Android / Web
$0
Simple, looks good and is fabulous for keeping you on top of your to-do list – this app moves things you don’t get to the next day and sets reminders for things you deem a priority. You can categorise tasks by subject – personal, blogging, work, etc. It will also remind you to return missed calls, send text messages you set if you are on the phone and do a daily review at the beginning and end of each day for a (hopefully!) feel-good factor. This is all a blogger really needs.
Apple / Android / Web
$0 or $31 per year for premium
Similar to, but not as easy to use, as Any.do. The difference is that with this powerful app you can collaborate with others on your To Do lists, so if you run a blog with others, this is the tool for you. You’ll need the premium account if you want to set reminders (which is really a load of because what’s the point of using a To Do list app if you don’t get reminders?). That said, the premium version will send reminders straight to your email so if you’re in the habit of ignoring your text messages (like me, shhh), that’s a godsend.
Apple
$3.79
This is one fun app with a split personality and… it’s ironically a bit of a time waster. Happy Carrot delights in seeing you cross things off your To Do list and rewards you with praise and one of 400 different rewards (including upgrades to the app). Mean Carrot loathes your very existence and gives you nothing but hell when you fail to achieve – removing points and piling on the insults. You need to rapidly complete tasks on your To Do list to bring Happy Carrot back, but the truth is I kinda like Mean Carrot more than Happy Carrot. Which is why this app is really such a time waster! It’s got extra procrastination built right into it too – you can type “Carrot, I’m bored” and she will add a superfluous task to your To Do list. I’m not sure how much you ever actually get done if you like Mean Carrot, but at least you’ll never be lonely with this app in your pocket…
Web
$0 or $79 per year for premium
Promising to help you find your ideal work / life balance, this software analyses your daily habits to help you figure out where your time is spent and whether you spend it wisely. You install software on your computer that snoops on you as you go about your online day. If you’re a stat-geek, you’ll love this program – there are graphs, charts and metrics galore. If you frequently come out of an internet fugue saying “where did the last five hours go?”, this is the tool for you.
Apple / Android / Web
$0 or $25 per year for premium
This neat little tool has been around for donkey’s – well, 10 years and it was created by a couple of Aussie mums. You can create multiple task lists which you organise using tags and categories. If you go premium you can sync your lists across all your platforms as well as integrate your lists with Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, Evernote and even Twitter – which is why this program is so much more than a To Do list organiser.
Apple / Android / Web
$0
There are a few apps that use the Pomodoro Technique (PT) to help you get on top of things and this app is one of them. Essentially, the PT works like this: choose a task you want to complete; set the timer for 25 minutes; work exclusively on the task until the timer rings; take a short 5 minutes break; every time you complete four lots of 25 minutes on an activity, reward yourself with a longer break. You will be amazed at how much you can get done with this technique.
Apple / Android
$0
If you’ve tried everything to get yourself more organised but you’re still running behind, perhaps public humiliation might be what you’re missing. Can’t get out of bed in the morning? Set the alarm and if you hit snooze too many times the app will post a message to your Facebook timeline telling your friends how slack you are. Need to be somewhere on time? Punch in a GPS code and if you don’t show up at those coordinates at the time you specify, the app will publicly shame you once again. This is time management for masochists!
If you’re really, truly desperate to meet a big goal, try the self-blackmailing service Aherk!
Apple / Android / Web
$59 per year
A mind-mapping tool is great for bloggers to have up their sleeve for when a ‘big idea’ hits. Plan out a long post or article; strategise a new series for your blog, brainstorm design ideas, track your thinking on a particular topic. Bubble.us is a basic, uncomplicated tool that is the perfect place to begin mapping your ideas and sharing them with your contacts.
Apple / Android
$9.99
This app is a little bit more difficult to use (which is why I started with Bubbl.us even though it’s pretty xxy), but it allows you to collaborate with others on your mind-maps. Which is kind of handy if you get stuck out on a branch somewhere and can’t find your way back home…
Coggle
Web (Chrome)
$0
This (Google owned) web-based tool is free to use and a simple way to get started. Just sign in with any Google account and click ‘create’ once you’re in. It’s not as intuitive as it think it is, so be prepared to Google for answers and how tos.
Web
$0
If collaboration with others is what you’re after, Wridea is a good one to try. You can share your ideas and invite others to comment on your maps. This is a nice idea to try on your blog’s Facebook page – ask your readers to help you map an idea. Sadly, Wridea comes dressed in the most boring design imaginable, but at your maps are searchable, categorisable (is that a word) and you can bring the ‘ideas rain’ and see your ideas raining down on your screen. That’s got to inspire you to try something different on your blog!
Apple / Android / Web
$0
This app / web tool is the bomb. It’s a tricky one to get your head around, but basically you can use it to capture all kinds of information. Clip websites and images from the web, take pics and upload them, link to files on your PC, leave a voice message, take notes, set reminders, track finances, make To Do lists… it’s like an organised brain!
Here are some great resources for getting your head around Evernote:
30 ways Evernote can improve your life from Art of Manliness
I’ve been using Evernote all wrong. Here’s why it’s actually amazing from Lifehacker
Using Evernote for blogging from Homeschool Blogging
How to (expertly) use Evernote for better blogging from Blog Marketing Academy
Mac / PC
$0
I haven’t used it (I’m devoted to Evernote) but Lifehacker reckons this tool is a better notetaker than Evernote… but it falls down in other areas. To see the differences, check out the Lifehacker Faceoff: Evernote vs OneNote.
Pinterest
Web / Apple / Android
$0
Pinterest is super easy to use, a great visual cataloguer and an aspirational time sucker. Unless you have hundreds of boards, it’s almost impossible to find things once you pin them, so use this tool like an online mood board rather than an organisational tool.
Google Keep
Android / Web (Chrome)
$0
You can be sure that if there is a successful tool out there, Google will make one very similar. Google Keep is a try-hard Evernote and that’s pretty much all you need to know. Except that it’s a lot faster and slicker with better voice notes and syncs like a dream…
Web
$0
This is the meanest tool in the world. You set a time frame, you set a word limit and you start typing. If you stop writing for more than a few minutes, you face a range of consequences. If you don’t type your word limit in the time frame you specified your get roused at. Actually, if you set it to ‘kamikaze’ mode it starts deleting your work one word at a time… procrastinators, get to work!
Web (Chrome)
$0
This Chrome extensions helps you stay on the task on hand by limiting either the time you can spend on other webpages or blocking access to them altogether. Say you only want to spend one hour a day on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest… once your hour is up, the sites are blocked for the rest of the day. If you’re on deadline for a post you can immediately block access to everything else on the web except your blog and sites you need for research (like Google or Wiki).
Web
$0
A writing app that lives in your browser, it helps you set word count or reading time goals and then steps back and lets you get on with it. There are minimal formatting options to distract you, which also means that the text you get on the page on Quabel is easily copied and pasted into your blog posts without too many HTML issues.
Help Me Write
Web
$0
This tool helps you to decide what to write next on your blog. It’s an easy sign-up using your Twitter account and then you add things you are thinking of writing about on your profile page, share your page on social media (Facey, Twitter, etc) and get your readers to comment on the topic they would most like you to cover. Once you’ve written the post, you can send it to all the readers who voted for it. Help Me Write is a great way to get your readers involved in the ‘backstage’ of your blog.
Mac / PC
US$ 40
If you’re serious about your writing, then this is the bees-knees of word processing and project managing. It’s got a distraction-free composition mode; a simple ‘binder’ system of organising your work; a ‘cork board’ for throwing up ideas and inspiration; the ability to set word count goals and trackers; a multi-markdown mode (serious writers will know how valuable that is); and you can export your work into any format you want, such as HTML for blog posts. This post from All Indie Writers can tell you more about the benefits of Scrivener for blogging. And don’t miss this great post by Natasha Lester (and lots of other posts, she’s a self-confessed Scrivener addict!).
Mac / iOS
$9.99 / $4.99
“Record life as you live it” – for a personal blogger, this is gold. It tracks temperature, GPS, time and date, step count, music playing… the lot. Record your thoughts, take pictures, leave a voice message, set reminders, receive inspirational messages plus video uploading is apparently coming soon. Day One logs memories while you live them and inspires your big-writing and gets you little-writing like you wouldn’t believe.
Web / iOS / Android
$0 or $9.99 a month for Pro
The mother of social media, this is the tool I use and it does the lot for me – Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and, I hear, YouTube and Instagram. Pinterest is also do-able, but really clunky. You can check your audience stats for each platform and if you’re on the Pro plan Hootsuite helps you work out the best time to get your content up. Hootsuite also lets you collaborate with other bloggers (you’ll need to have the Pro plan for that too) to share your workload. Here’s an idea: get a team of bloggers together and agree who’s best at different platforms and then do each other’s social media. I’ll do Twitter, you do Facey, etc, etc. How rad would that be?!
Web / iOS / Android
$0 or $9.99 a month for the Awesome Plan
The other social media scheduling heavy-weight, there are slight differences between Hootsuite and Buffer but I can’t quite get my head around them. This post gave it a good stab, but I’m still confused. Hootsuite addressed the problem directly themselves, but I’m still confused. Pick one or the other, I reckon. I think the Buffer interface looks nicer…
Viraltag
Web
From $29 a month (really!)
A ridiculously xxy tool (especially when it was free when it was called Pingraphy), viraltag lets you schedule your Pinterest activity. I think it gets away with being so pricey because it’s one of the only existing ways to confidently schedule pins (you can also try ViralWoot for $5 a month or for $29+ a month you may well be able to sign up with Ahalogy). More importantly, it also helps you go viral by suggesting what to pin based on what people are pinning the most. Naturally you’ll also get a whole bunch of analysed statistics to teach you how to pin better. Nothing is organic anymore, not even pretty pictures.
Everypost
iOS / Android / Web
$0
Post content across your social media platforms with the click of a button on your smartphone. You can update with text, images, video, even audio. I’m not convinced at all that publishing the same stuff on all your platforms simultaneously is a good thing. Whether you have the same or different audience on each of the platforms, the answer is the same. They are either the same audience who are annoyed to see your stuff across the lot OR they are a different audienceswho respond at a different time to different sort of content. Read this, this or this if you want to try posting simultaneously across all platforms – it sure would save a lot of time!
iOS / Web
$0
One for the Instaddicts, Latergram lets you schedule Instagram in advance. One of the big advantages is that you can upload images direct from your computer, giving you full control over amazing image creation. It will also send you a reminder if you haven’t posted for a while. On the web version, you schedule your posts by dragging and dropping images into a time slot on a giant calendar – what could be easier than that? Other than that it has the crappiest marketing on the internet and I can’t find out a darn thing without signing up…
Postplanner
Web
$0 trial – $99 per month
The beauty of Post Planner is that it kicks up content that is already going viral on Facebook. You then select and post the content to your own page… obviously increasing the chances that it will take off for you as well. You can also automate your updates, schedule your Facebook posts and sign in straight from Facebook. Post Planner will also give you loads of ideas for status updates, so “Faceblock” can become a thing of the past. The free version is such a tease though – it shows you just enough of the content to get you hooked, but you can’t access beyond the first few posts. Big warning: scrolling through content that’s gone viral is… catching.
Crowdbooster
Web
$9 – $119+ per month
Crowdbooster is probably the best tool for keeping your finger on the pulse of what’s happening on Facey and Twitter. You can schedule or share your social media to save you some time, but you’ll probably lose that time in the vastness of available Crowdbooster number crunching. There isn’t a metric available that Crowdbooster doesn’t like. It’s particularly good for drilling down to real people, allowing you to find out who is engaging with you the most so you can (hopefully) show them some love right back.
Web
$0
Newsletter creation on top of blog and social media wrangling can be the straw for many bloggers. An app like Paper.li makes it as easy as selecting some sources from around the web and clicking ‘create’. You can pull content from Twitter lists and RSS feeds or even Google+. You can customise your paper and save it to make a daily, weekly or monthly publication. An easy, breezy way to send relevant content out to your readers or followers (loads of people send it via Twitter).
Scoop.it
iOS / Android / Web
$0 but really $12.99 a month for anything nice
You can create a very basic paper for free, but if you sign up for the monthly plan you can customise a lot. That means that unlike the freebie Paper.li you can make your newspaper look professional and unique to you.
Web
From $4.95
I’m putting this up as an alternative to MailChimp because it’s cute, it’s different (how many MailChimp newsletters does the world need?) and it’s way faster to set up a newsletter. LetterPOP might save you a stack of time if your newsletter is weekly.
Oh dear god, that nearly killed me!! I’m exhausted just talking you through all that stuff let alone actually doing it. It goes without saying that unless you’ve got a dedicated social media team beavering away alongside you (which of course most of us bloggers are lucky enough to have), you are going to have to find your focus.
Choose one, two – or at a pinch three – platforms that really resonate with you and do them well. Matter of fact, choose ONE and do it extremely well. Add more later. Or not – some platforms are never going to suit you and it’s perfectly okay to give them a miss. I stalk about 450 people on Instagram, but you’ll never catch me uploading my own stuff. Not publicly anyway. I also FIFO Twitter in a big way. My focus is Facebook followed by Pinterest.
It may feel daunting looking at that lot up there, but just give it a go, give anything a go. As my mum always said to me:
Natasha Lester says
Thanks so much for including a link to my Scrivener articles! I appreciate it.
Shauna says
I have just spent the last half hour reading through this great series and I just want to say thank you. I’ve learnt so much and can hardly wait to get stuck in to using the info. I really needed to read this and appreciate you sharing your knowledge. Thanks for the shot in the arm!
Maxabella says
This makes me so happy to read, Shauna. I really hope it helps you make time for the things you love!! x