A super essential blogging lesson that I’ve learned in 2015 is that I need to work smarter, not harder. It’s pretty difficult managing a full-time job and a full time blog, but somehow I haven’t managed to lose my mind yet. The two biggest thing that help me be productive as a blogger is one, having apps that allow me to blog from any computer at anytime and two, being able to schedule out what messages I want to send ahead of time. Here are some apps that have seriously been lifesavers these past few months!
- Boomerang
Email is a beast, ain’t it? As much as I try to stay on top of it during the day, it feels like sometimes I have an influx of messages coming in at all times. Boomerang is the holy grail of email scheduling apps. First thing you can do with it is use it to schedule out emails to send out at a certain time. I’ve found that it’s easier to reply to emails only a few times a day. If you’re constantly sending out emails all day long, your inbox is going to become unmanageable. Send them out in small spurts to get a hold of your inbox/life/edges/etc (as long as they’re not time sensitive!)Another glorious thing that Boomerang can do is send emails you’ve read back to your inbox. Say if someone doesn’t get back to you, you can set it up so that if you don’t receive a reply, the email will hit your inbox for a week or two later. Following up is essential, and just in case I forget to do so, Boomerang will send a friendly reminder for you to get on it!
- Ahalogy
One of my blogging resolutions is to step up my Pinterest game. I’ve read several articles saying that 8-10pm is the best time to post. Well, that is not the best time for me to post because I’m either A. out at happy hour or B. lying in my bed exhausted by that point. Seriously, there are so many times when I’m passed out by 9 or 10pm at night.Let me introduce you to Ahology. Not only can you schedule out pins, but Ahalogy will determine what is the ideal time for you to post your pins and automatically schedule them out at peak times.Another cool thing you can do in Ahalogy is edit your photos before pinning. I usually crop my photos before pinning them to make them super long and vertical, more cropped than they would normally appear on my blog. This is another fantastic way to make your pins go viral!
Ahalogy also alerts you to what keywords are hot and what people are searching for. Be a smarter Pinterest marketer and go download this immediately.
- Klout
I use a ton of apps to schedule out social media ahead of time, but Klout is one of my favorites. The difference between Klout and all of the other apps I’ve tried is that Klout can determine what peak times of day for your specific channels are. That’s right, it’s tailored specifically to you and your Facebook/Twitter followers. Every day the peak time changes, which I had no idea about.Boom. Productivity. - Slice
So, who else gets a gazillion packages a week? This is a “problem” that I feel like a total jerk complaining about here, but sometimes I have so many packages coming in and out that I start to lose track of when I’m supposed to get items delivered. Slice is great because it automatically scans your email for tracking numbers and you can view all of the packages that are en route to you at a glance. It will also send you a notification whenever your packages are delivered.And P.S., for all of you online shopaholics out there, Slice also tracks the price of your online purchases and if the price of the item you bought drops within a week, it will send you a notification. #blessed
- Canned Responses
This is an app I’ve been using for years and I’m kind of obsessed with it. I get a lot of similar emails and well, I send out a lot of similar responses. Canned Responses allows you to draft up pre-written responses for emails that you get, therefore making it easier and faster to answer emails. No, please don’t send a canned response for every single email you get, but know what situations when it is acceptable!When do I send out canned responses? Whenever a “community manager” asks me to create a collage for no compensation (let’s be real, we all get bombarded with those emails), whenever anyone asks me if I want a guest post on my website (I don’t accept guest posts), and when I flat out want to politely decline an offer that I don’t think is a good fit for me and my brand. I still customize these emails a bit and tailor it toward each brand/person, but it’s a great way to pre populate a message and get through my massive pile of emails faster.
What are some apps that help you blog more efficiently?
Leave a Reply