Last week we asked our Twitter community to tell us what is the one thing they could improve about their blogging, and the resounding answer was … consistency and productivity.
It is challenging for bloggers to create consistent content on their blogs, especially when they have busy lives with other jobs, family, commitments, and STUFF. Crafting a good quality blog post takes time and dedication, it’s not something that can be banged out in 5 minutes. The average blog post takes around an hour or two to write. That’s quite the commitment!
So how can we bloggers improve our productivity, find shortcuts and maintain consistency on our blogs?
Tools! It’s all about the tools!
Take the time to find the best tools to aid your productivity and you’ll be the consistent blogger in all the land. Maybe.
Blogging Productivity Tools
GoogleDocs and Drive
There are alternatives such as Dropbox, but Google Drive is free, easy to sync with devices and great for sharing with co-workers. Create documents within your Google Drive and never lose a draft again. I recommend building yourself an editorial calendar in a Google Docs spreadsheet.
Along with my gmail account I use a host of other Google products which prove most useful. I use Google Docs/Drive for document hosting. I create ‘word’ and spreadsheet documents directly on my Google Drive and I even use the app so I can access the files on my phone when I’m out and about.
***
Evernote
Set yourself up an Evernote account and add the app to all of your devices. You can then sync your notes wherever you are. Perfect for on-the-go note-taking, quick post write-ups, blog topics brainstorming and bookmarking inspiring web articles. You can create notebooks within Evernote making it nice and easy to find your work.
***
WordPress Editorial Calendar
WordPress users, if you have yet to get this plugin, do so immediately. It is fully blog life enhancing. It’s free, simple and will allow you to quickly arrange your upcoming posts sufficiently.
***
Buffer
This is a great program for adding articles and post from around the internet to a ‘buffer’ which then sends them to your chosen social media channel. Great for regular social media sharing and give out some blog love.
***
Hootsuite
I use Hootsuite on both my phone and laptop for managing my social media channels. It particularly useful for following hashtag conversations (hello blogger chats!) and scheduling tweets.
***
IFTTT
I use If This Then That recipes, as they call them, to automate cross-promoting on social media channels. For instance, when a new blog post is published on Rosalilium the title and link will be posted as a tweet on my twitter feed.
***
and when all else fails you can’t go wrong with a trusty ol’ notebook (unicorns may or may not be optional)!
May I recommend adding http://pozzr.com/ to that list?