I've been blogging since a while now, and also am running a small business at the same time, but only recently I've found a great routine to plan, schedule, write, work, publish and create, all of this while also staying organized. Most of it is thanks to some great (and mostly free) online tools, websites and apps that help me schedule, promote and plan ahead, while also staying updated with my website's analytics. Here I've written down a little list of favourite tools that are especially awesome for bloggers and small business owners!
Stay tuned until the end for a free printable weekly planner!
Buffer - As much as I like to publish authentic content on social media too, sometimes scheduled tweets are the only way to go for me. I usually only schedule tweets to promote my blog posts, usually 4/5 times spread during the day. You'll be able to pre-schedule standard hours for your tweets, so it's great to look at when your followers are more active on Twitter and strategically plan ahead when to make your tweets go live.
Sunrise Calendar - I usually plan my blog posts a month or so ahead, so it's great to have a nice calendar app where to plan ahead when those posts are going live on my blog. Sunrise Calendar has a lovely interface, and it allows me to use different colours for different typologies of posts (like food, beauty, style, etc.) to be able to never publish the same type of posts two days in a row.
LikeBtn - See that little hearts/likes counter in the footer of my posts?! I know there're a tun of plugins to install it for free on Wordpress, but it's not that easy to find an aesthetically pleasing button that works fine on Blogger too, but LikeBtn is doing the trick for me. It's not always free, but is very inexpensive and a great way to see what your readers actually like.
MailChimp - I'm new to newsletters, but I'm really into building a mailing list to stay connected with people that is really interested in my blog content and business and MailChimp is super easy to use (even without following a guide) and it's great because there're plugins for Wordpress and Squarespace, and easy form codes to implement anywhere in your template.
Coffitivity - This is so great! If you're one that likes to work in coffee shops but can't really be in one everyday, Coffitivity recreates the sounds of a café to make you feel like you're there whereas you're actually in your boring office. It's a boost for inspiration, plus you can pick the sound you most like!
Mapbox - Great for lifestyle and travel bloggers, Mapbox allows you to create maps of your favourite cities to place a mark where your favourite shops, bakeries, restaurants, ect. are located to suggest them to your followers. It's a lovely idea to add to a page of your lifestyle/travel blog, as you can also add links to your own content in the description of the place to reindex your readers to your reviews or photos.
Twitter Cards - Did you know you can create cards on Twitter to make it super easy for your followers to visit your website or subscribe to your newsletter without even leaving Twitter? You can create lead, website, images or app cards for free, but to me these are extremely lovely for promoting and incrementing my mailing list!
Pinterest for Business - If you're using Pinterest already, you'll know its a great one for inspiration. If you're looking into inspire your following, it must be the place where to promote your products or content. Sign up to Pinterest for Business to see the stats of your Pinterest account and see which pins are more popular and even how people pin from your website. Take a look at this amazing guide if you're new to promoting your blog/small business on Pinterest.
Google Analytics - You'll know Google Analytics better than me, but if you've not yet signed up, you really need to take the step. The tricky part is setting it up, but once done, you'll see all the stats of your blog in one place, even the demographic of your readers, which is not only interesting to know, but also important to understand what kind of people is interested in your blog/small business.
Rich Pins - These add extra informations right under your pins, and make it super easy for your followers to see what your recipes, places, products pins are about!
What about your favourite online tools for creatives? Do you already use all of these? x
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