Holiday Gift Guide for Bloggers

Now that it's officially the Holiday season, you know what that means...Gift Guides are coming!  I am focusing on a different type of gift guide because my audience is full of bloggers.  If you have a blogger in your life that you don't know what to get for the Holidays or even if you want to treat yourself, I will be sharing various items that you can surprise them with.

Photo Gear

Bloggers take plenty of photos whether it's for their blog posts, social media feeds or website.  Photos are a necessity for bloggers, so check out this photo gear that the blogger in your life may fall in love with.

1. Jo Totes Missy Camera and Laptop Bag- camera bags don't have to be so boring, generic or masculine.  Consider a stylish camera bag like this one that also is large enough to fit a laptop.

2. Progo Wired Remote Shutter Release Control- One of the best things that you can have as a blogger is a remote control for your camera.  This ensures that your photos will come out crisp and clear.  A wired remote is useful for taking flatlays or photos of anything when you are behind the camera.

3. AUSDOM HD Laptop Webcam- bloggers are starting to get more involved in hosting webinars where they teach people how to do something or provide valuable tips.  Sometimes the built-in computer camera isn't going to cut it.  This webcam is both stylish and functional.

4. Wireless camera remote- it's a good idea to have both a wired and wireless camera remote.  The wireless remote is best for taking photos when you are in front of the camera like profile photos, about page photos and action photos of you working.

5. Snack Cap Lens Cap- a camera lens cap is a necessity and a unique one is even more of a necessity!  These lens caps by Photo Jojo are sure to bring a smile to your blogger friend's face!

6. COMAN MT50 Selfie Stick + Tripod all in one- in order to take the best pictures for a blog post and/or social media, it requires awesome lighting and a still camera.  The best way to keep the camera still is to use a tripod.  This tripod even doubles as a selfie stick...double yes!  It can hold up to a 5 pound dslr camera and mobile phones, so it's versitile!

Productivity

A blog doesn't run itself!  Bloggers have to stay productive, organized and focused when they are trying to increase their readership and elevate to the next level of blogging.  Check out these productivity products that can help them on their journey.

1. The Ultimate Blogging Workflow- Keeping track of all of the detailed steps of the ideal blogging process can be easy to forget.  The Ultimate Blogging Workflow can help your blogger friend get their blogging workflow all the way together!

2. Canva for Work- Digital products range from e-books, guides, spreadsheets, etc. Since Adobe products are a bit pricey, gift a Canva for Work account to someone. You can create various digital products and access tons of images. You can also design items to be printed, so whether you are web or print focused, Canva is for you!

3. The Profit Planner- this book teaches you the ins and outs of how to master sales, revenue, and daily organization in your business.  A blog is a business as well, so this book is perfect for bloggers that are serious about leveling up their blog to generate income.

4. Zapier - this is my favorite productivity tools because it focuses on task automation.  You can create various "zaps" that will do things on your behalf when you are unable to or if you can never remember to do it (like tweet, keep track of new email list subscribers, tagging customers based on an item that they purchased, etc.).  Their free version is great, but the paid version is AWESOME (I use this daily and LOVE it).  Any blogger that finds it hard to stay on top of blogging tasks needs to get Zapier in their life ASAP!

5. Elle & Company Resource Library- Lauren Hooker of Elle & Company offers a library of various blogging and business resources on a monthly subscription basis.  There is so much available in her library that bloggers of any level can use to aid them on their blogging journey.

Tech Gear

Whether it's gear for their phone, computer or iPad, bloggers need different tech items to do different things.  Check out the tech gear below to see what fun and useful items you can gift them!

1. iPad Slim Bluetooth Clamshell Keyboard Case- if your blogger friend has an iPad, this bluetooth keyboard case is a necessity so that they can blog on the go without having to lug their laptop around.  So many blogging programs have apps so they can use their productivity apps and work on their blog on the go (think coffee shops, cafes, at the park, etc.).  A change of scenery for blogging is easy when you have this case.

2. Yeti USB Microphone- as mentioned earlier, webinars are become more popular for bloggers and entrepreneurs. You want your audience to be able to hear you clearly, so invest in a high-quality microphone and let your voice be heard!

3. Tomtoc 360° Protective Laptop Sleeve- a laptop is an investment and you want to protect it as best as you can.  This laptop case is extremely protective with shock absorption and corner protection and it also looks pretty (various colors and patterns available)!  Cute and protective is a yes for me.

4. ZTON Cell Phone Holder- When recording quick videos on the go for social media, this cell phone holder is perfect because of its portable size.  It's also great for live streaming because holding your phone during an Instagram or Facebook live situation can get old very quickly!

5. iPhone case- this case is perfect for bloggers!  Blogging has so many levels involved that the average person cannot understand or relate to.  This case speaks for bloggers all over!

Apps

Apps, apps, apps!  Bloggers love them and use them for so many pieces of the blogging puzzle.  Photo planning, editing and video creation are apps that bloggers need.  Check out the apps below.  You can gift apps right through the App Store and Play Store!

1. UNUM- this is my go-to app for Instagram feed planning and for viewing photo stats.  You can pre-plan your Instagram feed, enter the image descriptions, add tags and even schedule the photos to remind you to post when it's time.  The paid version opens up access to more images in your planning feed and more statistical info on your followers, unfollowers, popular posts, etc.
2. Storeo- if you have ever watched an Instagram Story burst, you likely saw people get cut off mid-word at the 15 second mark.  The Storeo app lets you record one video that's as long as you want and when you're done it cuts the video up into 15 second clips.  This creates a smooth transition from story to story.  The paid version removes the Storeo watermark from the clips.
3. Videoshop-Video Editor- video content is becoming more and more popular each day.  Jump on the bandwagon and start pumping out some awesome mobile videos with the help of this app.
4. Facetune- self-promotion is a huge part of blogging and that means selfies for social posts.  The Facetune app is an awesome one used for correcting flaws and adjusting image clarity on selfies.  It's kind of like Photoshop for your phone!
5. Hype Type- this app is very useful for adding text animations and music to videos and images.  It's perfect for Instagram Stories and is a great way to add an extra something special to your posts.

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I hope this post gave you some ideas of what to get for the blogger on your holiday shopping list (or a treat for yourself!).  Have a wonderful holiday season!

Streamlining 101 (aka Automation’s Fraternal Twin)

A few posts back I went into detail about what automation is and how you can use it to your advantage as a 9-5 employee that also blogs on the side.  Automation saves you time because it steps in when you don’t have the time to step in yourself.  Of course EVERYTHING can’t be automated (boooo!!)...you still have to be involved in your blog processes at some point.  The best way to be involved and stay on track is to streamline your process then establishing workflows as a result.  Streamline things that you can’t automate so that you can use your time more efficiently on the things that you have to touch.  Then when you add Workflows into the mix, it turns into the productive trifecta! I consider Streamlining the fraternal twin of Automation because they are both cut from the same cloth (saving time), but they look a little different.

Streamlining is to improve the efficiency of a process, business or organization by simplifying or eliminating unnecessary steps, using modernizing techniques, or taking other approaches (credit).  This means to determine the best way to complete a task and stick to it if it’s giving you the results that you want.  If you’re constantly tweeting but aren’t seeing any traction from it, remove it from your process and put that extra time into something that works.  Once you have streamlined a process, you begin putting each piece together to create a workflow.  A Workflow is like a recipe.  You can have all of the ingredients, but without the instructions you won't have a meal.  Once you establish your workflow, you are on the road to consistency and we all know that consistency is one aspect that contributes to growth.

So how exactly can you streamline your blogging process?  Here are 6 things that you can do to get it together:

1 / Keep notes for brain dumping in Evernote

Notebooks, while cute and fun, are not as effective as a digital note system.  I used to be a huge advocate of writing in notebooks to keep all of my thoughts together, but the problems came when I was unable to find a particular note that I had written some time ago.  Flipping though pages and pages of notes to find one things is just not feasible.  While I still have a physical notebook, I rarely use it because my digital note taking system got my life all the way together!  I use Evernote for all of my ideas whether it’s blog posts, products, services, course ideas, email ideas, or even goals.  I love using a digital note taking system because I can easily organize all of my notes into notebooks AND I can do a keyword search if I’m trying to find a specific note.

So with this, brain dumping is now awesome.  Brain Dumping sounds like a huge mess (I mean, a dump is a place where a bunch of crap collects, right?), so bring some method to the madness by organizing the proverbial dump.  Group all of your ideas into categories and keep them nice and organized so that you can easily reference and find them in the future.

Pro Tip: If you still like to write notes or for some reason are unable to access your phone to add a note, you can always write them down then take a photo of it to upload to Evernote at a later time.  I do this as well and it’s just another way to keep all ideas organized.  Add a tag to the photo note so that you know what it’s about and can easily find it with a search.

2 / Create + follow Workflows in Trello

I’m late to the Trello train, but better late than never, eh? Trello is a web and Mobile App that you can use to create and organize workflows.  You can also create checklists, schedule due dates and invite people to join your boards (great for collaborating on a project!).  Before using it, I had a general blogging process, but I would still forget to do a few small things (like create new tweets for blog posts in advance, plan out Instagram stories content, etc.).  Now that I have created a workflow, there is no excuse why I would forget a step in my blogging process.  If you don’t currently have an official blogging workflow and have no clue what all you should be doing before, during and after a post is live, I have created a done-for-you Trello blogging workflow that you can use to get some clarity.  Click below for those gems!

If you know your workflow, there is no excuse for skipping steps.  This doesn't just go for bloggers. If you have a business, you should also be following a workflow.  It’s only going to make your life easier.  The other great thing about establishing a workflow is that if you ever get to the point where you are hiring help, they will be able to follow your workflows which makes training and process replication much easier.

3 / Add tasks and subtasks to an Editorial Calendar

Rather than just adding tasks to your calendar for the day that you want to have them complete by, you should really be scheduling all of the steps that it will take to complete those tasks.  This is so you know what you need to be working on to get a task done rather than just knowing when it’s due.  Don’t just schedule the end, schedule the process. In order to get the best grip on your time, you need to plan what you are going to do from beginning to end.  For example, you may want to post your blog post on 11/10, but when are you going to type it up?  When are you going to take and edit your photos?  Asana is the free calendar tool that I use to keep my tasks to do each day organized.  One of their best features is that you can schedule subtasks to accompany one main task, this way you can truly keep an accurate schedule. In the example below, the task with the large checkbox is the main task and the tasks under it with the smaller checkboxes are the subtasks.

Scheduling tasks and subtasks will help to streamline your process because you will know what you need to be working on each day.  Schedule each step of your workflow to stay on track.

4 / Batch Processing

Batching (aka Batch Days) may be something that you have heard about around the internet a lot lately.  Well there’s good reason for that because it can save tons of time.  Batch Processing is when you dedicate a certain block of time to work on one task.  For example, when I schedule my tweets for the week, I sit down and dedicate 20 minutes to nothing but scheduling the twitter content.  Another example is that I stockpile photos for Instagram, so I dedicate a block of time over the weekend to only take various pictures to post on Instagram in the future (oh, you thought Instagram was instant? Nope, not so much anymore).  A few more examples of what you can batch is creating blog posts, planning out your IG feed for the week (I use the UNUM app for this), creating freebies, creating email marketing content, etc.  Rather than spending time doing these things randomly or at the last minute, work on a chunk at a time and be done with it for the week/month.

5 / Create templates

There are certain tasks that you do repetitively when it comes to your blog.  When it comes to design elements, this is something that you shouldn’t have to create from scratch every time.  You should make a template of your designs and use them over and over again.  Create 4 variations of a template layout so that you can keep it consistent across the web and social platforms.  For example, create templates for blog post graphics, IG stories graphic, social media graphics, etc.  If you currently have a design program on your computer, awesome!  Make the templates using that.  If you do not have your own program, I recommend using Canva. This is another web/mobile app in which you can create various types of graphics for free.

Pro Tip: I own design programs and use them to create my templates, but I still use Canva as a backup just in case I want to post something but cannot access my laptop.  Just create a Canva version of your templates so that you can access them on the go.

 

6 / Create a FAQ page rather than answering the same questions constantly

You know those questions that people always tend to ask you on your blog comments, Instagram, wherever?  Rather than giving the same spiel to everyone, why not create an FAQ or similar page answering all of the questions?  This way, you can direct the inquirers to your website which in turn means more traffic added to your numbers!

You may be thinking, “I have no questions from readers/followers”.  This may be true, but your NICHE has general questions that people tend to ask.  Let’s use a food blogger for example.  Maybe they don’t get questions in their blog comments, but they know that people want to know the best knife set to purchase on a budget, or how to sautée vegetables properly.  Frequently asked questions that people want to know related to your niche can also appear on your FAQ page.  No clue what the popular questions are?  Use Google Trends to get some ideas.  Creating a FAQ page will save you time because your response to their questions going forward will be something like “Hi! Please check out my FAQ page for a detailed response to your question” rather than cutting into your time to reply to emails using the same general response.  Typing emails can take a while especially when you’re trying to be helpful and provide specific details.

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I hope some of these ideas resonated with you!  Saving time is something that I love to teach individuals how to do.  Now go ahead and start saving some time!