12 Amazing Tools For Boosting Your Blogging Productivity

The most crucial problem every single blogger is faced with is not insufficient traffic to their blog, nor is it developing the best social media strategy. It’s productivity, or lack thereof, because it influences every other aspect of blogging. Posting high-quality content on a regular basis, which means at least two times a week, is an absolute must, and for some bloggers, that might be a nearly impossible feat.

It’s not because they are lazy, or they lack talent, but because they are bad at managing their time and get easily distracted by something else. And it’s perfectly fine, because everybody’s different in terms of their working habits, and how much time it takes them to go from full-on procrastination mode to typing away furiously at their keyboards.

However, that doesn’t mean you need to let it limit your blogging capacity. There are plenty of things you can use to your advantage to change the way you approach your work and boost your output, such as a whole slew of useful tools and resources to help you improve your productivity, take it to the next level, and make sure it stays there. The following list contains 12 tools that can assist you in achieving that.

1. Focus Booster

One of the most efficient ways to eliminate distractions and focus on your job is the Pomodoro Technique, which involves working intensely for 25 minutes, and then taking a short break for 5 minutes. After you complete four of these cycles, you are allowed to take a longer break. Focus Booster is a time-tracking app which takes advantage of this approach, so instead of looking at the clock every so often, you can install this tool and concentrate on your work, until it lets you know that it’s time to take a break, or go back to work.

2. Trello

While organizer apps are very good at keeping you on track and managing your work schedule, they are usually so analytical and boring to look at, most bloggers avoid using them altogether. If you find it more comfortable to use visually oriented tools, you may want to check out Trello, whose user interface recalls that of Pinterest. But, in addition to posting photos, you can also add your notes, comments, labels, lists, and scheduled tasks.

3. CoSchedule

If WordPress is your blogging platform of choice, then you’ll love CoSchedule. It acts both as a plugin you can use with WordPress and a web app whose primary task is to provide you with a powerful editorial calendar, but it offers more than just that. You will also like its social media-oriented features which enable you to schedule your posts for publishing across all of your social media accounts. It is a huge time-saver, which means you can focus on writing or figuring out your marketing strategy.

4. ZenWriter

If you find Microsoft Office too expensive, massive, or distracting, perhaps it is time for you to check out a minimalistic writing app which can help you battle distractions and shift your focus to writing and nothing else. ZenWriter is one of the best tools for the job, with its streamlined and super-sleek interface which is free of any features that aren’t essential for creating awesome written content.

5. Australian Writings

If you run into writer’s block, don’t beat yourself up about it, because it happens to everyone. It’s perfectly normal not to feel particularly creative at times, but that doesn’t mean your blog or your audience have to wait until you feel inspired again. You can share some of the burden and fill out the gaps in your creativity by getting in touch with writers at Australian Writings, which are capable of creating brilliant content for your blog and social media outlets. Also, their editors can save you a ton of time by going over your work and improving it.

6. Hootsuite

Managing multiple social media account is really important, but it’s also one of the most tiresome, boring, and time-consuming tasks you will encounter as a blogger. Not if you decide to use Hootsuite, though. The app is laid out like a dashboard which features all of your social network activities, and which allows you to publish and schedule posts, collaborate with other members of your team, view stats, monitor performance, and plenty of other stuff.

7. Flipboard

Flipboard is a brilliantly designed online app which is laid out like a magazine and features the best content from all of your favorite sources, such as blogs, websites, and social media streams. It will save you a lot of time by providing you with inspiring topics, but also with trending themes and articles you can share on your social media accounts, which results in more frequent posting. Other than that, it is just wonderful to look at and really contagious, so might want to be careful not to spend too much time using it.

8. Asana

Asana is one of those tools which you simply need to have as part of blogging arsenal. It is suitable for managing every single aspect of your projects, regardless of their size and complexity. For instance, you can manage your blogging schedule, set an email list, collaborate with your team members and distribute tasks. You will be able to see a spike in your productivity with this gem in no time.

9. Spoken.ly

Song verses, inspiring quotes, or clever phrases, pasted onto an equally inspiring images are all the rage nowadays on social media, especially Facebook. Enhancing your blog’s content with some of that is a good idea, but creating that sort of images takes a long time if you are using Photoshop or some other similar app. Spoken.ly, however, can help you get it done in minutes, because the entire process is semi-automated. Check it out.

10. Adobe Kuler

Now, unless you’re a graphic designer, you will probably find yourself out of your comfort zone when deciding on your blog’s graphics, color schemes in particular. Even though you may feel really strong about the combination of colors you have come up with, there are rules which indicate which color schemes are the most pleasing the human eye. Check out Adobe Kuler, which is a simple, yet effective tool that can help your visual content pop in no time.

11. SEMRush

There comes a point in every blogger’s career when they are frustrated with the fact their competitors are driving more traffic to their websites and blogs, despite offering inferior content. This may be down to poor choice of keywords on your part. SEMRush can help you get back on track, because it is able to analyze your competition’s content and pinpoint the exact keywords which are responsible for such high traffic volume.

12. Google Webmaster Tools

You may already be using Google Analytics, but you should also check out Google Webmaster Tools, which is a suite of tools that are focused more on making sure your website is working like a charm. It checks deep underneath the hood and provides information on how you can improve the structure of you blog, whether it’s through tweaking with the HTML code, or some other way. Also gives you info about your blog’s Google Index status and safety.

As you can see, you can improve your productivity regardless of your creativity, schedule, and work habits. All you have to do is rely on these amazing tools and let them do some of the work for you. As a result, you will be more productive, which means more posts, more traffic, and more potential customers.

About the author
Stephanie Norman is a professional writer and contributing blogger with 4 years of experience from Sydney. She writes creative and academic content covering content marketing, blogging, and writing issues as a freelancer. You can follow her at Facebook and Google+.

Read More

Importance Of SEO In Business

The main aspect of SEO is making your website easy for both users and search engine robots to understand. Search engines have become increasingly sophisticated. It still can't see and understand a web page as the same way a human can. SEO helps the engines to figure out what each page is about, and how it is useful for the users. Search Engine Optimization is commonly known as, one of the most misunderstood and misinterpreted terms in the world of marketing. SEO is a fantastic way of making sure that the most suitable people find your site and encounter your domain. Let’s discuss each of these in turn.

1. SEO is good for Business Visibility and Branding

When people search for the products or services, you obviously want to appear as high in the search engine rankings as possible, but for the reasons this is more than just because you want them to click to your website. For instance, they search, click on some websites, edit their search terms, search again, click on some websites, further hone their search terms, search again, and so on. When internet users search for specific products or services that they want, make sure that your site is at the top of the list. That is how you will boost relevant traffic and ensure that the people encounter your products. Sometimes appearing at the top of the list will produce positive results, even if potential consumers fail to click the link.

What does this mean for your business?

It means that if you can continually show in all these search results, you are gaining more and more mindshare with each potential customer. Chances are more that they will eventually click to your website, and since you continually displayed in all their search results, they will trust you much more and brings us to the next reason why SEO is important in business.

2. SEO Provides Credibility for Your Business

The consumers make mental notes of companies that shows up in the Google and on other search engines. It is a subconscious note for some, and they do nonetheless. In the minds of consumers, your ranking becomes a crown of confidence. That may sound a bit exaggerated, but research has shown that higher search rankings lead to more credibility in eyes of the consumers. All top online businesses and websites engage in SEO to further their interests. It means that your site should appear more credible to the user if you follow. Most of the people consider the ranking as an indication of the quality of the website. It means that domains appear at the top are much more appealing to your target market. If you want to create a professional and up market image for your business SEO will surly help you to achieve the goal.

3. SEO Brings Business Traffic

Traffic is not going to make you any money. The first step in converting a consumer to a customer is to get them in the door, so-to-speak. All those people searching on the Internet day and night are not necessarily going to make you any money, but chances are that few of them will eventually become your customer because of your search ranking. What is better is SEO is usually a good deal more affordable than store leases in Times Square.

4. SEO is one of the Best ROI’s in Advertising

SEO always rewards your business for its efforts at a higher rate than any other traditional forms of offline advertising. The same can be done for almost all types of Internet marketing. The reason for this, SEO is an inbound marketing strategy; which allows you to market to the people when they are looking for the products and the services. You don’t have to interrupt; or have to take up space on a page where they are reading a news article. All you have to do is convince the customer that you are the best business to purchase the products. In other words, with SEO, half the legwork is already done for you.

5. SEO Gives Unmatched Insight into the Customers

SEO generates valuable traffic for the site. Google Analytics tracks this traffic through important data and metrics. The data and metrics are very much valuable. They give you insight into the customers. It can help you make more informed decisions regarding your business and its strategies, both online and offline. The bottom line is that SEO can help you to build your business by getting you in front of your potential customers exactly when they are looking for the products or services. It provides reliable sources of user data and analytics that can help you to tailor your message to attract new customers. As long as the Internet continues to drive consumer buying habits, SEO is an important resource for your business marketing efforts.

6. SEO ensures people from the right locations to view your pages

Companies that provide local SEO services can help you to make people living in the right locations view your pages. It is mainly important for firms that do business within specific areas. For instance, the SEO can ensure internet users from the surrounding areas and stumble across the business. There is no point appearing in listings for other locations or cities if you only do the business in a certain area. People with the good skills in SEO will know how to boost your site towards the chosen demographics.

SEO strategies might not be profitable instantly. But in the long run, it can work wonders for any business. Designing and implementing an effective SEO strategy can assist business owners in organically driving traffic and increasing brand loyalty. This makes the brand more valuable and recognized. As a tool that constantly changes, you must always take fresh look at your online presence. Working with a professional who understands SEO will mean always being on the first page of rankings, will have a great reputation on social networks, and in general always be in a position to capture the attention of more consumers.

About the author
Edna Jonas is an essay writing expert having 10 years of experience. She is working for the Essay writing service company, which helps students for their academic works like essay writing, term paper writing, dissertation writing etc.

Read More