Are you a professional blogger?
I mean are you one of the serious bloggers who turn their passion into an online business and actually make a living through it?
Are you a smart blogger too?
A smart blogger is also a savvy blogger.
If you want to be a smart blogger, wish to save time, and start blogging efficiently, then this post may be exactly what you’re looking for.
In this post you will learn:
- The shifting trends for blogs
- Why you should adapt
- Which apps to use
- How these can help you
As you read along, you will understand how much more efficient your daily routine can be and how little effort it takes from your end.
What’s New
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, you must have heard of the invention of smartphones.
These revolutionary devices, which have now become so normal, that even our grandparents tend to FaceTime and Whatsapp us, have continuously evolved their technology.
At first, we only used our smartphones for the occasional weather check or a quick Facebook update.
Now we seem to spend more time on our phones than our actual desktops.
Adaptation in Blogging
With the change of the trend, you need to change your way of blogging.
But how exactly are you meant to achieve this and what tools are necessary to succeed?
The good news is, you probably already own everything to be the next big fish because all you need is your smartphone or a tablet!
The truth is, desktops and laptops are pretty old-fashioned by now, and almost everything can be done on a phone these days.
Whether it’s shopping, scanning virtual plane tickets, trading in the stock market or blogging, all you need is a phone or a tablet!
But with the phone, you need certain applications, which we’ll discuss in detail below.
The Blogging Apps You Want
1. WordPress
If you are one of 75+ million WordPress users, you may not know this, but they actually have an application on which you can access and edit your sites.
All you need to do is login with your already existing details, and you’re in. Now you can edit, create, and delete content, just like on your desktop.
You can also approve and reply to comments for instance. Having access to your phone is a lot easier than to a desktop and as we know, ‘time is money.’
Now that you can respond in no time, smoothen out mistakes on the go and upload media with your new app, you won’t experience blogging the same way.
This is especially great when you want to upload images you’ve snapped with your phone, as you don’t have to upload them to your desktop first then onto your WordPress account etc.
2. Pocket / BlogLovin’
As a successful blogger, it’s almost crucial to read other blogs and get in touch with other bloggers sooner or later.
Not only can this help you learn more, generate new ideas and possibly get inspired by others, it could also help you create new friendships!
Regardless of what niche you’re into, staying informed is always a good thing.
With the Pocket app or alternatively the BlogLovin’ app, you can now create a list of your favorite blogs, save certain blog posts you may want to read later, and even customize your interest.
These apps almost work like Netflix, so that you get sent other suggested bloggers to read that might interest you.
You can also access the saved posts later on when you’re offline, and read them on a plane for instance.
Alternatively, you can also snoop around and see what your friends or other bloggers like to read, thus further increasing your horizon and inspiration.
Both of these applications also work for your desktops, so you can sync all your saved files with one account.
3. Crowdfire
To keep up with the social aspect of blogging, you are probably familiar with Twitter and Instagram.
Spreading the word on these can greatly increase your social media presence and exposure, to millions of other people.
But it’s not always easy to filter out people you want to follow and those you don’t want to follow you back.
With the Crowdfire app, this now only takes a few taps of your finger.
You can easily be choosing people to follow, that liked a certain hashtag or follow certain trends.
On the other hand, you can easily remove hundreds of followers that aren’t following you back.
This is especially great for Instagram, as you’re only allowed to follow 7,500 people per account.
There are different types for this app, though. The free version has a set limit to follow and unfollow people.
This app also helps you schedule Instagram posts, so you don’t have to do it manually every certain time frame or worry about forgetting to post one.
Very handy application!
You can also access this application from your desktop if you fancy.
4. TagsForLikes
If you want your blog to go viral, you need to expose it to those that may be interested.
The best way to do that on Instagram is to use the right hashtag on your images and to make sure other people with that interest, see that image.
But typing out several different tags for each image is not only time consuming, but really annoying!
TagsForLikes can make your life a lot easier.
With this app, you can easily write down your favorite hashtags, save them and copy them whenever necessary.
It also gives you a good list of prewritten tags relevant for certain niches or categories, so you don’t even need to be creative.
All you have to do is go into a category such as food, for example, choose desserts, and copy all the hashtags.
Now you simply paste those to your ice cream picture, and watch as people ‘double tap’ away!
You may also have a look at the popular hashtags and occasionally use these for your posts.
5. Aweber
If you haven’t come across the term, “The money is in the list” you have now, and you will surely come across it again in your blogging life.
However, if you’re already holding a newsletter, you know how important it is to analyze your progress, and the given data as well as keeping your followers updated.
You want to broadcast routinely, ideally have an autoresponder and see what emails convert the best.
Personally, I’m using Aweber so I will talk about the features on their app. This doesn’t mean that the competitors don’t have similar features.
Quite the contrary, actually as MailChimp and GetResponse also have apps with almost identical features, just to name a few.
Although Aweber’s app is a bit limited, since you can only check all the data and see how it’s converting, it is still good to have.
You can easily switch from your different newsletters and see which subscribers opened certain broadcasts, how often, and how many times they clicked on the links provided.
If you want a successful newsletter, you need to make sure to write converting emails. Everything from the title to the context plays a huge role.
The insides found on the app can easily help you create the perfect mail.
6. Google Analytics
As a blogger, it is almost mandatory to have Google Analytics set up with your blog.
The amount of valuable information it provides you is near priceless enough and it is actually for free as well, so you really don’t have an excuse not to use it.
But besides the obvious, you should also be aware that there is a practical Google Analytics application you can use straight off your handy gadgets.
The app is almost as user-friendly as the desktop version.
If you have several websites, you can easily move back and forth to analyze your statistics.
What These Free Blogging Apps Can Do For You
Now that you have seen the recommended apps and their functions, hopefully, you see the power they provide.
Instead of being limited to working on a desktop or laptop all the time, you can now be completely mobile with just your phone.
Additionally, you can connect with like-minded bloggers, inform yourself about new trends, and share your content faster and easier than ever.
This means more exposure and branding for you and your blog, and making your content more easily available for the growing mobile world.
Ideas that might pop into your head can be written down and saved as drafts with images you took from your phone.
Understand the behavior of your followers and get rid of those that aren’t useful to you.
All of the above and more with the simplicity of a handful of apps that are free to download.
Once you get the hang of it, you’ll have thousands of followers and readers in no time.
Most of these apps help you further increase your reach, and as you know now, people spend more time than they should on their phones.
Make them spend it on your content!
Over to you –
So what are you going to do?
Remain hard-working and glued to your desk?
Or will you be location-independent, connected, and savvy instead?
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