4 Useful Tools and Resources for Bloggers

Hello friends. This is my first post in regards to a "blogger tips and tricks" post, so I hope this will help those who are currently learning how to blog, or are interested in starting out a blog on their own! These are the four websites that I currently use everyday, or during days I put out a blog post. They are simple and easy to use, and improve my way of blogging immensely.

1. Bloglovin

Bloglovin is more of a blogging community more than anything, but it's still a very useful resource. What I love about Bloglovin is being apart of a community of bloggers, who also share the same interests as I do. I love reading blog posts, and I enjoy commenting on others work. While being in a blogging community, you can read, comment, and share your thoughts and ideas. You can follow your favourite bloggers, and find new bloggers you've never heard about. Many bloggers out there offer great ideas you can bounce off of, and this all provides great inspiration in writing your own posts. 

With Bloglovin, I'm instantly updated as to when my favourite bloggers have a new post up. It's nice to have everything you want to read all in one place.

2. Bitly

Before blogging, I knew nothing about websites that could shorten your url links. I always wondered how people did it and how they were able to even tweet words after their url links. With Bitly, you're able to shorten your long URL and receive a custom bitlink. This makes tweeting a whole lot easier because you get the opportunity to explain what your link is, rather than posting up just a suspicious link. Bitly also allows you to create an account and save a list of all your bitlinks you've created. It also tracks your traffic for each bitlink, so you know how many people clicked the link on a given day. 

3. Buffer

Buffer is an amazing app/website that has changed my whole scheduling life. I used to find it so tedious to keep having to go back on Twitter every few hours to tweet about my most recent blog post, and having to do it everyday was even worse. With Buffer, you can pre-schedule your tweets and Facebook posts to a certain time, and have them post it for you! With the free version you're only allowed 9 tweets/Facebook posts in your queue, but that's more than enough for me, since I only tweet about my blog posts 3 times a day.

I love how easy it is to use Buffer, and I don't have to remind myself to tweet about my recent blog post, because I've already done it. Buffer is an awesome time saver.

4. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a great tool for keeping track of your visitors and what kind of people are viewing your blog, if you care about that kind of stuff. It allows you to see who your main audience is, and along with SEO, you can also find out what people are searching when they end up on your website! As a new and still growing blog, I love using Google Analytics to find out what my viewers are searching, and what blog posts they find most interesting. This is a great way for you to find out who your target market is for your blog, and to try and focus your posts on them. Another great thing about Google Analytics? It's free! 

Even though I've only been blogging for a year now, I feel like I have some experiences and made some mistakes along the way. I am here to share what I've learned and gained from this journey of mine. I hope you enjoyed this post, and will be here for the next one! 

Do you know any other great tools and resources for bloggers? 

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An Insiders Guide to Blogging

Hey guys! Today's post is going to be a little different from my regular ones. Laurren from farfetch.com, an online luxury fashion website, has reached out to me to share this beautiful infographic about an insider's guide to blogging. 

Though I've only been blogging for a short amount of time, I feel like I've been doing this my whole life. I absolutely love blogging and I wish I started sooner. There are so many amazing blogs out there, and we all want to know, how can you make yours stand out? Well here is an awesome infographic to help new and old bloggers get their voices heard! 

Weren't those some great tips? Anyone can start a blog, you don't have to be a professional to make one. Blogging is an escape from my everyday reality, and in the short amount of time I've been doing it, I think I've found my true calling. 

Here are some of my own tips for blogging:

• Get yourself heard: Don't be afraid to tweet about new posts, and share your content on your social media. Every time I upload a new post I tweet it, Instagram it, and Facebook it. I sometimes even tweet it a few hours later so people who missed my first tweet, will see this one. Join blogging communities like Bloglovin. Its a great way to get your blog out there, and also see other blogs you may be interested in. 
• There's no such thing as a bad idea: If you have a blog post idea, don't be afraid to make it because you're afraid people will judge you. Its your blog, you can talk about what you truly feel passionate about. Write for yourself first.
• Reply back in a timely manner:  Connect with your readers. If they comment on your posts, try to comment back in a timely manner. It shows that you read your comments and you care about what they have to say. I admit that sometimes I forget to reply back, but I've been trying my best to remember! This also applies to emails. Reply back to emails you get from companies, letting them know what your answer is to their offers and such. 
• Share your tips and knowledge: Do you have some tips that might help others? Share them. Don't be afraid that you're giving your secrets away. People love reading about tips to make their lives easier, why don't you be their inspiration? 
• Be patient: You're not going to be a famous blogger overnight. Gaining readers and followers will take time. There were some moments where I felt like it would be impossible to get readers, but it will happen. Stick to writing what you love, and don't give up hope! 

Are you a blogger? What are your tips for new bloggers? 

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Blog Proof Review - An Editing Service for Bloggers!

Happy Saturday my fellow readers! As a blogger, and I know a few of my readers are bloggers too, we all come to a few issues when we write our blog posts. There have been too many days where I write my blog posts a little late, trying to rush to put them up, and then I forget to edit before I publish it live. By then, it's too late. A bunch of people have seen my grammatical errors! When I re-read my posts, I see a bunch of spelling mistakes, bad sentence structure, and horrible use of the wrong tense. This is why Blog Proof was created to save the day.

Today's post is going to be a review* on Blog Proof and the services they offer.

First off, what is Blog Proof?
Blog Proof provides proof reading and editing services to bloggers, in order to provide great and grammatical free content!

How does it work?
To simplify it, you choose and purchase one of their services they offer, make the payment and send in your post so they can edit it for you. They will efficiently get it back to you in a timely manner so you can publish your post, care free of errors.

Right now they are currently offering their basic editing option to all their customers. (They also have other service options which I will talk about a little further down the post). You choose from word counts of 500 words, 1000, or 2000. From that point on you just follow the instructions on their website for a secure checkout and its smooth sailing from there.

Now onto my review.
I got a great opportunity to try Blog Proof's services and sent in a copy of one of my blog posts in the middle of the night, after their business hours.

Their business hours are:
Monday - Friday 9am to 11pm
Saturday - Sunday 10am to 10pm

If you send your blog post within the business hour times, you should receive an email with your edited post within 4-12 hours based on how long your post is (500 words to 2000 words).
If you send your blog post after their business hours, they will attempt to send it back to you the next day by noon (500 words), next day by 2pm (1000 words), or next day by 10pm (2000 words).

Those are fairly reasonable turnover times considering they could be bombarded with blog posts to edit all in one day.

I sent my 1054 word blog post to them in the middle of the night and received my post back within a few hours. Awesome! Upon receiving my email the editor of my post was very friendly and told me what she changed about my post. I re-read everything and it sounded great!

Blog Proof also provides Monthly Packages and Rush Orders to their customers, if you're not interested in the Basic Editing option.

Monthly Packages
Package one: The monthly packages are mainly for bloggers who want to use their services frequently. For a monthly fee which is about 50% less than ordering post by post, you get up to 30 edited posts for 30 days with a 1000 word count limit.

Package two: This one is for people who need an editor almost always. These people are creating more than one post a day. With this package you are getting your own personal reader!

Rush Orders
This option is for bloggers who need their posts edited ASAP! These are only offered during business hours, and are similar to the basic editing options, but the turnover time is half the time.

What I love most about Blog Proof is that they are offering an amazing service to make the blogging life a little easier for us bloggers. Blogging is definitely one of my most favourite things to do, but sometimes having to constantly re-read your post before you publish it can get a little tedious. The worst parts are when your posts are super lengthy and you're trying to write more than once a day because you want to have your posts pre-scheduled. Who has time to read all of them on short notice? That's why Blog Proof is here to help.

If you're interested in using any of Blog Proof's services today, I have great news for you guys!
When you're shopping the options on blogproofer.com, use the Promo code ANY20 (make sure its in all caps!) to receive 20% off any services. This offer will be expiring August 31, 2014, so make sure to take advantage of this limited time offer! (Coupon will only be valid once per customer).

Hope you enjoyed my review today for Blog Proof!

*Disclaimer: I was given the opportunity as a blogger to test out and review Blog Proof's service. 
All opinions are based on my personal use.

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