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I’m a writer, but sometimes even I find it time consuming to continuously push out content. Luckily I’ve found some time saving tools to help me be consistent and get it all done.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”3984″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Before we jump into my top 10 favorite time saving tools, let’s talk about 3 ways to build a profitable blog with WordPress without actually blogging.
3 ways you can use WordPress to build a profitable blog while being super busy with the rest of your life
- Start selling products and turn your blog into an eCommerce Shop – Do you have any products you can sell? Any blogger will tell you that one of the best ways to bring in passive income is by selling products online. Particularly digital products will help save you a lot of time. You only have to make a digital product, like an ebook or online course one time. You can setup systems with your WordPress blog to have these sales taken on autopilot. You can even integrate your email marketing to send thank you emails or follow up surveys to previous purchasers. There is a lot of convenience and flexibility with having your own online store with WordPress.
- Sell access to information and turn your blog into a membership site. It’s so easy to create restricted content where you hold exclusive products. Have people buy subscriptions on a rolling basis or boost excitement by offer enrollment only at different times of the year. This has been by far my most lucrative and time saving sales model. People always want to connect to other community members and exchange resources.
- Add a marketplace to your blog and start making profits leveraging other brands’ business. Ever wonder why people are so successful selling services on Etsy or Ebay? It’s because they are able to grab the attention of customers seeking to buy products from other vendors. The other vendors aren’t always competitors, so they don’t have to worry about being at the cheapest price point. Simply having a product and placing it next to another brand’s product works as a solid marketing tactic. People may come looking for one thing, but they get excited because they see what you are offering, too.
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10 Time Saving Tools For Bloggers
WordPress
WordPress is a Content Management System. What does that mean? It allows you to store, edit and publish files. This is my number one time saving tool because before using WordPress, I was creating websites with code. When I thought I was upgrading by using a commercial hosting company like Wix and Weebly, I was disappointed by the limiting plugins and widgets. It was very obvious that I wasn’t using professional software and even more upsetting that I was paying for my site to use overused templates. When I started building it from scratch, it didn’t look that much better or looked bootstrapped and disjointed from trying to connect different services and platforms that didn’t flow. With WordPress, I was able to find themes that included plugins and with page builders I’ve been able to use easy drag and drop features to avoid manually inputting HTML code altogether. With WordPress, I’m able to make changes to my blog and websites quickly and easily.
2. Trello
Trello is my ultimate business hub. I keep everything there from my brand colors to blog post ideas. It’s extremely helpful for creating to-do lists but also “talks” with other programs like Google Docs and when connected through Zapier a whole lot of other software I use with my WordPress blog. Huge time saver!
3. ActiveCampaign
I absolutely love using ActiveCampaign as my email service provider. I switched from Mailchimp and Aweber when I wanted to do more with automation and sales conversion optimization. You’d be surprised how much a good email sequence can help you convert sales. They say the fortune is in the follow up and that’s made possible by being able to send emails to your blog’s visitors. It would be really hard to track and follow up with everyone who visited your blog without an email provider. Having the ability to email everyone on my list or a segmented portion of my list saves be a lot of time. Problem is, most people don’t work on growing their email list. If you want to get started on this now, learn how to start your email list from scratch here.
4. SmarterQueue
I used to feel so overwhelmed with blogging because for each post I needed to do a series of things to promote it like creating a graphic for each platform – Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and twitter, post the photo, add a caption and share it to respective social media account individually. It was exhausting, to say the least. Since finding the Smarterqueue app, I’ve been able to do bulk content creation and scheduling all in one day for multiple blogs and social media accounts. This app has helped me plan and manage content weeks and sometimes even month in advance.
5. Dubsado
I love that I can create email script templates and workflows inside of Dubsado and use them for various clients. This tool alone, makes me seem like I’ve got a team of full time employees helping me run my business. It sends reminders to clients to pay their invoices, allows me to send canned contracts and reoccurring subcontracts. The workflows are extremely helpful and most recently they added a scheduling feature so that I don’t have to go back and forth to pick out a meeting time with clients. I was able to eliminate 3 other tools that I was paying for just by purchasing Dubsado.
6. PopSocial
PopSocial manages my Instagram account. I am too busy to constantly scroll down Instagram to like photos. PopSocial assigns real people to do this task for you, helping you build real relationships. I often get messages in my inbox from folks PopSocial followed for me, many of which are my target market. Don’t waste your time buying IG followers, instead, hire folks like Pop Social or another social media management agency.
7. PixiStock
One thing that was a huge time eater for me, was searching for photos across the internet. I recently gave up on picture searching through various free platforms and opted for a membership with Pixistock, a stock image company. This keeps my IG timeline as well s my blog featured photos fresh and interesting. I can buy from collections and make sure they all have the same filter and look which creates a very uniform look to my site. I still use free stock images from time to time, but this has cut down my blogging time tremendously.
8. TubeBuddy
Want discoverable searchable headlines? Stop wasting time researching what to write about and learn exactly what people are searching for online. Check out TubeBuddy! This comes in handy when looking for creative headlines that people are actually searching for on YouTube. Much like Google, YouTube is a social site that uses a search engine to bring up content for both my YouTube videos and Blog headlines. I don’t have to guess what will bring me traffic to my blog.
9. Social BlueBook
With Social Bluebook pricing is made easy for Rising Influencers. What’s your influence worth? Site tells you what to charge based on how much engagement and following you have. I think it’s great to have a starting point, but once you feel confident, you may not want to rely on an algorithm to decide your prices, instead charge based on the value.
10. Hello Ambi Designs & Hosting
I know I already talked about WordPress, but you simply cannot have a blog without hosting. All of the software used for hosting at Hello Ambi Designs & Hosting is tailor-made for WordPress. This means that it is optimized to run WordPress blogs at their very best. Our websites are super fast and have 99.9% uptime, which means, visitors won’t have to wait to view your content, an issue you may experience with cheaper web hosting companies. When it comes to blogging, nothing will save you more time than a powerful hosting provider. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
