Organizing Your Social Media for the New Year

There are so many social networks out there--Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Periscope, Instagram--and the list goes on and on. In this online world we are constantly trying to market ourselves, reach a larger audience, and take on what's trendy and new. These social networks can be great, but as more pile up it appears that our attention is spread thinly to all of these new platforms. The New Year is a perfect time for a social media clean out.

It's time to dust out your accounts, sweep up your old tweets, and reclaim your three month old profile pictures. As the New Year approaches a lot of us are making new resolutions and hoping to create new habits. One habit that I'm hoping to achieve this coming year is the ability to fine tune and focus on a particular set of social media accounts.

Say goodbye to all of those networks that you signed up for and never used. By forcing yourself to spread your attention thin across all of these platforms, you are not living up to the possible potential you could have on one particular network.

It's not as easy as it sounds though. For me, social media seems like my life--and in a sense, it is. I've created this business for myself where I attempt to master all platforms and teach others how to do the same. But mastering a platform and deciding if its the right one for you are two different things. Just because you understand how a social media platform works, doesn't mean that you should market through it.

Think about it: is this social media network where my audience is? Are the people that I want to reach out to using this network? If you answered no to those questions, then maybe its time to shut down that social media account.

Now that you've whittled down the amount of networks you are using, the next step is to clean out your content. Here are a few tips for taking control and organizing your social networks for this New Year.

Change up your profile pictures.

Profile pictures become very static for a lot of businesses. Maybe its time to change it up. By giving yourself a fresh face for this New Year you will allow your social media to look clean and new again. 

Update your bio.

This is another one of those things that becomes very static. A lot of times we haven't even changed our biographies on our social media sites since the first day that we made the account. Take this time to review what your bio is saying about you or your brand. Is it still relevant? Do you have something fresh and new to say?

Study your analytics.

This is my favorite part of the New Year. I review all of the posts that I had previously put on my social networks and figure out what worked and what didn't. This is an excellent thing to do all through out the year, but by paying close attention to what worked particularly in 2015, you can make 2016 shine even more!

Start scheduling.

If you don't use a scheduling tool for your social networks then I would suggest making the New Year your time to experiment with some. There are amazing free scheduling tools available that can alleviate so much of your stress. I love using Hootsuite to plan ahead and make sure that I can keep a consistent presence on all social network sites. The sooner you start scheduling your posts, the easier the New Year will seem.

Are you planning on doing a New Year's cleanse on your social media sites? Let me know how you declutter your social media networks in the comment section below!

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5 Reasons You Should Be Prepping Your Blog Post Ahead of Time

I'm sitting here, a week before I plan to have this post go live, drafting out my notes, editing the pictures that I want to use, and making sure that all of my social network posts are ready to go. I like working ahead of time because it saves time in the long run, reduces my stress levels, keeps me on a schedule, boosts my productivity, and gives me plenty of time for all of the other necessary blog tasks that I'm doing on the daily.

And I'm not the only one. Bloggers all around will tell you that finding a method that works for you is the difference between a successful blogging business and a personal past time. While prepping ahead of time might not exactly be what works for you, it is what works for me. And I want to share with you my reasons why you should at least give this method a try.

1. It saves time.

Sundays. That's when I attempt to finish up all my blog posts for the upcoming week and make sure that everything is ready to go. Doing this on a weekend as I sit on the couch and binge watch "Once Upon a Time" on Netflix saves me time during the week. I don't have to worry about scheduling time in between classes on a busy Tuesday to make sure that my Newsletter is ready to go, or spend hours on Thursday rummaging through emails looking for all of the correspondence with my upcoming Blogger Series posts.

Working ahead, and having at least a plan and a draft ready to go before the actual date of publish, saves me so much time in the long run. I can feel confident that I won't have to rush in the future, stress about getting my posts done and up, or missing the publish date that I had planned for.

2. Reduces your stress.

So now that I've got all of my posts drafted for the upcoming week, I can literally take a sigh of relief. It reduces so much stress off of me to know that this blog that I love to write for is still pushing out tons of wonderful content without me having to constantly be on it or checking up on everything. When you schedule your posts ahead of time, have a plan, and create templates and drafts, you will have time to do other things, focus on stuff that you love, and not freak out about creating blog content.

All of these tips that I am sharing might make it seem like I don't enjoy writing this content; but, yet I truly do. I, like most of you, live busy lives that include jobs and families and other things besides blogging. So, reducing my stress about curating content can allow me to stress about other things--like making sure your dogs don't tear up the Christmas tree (aka what they're doing right now!!).

3. Keeps you on a schedule.

I create a blogging schedule a month in advance. Creating that schedule/editorial calendar is the first step in making sure that I am organized and stress free. But once I have that schedule, I need to make sure to act on it and stay consistent. If I miss a post because I don't make time to write it, then my entire plan for the month could be jeopardized--or even worse, I won't have time to write that post and fit it in at all.

Writing my posts in advanced and having things queued up and ready to go helps me keep to my schedule. Having a routine is good for your blog and for your readers. If your readers can know when to expect new content, they will be more likely to keep an eye out for your posts, look forward to reading your blog, and feel like they are part of a consistent community.

4. Boosts your productivity.

The reason that I like to do everything ahead of time on a Sunday is because that is the beginning of the week. This is the time for me to start fresh, get ahead, and build momentum. Having already started a week on a positive and productive note, I am more likely to continue the trend and push myself to achieve more and more.

Having that boost of productivity can simply come from taking some time to think ahead, curate some amazing content, and draft out what I plan to do for the rest of the week. Not only am I achieving the goals that I have outlined for myself, I am also making sure to tick off all of the other tasks that I need to make sure to get done on a weekly basis as well.

5. Gives you time for other tasks.

The single most important reason for me to prepare my posts in advance is that prepping ahead of time gives me time for other things. I feel like I can spend Mondays and Tuesdays and every other day of the week working on social media or house cleaning tasks that would otherwise be occupied by my need to blog. I feel as though I can come home knowing that content is already being pushed out onto my blog without me having to do anything that day. This gives me time to accomplish other necessary things and work my way towards achieving more than I ever thought I could have.

Working ahead can be a bit of a challenge for some people. And trust me, I totally understand. The first week or so is usually the worst because you feel as though you have to do double the work just to get everything ready to go. But once you make this a routine you will be able to accomplish so much more. Something as simple as prepping your blog posts ahead of time can be that one thing that pushes your online business to the next level.

Do you plan ahead and schedule things out in advance? Let me know in the comment section below. I would love to hear about all of your blog schedules and online tools that you use to stay on top of your tasks and productive.

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HTML: A beginner's cheat sheet [As Seen On: IT Training Tips]

Any web page that you might visit using a web browser is almost always just some sort of coded document. There are multiple types of different coding languages that all function slightly different and are for different purposes. Most commonly though, any website you encounter will be written in Hypertext Markup Language, or HTML for short.

No matter what level of web development you intend to pursue, learning HTML is essential in order to effectively get the job done. Learning HTML is the first step for any sort of web development whether you are creating a website for Indiana University or creating a site for yourself.

A computer doesn’t know words, paragraphs, headings, etc. so you have to tell it what is what. That’s where HTML comes in. As humans, we can discern structure by context and content. We are capable of determining when a block of text is a list, a quote, or even a poem. But, computers cannot do this by themselves. To a computer, everything is just an arbitrary string of letters, numbers, and other symbolic characters.

In order to inform any computer of the meaning behind the generic text that we give it, we use markup. Markup is like tagging or labeling–it adds structure to long text, so that a computer can make sense of it. The tags we use in HTML help us categorize the information from any passage of text, so the computer can then recognize items that are in that same category. HTML allows us to define the meaning and structure of the otherwise arbitrary blocks of text in a document.

Below is a beginner’s guide of HTML codes that you can use to help get you started. While this guide can be helpful, keep in mind that IT Training offers instructor led and self paced training of HTML that might assist you at a higher level. These courses are offered online or in the classroom!

Text Formatting

Paragraphs

The paragraph element is perhaps the most common element found on the web today. This element fits under the loosely-defined category of “structural markup” and is a block-level element.

<p>Your paragraph here.</p>

Headings

Like paragraphs elements, heading elements are block-level elements that will help us convert some of our text into structure for our document. However, unlike paragraphs, there are different kinds of headings, or more specifically, different levels of headings.

<h1>Your page/site title here</h1>
<h2>Your main sections here</h2>
<h3> Your sub-sections here</h3>

Bold Text

This makes the weight of your font bold.

<b>Your bold text.</b>

Italic Text

This makes your text italicized.

<i>Your italic text.</i>

Underlined Text

Underlines your text.

<u>Your underlined text. </u>

Strike-through

Places a line through your text to strike it out.

<s>Your crossed out text here.</s>

Lists

Lists create structural blocks, much like headings and paragraphs, but the syntax for creating lists is slightly more complicated. Not only do we have to specify the boundaries of the entire lists, but we also have to identify individual items in the list. There are two common types of lists: ordered lists (numbers, letters, etc.) and unordered lists (bullets).

<ol>
<li>Ordered list item 1</li>
<li>Ordered list item 2</li>
<li>Ordered list item 3</li>
</ol>

<ul>
<li>Unordered list item 1</li>
<li>Unordered list item 2</li>
<li>Unordered list item 3</li>
</ul>

Attributes

Attributes do not supply any additional content to an element, but instead, they modify the markup itself. Attributes are inserted directly into the opening tag, but do not appear in any form in the closing tag. The attribute name is always followed by an equal sign, and then the value of the attribute in the double quotes.

This is an example:
<tag attr="value" attr2="value2">Content</tag>

Aligning Elements

You can align your headings and paragraphs using an attribute of in-line CSS.

<h1 style="text-align:center;">Your aligned heading</h1>
<h1 style="text-align:left;">Your aligned heading</h1>
<h1 style="text-align:right;">Your aligned heading</h1>
<h1 style="text-align:justified;">Your aligned heading</h1>

Hyperlinks

You can create hyperlinks that allow you to jump from one web page to another by using the anchor element and attaching the hypertext reference attribute.

<a href="http://yourlink.com">Your text here.</a>

Empty Elements

Most elements must have an opening tag and a closing tag, which surround the content they are modifying. However, there are some elements that are not permitted to have content.

This is an example:
<empty />

Line Breaks

This is like hitting the enter key–it puts your content on a new line.

<br />

Images

To include an image on your webpage you will need to have the image uploaded somewhere online. Then, simply use the link to reference the image with the src attribute and the alt attribute to describe your image for screen readers and search engines.

<img src="http://yourimageline.com" alt="describe this image" />

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100 Blog Post Ideas

When you've been blogging for a very long time, content can become hard to curate. Or maybe you're a brand new blogger and are trying to figure out your voice and need more content to generate your thoughts. There are tons of things that you could write about that maybe you never even thought of.

Remember though, more content does not make you a better blogger. No matter the content that you are creating, make sure that it is amazing content that will make you shine. I always like to imagine that I am sharing all of my posts with my high school english teacher--if she likes it, I know the rest of the world will.

Evergreen Content.

This is the type of content that can get shared forever and ever. It is always relevant and rarely ever needs any upkeep. This is my favorite type of content to write because it insures that my blog and site can live forever--or close enough to it.

Regular Features.

These are the types of posts that you do on the reg. For example, my goals posts that happen every month. Or maybe you do a weekly series like my Tea Time posts. Either way, this is the type of content that keeps bringing your current readers back to your blog week after week and month after month.

Epic Posts.

I don't often curate content of this type, but some people can find a lot of success in writing short and witty articles. Epic posts are often high-quality humor articles that may contain funny images, trendy topics, or loads of gifs. I love reading type of posts (often times you can find amazing Buzzfeed articles in this style).

Series.

There is a difference between a series and a regular feature. Series are often only a few weeks long, rather than a full-on lifetime worth of posts. They are often related to the same topic and can be linked together to create a large article or story.

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100 Post Ideas

Lists
Ho-To articles
DIYs
Predictions
Life Lessons
Parables
Sermons
Case Studies
Statistics
Definition posts
Compilations
Resource Sharing
Expert Roundtables
Roundups
Panels
Interviews
Problem Solving
Behind-the-Scenes posts
Guest posts
FAQs
Infographics
Cheat Sheets
Contests
Personal Quizzes
Minfestos
Sweepstakes
Rants
Best of __
Events
Top __
Announcements
Customer Showcase
Updates
Meet the Team
Quotes
Pin Roundups
Revamped posts
Follow-ups
Tutorials
Inspirational messages
Current Events
Personal Stories
Educational posts
Moviational articles
Hot Topics
Reviews
Beginner's Guides
Resources You've Created
Checklists
Profile posts
Progression posts
Parodies
Portfolios
Share Client Work
Reader Feedback Posts
Memes
Project Updates
Goals
Giveaways
Seminars
In-depth Answers to Reader Questions
Image Collections
Testimonials
Product Use Tips
Entertainment
Your Response to Other Content on the Web
Pick of the Week
Client Achievement Videos
Webinars
Comics
Sarcastic Posts
Cartoons
Your Food Diary
Product Reviews
Routines
Favorites
What's in my Bag
Wish Lists
The Evolution of __
Tips
Budgeting post
OOTDs
Must-haves
TAGs
Share your skills
Journal article
Something You Overcame
Role Model Spotlights
Write about your blog
Opinion
Playlists
Keep Track of Your Memories
Things You Love
Pictures
Survey/Quiz
Equipment Showcase
Share Your Creative Process
Team up with Other Bloggers
Current Obsessions
Pros and Cons

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