How to use G Suite as a Blogger

I remember when I signed up for my first Gmail account.  I was fascinated with them because they rolled email threads into one message rather than having multiple emails with the same subject on separate lines (hello organization!!).  Little did I know, Google was going to have a huge impact in my life over the coming years.

Fast forward to present day and you will find me using so many Google apps for so many different things.  The G Suite, as it’s so lovingly called, can be a bloggers dream. There are various apps that make up the G Suite, most that I use on the regular.  Today I will be discussing the G Suite and how a blogger can use the products in their blogging processes.

First a little 101.  The G Suite is comprised of Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Sites and Hangouts and they are designed to integrate with each other.  For example, if you want to insert a graph from Sheets into a Doc, you can easily do that. Docs and Sheets are similar and compatible with MS Word and MS Excel, so if you know these programs, the Google versions will be a breeze.

The other apps in G Suite may sound familiar and you may even use them currently.  The difference in G Suite from Google’s free apps is that you receive double the storage space in Google Drive than the free accounts, 24/7 tech support and you receive a business email account (you@yourwebsite.com - golden & professional!) with 99.9% guaranteed uptime.  Quite honestly, the business email is the best thing of all to me, so the accompanying G Suite products are an added bonus!

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Now that you know a little background, here is how you can use the G Suite successfully as a blogger:

Google Sheets

1. Organize your tweets to post for the week (bonus points for automatically adding them to Google Calendar so that they post to Twitter based on a scheduled time!).

2. Store market research results (an automated task can add market research results from Twitter into a Google Sheet. Here’s more info on how to do it)

3. Store new email subscriber details to automatically add to a ConvertKit email list - I use the Squarespace platform for my website, but there is no direct connection from Squarespace to my email marketing provider, ConvertKit.  As a result, if you use Squarespace’s newsletter or form blocks to collect email addresses, to get them to flow to ConvertKit automatically, a Google Sheet would need to be the bridge between the two.

4. Social stat tracking- Sheets is a good place to keep a record of your social media numbers so that you can see trends over time.

5. Graphs- if you are tracking social stats, create a graph so that you can visually understand the trends and know which platforms outperform each other for you.

Google Docs

1. Compose blog posts- I always create my blog posts is Google Docs before moving them into my blog editor.  It’s one of the best things that I do to increase productivity. Here’s a post all about using Google Docs for blog posts.

2. Blogging collaboration- if you are working on a collaboration with another blogger, you can create and share Google Docs so that both parties can view and edit the doc.  My friend and fellow blogger Katrina of Katrina Blair always use Google Docs for our collaboration blog posts and it works so well!

3. Outline and plan email and online course content- if you create educational material, you can do your planning/brain dumping in a Google Doc.  For example, when I created one of my free email courses, I planned all of the content out and edited it in Docs.

4. Design free download content- if you offer digital freebies on your website, you can create the freebies in docs.  For example, checklists, worksheets, bulleted tip lists, etc.

Gmail (business email)

1. Professional email is golden and more...professional.  If you want to work with brands, you need to have a business email address to be taken seriously.

2. I mean, there’s really nothing else to say about this because that’s the most important reason to use a Gmail business email account.  In fact, here’s a link to try a free 14 day trial of G Suite (just $6 a month after the trial period!  Business email is the main feature of G Suite, but the other apps come along with it for no extra charge!).

Google Calendar

1. Schedule tweets to post to your social media accounts - if you store your tweets in Google Sheets, you can add them to your calendar to post on auto pilot.

2. Keep a blogging schedule/editorial calendar- Schedule blogging tasks so you will always know what needs to be done and when.  When scheduling, don’t just list the day that a task should be completed, also schedule the steps that it will take to get there.

3. Appointments- if Google Calendar is your main calendar app, you can use it for scheduling appointments.  Plenty of programs integrate with Calendar so when you schedule an appointment from a 3rd party source, the event can be automatically added to your calendar.

Google Hangouts

1. Webinars- if you want to host an informational webinar, you can do this using Google Hangouts.

2. Private masterclass- You may be selling seats for a live video training, so you can host these with Google as well.

3. Video calls- this can be a call with a business partner, vendor, brand, etc.  If you want to have a meeting but live in completely different time zones or even just another state, video calls are awesome.  My friend and I try to do a video call (virtual coffee date) monthly to plan out blogging things together.

4. Coaching calls- if you are a coach, you can have one-on-one coaching calls with your clients. Again, this is great for working across state lines.

5. Group calls- you can also have group calls in a Google Hangout.  If you offer group coaching, this would be the way to do it.

Google Photos

1. Brand images- you can access all of your brand images if it’s stored in your Google Photo account.  This makes it easy to access images on the go or when you need them on a whim.

2. Save a stockpile of photos- these photos can be used for Instagram/social media posting or to create blog post graphics.  They can also be used on slideshows that you create with Google Slides.

Google Forms

1. Send surveys to your customers- surveys are an important piece of your blog because they give you insight directly from your customers and audience.

2. Send surveys to your email list- surveys can also be sent to your email list for insight that will help you determine the type of content that they want to keep receiving from you.

3. Create quizzes- quizzes are a fun tool that are also helpful for marketing because the results can tell you more about your audience and hep you tag them accordingly in your email marketing program.

Google Slides

1. Webinar slides- if you host webinars, you can create the slides using G Suite.

2. Pitch deck- if you pitch ideas to brands for collaboration, you can create a pitch deck using Slides.

3. In-person training/presentation- when meeting with potential clients in person or for in person presentations, Slides can be used to make a professional presentation.

Google Drive (cloud storage)

1. More of it- G Suite provides 30G of storage opposed to the 15G that are standard on the free version.

2. Folder for blog/business documents- you can create a folder to store your media kit, contracts and any other documents that you use.

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Now that you know various ways that you can use G Suite, I hope that you start using it more often!  Here’s that link again that will give you 14 days free.  After the trial, G Suite is only $6 per month and SOOOO worth it (especially for that business email account).

So tell me, do you currently use G Suite? If so, how do you use it? Leave a comment below.

My Favorite Digital Organization Tools (AKA how I stay sane on the regular!)

If you have been following along all month, you know that I have dedicated January to blog organization (missed any of the posts? Check them out here, here and here).  To finish up the theme for the month, today I will be sharing my favorite digital tools that keep me and my blog organized...which in turn keeps me from pulling my hair out, ha!

Before I begin, I realize that there are many people that don’t trust digital tools and would rather use good old paper and pencil to keep track of things.  That’s cool, everything isn’t for everybody.  BUT, just know that there is a way to mix written notes with digital systems...I will be discussing that in this post as well :)

Evernote

This is the first place that my ideas go.  Evernote is a digital note system that you can do so much more with than just a standard note app that came preloaded on your phone.  You can save voice, photo and even hand drawn notes/images.  You can also organize your notes into Notebooks related to the same subject matter so that it’s easier to find what you’re looking for.  If you prefer writing notes, Evernote is still an awesome way to keep track of those notes.  Just write your notes, snap a pic and upload it to your Evernote account.  You can even tag items, so you can tag your handwritten notes by subject and still find them easily when searching within the Evernote app.

I keep all ideas for blog posts, products, courses, free worksheets, etc. in Evernote and since everything is organized, it’s easy to find what I need when I begin filling in my editorial calendar.

Related: The Easy Solution for Organizing Blog Post Ideas

Google Sheets

Another place that I get ideas for blog posts is by checking out the contents on the Google Sheet that I have for keeping track of certain hashtags in Twitter.  I perform market research on auto-pilot thanks to an IFTTT automated task that I created.  The task is set up to save any post that contains the hashtags that I specify into a Google Sheet, so I can check this at my leisure and see if there are any ideas for new blog posts there.  It’s basically a way to see trends in problems or questions that my audience has and if I notice them a lot I tend to create a blog post with the solution in it.  Market Research is very important when you’re creating content for people because you need to know what they actually want to know and/or struggle with.

Related: 3 Smart Reasons Why You Need To Automate Market Research

Trello

My editorial calendar lives in Trello.  Every blogger needs to have an editorial calendar so that they can keep all of their tasks and posts together and scheduled (that hair pulling thing that I mentioned earlier? Yeah, you need an editorial calendar to keep your hair in tact).  Trello is a tool that you can keep workflows, lists and things to do organized in and you can schedule due dates for tasks. I used to use Asana for my editorial calendar contents, but when I started using Trello I stopped using Asana as much because there were some things that Asana was lacking (mainly the workflows and boards with flexible options on each).  I love the easy drag and drop feature on Trello boards, I love that I can have multiple checklists under one task and I love that I can use Trello on the go even with no internet connection (gold!).

In Trello, I keep all blog posts for the month with their scheduled live date, email contents for my email list, weekly tasks and monthly/annual goals.  I also have various boards for product launches, my blogging workflow, bi-weekly sprints (focused projects for two week time periods), collaboration info and travel plans.  Trello can be used for anything...like, seriously.

Related: The Ultimate Blogging Workflow

Google Docs

All of my content is scheduled in Trello, so when it’s time to start working on creating content, I hit Google Docs to create my blog post.  I use Google Docs to draft all of my posts before moving them over to Squarespace for final editing and publishing.  I have been using this method for a few years now and it has not disappointed me.  I mainly use Google Docs because of their auto-save feature that is pretty much immediate.  This makes it difficult to lose an entire blog post that hasn’t published yet (this has happened to so many bloggers and is heart wrenching every time!).  I also love that I can work in the Google Docs app with no internet connection.  I tend to work on posts when I’m away from home, so that flexibility of not needing the internet means that I could work on a post from the park, a coffee shop, a car, etc.  It has helped tremendously in keeping my blogging process flowing smoothly.

Related: The Key to Never Losing an Entire Blog Post Ever Again

UNUM

Once my blog posts are live, I tend to promote them on my Instagram feed.  To keep Instagram organized, I use the UNUM app in which you can plan out your feed.  Your existing feed is shown along with space to upload images for the future.  This way, you can see how your feed will look before posting the new image, and you can edit the photos and add the descriptions/tags in advance.  I have been using this app for almost a year now and I love it!  There is a free and paid version, but for what I want to do the free version is perfect.

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I really love digital tools and systems because you can access your information from anywhere, it’s hard to lose your ideas and a lot of these systems/tools interface with each other so you can set up automated tasks as well (another awesome way to keep everything organized).  The ability to use these tools on-the-go and not need to bring your laptop with you is also a huge bonus.  I have the apps downloaded on my phone and iPad so that I can access them anytime, anywhere.  As a blogger with a 9-5, content creation tool flexibility is necessary.

What are some of your favorite digital tools?  Let me know in the comments!