Sites That Offer Helpful Content Tools for Bloggers

As a blogger you're always on the lookout for new content and new ways to make finding that content and posting it easier. So here are a few suggestions to check out the next time you hit a wall:



Giphy Chrome Extension for GIFS and animated GIFS

Grammarly and Correctica for checking your work before publishing

WordCounter to let you know where you are number wise

Hemingway App to assess your copy

Headline Analyzer to help you get attention for your posts


Visit Hubspot marketing for more details on these and other helpful sites from their bloggers.

Local Businesses Be Sure Your Web Content Can Be Found in Local Search

As you are blogging or sending out press it is important to know that half of all consumers who conducted a local search on their smartphone visited a store within the same day. Nearly one in ten of those searches led to a purchase within a day, according to a Google study. Bottom line, for local businesses, search marketing is a critical component to success.

While you want to push content out onto the Internet, if you have a business that draws the majority of its business from a local market, you need to make sure that your blog has links from other local sites. These could mean contributing content to another blog in your same town or city as well as pulling up in your business category on searches for your city.

Many small business owners are putting some dollars toward digital marketing, but according to a study by RevLocal nearly two-thirds say they spend less than $500 per month on digital advertising. Additionally, nearly six in ten businesses are investing in SEO and social media, and 36 percent are investing in review marketing.

FileCloud Extension Now Available for Google Chrome Users

CodeLathe, the provider of FileCloud, the IT industry's most innovative Enterprise File Sharing and Sync platform, has announced the availability of a FileCloud extension for users of Google Chrome.

This new, easy-to-use extension enables users to save documents, images, and screen captures directly from Chrome to FileCloud. By using the FileCloud for Chrome extension,users can now save, and easily share information while working within Chrome by selecting content and then opening the right click context menu in Chrome and then selecting the "Save to FileCloud" option.

"This announcement is yet another example of delivering the most innovative enterprise file sync and share software anywhere in the industry," said Madhan Kanagavel, CEO of CodeLathe. "Nearly everyone is logged into a web browser throughout the day. The ability to share and save work product directly from Chrome will ensure that organizations will remain collaborative and highly efficient."

For more information, visit www.getfilecloud.com.

Free Web Clipping and Note Sharing

Evernote has made news this week with its 8th Anniversary Celebration and the announcement that it is raising subscription fees for the paid plan of its note-taking app.

The good news is that Evernote Basic, which supports web clipping and note sharing is still free. On Basic, you can access notes on up to two devices, such as a computer and phone, two computers, or a phone and a tablet, as well as on the web, so you can continue to take your notes with you throughout your day. Passcode lock on the mobile app, formerly a paid feature, is now available on Basic as well.

Those who do not want to pay the increased fees for Evernote's paid plans do have other choices such as OneNote, a free service that has many features including clipping content from Web pages, attaching PDFs to notes, drawing (if you have a touch screen laptop)and table tools.

Easily Embed Web Content Into Your Presentations With New Liveslides Technology

Presenters are now able to embed any web content directly into their presentations thanks to a new PowerPoint and Keynote add-in called LiveSlides. Poll Everywhere, the company that pioneered the mobile audience response system, created the technology which is now available on both Windows and Mac platforms.

Liveslides enables seamless presentations without flipping back and forth between the presentation and a web browser to show a video, ask a poll question, or view a reporting dashboard. The add-in makes it possible to embed directly within the slide deck for a smooth presentation.

With the rise of social media, presenters and venues are increasingly using services such as Twitter and Facebook to interact with attendees during live events. LiveSlides makes it possible to display media streams directly within a slide deck and bring the backchannel to the foreground to increase audience interaction.

LiveSlides allows users to put real-time data into presentations. In the business world it's not uncommon for someone to take a screenshot of a live data dashboard, paste the picture in a slide, and present it. The tool also allows corporate trainers to demonstrate eLearning portals right within their presentations, and show participants how to use them.

Dot Biz Buzz: The Future of Web Content Management

Web content management (WCM) software has outgrown being only a tool for creating web content,according to Gartner, Inc., In addition to serving content, WCM vendors have set their sights on helping companies manage their customers experiences. This shift is due to the fact that consumers are harder to reach and more discerning, according to Mark Floisand, VP of product marketing for Sitecore, one of many companies in the rapidly growing WCM market.

According to a report by the market research and consulting firm Markets and Markets, the web content management market will almost double to $6.85 billion by 2020, a compound annual growth rate of 14.5%. as companies' needs mature and they outgrow homegrown solutions.

As consumers increasingly interacting with brands via smartphones and tablets, helping businesses respond to their mobile market is a top priority for WCM vendors.

But as big as the mobile trend has become it is not the sole trend impacting the web content management industry. Customer relationship management (CRM) tools are as important as ever and may become the reason that WCM and CRM join forces at some point.

Although many companies continue to rely on their DIY solutions, when they decide to acquire WCM software, they find that is has become somewhat of a commodity. So the growing demand is for WCM solutions that help them manage their customers' experiences as well. Companies such as Sitecore are focused on allowing companies to know each customer as an individual and being able to automate managing customer experiences among the many different channels that exist today.

For more information see gartner.com and sitecore.net.

Content Boards Can Help You Stay In Touch with Your Readers and Customers

Click a button, curate content, post it to the web and email it to subscribers, and do it all automatically. Marketers can increase reach while decreasing time and resources spent. According to Dan Forootan, president of StreamSend Email Marketing, here are seven ways to make that happen.

1. Make News with Social
Convert social posts into an e-newsletter by creating a content board for social posts, and setting it to pull posts automatically from Facebook. Then set the content board to email new posts on a predetermined schedule.

2. Create a Dynamic Newsletter
Automatically deliver curated web content as an e-newsletter. Any time users see something interesting on the web, they can click on a bookmarklet in their browser to post it, share it and have it emailed automatically to subscribers as an e-newsletter.

3. Keep it Front and Center
Marketers can centralize content strategy with content boards, which act as a repository for content and can be embedded in web sites, shared to social and automatically emailed to subscribers.

4. Touch on Targeted Topics
Businesses can create multiple content boards and easily segment content by topic or target audience. Each board can be associated with its own list for automatic e-newsletter delivery.

5. Boost SEO
Content boards will provide powerful backlinks to businesses’ websites, boosting their website's SEO power.

6. Keep it Fresh
Embed content boards in your website. Every time you post new content to your board, your website will be updated too.

7. Keep it Friendly
Increase engagement with mobile-friendly e-newsletter templates. Take advantage of professionally designed e-newsletter templates optimized to render well across all screens, from the computer desktop to mobile devices.