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Happy Friday <<First Name>>!
The patterned people have been talking all things technology this week as we evaluate the programs we are using and how they're functioning.
As a virtual team, we do every single thing digitally and I am a bit of an addict tin trying out new things and playing with new systems. Today I am sharing with you twenty of my ultimate web tools - I hope some of these will inspire your own technological pursuits!
1. Wordpress
I highly recommend the self-hosted of this CMS (content management system) which is customisable to do just about anything your heart desires. From blogging to shopping carts, to image galleries.
2. Coschedule
We love this plugin at Polka Dot Bride! Coschedule allows us to schedule social messages to five or six different platforms and customise the message. You can also use it as a stand-alone editorial calendar.
3. Mailchimp
A great basic newsletter system. It has drag and drop templates and easy to use functionality which makes sending mailouts to your prospective customers really easy.
4. Liquidweb
We have now been with our current hosting provider Liquidweb for about four years and I continue to rave about them. We have, quite frankly, an enormous site. Liquidweb has allowed us to grow pain free with incredible support.
5. MaxCDN
We use MaxCDN to do a few things - firstly it protects us from spam and bots (no inflated statistic numbers here remember?) but it also allows us to serve up our content really fast (and saves us money!)
6. Highrise
We live and die by Highrise and it still remains our favourite CRM. It has a robust API which basically means there are lots of ways to connect it to other software. I continue to adore the backup that this CRM gives us.
7 Shopify
I love the idea of an easy to use shopping cart and Shopify is my pick for easy integrations, easy use and easy customisation.
8. Dropbox
I can't even tell you how much I use and rely on Dropbox. Easy file sharing, file transfers and storage all at your fingertips (and it makes it so much easier when moving computers!)
9. Soldsie
My pick for scheduling on Instagram and linking posts. Soldsie makes it easy to link straight to something without trying to direct users to navigate something themselves. It also gives great analytics.
10. Asana
The only project management program that features unicorns! I love managing big non-client related tasks in Asana and reminding myself of all the data I need, to get the job done.
11. Grammarly
I am useless at accuracy with my keyboard and I use the Grammarly plugin to have my 'typing back'. It easily picks up all kinds of errors and allows me to fix them with different options - no matter where or what I type.
12. Slack
I love Slack for freeing up my inbox and communicating with my virtual teams. Using it for both Polka Dot Bride and Aisle Society has been vital in the past few months with so much information flying around.
13. Xero
My pick for cloud-based accounting. I love that my bookkeeper and accountant can easily log in and my bank feeds connect for easy reconciliation,
14. Upwork
If I need a job done fast, I love Upwork. It's a great marketplace (even to find Australians which I do often) for quick little jobs that I have no capacity to do.
15. Skype
I still love Skype for voice calls in our team. We often dive on for group calls and have even purchased a Skype number which acts as our office line.
16. Doodle
If you have ever tried to figure out a meeting time for six people, you will know how hard it can be. Doodle allows people to vote on a time and stops the back and forth of "are you free on... ?" emails.
17. Google Docs
I love Google Docs for collaboration and projects. They make it that much easier to review documents together, edit at any time and share - knowing edits will always be preserved.
18.Tailwind
We use Tailwind as our app of choice to manage Pinterest (and they have just introduced Instagram scheduling too!). It allows scheduling of multiple pins, sourcing pins, suggested pin time slots and so much more. Signup here for a $30 credit.
19. Evernote
I love Evernote for storing information. The easy website clipper allows you to clip pages and information from any site storing it for later. It's also incredibly easy to search and my new way to bookmark.
20. Google Sites
My favourite way to create a closed team Wiki (more on this invention coming soon). So handy and easy to use to amass a large amount of information for others to use, in an easy to use format.
Tell me <<First Name>> What apps are you loving lately?
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Check out all our weekly picks on one place on the Polka Dot Bride Spotify playlist.
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Gang Of Youths
Australia is very good at churning out a lot of rock that just doesn't really land - it's hard to cut above the fray, but Gangs of Youth excel in comparison. Their brilliant frontman David Le'aupepe's mixes angst into propelling rock music that does not stop to catch it's breath. I find his emotionally frank lyrics and nuance to be impressive and captivating. Bog in!
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Childish Gambino
The most frustratingly talented voice of a (our?) generation is Gambino. Not only has he shown off his superior acting chops in both Community and Atlanta, he's extraordinarily musically talented. He has made some very enjoyable music already but the latest album is beyond his usual fund upbeat r'n'b jams.
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Montaigne
Montaigne excellently breaks down a relationship you thought was great at the time, but once you separate it becomes clear it really wasn't all that it appeared to be. The biggest burn to her is the under the radar "I think this isn't boring".
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LeiKeli47
Okay Azealia Banks, it's time to officially move aside - there is a bunch of brand new of lady rappers who do the whole low-fi beats things she's known for - and the competition have been breathing down her neck for a long time now (NB: I was always a Banks fan and still are but...!). Leikeli47 is exceptionally cool, and nails this one.
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