I’ve been following a few of my favorite bloggers who do round-ups about things they’re loving right now. I get a lot of great ideas and always find out something new and exciting. They always turn me onto something unique and get my mind rolling. I’ve been feeling creative lately, so I wanted to go ahead and do one of my own. Here you go & you’re welcome! : – )
For the Blog: PicMonkey
Pic Monkey is the best picture editor in town. I can do anything I did on photoshop and illustrator without the crazy amounts of stuff that I didn’t understand! I even tried Gimp and that made me want to punch the computer. Pic Monkey is like a breath of fresh air, and makes it really easy to merge photos, add logos, create logos, and make collages. I do all of my picture edits for my blog on Pic Monkey and even made my header with it. Pic Monkey has a free version, but it’s only $33 a year for the upgrade, and then you can do a lot of the cool fonts and effects that you see in this college.
For The Computer: Dropbox
I use Dropbox religiously for so many things. It comes in handy when I need to share photos with friends and family, share files and flyers for people I work with in yoga studios, and when I am working in between computers during a blog. My favorite thing though is the dropbox phone app because all of the camera uploads go straight to it so that I can access them from anywhere, and I can take screen shots of photography pics and then Instagram right from there! I assumed by now everyone had it, but have been surprised at how many people still don’t use it. Go ahead and sign up, and give it a try. I can almost guarantee you’ll have one of those moments where you don’t know how you ever lived without it.
For The Yoga Mat: My Mat Mantra
I found out about My Mat Mantra from my Twitter family. I really find so many hidden gems on twitter, but this one really stuck out. This company makes mantras for your yoga mat so that you can always be reminded of your intentions, and I think it’s also great for a place to look when developing a one pointed concentration. You can also customize them. What a great gift idea too! I just ordered some for my mat!
For the Soul: Mala’s & Inspirational Jewelry
I purchased so many mala’s for cheap when I was in Nepal. These from Buddha Groove are exactly like the ones I saw and purchased over there. It’s important to find authentic mala beads, and ones that are made with love. One of the biggest things I looked for was how they tied the mala at the end. It showed me if they put love and care into the finished product. The ones here on Buddha Groove look clean, and there are some that are more intricate (my favorite).
I also think jewelry with inspiring mantras and words is more meaningful than just any piece of jewelry. Every time you feel stressed, sad, or just depressed, you have a reminder with you always. You’ll also inspire others when they see that as you walk by. You could totally make someone’s day!
For The Brain: Skillshare
Since I’ve starting blogging, I’ve had to get a little techie. If I want to attract sponsors and advertisers, then I’m going to have to learn the backend things like how to run reports using Google Analytics, editing videos, or how to be a rockstar at social media. Google Analytics is the standard for tracking your page views, seeing how people are finding your site, and what the flow from page to page is. The actual analytics in wordpress or blogger is not accurate since it doesn’t really account for the Google spiders (Katy Widrick taught me this)! Also, if you’re creating a press kit and you have the wrong information, then your potential sponsors will find out when there are free sites like Alexa, so it’s better to just use Google Analytics. Knowing this and wanting to build an honest media kit, I signed up for a Skillshare on how to learn and create a report for Google Analytics in an hour. I learned a bunch of stuff about certain filters and views that I had no idea about before! She broke down everything and it was super helpful. I only paid $19 for this which is amazing!
Skillshare has a bunch of amazing classes to choose from and you can do them on your own time. Since I’m learning to video edit, the next one I’m going to do is how to create a storyboard!
What are you loving right now?
