[LAVISH CONFERENCE] Spill It: All Our Best Blogging Tricks

This morn Nicole from Sketch42 Blog and I presented our panel at the Lavish Conference in Atlanta. Basically we just opened up our brains, and dumped them right out on everyone's faces Four Loko style.

We tried to pack as many concrete tips-n-tricks about blogging as we could into our hour long sesh, cause sharing is caring and, duh, we care A LOT.

Since I get that not everyone could be there, I thought I would let loose with all our best tips for all y'all right HURR. Also, even if you *were* there, you were probs mesmerized by our effervescent beauty and charm, and so maybe you weren't taking good notes?

Anyway.

Here's what we were talking bout:

• SQUARESPACE - Ok, so full disclosure: I work for Squarespace. *BUT,* I started working for Squarespace because I was already using it as my blog publishing platform, and I was so friggin in love with it, I basically just begged them to give me a job. It's the best web publishing platform out there IMO. And there are some other srsly kickass design bloggers who agree with me: My Favorite And My Best, House of Brinson, Desire to Inspire and Style by Emily Henderson are alllll Squarespace sites (use code LAVISH for 20% off new accounts when you sign up!).

• SKITCH - I've talked about Skitch before on Twitter, but this is, hands, down, my most used blogging tool. It's a screenshot, image capture, v. light photo editing program and its AMAZEBALLS. 

• FEEDLY - Feedly is actually a Firefox extension for Google Reader, but its my fave go to RSS reader. Basically, if you're not using an RSS reader and you are a blogger, you are a crazy person.

• EVERNOTE - This is an online/mobile digital notebook that will change your life. I swear, you need to try this shit people. Basically, anytime you are on the web, or on the street, or laying in bed, and you come across some little snippet you want to remember, you can "clip it" with evernote, save it to one of your "notebooks," add tags so you remember wtf it is, add a description, and then voila: you've got it forever. This is an AH-MAZING tool for blogging, for projects, and really, just for life.

• TWITTERFEED - will auto publish all of your blog posts to Twitter and to Facebook. It's amazeballs.

• PINTEREST - I've seriously gotten into this one recently. It's an online image collector of sorts that allows you to grab your favorite pics from all of the websites you visit and create different collections. I'm seriously loving it. It's also a great spot to search for images if you are doing a post on a particular topic or trend.

• TEUX DEUX - LOVE THIS. It's a super simple, design-y to do list. And they also have an iphone app, so you can even todo shit on the go.

• OLIO BOARD - Olio Board is like polyvore but for interior design peeps. It allows you to create mood boards that you can use on your blog, link to, or just keep around for inspiration. I like to create mood boards with names like "bitch" "AYFKMWTS" and "SHIT YOU SHOULD NEVER EVER EVER DO"...you know, just for funzies.

• LINKY TOOLS - This is the tool Nicole and I used for our Online blogger tag sale. Basically it allows others to link posts (with photos) ON one of your posts. Crazytown, right??

• ETSY - oh hey, have you heard of this little site called Etsy? You can buy lots of cool, crafty and vintage shit on it! Just kidding...obvies you've heard of Etsy. But did you know that if people already read and love your blog, they will actually buy shit from you if you open up an Etsy store? Yep, it's true.

• FLAVORS.ME - This site let's you create a super simple site that's almost like an online business card. You can link to your blog, all your social media links and even your butt.

• MOO CARDS - Do you have moo cards? If not you should get some. They're cheap and easy and you don't even need a designer to make them look pretty. to You're a real blogger now...act like it.

• EYFI CARD & CANON G11 - This is the camera set-up that Nicole has...and she loves these mofos. The camera is small enough that you can throw it in your purse, AND you can transfer your photos wirelessly with a wifi card.

• CAMERA BAG & INSTAGR.AM - If you have an iphone, you have to download these apps immeds. They will make your iphone pics look rully, rully pretty. 

And, that's all she wrote folks. Stay tuned for my Lavish recap.