@alexmoss #SMConnect

Work Life HacksIncreasing Productivity &

Efficiency

Alex MossDirector, FireCask

@alexmoss #SMConnect

Director at FireCaskAward-Winning

Online Marketing Agency

Search/Social/Outreach

WordPress Development

Co-Founder of PeadigWordPress Theme Framework

Bootstrap Integration

Mobile/SEO/Social Friendly

Also lots of plugins

Who am I?

@alexmoss #SMConnect

We’ve worked with these lovely folks over the past year:

Token Client Logo Slide

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Time Pollution is Costly

Meetings

Incorrect Processes

Project Management

Emails & Communication

Other Online Distractions

THE OFFICE!

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SAVING TIMETAKES TIME

This talk has details of 100’s of tools.

You won’t need to use them all, but it will take you time to find the correct tools for you to use.

I have been building this list for years J

Something to Note

@alexmoss #SMConnectImage source:https://goo.gl/JJpklB

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This is my Desk

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Use the Right Tools

Keeping Up to Date

Managing your Inbox

Improving Sales & Proposals

Everyday Tools & Processes

Improving Project Management

Streamline Communication

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KeepingUp to Date

KeepingUp to Date

@alexmoss #SMConnect

Read Faster…

RSS Reader AppsI use RSS Bot for Mac

Cnet covers other apps (Windows & Mac) now Google Reader is dead.

Squirt.ioParses any URL and shows you

content one word at a time.

Reading faster works

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Use Feedly to Read Multiple News FeedsFeedly merges all your RSS feeds into one dashboard. Add your own RSS

by URL, and also discover new feeds by subject.

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Diigo is a Great Bookmarklet for TeamsBrowse to a page and bookmark links.

Share with a team and create tags to help categorise them!

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Take Reading Offline with Pocket

Similar to Diigo, Pocket is a bookmarklet service that lets you read articles with less distraction. Also saves content offline and connects to iOS/Android apps.

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Automate Connections with IFTTT

IFTTT is a massive tool that connects 2 applications together – any 2 applications!

Some examples:

• Save to Pocket also adds to Diigo

• Liking a tweet saves to Google Docs

• New RSS entry sends you an email

• New items in Feedly saves to Pocket

There are 1000’s of IFTTT recipes to help automation!

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Streamlining your Inbox

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Chrome Enhances Gmail’s Experience

Google Chrome & GmailOnce Gmail is loaded, there are some handy Chrome extensions…

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Use Gmail Labs to add functionality to your inbox. The 4 plugins below help user experience and protect you from mistakes…

*Undo Send plugin is now out of Labs and in core settings

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I split inboxes into Important, Linkedin and Everything else.

Chrome extensions enhance experience and organisation.

My Inbox is Busy, but Organised

Send text messages directly from your inbox.

To-do lists with Gmail integration. Apps for iOS and Android available.

@alexmoss #SMConnect

Find out who you’re Emailing

View more information on a person from their email. Links, social profiles

and other information.

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So, Streak is AWESOME!

Schedule emails to send later & Snooze emails to pop back into your inbox

See if, when and where someone has read your email

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So, Streak is AWESOME!Turn your inbox into a collaborative sales funnel.

Also use as an email-based project management system.

Use Mail Merge to create mass-templated emails.

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So, Streak is AWESOME!

Take canned responses to the next level with Mail Merge

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Proposals

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Who?

What?

When?

Why?

Who will be responsible for particular work? Delegate between yourself, the client and

other agencies.

What work will you cover and where will it happen?

What KPI’s will you achieve?

How long will it take to reach your agreed KPI’s?

Why are you doing the work above?Your KPI’s should always related to ROI, not just rankings or some other metric, but a collection

of metrics.SET EXPECTATIONS!

Cover these 4 Questions

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Google DriveGreat for Collaboration

PowerpointBetter options, more design freedom

Your Own Website/HTML!Much better for interaction and complete freedom of design. Use slides.com for custom HTML slides

Creating a Proposal

@alexmoss #SMConnecthttps://twitter.com/mattcutts/status/480596115054534657

SEO Tools

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Some Quick Auditing Tools

Redirect CheckerChecks any URL path and redirects that may occur

SharemetricView the number of shares from a

bunch of social networks

Screaming FrogAdvanced desktop app.

Great for advanced auditing & analysis.

Too much to explain in this talk!

@alexmoss #SMConnect

On-site Auditing

WoorankGood for quick onsite analysis

Raven ToolsGreat for more in-depth onsite analysis.

For the Most In-Depth Site Audit Checklist, visit Annielytics:https://www.annielytics.com/resources/annielytics-site-audit-checklist/

@alexmoss #SMConnect

Raven Tools also Automates Reports

Easy way for agencies to create, schedule and automate reporting for

their clients.

Supports AdWords, major ESPs like MailChimp and Campaign Monitor, Google Analytics, Facebook, Twitter

and much more.

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Rank Tracking -

• Track keywords across multiple countries and devices.

• Easy reporting via shared URL or PDF – perfect for reporting.

• Most accurate I’ve seen for a while.

http://firecask.com/go/accuranker/

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SEMrush is the Best for Competitor Analysis

Research by KeywordsSearch for a keyword to find

Research by KeywordsSearch for a keyword to find

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Social Media Tools

Identify Target Social Sites

There are 100’s of social networking sites. There’s no

point in spending time within Twitter or Facebook when an alternative option can attract increased brand exposure.

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Social Media Tools: Analysis

TopsyAnalytics for Twitter tweets,

trends, users and links

FollowerWonkSchedule updates to social. Complete

with analytics and calendars

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Social Media Tools: Management

TweetDeckManage multiple Twitter accounts

within one dashboard.

Also look at Hootsuite for more advanced features

BufferAdvanced social media scheduling platform. Complete with

smart analytics that suggest best times to post updates.

Connects to Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Google+ & Pinterest.

@alexmoss #SMConnect

Outreach &Earned LinksOutreach &

Earned Links

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Link Landscape Tools

KerbooUses multiple sources to show

you a domain’s link profile.

Also helps with automated tasks relating to penalised

domains

MajesticForensic detail of every link for

every domain.

Multiple bespoke metrics to audit a domain, competitor or

potential link acquisition

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Using Search Operators

Search operators are “strings of characters used in a search engine query

to narrow the focus of the search.”

They can be used for many uses, most commonly site:domain.com – but you can also use them to target sites for

links!

Examplessite

intitleinurlintext

filetyperelated

Read FireCask’s Comprehensive Guide:http://firecask.com/resources/search-operators-guide/

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Use Majestic Metrics to Audit a Link Opportunity

Find links pointing to any domain. Great for both auditing your own domains (finding lost links or links to less relevant pages) and finding links to competitors.

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Outreach CRM Platforms

Find potential sites and contact methods by domain or category

Turn outreach into a CRM to monitor contact, make notes and find related sites

Does everything BuzzStreamdoes, plus the slide before, plus:

• Automatically finds new/lost links every day

• Easily manage disavow lists and submissions

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Use Buzzstream to Manage Outreach

You can manage all your earned link opportunities by site.

Also provides data on contact methods & domain authority.

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Reporting

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Different Methods of Reporting

DashThis /Raven

Both help reporting automation

Connects to Google Analytics

Word / Powerpoint

with Google AnalyticsTakes time, but is the best for the

most customised reports.

Always Refer back to your KPI’s!

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Project ManagementProject Management

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A Free Projection Management Tool

Google Drive2 years ago I created a nifty Google Drive template

to help myself organise all client projects. I even shared it within a long post I wrote for Moz.

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All internal projects are managed within Wrike. Split into hierarchy, we can use this for all clients and projects.

http://firecask.com/go/wrike/

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Projects are split into tree view, with each project containing each task.

You can monitor and manage all tasks within your own dashboard.

http://firecask.com/go/wrike/

Even use this as a CRM to deal with leads in their own folder.

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Each folder has multiple tasks. Each task can be time tracked and can be assigned to multiple people in your team.

http://firecask.com/go/wrike/

You can use Toggl for free time tracking independent from Wrike.

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Each task has its own thread with a rich text description area. Any member can upload files, comment & discuss within an activity feed

http://firecask.com/go/wrike/

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Wrike even has a nifty Chrome Extension with desktop notifications

as well as an Android & iOS app, and a LOT of other integrations

http://firecask.com/go/wrike/

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Organise projects into boards. Each board has lists which can be shared amongst groups. You can even use as an editorial calendar.

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I use it mostly for personal organisation.Having the iOS/Android app also helps.

Holiday Checklist Board:https://trello.com/b/Dm1kNYbP

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Collaboration & Communication

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Instant Messaging

SkypeExternal Communication

Video Conferencing

Non-Cloud File Transfer

SlackInternal or Team Platform

Channels per Project/Client

Better Search/Archiving

more stuff…

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Set #Channels per Project/Client,

and Set Private Groups by Topic or Internal Team

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Integrations mean updates are communicated automatically.

Within FireCask, all our GIT repo commits are sent to our design-

dev channel

Statistics can be viewed within the web interface and also sent by email digest.

Here you can see activity with heat maps of DM’s to public messages.

More reading: http://goo.gl/OLpjcX

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Other Collaborative Tools

Firefox HelloFree videoconferencing

No signups at all, just share URL

Google HangoutsNeeds Google Account

Ability to do Live “Hangouts on Air”

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VoIP and Teleconferencing

Sipgate / MtalkUK landline VoIP for free

Connect to your smartphone either with call settings or an app

PowwownowFree conference calling

Use national number. Available in Italy too

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Development Tools & Processes

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Always Agree on a Scope of Work

A Scope of Work DefinesEverything that goes into a Project

Create a form and ask questions about the project with Gravity Forms or Survey Monkey. Questions include:• What is the goal of the project?• What issues do you want to solve?• If design-lead, what other sites do you

like/dislike and why?• Is there a specific deadline?• Is there a specific budget?

Build a wireframe with tools such as MockFlow.

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Code Better

Better Coding with Sublime Text

Integrations and functions

Extensions to connect & compile filetypes

Better CSS with SassCSS extension

Uses variables, expressions & operators

Connects with Sublime to compile CSS files

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Standardise your Work

Work with a familiar and standard framework. It’s productive, more future-proof and has lots of support.

• Use a HTML such as Bootstrap. A mobile-first HTML framework, it now powers 1% of all websites.

• Use a CMS such as WordPress. It powers 26% of all websites. Magento is good for complex Ecommerce websites.

Peadig is a framework that connects WordPress and Bootstrap together. All sites we create use this same framework and build child themes.

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Work Locally

Editing files on a development server through FTP is ok, but it you’re working at 25% efficiency!

You can develop and design all your sites on the machine you work from. Installing PHP and MySQL locally helps you code faster.

• MAMP (Mac)

• WAMP (Windows)

• PHP Storm

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Revision Control with GIT

Bitbucket is a GIT repo where you can commit code revisions.

You can also create teams and collaborate for group coding projects.

SourceTree is an app for Windows/Mac that manages your repo.

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TinyPNGBulk image compression. Also

offers WordPress plugin & Magento extension

SkitchGreat to take screenshots and

annotate them. Syncs with Evernote.

Image Editing & Compression

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Desktop App

Faster and more secure

Unlimited transfer limits

Less reliance on the cloud

http://infinit.me/alexmoss

Web Interface

No account needed

Send files up to 2GB

Email confirmations

File Tranfer

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LastPassManage all passwords

Share access with your team

Chrome/Android/iOS apps

EvernoteWrite formatted notes with rich

content to share amongst your team.

Chrome/Android/iOS apps

Content and Sensitive Information

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Accounting Platforms

Image source: http://goo.gl/fkEVVD

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Manage Finances

HiveageGood for starting up

Free version with paid modules

Payment integration

Nice UI and reports for internal monitoring

XeroBetter for complex management

Multiple currencies, auto-reminders

Direct feeds to banks for reconciliation

Great for VAT returns and accounting!

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Thank you!Any Questions?

alex@firecask.com

Slides:

firecask.com/go/SMC2015

twitter.com/alexmoss // fb.com/alexmoss1 // linkedin.com/in/alexmoss1

Grazie!Ci sono domande?

@alexmoss #SMConnect

firecask.com/go/SMC2015 #SMConnectKeeping up to DateStreamlining your Inbox

Proposal & SEO ToolsOutreach & Social Tools

Communication & Teleconferencing

Development Tools

File Transfer, Security & Accounting