28 blogging tasks you can do from your phone

Do you spend more time near your smartphone than your computer? You can still get plenty of work done on your blog when you're on the go with these mobile-friendly tasks!

If you're anything like me — juggling paying work, parenting, home life, errands, fitness — you might find limited time to sit down at an actual desk to blog or work on your blog-related tasks. So here's a roundup of plenty of things you can do while you're on your smartphone or tablet.

A few of these links are affiliate links, but most are just free apps. I use what I recommend.

1. Draft a blogpost.

   If you're a minimalist blogger (mostly plain text), you might be able to post from your smartphone using one of the blogging apps (WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr on Android & iOS), using email uploads (Blogger, WordPress.com, self-hosted WordPress), or navigating to the site on mobile.
   
   For me, I find the apps and mobile experience inadequate for all the images and coding and customization I love to cram into my posts, so I prefer to finalize things on desktop. BUT, I can absolutely WRITE a blogpost draft while I'm out. I just prefer to do it in email. I use Gmail's Inbox app and like that it saves my drafts well. I just pop my own address into the to field, make the subject line my title, and then Swype away in the text field. I'm Swyping this right now, matter of fact. I'd like to experiment, once I figure out the best headset, with dictating blogposts while I walk, using Dragon Dictation, the native Google voice-recognition on my phone, or another speech-to-text capability. (Here's how one person does this via Evernote.)
   
    
   

2. Edit your drafts.

   If you have a blogpost draft you want to edit, email it to yourself or upload it to Google Docs and use the Google Drive app (Android & iOS) to access it. It has a nice autosave feature, and it will sync with your desktop version of course.
   
    
   

3. Check and reply to email.

   I find being on my phone actually makes this easier, because brevity feels right. Bam. Email done.
   
    
   

4. Read other blogs.

   I use Feedly for my subscriptions now, and I've learned the mobile gesture shortcuts to make the process easy. Save for later articles you want to read in depth or share, or just do it now if you have the concentration time.
   
    
   

Lauren's link love: YA vs. middle grade, commercial vs. literary, writing camp, & Twitter tips

Links to share, collected at @LaurenWaynecom on Twitter:

The Key Differences Between Middle Grade vs Young Adult | @marielamba at @brianklems https://t.co/mtIRPG99GA #writing #childrensbooks

— Lauren Wayne (@LaurenWaynecom) February 29, 2016

Like I need an excuse.

Put Down the Broom: Tidying Up Can Hamper #Creativity | @PassiveVoiceBlg https://t.co/JE5gHZMvan #writing #amwriting

— Lauren Wayne (@LaurenWaynecom) March 1, 2016

A question many of us have:

Where Do You Draw the Line Between Commercial and Literary Fiction? https://t.co/MTPaXxNUYP #writing #amwriting pic.twitter.com/QChnpQVNMl

— Angela Ackerman (@AngelaAckerman) March 1, 2016

Lauren's link love: Query spreadsheet, picture book info, analyze your Twitter persona, & e-publishing at your local library

Links to share, collected at @LaurenWaynecom on Twitter:

You had me at spreadsheet: How To Keep Track of Query Letters #writing #amquerying #amwriting https://t.co/eBJ9TbpH8Q

— Lauren Wayne (@LaurenWaynecom) February 16, 2016

Jennifer Represents...: A whole lot of info about Picture Books https://t.co/6eBeTiphCr @literaticat #writing

— Lauren Wayne (@LaurenWaynecom) February 16, 2016

Reality check from Barbara Kanninen - Can I Make a Career out of #Writing Picture Books? https://t.co/espboodckQ

— Lauren Wayne (@LaurenWaynecom) February 17, 2016

Optimizing your blog images for Pinterest: 9 tips {Updated!}

Since things have changed so much since the last time I wrote about this topic, I figured an update was in order for the way Pinterest works with blog images now.

Many bloggers report amazing traffic from Pinterest if you leverage the platform just right, garnering viral repins and multiple clicks through to a blog. Here are ways to fine-tune your blog images to be Pinterest-friendly.

1. Include an image in every post.

   If you want to be pinned, this is a must. Technically, a pinner can skirt around this by uploading an image to use as a placeholder for your post, but how dedicated are your readers really? Even if you're a writer, a words person, not a graphics person (I get it — I do!), you need an image in your blogpost. And even if you're not on Pinterest yourself — even if you never set foot in the app or have an account — your blogposts could be gaining traction there as soon as someone pins them. So it's worth making your posts pinnable! The minimum size, by the way, is 100X200 pixels, which is teensy and not going to play well on Pinterest. Read on.
   
    
   

2. Use the standard Pinterest size for best results.

   The largest pin size is 735 pixels wide, and the longest pin that can be read in mobile without clicking on an "expand pin" button is 1102 pixels long. So there's your optimal pin size: 735x1102. (You can round it to 1100 if that's easier to remember, and it doesn't actually need to be exact.) That's the width that will pop up when you click on a pin on desktop. You can technically make your pins infinity long, so if you have more to include (such as in an infographic or a step-by-step pictorial tutorial), then go for it. The whole length will be shown on desktop, but be aware that the whole length won't show automatically on mobile without an extra click.
   
   Examples of how pins look on desktop & mobile:
   
   

   

   Pins can show as super long on desktop.

   
   

   

   Longer pins will be truncated on mobile.

   
    
   

Lauren's link love: How to get your children's book published, editing checklist, bump your follower count, & the proper use of cheese

Links to share, collected at @LaurenWaynecom on Twitter:

6 Guaranteed Ways to Get More Followers on #Facebook, #Twitter, and Google+ | @kevanlee https://t.co/0d7jw6m0su #blogging

— Lauren Wayne (@LaurenWaynecom) February 8, 2016

Kazuo Ishiguro Has a Brilliant Response to People Who Think Genre Fiction Doesn’t Matter by @CharlieJane https://t.co/qaPfY6OEZa #writing

— Lauren Wayne (@LaurenWaynecom) February 10, 2016

When stuck, eat a piece of cheese. It won’t get you unstuck, but it will make you feel better.

— Ksenia Anske (@kseniaanske) February 11, 2016

Lauren's link love: YA preview, Twitter tools & tips, Scrivener tute, and animated cats

Links to share, collected at @LaurenWaynecom on Twitter:

The Most Anticipated Children’s and YA Books of Spring 2016 https://t.co/Prw4EKzo60

— Lauren Wayne (@LaurenWaynecom) February 2, 2016

How to Write Better Using Humor https://t.co/5iD9f05Q7Z

— Lauren Wayne (@LaurenWaynecom) February 2, 2016

#Scrivener Tips from Joseph Michael | @thecreativepenn https://t.co/tQHqQGZuwi #writing

— Lauren Wayne (@LaurenWaynecom) February 2, 2016

Lauren's link love: Editing tools, author publicity, & crafting a book

Links to share, collected at @LaurenWaynecom on Twitter:

5 Ways to Use #Instagram as an Author | Jane Friedman #writing https://t.co/W3OsTNpeHH

— Lauren Wayne (@LaurenWaynecom) January 25, 2016

#Writing is as hard as breaking rocks. Sparks and splinters fly like shattered steel. Clarice Lispector #amwriting pic.twitter.com/pX2yIvxqx5

— The UnNovelist (@TheUnNovelist) January 27, 2016

7 Web tools that check for empathy, inclusivity and more https://t.co/HMUnAIf6hV

— Lauren Wayne (@LaurenWaynecom) January 28, 2016

Download all your Tweets

I came across this article on BlogHer explaining the easy way you can now download your entire Twitter archive. Even if you've been tweeting forever, it's nearly instantaneous and well worth the stroll back down memory lane.

For no good reason, I wrote this post back in 2013 and then never published it. I think I just wanted to add more cute Tweets to it, or maybe delete some. Who knows. I officially give up and am letting it loose into the world! I checked, and downloading your archive all still works the same, AND these Tweets below are hecka entertaining. So, enjoy, and let me know what your favorite old Tweets are if you do this! Newsflash: I have a new author Twitter handle I'd love to have you follow as well: @LaurenWaynecom

In the article, Diane asks what your first Tweet ever was. Mine were RTs — good links but a boring story for the purposes of this post. But my third Tweet made me chuckle:

is once again searching for overdue library items.

— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) May 6, 2009

Still true.

Sunday Surf: Reposting old posts & Facebook giveaways update

Links to share, from Writing Tidbits:

Blogging Basics: How to Revive Old Blog Posts

Check your analytics & follow a few simple steps to boost your archive views.

2 MONTHS AGO

blogging blogging tips

Blogging Workflow (Photo credit: cambodia4kidsorg)

Facebook Promotion Guidelines Update: What You Need To Know

It’s less restrictive now if you want to host or promote a giveaway on Facebook.

2 MONTHS AGO

facebook giveaways

The Other Side of the Story: How Do You Feel About Re-Posting Old Blog Posts?

Rules on reruns

3 MONTHS AGO -  1

blogging tutorials writing 1 note

Sunday Surf: Pinterest, moms writing, & book signing pressure

Links to share, from Writing Tidbits:

Validating for Rich Pins for Pinterest: Blogger Xpertise

Make your pins stand out.

Pinterest recently announced new functionality for “Rich Pins” for Pinterest for different types of pins (product, recipe, movie, or article).

Pinterest + iPad = Love (Photo credit: Bunches and Bits {Karina})

4 MONTHS AGO

Sunday Surf: Google dos & don'ts for bloggers and bad romance novels

Links to share, from Writing Tidbits:

The Top Ten Signs You're Reading a Very Bad Romance Novel | Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

Hilarious list that goes all the way to 11. I particularly appreciated this one:

Number 2.5: There’s a widow who is still a virgin, despite being married to Lord Humperslut for years and years.

How is this possible? Well, sit back and we’ll tell you. The heroine married Humperslut just before he started introducing his bloodstream to metric tons of opium, and his penis was lost shortly thereafter in a tragic riding accident. His young bride is sworn to secrecy lest his reputation suffer, leaving her to misery and, of course, sexual unfulfillment.

OK, fine, we’re exaggerating a little — but only a little. Yet again, the Sacred Virginity of the Heroine rears its ugly maidenhead, and the heroine’s validity as a woman is tied up in the sanctity of her love canal. Virgin widows may have been novel plot devices back in the day, but Romancelandia is lousy with those beasts. We say it’s time to put this particular cash cow out to pasture.

5 MONTHS AGO -  60

novel writing romance novels novels genre novels writing reading 60 notes

How to Use Google As a Blogger - Smart School House

5 MONTHS AGO -  2

How to increase your Facebook page fans and interaction

In the past year, I increased my fan count on Hobo Mama by over 1,000 fans, from 3,500 to more than 4,900. (Don't bother looking at my Lauren Wayne page. I'm concentrating on one page at a time. Yeah, that's it.)

Here are my ideas for increasing your Facebook page fan count and interactions, for what that's worth (with all the Facebook changes making it harder for pages to get views, it might be worth less and less…). I'm indebted with gratitude to Jennifer of Hybrid Rasta Mama and Laura of Authentic Parenting, who have a gazillion followers each (ok, 11,000+) and mentored me, passing along most of the following tips.

• Post at least daily. Some people post every hour, some once a day. When I am being hardcore at building my fan base, I post about 4 times a day, with at least 2 hours in between posts if possible, and keeping them all within daytime hours in U.S. timezones. (This depends on your audience, of course, so you can experiment and see what your FB insights tell you about when the most engagement happens on your page.)

• Ask questions! Ask silly, goofy things, like "What did you have for lunch?" I kid you not. I thought this was so dumb, but I swear you'll get a million people responding. Ok, maybe I don't swear it since I'm exaggerating. But it's funny how the banal questions tend to get the biggest response.

• Do roll calls: "Where do you live?" "How old are your kids?" "I'm looking for new pages to follow. If you have a Facebook page for your blog, tag your page in the comments!"

Sunday Surf: Social media ad tests & best posts for Facebook

Links to share, from Writing Tidbits:

Do social media ads really work? We put them to the test! | TechHive

Experimental ads across five services: Google AdWords, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and StumbleUpon. 

4 DAYS AGO -  1

advertising Social media facebook google adwords Twitter linkedin stumbleupon marketing 1 note

Weaving Influence | More Eyes Means More Engagement

Challenging the ideas of what Facebook posts get the most views.

This is in line with my experiences as well (text = most, pictures = not as much). I haven’t tried the idea of a shortened link without a preview, so that’s next on my list!

via Ariadne

1 MONTH AGO

facebook facebook fan pages Social media marketing

(Photo credit: Search Influence)

Sunday Surf: Blog income, where to place sharing tools, analyze your site

Links to share, from Writing Tidbits:

Pinch of Yum’s October Income Report - Making Money from a Food Blog - $4,237.45

Fascinating series with hard data and real numbers on how a food blog makes money.

I especially like the analogy in this post for what types of income you can hope to make blogging, by being a teacher (affiliate marketing), landlord (selling ad space), or inventor (creating a product), or all three.

1 MONTH AGO

monetizing blogging Finances advertising affiliate marketing ebook sales

3 Tips for Placing Tools on Your Page | AddThis Blog

Where to position tools for follow, share, and related content.

1 MONTH AGO

blogging blogs design

6 SEO Tools to Analyze Your Site Like Google Does

I especially appreciated the HubSpot graders.

1 MONTH AGO

seo blogging

Sunday Surf: Awesome Facebook marketing, 404 pages, & schedules

Links to share, from Writing Tidbits:

29 Links to Make You Awesome at Facebook Marketing (So You Stop Spinning Your Wheels) | Constant Contact Blogs

16 HOURS AGO

facebook Social media blogging marketing

Best Time to Post on Facebook

It depends on your audience. Since most of my fans are SAHMs, I don’t think the ban on during the workday applies for me. The other tips were helpful.

1 DAY AGO -  1

facebook blogging Social media marketing 1 note

Sunday Surf: Take control of your to-do list & inbox, plus the truth about blogging conferences & safe FB sharing

Links to share, from Writing Tidbits:

BlogHer Tells WSJ the Rest of the Story About Blogging Business Trips - Elisa Camahort Page - Voices - AllThingsD

The answer is that the Journal has published the umpteenth article dismissing women who blog — even as we are using our expertise across social media not just to develop our own brands and businesses, but to symbiotically develop some of the hottest new companies in the startup economy (Pinterest, anyone?). MilitaryMoneyChica nails it in her post, “If Mom Bloggers Lean In Any More, They’ll Just Walk All Over Us. Thanks a Lot WSJ.”:

Let’s be honest. Do I have fun when I go to a blogging conference? Uh, yes. But I had fun when I went to conferences and professional development opportunities when I guess, according to this article, I had a “real job”…. Thanks for portraying my profession as a bunch of opportunistic, burnt-out moms who have to dress a vacation in business casual to get out of doing the laundry.

1 MONTH AGO

blogging blogging conferences conferences blogher women writers feminism sexism parenting

Brilliant article on 

How to Make Your To-Do List Doable:

When you’re wearing your Boss hat, it’s up to you to write down the instructions in such a way that your Assistant self can just do them without having to think - or stress. Taking the thinking out of the acting is one of the best ways to make your to-do list a cinch to finish off.

1 MONTH AGO -  1

to-do list time management 1 note

Sunday Surf: About pages, Facebook marketing, and Adsense tips

Links to share, from Writing Tidbits:

The Essential Checklist for Submitting Your Novel to Agents | WritersDigest.com

6-item checklist to follow before sending off your first novel query!

1 WEEK AGO -  1

novel writing novels novel submissions agents Submissions query writing fiction writing 1 note

What Will You Find When You Download Your Twitter Archive? | BlogHer

You can download all your Tweets easily now!

My very first Tweets were RTs, so that’s boring, but my third Tweet ever made me laugh:

is once again searching for overdue library items.

— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) May 6, 2009

Still true.

1 WEEK AGO

Twitter Social media blogging blogging tips

12 Blogher conference tips that no one else will tell you

Big-sister tips for enjoying a blogging conference.

1 WEEK AGO

blogging blogging conferences conferences blogher blogher13

CreateSpace: a Review | Freeman Ng

Helpful review of publishing a book with color interior pages at CreateSpace.

1 WEEK AGO

self-publishing publishing print on demand CreateSpace

Positioning your Adsense Ads III : @ProBlogger

Interesting info on AdSense locations: Be aware that AdSense fills the ads from the top down, so make sure your most prominent ad spot is being filled with the best ads first.

3 WEEKS AGO

advertising AdSense google blogging tutorials Finances monetizing

How to Write Your “About Me” Page : @ProBlogger

There are four main questions that readers want answered on your About Me page:

1. who you are…
2. your expertise and how it addresses…
3. their problem or goal, and how they can…
4. contact you

Includes sample “About” page.

3 WEEKS AGO -  1

blogging blogging tips about page marketing tutorials 1 note

Add an ‘About’ Page to Your Blog : @ProBlogger

Tips for what to include.

3 WEEKS AGO

blogging blogging tips tutorials about page marketing

How to Manage Your Facebook Marketing in 30 Minutes a Day | BlogHer

Feeling overwhelmed by your Facebook page upkeep? Here’s an easy system to have one simple but effective post a day.

3 WEEKS AGO

facebook facebook fan pages Social media blogging tutorials

Guest room: Three hacks to access your site’s Pinterest statistics « Birmingham Blogging Academy

Three ways to track pins from your site.

1 MONTH AGO

Pinterest Social media blogging blogging tips tutorials statistics

Blogger Beware: 3 Ways You Could Be Breaking Amazon's Affiliate Program Rules - I Can Teach My Child!

Verboten: Shortening links; including links in ebooks, emails, or PDFs; and buying through your own link. (For #3, you can always buy through another blogger’s link right here — and add your own link!)

1 MONTH AGO

amazon amazon associates affiliate marketing affiliates blogging

Surf with us:

We love following along with fellow Sunday Surfers. If you have your own post of reading links to share, please link up your post on Hobo Mama or on Authentic Parenting. The linky will go live every Sunday, and you can link up any day that week. You only need to add your post to one of the sites, and the linky will automatically show up on both sites.

You can get the Sunday Surf button by Jenna Designs and some code to add to your post from my Sunday Surf page.

Check out previous editions for good reading, and you can find more shared items during the week at my Tumblr blog, Hobo Mama's Shared Items.