Blogging

My Favorite WordPress Plugins for Bloggers

My favorite WordPress Plugins for Bloggers

My Favorite WordPress Plugins for Bloggers

One of the reasons I absolutely adore WordPress as my blogs content management system is because I get complete control over the way my website looks and functions through the use of plugins! Seriously, nearly every website or blog customization you can think of is most definitely a WordPress plugin. Everything from sidebar widgets to social media integration- WordPress plugins are the single reason that WordPress is the most customizable website building platform online. And guess what? Most WordPress plugins are actually 100% FREE to use, including the five plugins I am sharing with you today that you need to download and start using on your WordPress blog or website immediately!

Akismet

Spam comments are THE WORST and having to manage them can be filed under the highly annoying part of being a blogger, but thanks to a free plugin called Akismet, I thankfully avoid dealing with the thousands upon thousands of fake and fishing comments my blog receives on a regular basis. If you have comments enabled on your blog or website, make sure to install Akismet to deal with the spam for you, and then all you have to do is regularly take out the digital trash every once in a while.

Google Analytics

I’ve expounded on my love for Google Analytics as a platform in the past many times, but it begs repeating that you should really have a great analytics tool installed on your blog to keep track of your key stats. I have used many analytics tools in the past but Google Analytics is by far the best, most reliable and industry recommended tool available. Even if you don’t plan on doing heavy analysis of your site every week or month, its great to have this tool installed collecting data that can be used later on. Trust me, I regretting not downloading this tool sooner, so do yourself a favor and get it installed on your site asap!

Lazy Load

One of the essential parts of a great blog is photography and as someone who does tend to use lots of images in there blog posts, I can tell you that the one downside of images is that page load times tend to lag when there are lots of images on a blog. Usually when a blog or any website loads, the website tries to load everything on the page, every word, every image, everything from the top to bottom of the webpage, even if the viewer never scrolls down to the bottom of the page! This ends up taking a long time if you have a lot of images on your site. To combat this, I use the plugin Lazy Load which essentially manages my page load speeds on my blog by loading text first and loading images into the page as the viewer scrolls through it. Thankfully, this plugin has greatly reduced my page load times which helps with the SEO of my blog!

Yoast SEO

Speaking of SEO, if you are looking for a way to maximize your SEO, Yoast is the plugin for you! Yoast adds a special SEO panel to the bottom of your new blog post window, so that after you write your posts, you can go in and optimize for search! It helps you add meta data, check for keywords and readability- all the essential criteria for SEO ranking is in this one plugin that is constantly being updated along with Google’s ever changing standards for search. It’s very reliable and another industry standard plugin that you should be using if you have WordPress!

LinkWithin

Ever notice that at the end of my blog posts there is an option for other related posts you might be interested in? Well, that is a handy little plugin called LinkWithin and not only is it incredibly handy and helpful for readers of my blog who want to find related content to a post they just enjoyed, but the use of a related posts plugin has been proven to increase page views on blogs across the board! Again, this is just another one of those great, best practice plugins you want and NEED to be using as a blogger if you are serious about growing your audience and your influence online!

If you’re using WordPress to run your blog or website, you are well on your way to a gorgeous, fully customized website! Just make sure to add these plugins to your site to optimize everything from loading to SEO to page views! Have any other plugins for WordPress that I MUST know about? Tell me about them in the comments!

xoxo,

Alexis-Signature

Online Business

Check Out My Online Business Resource Guide!

Online Business Resource Guide

Getting started with your online business can be overwhelming to put it mildly. There is so much research that goes into starting a business, plus information you should know, key strategies to execute and a multitude of possible tools you could use to help make your vision a reality. So, to make this process a bit easier for you as a current or aspiring business owner, I have started a very special Online Business Resource Guide! Filled with the best content, advice, strategy and yes, tools upon tools that I personally use in my successful online business- you are going to want to get your hands on this resource and start digging into the material asap!

So, to make this resource guide as tech friendly and shareable as possible, I have gone ahead and turned it into its own Pinterest Board! Click here to access the Online Business Resource Guide Pinterest Board and make sure to follow board so that you can see all the new resources and content I add to it regularly. I want this to be a living, breathing resource guide that is continually updated with new information as I get it, and I thought a Pinterest Board would be the best method of delivery.

I do hope you enjoy the resource guide, and I can’t wait for you to dig into the content I have there for you to explore and learn as much about running a successful online business as possible- no matter what stage your business is currently in!

xoxo,

Alexis-Signature

My Productivity Playlist

Binge Worthy Podcasts I’ve Been Loving! {Productivity Playlist June 2016}

Binge Worthy Podcasts I've Been Loving

Binge Worthy Podcasts I’ve Been Loving!

Welcome back to Strange & Charmed for another installment of my Productivity Playlist series!

I feel like I go through phases with podcasts. Although I subscribe to a bunch that I like, I don’t always listen to new episodes unless I’m in the mood and I tend to be a person who prefers to binge listen to multiple episodes in one sitting. I end up training myself for delayed gratification by waiting weeks to catch up on a podcast I enjoy- weird but true (this is why I love Netflix series’ so much… binge much?!?) But a few weeks ago I shared on a YouTube video a podcast I had been loving and asked for you to leave me suggestions for more podcasts to listen to and ever since I have been on a full on podcast binge! So for today’s installment of my productivity playlist I want to share some of the podcasts I’ve been loving lately! Now, just a warning, most of these aren’t your run of the mill podcasts, these are actually all serialized docu-dramas where a story (true or fiction) is told week by week. If you love listening to books on tape like me, I think you’ll love these suggestions if they are in your genre.

Serial

https://serialpodcast.org

  • You’ve probably already heard about Serial, the incredibly popular and highly controversial podcast that is currently in it’s second season. This is one of the few true story podcasts on this list and blends reporting with great story telling. If you like true crime drama, this is for you!

Lore

http://www.lorepodcast.com

  • Less of a serialized doc-drama, Lore is a story based podcast that takes our popular myths and legends of the paranormal, horrific or supernatural and breaks them down into the stories that started them. “Sometimes the truth is more frightening than fiction,” as they say, and this is the concept that Lore is built around.

Limetown

http://www.limetownstories.com

  • Right now Limetown is a single season serial doc-drama that tells the fictional story of a girl looking for answers about a lost town she has loose ties to. Of course, things get creepy when she digs in deep. I so wish there was a second season of this podcast!

Tanis

http://www.tanispodcast.com

  • Now we’re getting into some seriously creepy, may keep you up at night podcasts. Another fictional serialized docu-drama about uncovering an unknown supernatural phenomenon called Tanis. So far the story isn’t creep in a traditional supernatural way, it’s more about fear of the unknown and questioning reality.

The Black Tapes Podcast

http://theblacktapespodcast.com

  • Beware, for me this podcast is probably the most frightening of all even though I know it’s another fictional serialized docu-drama, it covers the realm of the paranormal and is like listening to a scary ghost movie. Actually, it’s like listening to multiple scary ghost movies at once because this story isn’t just one ghost story, it’s many built into one.

We’re Alive

http://www.werealive.com

  • If you are a fan of The Walking Dead, you will love this podcast that is actually in numerous seasons with a ton of episodes perfect for binge-ing! It’s essentially an internet radio version of every zombie apocalypse show ever but without a lot of the unnecessary drama and character development most zombie shows suffer from. Great to listen to if you love zombies, and it’s more entertaining than frightening!

The Message

http://themessagepodcast.com

  • File the message under creepy alien related fictional docu-drama! This one literally kept me up at night, first to listen to because it was so well produced, and second because I was just that scared of the dark during and after listening!

I hope you enjoyed these podcast recommendations. I realize these are mostly a certainly type of podcast, mainly fiction for entertainment purposes which goes against the grain of things I usually share on this blog, but they have been what I’m loving so I thought it was worth it to share with you! I hope you find something new to listen to and if these podcasts aren’t for you, I hope to continue to share podcast recommendations with you, so don’t worry, this is not the end! Let me know in the comments what podcasts you have been loving and I’d greatly appreciate it!

xoxo,

Alexis-Signature

Personal Development

7 Habits of a Highly Successful #GIRLBOSS

The 7 Habits of a Highly Successful #GIRLBOSS

7 Habits of a Highly Successful #GIRLBOSS

Many people ask me how I define #girlboss and although you may think that the term relates to a woman who is running her own business, that’s not my take on the term. When I think of a #girlboss, I think of a woman who is in control of her own life. She’s clear on her purpose, taking responsibility for her actions and working towards her goals. Now, this doesn’t mean she is 100% aware of her plans all of the time, but, it does mean she has a spirit of achievement and determination to make things happen for herself. Of course, although this is easily said, it’s not always easily done! It takes a lot of mental strength and the support of well rounded routines to ensure you stay focused and energized to tackle whatever life throws at you!

You really want to know what it takes to cut it as a #GIRLBOSS? Well, listen up because I’m about to give you the seven essential habits of a highly successful #GIRLBOSS!

1. A #GIRLBOSS is WELL-RESTED

When we evaluate the success secrets of #girlbosses, we always see one significant habit rising to the top and that is sleep. Getting enough sleep is always touted as the number one productivity AND happiness tip according to most who study how daily routines effect success. If you want to show up for your life and make things happen for yourself, it’s crucial that you prioritize rest and get your full 7-9 hours uninterrupted. In order to do this, you most likely will need to go to bed earlier and get yourself into a regular night time routine that limits screen time and snacks before bed, and I would personally recommend picking up an aromatherapy diffuser and a relaxation oil blend to diffuse by your bed. This is the diffuser and oil I use and recommend.

2. A #GIRLBOSS is BALANCED

I’m not talking the ability to stand on one foot balanced, I mean mentally and emotionally balanced. Serious mental health issues aside, for most of us our minds get worn down and cluttered from the weight of emotion and information we carry around with us everyday. For this reason, I think its important to regularly rebalance ourselves through some sort of meditative practice. Yes, I said meditation, but don’t interpret that as me telling you to meditate everyday because I think many of us have our own ways of meditating that we need to find that’s less traditional and more personal. Your meditative time could be prayer, exercise, reading, knitting or cooking. Whatever activity it is that you feel relaxation in doing and can execute on in an autopilot like mode where your mind is able to turn off a bit- this is your meditative zen activity! Figure yours out and do it more often so that you can find a sense of peace and balance in your mind.

3. A #GIRLBOSS is HYDRATED

This one may sound simple but common knowledge is not always common practice. Hydration is super important to your mental and physical well being and its probably the easiest thing we can do for ourselves health wise. I always think I’m drinking enough water as long as I’m not thirsty but the truth is when I’m measuring it out, I’m not getting enough water for my body. So, how much water is enough for you? Take your body weight in pounds, for every pound you weigh, you need 1/2 to 1 ounce of water. So if you weigh 140lbs you need 70-140 ounces of water each day. Yes, I realize this sounds like a lot, but that’s just because you have been used to dehydrating your body for such a long time. Yes, drinking this much water can be difficult in terms of finding the time and remembering, which is why I like to keep a large water bottle and make sure I am filling it up and drinking it at regular intervals. Try to get in the habit of waking up and drinking a quart of water immediately to get it out of the way and pace yourself the rest of the day. You will see a difference in your energy levels, and perhaps even your skin!

4. A #GIRLBOSS is ORGANIZED

Of course, she would need to be organized to keep on top of all her important projects and plans! I really do believe that organization is in the eye of the beholder, meaning that there is no one way to be organized and everyone needs to find the systems that work for them. It is very important, however, to find those systems and stick to them in terms of planning, home/life management, and goals. If you are currently in a state of disorganization, you could start getting your life under control with a book like the Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, or build a project plan to help you achieve specific goals!

5. A #GIRLBOSS is PRODUCTIVE

Many people confuse working very hard with productivity, but it’s really not the same thing. Yes, if you work very hard and for long hours you will get a lot done (if you don’t, you may really have a productivity issue!) but a true #GIRLBOSS knows that it’s not about working 24/7 to get it all done, it’s about working smarter, not harder! Click here if you need to up your productivity game to read about my best strategies and advice on the subject or head on over to my shop and search for your next favorite productivity tool. I’ve got lots of courses, books, and printables to help you organize your life and get more done!

6. A #GIRLBOSS is A SELF-CARE PRO

That’s right! She can work hard but she can play hard too! With everything she is juggling, a true #GIRLBOSS knows that she NEEDS to be on top of her game and ready to perform every single day in order to make things happen for herself. And how does she do that? Self-care, of course! You need a fair amount of downtime as a #GIRLBOSS if you expect to execute at a consistently high level everyday. Sleep and balance are part of that equation, but also having a plan for regularly pampering yourself is important to. I have my arsenal of go-to relaxing activities and I try to fit one in every evening if I can. Anything from listening to a book on tape, laying down with a face mask on or even just taking a quiet nap with my aromatherapy diffuser, everyday I prioritize some “me” time, even if it’s just 30 minutes!

7. A #GIRLBOSS is GRATEFUL

This one may be listed last but it’s certainly not the least of the essential habits of a successful #GIRLBOSS! Gratitude is an incredibly powerful way to transform your mindset and open your mind to the bigger picture. That is why a die hard #GIRLBOSS will always strive to keep a regular practice of gratitude in her life. She may add a grateful thought or mantra to her daily meditation, keep a gratitude journal where she lists out all she is thankful for, or simply take time out of her day to say thank you, and mean it, to someone who helps her! If you would like to integrate a gratitude practice into your life, here is an insert I designed to help beginners get started with the concept and develop the regular habit!

I hope you enjoyed this post and that you learned some tips for helping you to become the #GIRLBOSS you always wanted to be! Personal development is something near and dear to my heart so I would love to hear any other tips or suggestions you have for personal success. Please leave yours in the comments below!

xoxo,

Alexis-Signature

Online Business

Welcome to the New American Dream

Welcome to the New American Dream: Work from Anywhere!

Welcome to the New American Dream

This is a post that I’ve wanted to write for a long time but just never found the right moment to share it. And of course, now that I say that I feel like I’ve just gone and over hyped it! I guess I should start by explaining that a few short weeks ago I hit what I consider to be a major milestone in my business. On May 20th 2016, I celebrated my 2 year anniversary of working for myself full time. It wasn’t the anniversary of my shop or my blog or youtube channel, it was the anniversary of the day that I stopped working for someone else and started working for myself full time. You may already know the story, I was working for a Fortune 50 company for over 5 years when I finally had my lightbulb moment and decided to work for myself. I won’t bore you with the details again, but for some time before that day I had really begun to feel like working for yourself or at least in a job that gives you ultimate locational freedom is the new American Dream.

This was a dream I was first introduced to when my mother married a man who worked full time from his home. It seemed like such a novel idea to me, using the internet to telecommute and having the freedom to work from anywhere, even if that was just your house. Now, although I thought telecommuting was the greatest idea ever from that point forward, I didn’t really understand how I would be able to make something like that happen for myself. My step father was, after all, a computer programmer, which I think is a profession that we often associate with men sitting behind big computer screens typing away in solitude. I wasn’t going to be a computer programmer, I knew that much, but I did have a great love for the internet and the possibilities it brought to my future career possibilities.

The next time I was introduced to the idea of this new American Dream, it came in the form of a best selling book that I was eager to read. The 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris, with the very intriguing subtitle, Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich. Well, doesn’t that sound like something! In Ferris’ book he went on to explain this new American Dream through examples of work from home employees who negotiated their schedules and business owners who put in place systems to give them more time freedom. It all made sense to me, although again, I wouldn’t understand how to execute on this concept myself for another 4 years, but the seed was firmly planted and as they say flowers only bloom where seeds are plated. And watered. And weeded.

Well, you know where this story is going and of course four years later after much watering and weeding, this idea of the new American Dream blossomed for my own life. But the story doesn’t end there. Now, two years later, much more watering and weeding and planting has been necessary for me to keep my new American Dream alive. It’s not enough that I made it happen for myself, I have now shifted my focus on how to keep my dream happening, how to keep my business going and how to make sure I continue to live my dream.

If this idea of the new American Dream is something you are also casing but having a hard time making a reality for yourself, I want to let you know, YOU ARE NOT ALONE! It took me years to figure out what I was doing and make it work before I hit the eject button on corporate 9-5 and started living the dream. And I want to give you a little heads up that next week, I’ll be announcing something you won’t want to miss. It’s something I have planned to help you water and weed the seeds of entrepreneurship that you have already planted in your own mind. If you don’t want to miss it, make sure you are on my list by signing up below and you’ll be one of the first to know!

SIGN UP HERE!

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xoxo,

Alexis-Signature

Business

Entrepreneurial: Time Flies When You’re Productive

Entrepreneurial: Time Flies When You’re Productive

Welcome back for another installment of Entrepreneurial, my monthly journal entry chronicling my experience as an entrepreneur, my victories and failures each month, and the lessons learned along the way.

Time Flies When You’re Productive

As I sit here writing this I honestly can’t believe that May is nearly over. For most of the month, I thought it was still April. This was my own fault because I forgot to change over some calendars in my office and without “seeing” that it was May, my brain kept thinking it was April. Ugh! But May was a really wonderful month for as much of it as I can remember. It’s been something of a blur for me and I think that’s because I have been super productive this month! Like I mentioned last month, I finally have my routines in order and because of that I was able to get myself a week ahead on my work. So although this post is being published on May 31st, it’s being written on the 23rd!  Same goes for my YouTube videos which are also filmed and scheduled a full week in advance. Being ahead of your work is a great feeling and I attribute all this productivity and success to my established routines.

What I Didn’t Do!

1. I didn’t work on any new products. Instead I knocked out a few project that have been lingering on my to do list for a while. Things like sales pages and FAQs for my shop. Little odds and ends that didn’t take a long time to complete, but just kept being

2. Skimp on self care. Self care has been a major part of my new routine. Nearly every night I do something for myself and spend quite time reading or listening to podcasts. It feels so luxurious to be able to pamper myself and I’m glad I am putting myself first for the first time in a while!

3. Waste time on social media. Because I have been executing on my new routine consistently, I have found that I end up wasting less time on social media. Before, I might have spent a few hours checking Instagram or YouTube, but recently, I have seriously cut back and its given me more time for myself and my business.

What I Did Do!

1. Got my Twitter under control. This is thanks to my assistant who has been managing my tweets not really me, but getting my twitter under control has been a major task on my to-do list for over a year. It’s great to be able to check that off now that there is a system in place.

2. Planned out some great promotions. This month I ran a special promotion for my email subscribers that I think was a great success. I also spent a good amount of time outlining a major promotion that will be going on in the next few weeks.

3. A few secret things I can’t mention yet. Most of this month was focused on a major project that I can’t wait to announce but can’t really talk about right now. Don’t worry, you will hear about it once its good to go and I’m super excited for all the great content and behind the scenes I will be able to share with you!

What I Learned!

1. Routines really work. Once I got my routines under control in April, I was able to make major progress in May with my work. I love waking up knowing exactly what I am going to do for the day and then finishing my work and tasks in time to relax, enjoy dinner and have

2. Trust the process. This isn’t something I just learned, instead it’s something that I knew and had to remind myself a lot this month. Sometimes I work on a project or a piece of content and don’t see it doing very well, but then I step back and see the overall progress and realize that things are moving in the right direction. It’s so important to trust the process and remember that individual events or results all add up to overall progress.

3. My shortcomings. Now that I am on a schedule and executing on my routines I find that I am seeing myself and my flaws much more clearly. I don’t mean this in a negative or demeaning way, instead, I feel like in getting myself on track I am seeing the truth about my shortcomings that I use to explain away or make excuses for. It was easy to ignore a specific problem I was having and chalk it up to being stressed or overworked or too busy, but now that I have my schedule in order I see that I am really the cause of my problem. Obviously this is something I’m going to file under my own personal development and will have to think about and make a plan to correct if I want to see my problems solved but its definitely something worth noting and I hope my insight can help you as well!

I hope you enjoyed this installment of Entrepreneurial and perhaps picked up some new insight or a strategy you didn’t think of before. I’d love to hear how your month went, so please let me know what you learned by leaving me a comment down below!

xoxo,

Alexis-Signature

Personal Development

How to Become a Millionaire and a Morning Person!

How to Become a Millionaire and a Morning Person {Link Roundup May 2016}

Ready for another link roundup? Ready. Set. Read!

Business

Personal Development

Productivity

Hope you enjoy reading these and if you have any other great links you want to share, please leave them in the comments below!

xoxo,

Alexis-Signature

Filofax

30 Ways to Enjoy June, New Dashboard and Wallpapers {Freebies!}

30 Ways to Enjoy June {Free Filofax Printable}

So, yea, it’s June! How about that?!? I literally can’t believe that nearly half the year is over already! It’s also that time of the month for me to share with you my latest freebies. This month I have a lovely little list of 30 Ways to Enjoy June to go along with your June Dashboard. Now, I know that June may mark the start of summer in the US, but that isn’t how it is across the globe, so I made sure to incorporate activities and simple tasks for this list that aren’t region specific! Since June is the start of my summer, however, I really wanted to focus on little things that I could do each and everyday to put me in a good mood and help me to enjoy the summer, instead of stressing over plans and tasks and whatever other nonsense usually plagues my mind during this time of year. I don’t know about you, but I always feel a great deal of pressure at the start of summer around making plans and enjoying the warmer weather since summer is stereotypically the time of year that everyone waits for. This printable is an attempt to be more mindful and take summer slowly and with purpose. I sincerely hope you enjoy it!

30-ways-to-enjoy-june-free-printable

If you would like to download your own FREE copy of this insert in both A5 and personal sized Filofax equivalents, click here to be redirected to my shop to access the files! 

june-2016-wallpaper-image

Along with your planner freebies, I also have your new tech wallpapers! This month I went with a gradient turquoise chevron that reminds me of ocean waves! Make sure to download your new wallpapers here and enjoy the spirit of the summer wherever you may be in the world!

If you do download these free inserts and wallpapers, please let me know about it by taking a picture and tagging me on Instagram with the hashtag #CharmedGTD so I can see how you are making use of these inserts in your own planners. I love seeing your pictures, and I can’t wait to like them and interact with you on IG! Make sure you’re following me @MissTrenchcoat!!

xoxo,

Alexis-Signature

Online Business

It’s Not Too Late to Reserve Your Seat for My Upcoming FREE Webinar Training!

Are you ready to learn how to use photography to elevate your brand online?

Truth: Your visual marketing assets are most of the reason people follow you online and purchase your products. Even if you don’t have a product based business, the images you use and share to represent your brand online are crucial to the success of your service based business and even your brick and mortar locations. For me, putting together a strong photography based marketing strategy was much of the reason my business skyrocketed over a year ago, and it remains one of the main reasons why I am still growing at a quick and steady pace.

Like it or not the photography and graphics we use to represent our brand and business online are some of the most important assets we have, and yet many of us are not familiar with the basic principles that go into not only creating great images, but also using those images properly online! Times are changing and what was the norm a few years ago in the online marketing space has changed drastically in terms of using images online.

If you aren’t aware of these changes and/or don’t have a defined marketing strategy that includes using images and graphics to promote your brand online, you are missing a major opportunity. On top of that, if you are currently using images and graphics online to represent your brand without that strategy, chances are you are putting your brand and business at risk! This includes sharing images on branded Instagram, Twitter or other social media accounts! The content you put out into the world for the public to see matters and if you aren’t aware of the trends and essential marketing strategies for promoting growth online, you aren’t just going to lag behind in followers, but you will also confuse your customers and loose out on sales!

It is not to late to join me tomorrow for my upcoming FREE Webinar Training on the 7 Impactful Strategies for Using Photography to Elevate Your Brand Online. The event will be held LIVE at 3pm eastern, however, their will be a limited time replay, so if you want to check out the training but can’t make it at 3pm tomorrow, don’t worry! If you click this link and RSVP you will be given access to the replay as well!

I do hope to see you LIVE tomorrow because I will have a Q&A and will be sharing some awesome bonuses!

xoxo,

Alexis-Signature