Digital media is the convergence of technology and content. This covers a wide array of mediums from websites, audio, video, and images. There is a wide array of tools to make the creation and promotion of digital media easier. Today I’m going to talk about some of those tools.
Digital Media for Authors
Digital and print have merged with the proliferation of the Internet and online tools. Here are a few tools that will help writers be more productive.
Being able to record meetings, create podcasts, and conduct interviews is a must for most writers and content creators. Zoom is a popular go-to online meeting service. It is easier to use than Skype, and it’s improving all the time.
Want to streamline your scheduling? Try a scheduling tool like Acuity Scheduling. Just create a link with your schedule, and people can fill in the times that work best for them. You don’t have to worry about back and forth emails.
Are you selling a product? You may not need a full e-commerce solution. Although, if you do, look into an agency like Bing digital. You can still create a simple shopping cart solution using something like Gravity Forms and Stripe.
Writers need to take notes. Whether it is for research, making a to-do list, creating rough drafts, or your actual content. Evernote is a great product that can help with research, writing, and note-taking. It syncs across all of your devices and even comes with a chrome plug-in.
There are a lot of cloud services out there, but one of the first and easiest to use is Dropbox. You can share content with others and transfer large files by just dragging and dropping the content into a folder. Dropbox is also great for saving work and files that are important to you.
Combining cloud storage, word processing, and free software, you really can’t beat Google drive. Google Docs is much faster and easier to use than Word, and you can share your URLs with others with just the click of a button. It’s also great for collaboration. Google Sheets doesn’t have as many functions as Excel, but it is very useful for many purposes.
Are passwords getting out of hand? Try a password manager. Dashlane is one of the best-rated password managers out there. There is a free version and a paid version. It not only helps you to have longer, safer, and encrypted passwords. It allows you to store those passwords in a safe place, and it even comes with tools for upgrading your existing passwords.
There are a lot of tools for writing and formatting your content. Scrivener has been popular for a long time. If you’re going to create e-books and Kindle books PressBooks is a wonderful tool for writing, storing, and formatting your content. It even has an upgrade option that enables you to make self-published print books.
If you are an author, these are a few tools that can help you be productive, keep your schedule organized, and stay sane while keeping up with your hectic writing schedule.