Not everyone uses Textedit on Mac, but I know a blog of bloggers that do. The problem is changing Textedit to HTML by pasting it into the WordPress visual editor doesn’t work very well. So, one day I sat down and figured out a super fast way to convert Textedit into clean HTML for WordPress, and, at the same time, to make some fast formatting changes, such as changing all links to open in a new window, and changing bold text into header (h2 or h3).
The longer I blog (I’ve been doing it for a while now) the more I feel the need to increase my daily productivity. I mean, who doesn’t? Fortunately, app developers have recognized this widespread need and have been creating efficiency apps to help people like us increase our productivity. I’ve already written a couple of tutorials about improving efficiency (How to Edit Photos at Lightspeed in Photoshop and How to Use Asana to Stay Organized).
Here are a few of the apps that I use to get more done in a day, and why I like them.
Beth Whitman, author of Wanderlust and Lipstick and two books on women’s travel, and is the women’s travel editor at Transitions Abroad is best known for her writing on solo women’s travel. She insists that women don’t have to sacrifice adventure for safety. She says, “A man who is unaware of his surroundings at a “safe” destination can be more at risk than a woman who has her act together in a place that might be considered dangerous…if she’s taking all the right precautions she can avoid most potentially dangerous situations.” This philosophy is reflected in some of the more exciting experiences that she’s had in her 22 years of travel, which include riding a motorcycle alone from Seattle to Panama, contracting giardiasis in Southeast Asia, and having a hand grenade pulled on her by drunken Cambodian soldier while crossing the country in the back of a pickup truck.
Passports with Purpose is a global-minded charity rooted in the travel-blogging community that I am involved with. We are now three weeks into this year’s fundraising. Our goal: to raise $50,000 USD to build a village for members of India’s impoverished underclass.
Yesterday a bit of e-flattery landed in my inbox in the form of an email from a Miss Anna Miller informing me that I made her website’s Top Twenty Travel Writing Blogs list. This email also marks a strange trend for my blog.
Nora Dunn has been a professional wanderer for the past 3.5 years. During that time she has visited 21 countries on five continents. With regular writing gigs at Transitions Abroad and Wisebread, and a possible future travel TV show, she has no plan to slow down any time soon.
Hi Matt,
I’m in the process of permanently moving to Southern Italy to write professionally while teaching English. I’m writing you this email in hopes that you might give me a tip on how to get started with writing professionally. You appear to have found success and I’m taking a shot in the dark asking for a tip or a recommendation. Do you know of a particularly informative book? Is it necessary to begin blogging in order to entice publishing opportunities?