[Like the quality of the screencast? I use the Screenflow app for it! Also, this is part of the Developing Great Blog Content Series!]
In this screencast I show how I have optimized a particular workflow for grabbing images from a property, editing them, exporting, and then providing a little optimization.
Essentially I hope that you learn these 3 things:
- Creating a workflow for your blogging efforts is crucial for the long-term success, especially as you grow, diversify, and expand.
- Creating a workflow saves a lot of time. Lots.
- Stacking and batch-processing your efforts is also very strategic. If I only have to open my image editor once then I consider that a WIN for the day!
What I’ve showcased here is a part of the much larger global workflow that characterizes my daily blogging efforts.
For those that are interested, the apps that I used in this screencast are the following:
- I used Screenflow to make this video.
- I used Firebug for grabbing the image.
- I used Acorn for image editing.
- I used ImageOptim for image optimization.
Enjoy! I challenge you to start creating consistent and effective workflows for your blog!
[This is part of the Developing Great Blog Content Series. Check out the other posts!]
I am a Chrome user so instead of using Firebug to grab the image I use the Inspect Element button. Just right click on the object that you want to get and the process is fairly the same, and looks similar. I try to limit my extensions/plugins within my browser and i’m thankful to Chrome for providing this in-browser plugin.
If anyone has any questions on this feel free to ask. Have you used Inspect Element before?
definitely could use chrome.
Great worflow video John. I have a similar wokflow and of course, who can live without Firebug right?
Good stuff man.
firebug is the jam!
Great tips! I have been looking for something like ImageOptim for a while. Thanks for mentioning it.
it’s a pretty sweet app.
Keyboard shortcuts are great!
if i could operate completely without a mouse i would.
So have you ever tried to put together a workflow like this in Automator? It seems like you could hack together a little service you could invoke via right-clicking on the image that would: (a) save the image to your machine, (b) process it, (c) FTP it somewhere, (d) put the image URL in your clipboard. The image editing utilities available in Automator may not be good enough, but I’m curious if you’ve tried something like this.
i have an i don’t always do the same thing. sure, i could use automator but i’m very comfortable with my process. there’s almost no thinking involved.
Hi! So i was thinking about Flickr, what do you recommend, saving the image to the pc and then uploading it in the blog post or just linking to the image? What is the best and faster way? Best regards
i try to make sure everything has a copy here on my blog, just in case, since i control it.
Hey John! I was just wondering if you could shed some light on what your global workflow is like? A lot of routine – writing for a certain category on a certain day, set times for research, etc. – or more free-form? Just curious! Thanks!
abby,
i haven’t forgotten this. in fact, i shared some of this on my schedule post:
http://tentblogger.com/schedule/
but, i’ll have a more in depth one at some point!
Why do you resize to 400, and then again to 180? Sorry, I didn’t quite follow that part. Also, does ImageOptim take the place of “save for web” in Photoshop, or does “save for web” do other things with color/sharpening that you would miss if you only used ImageOptim? Thanks!
oh, i was doing that for thumbnails i believe.
imageoptim can actually shrink it down some more.
John, I can’t wait to dig into this over the weekend. The 3:15 Project as well as Radical Mentoring is looking to bring on driven tentblogger part time starting asap to help fuel our respective ministry blogs. Hopefully they’ll bring this workflow to the party!
Look forward to meeting up when you get back. Thanks!
great! hey todd, don’t forget to setup a gravatar: http://tentblogger.com/gravatar/
Hey John, ImageOptim is for MAC, can you suggest any windows alternative???
try this: http://optipng.sourceforge.net/
RIOT (Radical Image Optimization Tool)
http://luci.criosweb.ro/riot/
now that’s pretty cool.
Do you know of a free alternative to Acorn?
hmm. there are a bunch of free online apps like picnik i believe.