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How to Easily Search Your Tweets in Chrome

Since moving back to Chrome, I’ve missed some of my custom searches in the Keyword Search extension for Safari, despite having the same support in TextExpander. It just didn’t feel as fast as native browser support.

Luckily, Chrome’s search shortcuts are fantastic and super easy to manage from chrome://settings/searchEngines1.

Did you know you can do this basically any website and combination of search terms?

One I set up recently was for my own tweets. Here’s how it’s done.

After you click on the link above (chrome://settings/searchEngines), add a new Site search:

Note: Clicking the link doesn’t always work. Copy and paste this into the URL bar: chrome://settings/searchEngines

Then fill out the pop up with the following info:

I made the shortcut tw for Twitter. Use whatever you’d like!

The URL you need to list is:

https://twitter.com/search?q=%s%20(from%3AYOURUSERNAME)&src=typed_query&f=live

Just make sure to replace YOURUSERNAME with your Twitter handle.

Then click “Add.”

After that, you should be able to use the the shortcut you chose in the Chrome search bar:

…and the results:

That’s it! Happy searching!

  1. This link will only work if you’re in Chrome right now. ?
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How to Add a Google Doc in a Specific Folder with Your Stream Deck

I’ve greatly improved my process for creating social media content in a centralized place.

The basic workflow is this:

  1. Create a Google Doc in a folder called “Social Posts”
  2. Kick off a Make automation that watches that folder, and adds a new entry to my “Social Media content” base in Airtable. A schedule date is also determined.

Then my VA goes in and reviews the documents, creating images as needed, and posting them on the scheduled dates.

Building the Google Doc URL

To make this even easier, I wanted to create a Stream Deck button to open a new document in that Google Drive folder1. Turns out, you can create a new file in a specific folder via a URL.

Here’s the URL Format: https://docs.google.com/document/create?usp=drive_web&folder=[FOLDER-ID].

And here’s where you get the FOLDER-ID:

Creating the Stream Deck Button

With that in hand, I have my URL. And I can easily launch this with my Stream Deck thanks to the “Website” action:

Now, whenever inspiration strikes, I push that button and start writing.

But I know what you’re thinking. “What about when you’re not at your Stream Deck?”

Sadly, because the Google Docs team apparently hates iOS, there is no native shortcut for Docs, and when you open that URL on mobile, it throws an error.

Instead what I do is dictate a new document using Drafts. Then Drafts has an action to save to Google Drive. It’s not perfect, but it works for now.

  1. The subtext here being I have this sort of automation for all things I want to quickly capture — ideas, notes, journal thoughts. ?
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How to Point a Custom Domain to ConvertKit

My favorite Email Service Provider for creators is ConvertKit.

It’s flexible and has a ton of features for sorting, tagging, and even selling products. In fact, if I need to spin up something quickly to sell a digital product, chances are I’m using ConverKit.

A big contributing factor to that is the ability to point to custom domains. Imagine having a website where you can sell digital products without having to actually build a website? That’s what ConvertKit allows you to do. So today I’m sending you a video tutorial on how to point a custom domain to ConvertKit, which you can use for landing pages, eCommerce, a members-only newsletter, or anything else you can think of.

I’d love to hear your thoughts. How can this help you? Let me know!

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Using Back Tap on iPhone

I had the pleasure of participating in the GoWP Niche Agency Owners Happiness Hour recently and we talked all about tools (I didn’t know that going in, but as you can imagine I was pleased). Something I got to demo was how to turn on iPhone Back Tap (a feature in iOS 14 and up). Since many didn’t know about it, I thought it would be a good thing to demo here.

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How to Improve Performance on Your WordPress Site

Did you know that 80% of website visitors will abandon your website if it takes more than 5 seconds to load? That’s a lot of lost revenue and opportunities. WordPress gets a bad wrap for for being slow, but it’s not usually WordPress’ fault! If you use the right tools, you can have a nice, fast site that keeps users happy and engaged. So what are the right tools?

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How to Improve Audio Recordings at Home

Recording audio at home can be tough, especially if you don’t have the environment. On top of that, what app do you use to record, and how can you prevent that “robot voice” that happens if you’re recording online with other people. Let’s take a look at a few helpful techniques.

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Automatically Update Your Kit.com Links in WordPress

Kit.com is changing to Kit.co, and updating your WordPress blog links can be tedious. Here, you’ll learn how to use the Search and Replace plugin to do it automatically – potentially saving you hours of work. Make sure to make a backup first!

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Tools I’m Using to Avoid Spoilers

Between a certain Game of Thrones and Avengers: Endgame, I’ve been seeing many complaints about things being spoiler on social media. Even with the lengths I went through when Infinity War came out, it was still spoiled because a careless YouTuber (me) let autoplay happen unregulated, and another YouTuber (the guy in the video) opened his video with a HUGE spoiler, no warning. This time around, I’ve gone through greater lengths. Here’s what I’m doing to avoid spoilers.

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Podcasting: How to Get Good Room Acoustics

Since professional recording is now the lion’s share of my work, I wanted to make sure that I was doing everything I could to get good room acoustics. Here, I break down what I did to make sure that my sound it top quality, before it ever hits my mic. If video is your preferred format, I have that too, after the jump!

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