Dahlia DeWinters - Author

As an author, I’m always looking for ways to make promotion and connecting with people online easier. Even with cell phones, tablets and the like, it’s impossible to keep up with everything, every minute of the day. I’ve dabbled in other online methods of scheduled posting, but when I helped host a Facebook event in October of 2015, I turned to PostCron.

PostCron is a web application which empowers users to schedule links, image and text posts ahead of time. Even in its free configuration, PostCron is a powerful tool. I was able to create images and posts, and schedule them for the three-day Facebook event. It was as if I was never away from the computer! Scheduling information about guests, contests, and links to visit was automated with ease through PostCron, and I was able to participate in the ongoing event without constantly checking the clock to see when I needed to post next.

PostCron doesn’t skimp on usability. I’m sure we all had that time where we were on online and saw a picture or a quote we wanted to share on our own timeline. Well, by installing the PostCron app for Chrome, you can schedule any post you find on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ pages. I’m even able to share interesting posts from Reddit. In addition, the extension makes it super easy to do the same to any web link. It saves so much time. Rather than copying and pasting and saving for later, you can accomplish the same thing in the matter of a few clicks.

What I like best about PostCron is they offer a lot of utility for free accounts. You can schedule up to ten posts at a time over your accounts. If you’re a daily user, this just might work for you. If you are a power user on a paid account (and why wouldn’t you be?), PostCron offers up the ability to schedule posts via a CSV file. Don’t worry. They give you a Google Docs spreadsheet as an example. Easy peasy!

Another great feature is the watermark. Simply upload your logo, and PostCron will allow you to edit the location, size, and even its transparency. Now, all your uploaded images have your watermark. When the post is shared, your logo is also shared, which can increase name recognition online.

Social media is all about engagement, not about throwing links out by the handful. Sharing useful content is what PostCron supports. Following this, PostCron has a nifty little feature called “Content Recommendations” where you can put in your choice of keywords and get link recommendations from people of your choosing. All you do is choose a set of keywords you’re targeting. In my case, it might be “writing romance”, “romance novels,” “science fiction romance” and “the art of writing”. Then, I’d go to Twitter and select users who are my trusted experts in the field. PostCron takes the information and searches Twitter for the links shared by these people and deposits them right on the dashboard, ready for sharing with my audience. It doesn’t get any easier than that! The suggested content can save hours of time of searching online for that perfect article.

If you need even more content, you can import RSS feeds to share with your followers or search Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube and Flickr for even more content to share. PostCron places all this power right on the dashboard, at your fingertips.

Right now, you may be asking, how do I use it in my author career? Well, I must say it’s pretty great. In addition to being able to post to Facebook events, as I mentioned above, I can create picture quotes and schedule them to publish at pre-defined posting times. I can say good morning to my followers even if I’m just stumbling out of bed. Then, later, I can log on and respond to the greetings. I can share snippets of my writing to my social media friends who don’t keep the same hours I do. If I find an informative article about the writing craft or news from the world of publishing, I can share/schedule it in less than a minute. PostCron can help you stay in touch twenty-four hours a day for a week using only an hour or so of dedicated time.

Being able to plan your posts and schedule them allows you to create a steady stream of content that is cohesive and builds your brand.
For all of you who work from your phones, PostCron has added even more functionality. Simply navigate to their website on your phone and you can schedule your posts, links and/or images on the go. It’s a great way to send up-to-date pictures across all your social media platforms.

PostCron makes scheduling posts simple and straightforward, leaving me free to participate in current online conversations.

This is the time of year I wander into the garage and find my dusty old gardening gloves.  Once I find them, I immediately throw them away and rush out to Home Depot to buy new ones.  From there, I examine the tools that have endured the winter weather and figure out which ones to keep and which to replace.  Then, it’s checking for the last frost date and making the rounds of the nurseries to see who has the best seedlings at the best price.

Gardening is my summer stress reliever.  It’s a way for me to get out into the sun to get that essential Vitamin D, as well as get a good workout pulling weeds, digging holes and all around garden care.  Plus, I get the added bonus of fresh tomatoes, zucchini, peppers and herbs. The nature of gardening is that it has the ability to restore one’s spirit, to heal with the richness and vitality of the earth.  It’s also a peaceful activity that can be a solitary one or expanded to incorporate the family. In fact, teaching children to garden is such a joy as well as a useful skill….just in case of a zombie apocalypse, you’ve got to know how to grow your own food!  It’s also healthy and fun!

Because my daily work involves so much of the computer and other technology, the clickity clack of the keys and the colors of the screen can become monotonous, so I welcome the time that I spend with my lovely plants, both indoors and out.

My father, who passed away three years ago, was a master gardener.  When I was growing up, there was a half-acre of land in the back of our 200 foot deep lot that was carefully tilled and prepared every spring.  From that fertilized and tended ground grew white potatoes, zucchini (which will grow anywhere, I swear), several kinds of tomatoes, sweet potatoes, yellow and green peppers, squash and cantaloupe.  His firefighter’s schedule (3 days, 3 off, 3 nights, 3 off etc) allowed him the flexibility and time to cultivate the garden within an inch of its life, and you’d better not step on the freshly-tilled dirt….and don’t let the dog in there either! Somehow, though, the dog shimmied her way in, mashing down some seedlings with her dog paws.  Don’t chase her either – that’ll make it worse.

I am looking forward to spring, new seeds, new seedlings and variety of new plants.

Here’s hoping the weather falls just right for a healthy harvest come August, those dog days of summer when the sun is beating down on  your head and the sweat trickles down your spine.