7 applets to automate your blog with IFTTT

written by Marie

Last updated on: May 6, 2019

Published on August 1, 2017

7 ways to automate your blogging tasks with IFTTT! Gain time and automate your tasks as much as possible. #blogging #bloggingtips #bloggerOnly a few people have realized the number of hours of work that are invested in a blog. Having a blog isn’t just about writing articles. You also have to promote, send a lot of emails, do administration tasks, worry about security, make site backups, and so on. The list is very long!

Fortunately, we come across some tools along the way that will help us to do the tasks that are necessary for the success of our blogs. IFTTT is one of them, and it can help you by automating a lot of your recurrent tasks!

What is IFTTT ?

It is a website that automates tasks on the web. As IFTTT means “If This, Then That”, it can be translated as an action that declares another. For example: If a new article is published on a WordPress blog, then share it on Twitter.

It is possible to connect several services on IFTTT. All the popular social networks are there, Rogers, Philips Hue lights, Google Calendar, Todoist, and many more.

What is an Applet ?

automation blog

An applet is each “If This, Then That” that you use on your account. This is every automation you create. Each blue square you see on the screenshot above is called an applet!

My applets

Applets for social media

  • If I post a picture on Instagram, then tweet a native picture on my Twitter account

Since I started using this applet, I’ve received a lot more replies and retweets! I have always shared my Instagram photos on Twitter via the option while publishing a photo, but very few people bothered to go see the photo on Instagram – even less interacted with me. That is now the case, and it is perfectly understandable. Tweets with images have proved, for a long time, to have more engagement.

Get this applet

 

  • If an event on my calendar starts with #twitter, then tweet it! 


As you might know, I have been using Hootsuite for a long time (since the beginning of my blog, actually!)… On the other hand, one of the limitations of the website is the inability to plan a tweet on a recurring basis. So, I found myself copying / pasting my tweets every 3 weeks for sometimes a whole year. So it’s a very unpleasant task to do!

Now, I plan some tweets (the most repetitive) in Google Calendar. I create an event with the title “#twitter”. In the description, I write the content of the tweet to be published. As it is created as an event, it is very easy to make them repeat according to certain criteria (every Monday every 2 weeks, for example). The best part of this is I don’t have any service to use anymore : not Buffer, not Hootsuite, nothing! Just my calendar and Twitter. I wrote a step-by-step guide on how to do it!

Get this applet

 

Related | 6 Free Blogging Tools For Bloggers

 

WordPress applets

 

  • If a post is published, then post a message in a slack channel

automation blogI am in a Slack team for women in tech. The team has a #blogs channel where we can do promotion. However, when I am studying at university, I have less time for promotion. This applet comes in handy during that time.

Get this applet

 

  • If a WordPress post is published, then do a backup on Google Drive

automation blogI do my backups with the plugin UpdraftPlus, but we never have too many backups, right?!? Especially when we know the amount of time that is invested in a blog post! Therefore, every time I publish a new post, I have a copy safe on Google Drive!

Get this applet

 

  • If a WordPress post is published, then share the post on LinkedIn

automation blogBefore automating LinkedIn publications, I never used this professional social network to advertise. Yet, you have to dare to make your blog known when you are proud of it, especially to your professional connections! We should all dare to put our personal projects forward!

Get this applet

 

  • If a new WordPress post is published and is in the “blogging” category, then share it in a subreddit

Some subreddits only accept publications related to a certain subject. Thus, I am able to schedule the automatic publication of the articles when they correspond to the criteria. It saves time! 🙂

Get this applet

 

Productivity applets

  • If an email is starred on Gmail, then create a task on Todoist 

automation blog

If you were not aware already, I’ll tell you: I really mismanage my emails! I’m trying to improve myself, and this IFTTT applet helps me a lot! As soon as I  star to an email, a task is created in my Todoist account. That way, I don’t forget to reply to my emails (well, less!)

Get this applet

 

Conclusion

I hope that this list of applets I use on IFTTT was useful to you! Let me know in the comments if you have others to suggest! 🙂

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19 comments

jiselle August 2, 2017 - 12:55 am

I still have to figure out how I’m going to use ifttt. thanks for reminding me I think I will add it to my todo for this week.

Reply
Marie August 4, 2017 - 9:37 pm

Awesome! Let me know if you need any help. I’m always happy to help 🙂
Marie

Reply
Wangui Kamande August 4, 2017 - 7:06 pm

I really want to use this service. Unfortunately it keeps saying this “Unable to verify Wordpress credentials. Please try again.” and I haven’t enabled two step authentication. I wonder what could be the problem. I you faced a similar problem could you help?

Reply
Marie August 17, 2017 - 10:16 pm

Mmmh no, never! In what step do you need WordPress? For the Google Drive one?
Marie

Reply
William October 19, 2017 - 4:45 pm

I have the same problem since i’m on https. It worked before that.

Reply
Claire - Start A Craft Blog August 14, 2017 - 10:26 am

Hey! I came over from Reddit 🙂 I wanted to know if there was a way to find applets much easier? Because I could waste hours on that stupid site and end up being furious!

Reply
Marie August 16, 2017 - 9:56 pm

Aww Claire!! I mostly choose the tools I use the most like Google Calendar, Buffer, Twitter, Todoist, Gmail… browse through the applets! I also go with the ones that are on the banners on the homepage, the “featured” ones, it helps to find the best applets!

Hope I could help! xx
Marie

Reply
How to schedule your tweets with Google Calendar – Girl Knows Tech August 28, 2017 - 9:00 am

[…] Blogging […]

Reply
Michelle September 6, 2017 - 10:02 pm

This is awesome! I need to investigate for sure!!! I wonder if I can use it to help me keep up with Pinterest?!

Reply
Marie September 12, 2017 - 8:34 am

Hi Michelle!
I just got into Pinterest last weekend, so I can’t talk on experience, but here is the list of Pinterest automations available on IFTTT: https://ifttt.com/pinterest
Good luck!
Marie

Reply
Rho October 3, 2017 - 2:20 pm

Unstoppable post. Super helpful. Cheers, lovely lady!

Reply
Marie October 13, 2017 - 8:34 pm

Awww thank you so much!
Marie xxx

Reply
Ruthy @ Percolate Kitchen November 14, 2017 - 1:28 am

This is a great list! I LOVE IFTTT, it saves me time also, especially with Pinterest! I didn’t know about the WordPress>Google Drive tho, I’ll check that one out. Thanks!

Reply
Marie November 18, 2017 - 9:32 pm

Hi Ruthy!

What do you use on IFTTT for Pinterest? I’m curious to know how it saves you time. I looked at the Pinterest applets and didn’t find anything interesting.

Thank you for your comment 🙂
Marie

Reply
Megan November 15, 2017 - 9:42 am

I’m gonna need to start figuring these out – I’m juggling so much at the moment. Thank you so much for sharing

Reply
Marie November 18, 2017 - 9:26 pm

Hi Megan! You should!! 😀
Let me know if you need any help.
Marie

Reply
Christina February 5, 2018 - 6:14 pm

I use IFTTT for my social media posts but should use it more for my blog as well.

Reply
Stephanie February 6, 2018 - 2:40 am

I use the first applet too. I may have to try some of the others, as I love automating things.

Reply
Marie February 24, 2018 - 4:07 pm

That’s great, I love automation too haha! Less things to think about

Reply

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