Happy Summer all, I can say that as it is officially May and it has been almost 2 months since I updated this blog, breaking one of my own self imposed rules in doing so.
I do try to post at least once a month with all the goings on at Avalanche, but I was lucky enough to convince Steph to marry me this past April 14th after several COVID delays, so things have been a little more hectic than usual for us but more to come on that later!
Moving back to regularly scheduled programming after a honeymoon in Malta/Gozo ( see cover photo from this artile, you would forget how nice it is to visit another country as I have not been outside Ireland/UK since 2018!), I thought a nice way to ease our way back into our coding schedule would be to outlay a list of sites/apps/workflow procedures I use that make my life a little bit easier every day, freeing up time to focus on the work that needs to be done as well as the administrative systems that can eat into your day.
I hope you find something useful from this list regardless of your field or if it just helps you to save some money whilst shopping online, so in no particular order:
Zamzar.com – Convert a file to/from anything you need.
Veed – Compress a video file for speed/optimisation without loss of quality, very useful.
Tinypng – Compress imagery (for free up to 5GB), a must have for today’s mobile led world.
Tinywow – A whole host of small jobs in one place. Bookmark this site.
Vectorstock – Useful library of vector images.
Unsplash – Huge library of free use imagery.
Z-Lib – Free eBook library. Limitless potential for learning.
Builtwith – Find out what technology sites are built with.
Station – House all of your aps & sites in one place. Essential.
WeTransfer – Send files up to 2GB for free. One of my most used sites, especially when hopping between devices.
My Air Bridge – Send files larger than 2GB for free, albeit a slower route than WeTransfer PRO.
Diib – Automate SEO procedures (to an extent, I like to have more control) and compare yourself against competitors.
Toptal – Use this to minify your CSS & Java files without having to do individually. The most polished system I have found to do so with a side by side comparison to reshape in real time.
.htaccess tester – Test your htaccess rewrite rules in real time.
Dr Link Check – Broken links are bad for a website. This site will monitor and allow you to fix.
Shape – Over 35,000 full customisable icons.
Moz/ahrefs/Schema – Anybody this far into this list knows all about these 3. Get on them.
Honey – Install this on your browser to automatically search for discount codes whilst checking out online. Ran a calculator app alongside this for the past 14 months and saved on average of 29% per purchase online.
Inspo – A search engine for inspiration on any topic. It generates thought starters by gathering articles from across the internet.
Wayback Machine – See the history of any website online.
Fronty – Convert images into HTML, generate front end code-based design in one click using an AI model.
Image Colorizer – Convert any black and white image with the power of AI.
Picular – The Google search of colour. Fantastic resource.
SVG Artista – This lets you create a loading animation using your logo (or any SVG) in minutes.
Unscreen – Remove the background from any video.
Renderforest – An advanced marketing tool to save time, enhance your presence, and boost awareness. Not for me, I prefer Station but I have heard good things.
Metatags – SEO research. Helps you get a little bit better every day.
This is part one of a 3 part series of applications & sites I like to use for projects on a day to day basis, in the next round I will go into more detail about my personal devices with the AI model created that helps me to create/maintain a stream lead time on all project over the last number of years that has turned us into one of the most productive agencies in the world.
Any recommendations/apps you use, feel free to add them!
Aidan out.