How to Choose the Right Project Management Tools for Your Online Business

Operating an online business has become an increasingly viable way to build an income, and many people begin as personal bloggers and then find that their site grows, as does their income.

If you’ve already moved beyond the initial stages of creating a blog that generates income, and you’re now working on expanding and growing, you may be in the process of hiring people to work with you.

When you hire employees, freelancers or contractors for your online business, it’s important to maintain strong communication, clear expectations and to collaborate as you would in a traditional work environment.
While these may seem like challenges in a virtual business setting, there are project management and collaboration tools that simplify this.

The following are some tips for online business owners to choose the right tools and technology for their needs.

What Are Your Goals? 

You may know in general that your goals are to increase collaboration between your content creators and your blogging team, but what are your specific goals?

You should look at technology and PM tools as a way to achieve very specific business goals.

For example, do you want to improve the efficiency of your content creation and editorial team? Do you want more standardization and consistency in your content creation? Do you want more visibility between team members?

Simple or Complex? 

If you’re just starting to really build your income-generating blog and your content team, you might want something simple. If that's the case, a free plugin might be sufficient for your needs. WordPress offers free plugins that can help users manage the workflow of their content creation, and it’s a good starting place for scheduling posts, monitoring progress and publishing.

On the other hand, if you have a larger blog and more team members, you might want a more sophisticated tool, and those options are going to come with a cost. In this instance, your budget is going to be a significant part of the selection process.

Scalability

If you are going with a more complex project management or content creation management tool, scalability is a key concern.

Your hope is, of course, that your online business continues to grow, so look for cloud-based options that allow you add new users and capabilities as your blog expands and the need arises.

You don’t want to be locked into a product that’s limited and isn’t going to scale up along with your needs.

Digital Workspace

When you’re assembling a team of content creators and managers, it can be important to include the ability to all come together in a digital workspace for brainstorming.

Brainstorm sessions are essential for new content ideas, and managing the overall creative direction of your blog, so try to find collaboration tools that offer the option for everyone to come together virtually and share their ideas.

Something like a virtual “whiteboard” can be a great option, and you want features that store these brainstorming sessions so you can refer back to them later.

Choosing collaborative and project management technology and software is a critical component of building any online business, including a blog. Making the right choice can improve your productivity, teamwork, and the overall success of your site.

The Best Project Management Software for Syncing Team Efforts

Online Project Management Software – Visibility & Control

Users looking to make their daily routines much easier to manage, should visit Wrike, an online software for project management that is utilised by high-performance teams and productivity experts around the globe. Wrike’s project management tools and features make it easier to manage tasks and projects so that teamwork and collaboration become efficient. Additionally, Wrike gives you more visibility around who does what, when tasks are due, and how each task fits into the larger picture.

The company was established in 2007 with headquarters in Mountain View California. Wrike has been acknowledged by San Francisco Business Times/Silicon Valley Business Journal as one of the Best Places to Work as well as one of the Top 100 Workplaces in 2015, by the Bay Area News Group.

Translated into 10 languages, Wrike is used in 120 countries and in 2014 was also awarded Cool Vendor status by Gartner. Being an online project management software, it provides complete visibility together with control over all tasks that must be performed. With the support of the software, project management gets easier. Wrike becomes the control point in coordinating efforts with the rest of the business. Their project management tools include being able to organize tasks into folders, time tracking, an interactive timeline, communication and feedback on the tasks themselves, and online collaboration features for teams of any size.

Heightened User Experience

 

The main purpose of the software is to assist in optimizing your workflow and enabling your company to focus on fundamental tasks. There are useful features for marketing and creative teams in the form of proofing and approval, resource and workload management, document versioning, project templates, time tracking and budgeting, together with visual dashboards and reporting. You can organize your project any which way you please and complete it all in one place.

Wrike also has mobile apps for both Android and iOS devices. With the native Android app, you can work on your tasks with ease, no matter where you are. The Wrike Android app tends to provide much more convenience and efficient project management functions. The new app has a heightened user experience that makes creating, editing, scheduling, and discussing tasks while on-the-go so much easier. The recently released mobile dashboard also provides an overview of your important tasks within seconds.

With the mobile app for iOS, one can log ideas, update tasks, or leave feedback while on the go. It almost takes away the need to open a laptop since your mobile device can easily accomplish most of the work that needs doing. More importantly, your mobile is always at handm, making important details readily available at your fingertips.
 

Sync Team Efforts & Keep Projects on Track

With Wrike, one can synchronize a team’s efforts, keep the project on the track and get additional tasks performed together in the cloud. It is an ideal real-time workspace where one can find the team collaborating in order to get tasks done with precision and efficiency. With Wrike, productive performance of every team member can be amplified, regardless of where they may be located in the world. No matter what your workflow looks like, Wrike can help improve communication and clarity as well as accountability in accomplishing the the parts of any project.