Blogger Tips: Using Google Forms aka The Best Tool Ever

Today, I am going to share with you one of my favorite tools for blogging. 

Like so many of you, I get overwhelmed with keeping track of sponsor spotlights, who needs to fill out what, who gave me the info for my giveaway etc etc.

So when I discovered exactly what google docs could do, I was amazed! See, I had only ever used it to print out notes at school or something like that but it can do so much more!

One amazing thing that it can do for bloggers is have you create a form for people to fill out with all the info you need. It then creates a spreadsheet for you. This saves so much time copy and pasting and making lists.

With this and passionfruitads, the time I spend collecting sponsor info and making sponsor posts is cut in half! Which means I can spend more time on twitter and promoting with all of you lovely people!

Here's how you start:

Step 1: Sign into google and click on "Documents" in the top toolbar

You are going to open it and then see a list of all the documents you may have saved, sent yourself etc. 

Next, click on create and then select form. It's going to take you here:

You use this to create all the questions you want someone to answer.

For my sponsor forms, I just went through what I offer for each ad. Make sure to include a spot for your sponsors to put a pic, post their social media sites, an info section and anything else you offer. Such as, for my large ads, I offer an option to guest post on my blog. I made it a multiple choice question so when the person that fills it out clicks yes, I just email them with the date that I need their post by. 

You can add as much or as little as you want to these forms. You can also make it a little prettier by clicking on theme and picking one you like. 

When you get done with your form, click save. When you go back to your google docs screen and you click on it again, you will be opening a spread sheet.  Wait! But I need to share my form!! In the top right corner of the spreadsheet, click "share" and choose "Anyone with the link" or "public" Then just click "Form" and a drop down menu will pop up. Here is where you control what the spreadsheet will populate for you. You can edit it, send it in an email and even embed it in a webpage.  When someone fills out your form, their answers are automatically put in the spreadsheet so it's easy to see if they've answered. This is seriously a godsend for giveaways and keeping up with sponsors.  When I'm ready to get a sponsor spotlight post ready, I just go to my passionfruit ads page and copy and paste all the emails and then send them the link to the form to fill out. It puts all the information right in one window when I'm ready to make my post, rather than shuffling through tons of emails. Plus, you can print and save your form if you like to have it in a paper copy in a notebook somewhere. Which is a godsend when making sure you have everything entered correctly in a giveaway. Another benefit is that it looks much more professional, at least in my opinion. When I sponsor with someone and they send me an email and include all the information I need for them to help them promote my blog, plus a form for me to fill out, it tells me that they are organized and it makes me want to work with them again. I hope this post helped you find a way to better organize your blogging life!

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