A reader (and fun Tweeter) had a smart idea following our post last week on using ThingLink creatively in journalism. I had to pass it along.

One of the ideas laid out in that post was how to quickly make infographics interactive, adding another meta-layer to the data you already made look pretty. Ivan Lajara, engagement editor for Digital First Media’s East Region, had an idea to make that even simpler:

.@kevinloker I was thinking that Thinglink + Easel.ly just might be the thing

— Ivan Lajara (@ivanlajara) October 1, 2012

I didn’t know much about Easel.ly before that tweet. Luckily, 10,000 Words had a nice post on using the beta version. In that post from May, contributor Lauren Rabaino made a neat example of what the service can do:

Easel.ly is a simple drag-and-drop way to make beautiful and schnazzy infographics. It’s good, for instance, if you aren’t Illustrator-savvy enough to make one on your own, or if you’re in a time crunch.

ThingLink is good for similar purposes—and just imagine the time saved if you combine them.

Here’s that same infographic above, with ThingLink’d updates and notes:

Pretty neat, right? A good one-two punch to keep handy, especially if you’re an independent, time-crunched blogger. But probably if you work in a stretched-thin newsroom, too.

Thanks, @ivanlajara, for the idea.

And if you want to give this a try with another service like Easel.ly, consider doing this same meta-work with infographic maker Infogr.am.