As a blogger, I know I've sat and thought to myself what tools are out there that can help me? Let's face it, bloggers...we can't do it on our own. Shit it's hard, it is hard as hell trying to manage everything from content creation to aesthetics, productivity to social media management and so much more! Luckily for you, we've taken the liberty of compiling over 30 tools we highly recommend that every blogger needs to use! Check them out!:
ASANA
Asana is our work management tool. With managing the blog between two people we need a site that can organize our thoughts and with Asana we can do that. With Asana you can create editorial calendars, social media calendars, make to do lists, assign tasks and more! (we'll be doing an in depth walk through on Asana soon)
CANVA
Our go to for editing photos and creating graphics for our blog headers, social media posts, media kits, printables, and more!
GRAMMERLY
For those times where our illiteracy and incorrect grammar come into play. You can install it directly on your computer so it spots mistakes automatically.
CANON CAMERA CONNECT (app)
For those with DSLR cameras that don't have built in WiFi, this app lets you connect your camera to your phone to access your photos easily on the go.
PLANOLY
This is the best Instagram tool I have ever found.....EVVVEEERRRR! Planoly lets you manage your Instagram but uploading and scheduling posts from your computer, upload Instastories, respond to comments directly on your computer, but more importantly, plan out your content and how it's going to look.
SMARTERQUEUE
Smarterqueue is the best social media management tool I have encountered thus far for Facebook and Twitter. Similar to Buffer and HootSuite, Smartqueue scheduled your posts to social media platforms for you, but what I like about Smarterqueue over the other platforms is you can separate and group your posts into categories and set rules to where certain categories posts at certain times or on certain days. You can also promote other content with the RSS finder plus other great features!!!
MAILCHIMP
For sending easy aesthetically email campaigns on top of many other tools and features!
PRINTFUL
If you're looking to monetize with t-shirts and other goods, Printful is your place!
GOOGLE ANALYTICS
Any blogger who considers their blog a business should be keeping analytic information of their site and Google Analytics is that site to use. From total page views to unique monthly views and demographics broken down, Google Analytics can give you the information you need to not only present to potential clients but to see who's checking you out.
GOOGLE DRIVE
I love Google Drive. I pay $1.99 a month for 100 GB of storage. We use Google Drive for everything. This is where we store all of our documents, blogger resources, pictures, media kit, contacts, and more. More so, it's easy to share with a simple link.
CREATIVE MARKET
You guys already know my rave on Create Market if you've read our
recent post. Create Market is that place, that plug, that go to for everything! Fonts, templates, themes, overlays, stock photos, icons, you name it Creative Market has it!
SAMSUNG SIDE SYNC
Bruh....this is the G.O.A.T! And I am going to go out on a limb and say....F #teamapple. Lol ok ok let me explain before y'all start commenting out the side of your neck. Samsung Side Sync is what we discovered to be able to sync our phones to our laptops, just like Apple does with their products. The thing is....this is compatible with both PCs and MACs, Androids & iPhones. You can literally operate your phone from your computer. Don't worry, we're going to have a tech segment on this and many other Samsung apps every Galaxy owner should have!
PHOTOSHOP
This is kind of self-explanatory but...use Photoshop for all of your text editing needs. I'm a big fan of using glitter and marble overlays and I'm able to do that with Photoshop.
WONDERSHARE FILMORA
This is the software we use to edit our YouTube videos effortlessly and flawlessly. Available for both PC & Mac and very, very affordable. Check out some of our
YouTube videos to see how we use Filmora!
LEADPAGES
We use Leadpages for all of our landing pages and pop up subscription boxes for our e-courses and services provided by
AK Brown Creatives Services. Now I will admit, it's $37 a month but I have come to the conclusion that it's so worth.
STOCK PHOTOS
Stock photos are what every blogger needs. We have an entire library of stock photos, whether ones we've taken ourselves or from other bloggers and creatives. Stock photos are what bloggers use for their header and social media photos, products, and promotion. Check out these sites for stock photos:
HAUTE ME CHOCOLATE
IVORYMIX
DEATH TO STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY
COLOR U BOLD
CREATE HER STOCK
GOOGLE KEYWORD PLANNER
To make sure your posts are SEO optimized use the keyword planner to help plan your post title and what keywords you're going to use throughout your blog post.
COURSECRAFT
One of my favorite platforms for creating online courses. This is where our course will be held for
Blogging Outside of the Box, have you signed up yet?
WHENTOPOST (app)
When to Post gives you the perfect time to post on your social media platforms based on analytic information from your accounts
VSCO (app)
The best image editing software for photos...I just love their filters!
PORTENT
Have you ever had trouble figuring out a catchy blog post title? Portent is your answer.
CONTACT PAPER
Contact paper is what we use not only for our backgrounds for when we take pictures, but we also use contact paper to bring a new meaning to our blogging space. Instead of buying a new desk, we top it with contact paper and boom....brand new blogging desk. You can get contact paper at most arts and crafts stores or from Amazon.
TAILWIND
This is a tool that is still on my radar to try because we desperately need to grow our Pinterest. If you're looking to do the same, this tool is what you need!
Easy ways to create propositions and send them for approval.
I prefer Invoicely over Paypal when sending invoices, much easier and more user-friendly!
Convert Kit is another platform that you can send email campaigns. We use Convert Kit to help aid in our opt ins for our subscriber lists (see at the bottom of this post).
Track the amount of hours you work on certain projects to help manage your time more effectively!
See those social media icons on our sidebar to the left? That's Sumo Me. It provides tools to automate your blog's growth....simple.
I love Google Fonts being that this blog is hosted on Blogger, why? Because you can easily install Google Fonts in order to customize your blog posts!
For anyone looking to start a podcast, Audacity is your must software to download. We use audacity to record the audio for our podcasts. Easy to use and free!
I love Georgia Lou Studios. I've bought many of templates from her in addition to reading all of her helping blog posts on blog tips and tricks!
One of my gems I've recently discovered, a place to keep all of your passwords!
We use Bitly for url shortening and custom urls. When we post on Twitter we use bitly to shorten our urls so we can stay within the word count. When we promote our landing pages we use bitly urls to change the end to fit what we're promoting.
DISQUS
The preferred commenting system. I love Disqus because it's more aesthetically pleasing than Google comments, and has SEO capabilities to help get you more exposure and comments on your content!
