Whenever I mention my blog to someone, they immediately ask about HOW. How they can start one, what my favorite tools are, and how I manage them all. Here are some of my favorite blogging resources that will help you maintain your blog, increase productivity and manage your social media accounts.
Social Media
- YouTube
- Tumblr
- Hootsuite - helps you manage and post to social platforms.
Website Resources:
- Blogger - I started blogging through Blogger, which was free, easy to edit, and customizable enough for a newbie.
- Wordpress.org - Not to be confused with wordpress.com (the free platform). Wordpress.org is a self-hosted platform that is fully customizable and gives you full control of your site. It is great for when you are ready to monetize your blog.
- Google Analytics - Helps you track your page views, visitors, popular posts and more.
- Godaddy - Where I purchase domain names. Search for coupon codes and you can buy a domain for as little as $1.99!
- Bluehost - Were I host my blog. They've been extremely helpful with any issues or questions I have pertaining to my site.
- HelloBar - A tool tha you can use to add a bar at the top of your site to highlight important things to your readers. I use it to collect e-mails for my newsletter.
- Mailchimp - Easy and user-friendly newsletter campaign creator.
Design
- Picmonkey - Online photo editor
- Canva - Online graphics creator
Tech:
- DSLR Camera for great photos/videos - I have a Canon Rebel t3i, the Canon Rebel t5i is a huge upgrade from my camera but the latest version is the Canon Rebel t6i.
- Lenses - Every blogger (including myself) swears by the Canon EF 50mm lenses. The f1.8 is the cheaper version and the f1.4 is the mid-level version.
- MacBook Pro Mid 2014 - I started off blogging with a Mackbook Pro back in 2011 and it changed my life! Editing videos and photos are a breeze, and these powerful machines can handle a ton of video, photos, documents, and games without any issues.
- Backup Harddrive - Because you don't want to lose all of those valuable videos and photos.
- Video Editor - I started off with iMovie and just upgraded to Final Cut Pro.
Apps:
- Evernote - write blog posts, to-do list, & write down ideas
- After light, VSCOcam, & Afterfocus - Will help improve your cellphone camera photos
- Instafollow - Track Instagram followers
- InstaRepost - Repost photos on Instagram
- Periscope - Live streaming app
- Vidstitch - Edit videos for Instagram
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