There are so many blogging too out there it’s often hard to choose. For every tool that exists, whatever it’s for, there are often 15 others online that you can find just as easily. Now that I’ve been blogging for *almost* 3 years, I’ve got some idea of what works and what doesn’t. Although with the nature of digital, everything is always changing.
When it comes to blogging resources I’m always looking for what’s easiest to use and gives the best results. I’m pretty savvy when it comes to technology but building and maintaining a website is a giant beast. One that takes even more time and energy after working a full day!
While there are more than just 6 blogging tools we use, on a day to day these are definitely the top. Arguably they are also the most important. Curious what they are? Read on.
| Tailwind App |
I discovered Tailwind about a year ago and never looked back. It’s one of my favourite blogging tools for bringing in constant traffic. A while back I really decided to overhaul my Pinterest account and optimize it so more people would see my pins. One of the key ways I changed it was through Tailwind.
It’s super easy to use and once it’s installed on your computer, you can easily schedule pins so that they are pushing out regularly. You can even set up groups of pins to make it every easier. Within 5 minutes you could easily have pins scheduled 2 months from now.
They also have tribes that will allow you to share content with others. I haven’t quite taken advantage of these yet but I hope to soon, I can only imagine how valuable they’ll be!
| Bluehost |
Of course, any new blogger starting out typically uses Bluehost. If you plan on taking your blog seriously and eventually work with brands or other companies than you’re going to need a self-hosted blog. I didn’t know too much about how to actually do this when I got started but the customer service reps at Bluehost were incredibly helpful.
3 years later and I’m still using their services. I’m not advanced enough to be able to tell you the difference between hosting servers but I will tell you I haven’t had any problems with them so far. Plus they are one of the cheapest ones on the market, especially in your first year so it’s hard to argue with that!
| Google Analytics |
The best thing about Google Analytics is that it’s free. This robust platform will tell you absolutely everything you need to know about the visitors coming to your website. When working with brands, they often want to know how much traffic you have coming back to your website.
It’s pretty easy to use once you get the hang of it. There are tons of resources online that will teach you everything you need to know about reading the most important statistics. I don’t go on Google Analytics as often as I probably should (especially lately) but I did spend a lot of time on it before.
The coolest feature is knowing where your highest traffic comes from. This has helped me to determine what blog posts I should be writing or spending a little bit more time on. Using data can really push your blog to the next level if you start using it correctly.
| Adobe Lightroom |
It took me longer than it should have to get a proper photo editing software. Once I did, I never looked back. One of the most popular programs in the market right now, especially for bloggers is the Adobe suite but more specifically Adobe Lightroom.
Lightroom is like the user-friendly version of Photoshop. You can edit all sorts of different photos in endless ways. If you find an editing set you really love you can even save it as a preset, then all of your photos will look really similar to give you a really nice feeling throughout your photos.
The best thing about Adobe Lightroom is that with the purchase of an account you get access to the mobile version as well. I use it almost exclusively while on the go. It’s the best way to spend my commute to work, editing my next round of photos!
| TinyPNG |
The one problem I’ve consistently had with my blog is photo optimization. It was a problem I was finding in the very beginning, my pages were just way too heavy. Anyone who knows anything about SEO will tell you that a heavy page is frowned upon by Google.
I still struggle with finding the combination of making my photos as beautiful as possible but then trying to shrink them so that they aren’t a complete pixelated mess but I’ll get there. TinyPNG is a great blogging tool because it will help to shrink your photos to better fit your blog.
The one thing to be careful of is making sure you view your images after they have been optimized. Some photos can actually get optimized too much and it will lose the quality of the photo!
| Canva |
Last but not least, Canva is a program I use all the time. It’s the best way to create simple graphics. It’s actually a tool I used to use quite often in my professional life as well.
Every time you see one of those beautiful Pinterest Pins, it’s from Canva. They have dozens upon dozens of free templates for you to use. Having been using it now for about 2 years I’ve never felt limited by the free version. I hope they don’t read this and decide to make it a paid platform!
The best part is once you have an account, you can access your photos from anywhere! It’s definitely worth signing up for.
There you have it, our favourite blogging tools that we rely on almost exclusively. What tools do you use?
*Please note this post does contain affiliate links. If you purchase from these specific websites, we will make a small comission but it’s at no extra cost to you!
