Essential Tools for a Newbie Blogger

I may have been blogging for five years now, but there’s two things I have to keep reminding myself with that; first, I took a big break right in the middle of that time, and secondly, I am in no way an expert blogger. I would say it’s only been since the start of lock down that I’ve taken time to look into what I’m doing and how to do it better, and it’s only in the last few months that I’ve started to see results. Blogging is still only a hobby for me at the moment, but it’s taken over a lot more of my free time, and I’ve discovered quite a few things recently that have helped me a lot.

So, I just wanted to take a post to take a look over the things that I’ve found that have helped me out a lot, especially for any bloggers that are new to the scene – or, like me, aren’t exactly new, but are new to the effort level. Any pro-bloggers will probably think this is all pretty basic stuff, but it’s also a great place to start.

Blog Set Up

WordPress – this is the blogging platform I use for my blogging, and it’s thought to be one of the best, if not the best. It gives you a lot of creative control with the appearance of your blog, and is the one that most bloggers use.

Blogger – if you don’t want to worry about changing the layout and design of your blog you can always use Blogger instead of WordPress. I started out on Blogger, then switched to WordPress, which is also easy enough to do – so don’t worry too much if you change your mind after a while.

Blog Designs – if you want the perfect design but can’t quite figure it out, you can purchase a template. There’s loads of websites that offer this, and they all have different designs and templates that you can edit. I used Pipdig for mine, and I love it.

Widgets – these are bits of your blog that you can edit and arrange. Things like Instagram photos appearing on your blog. Again, there’s loads of different ones to choose, it’s definitely worth having an explore once you’ve set up your blog and see what works for you.

Phone Tripod – if you’re using your phone for your blog photos, a tripod will be really handy. A lot of them, like this one, also come with Bluetooth remotes that let you take photos from a distance. These will be really essential tools to put in your bag, especially if you’re a travel blogger.

Photo Editing

Lightroom App – This is a free photo editing app. It gives you lot’s of editing tools, as well as some extras you can purchase, and then you can download them to your camera roll to upload to other places.

Canva – this app is great for making Pinterest or Instagram story images. They have layouts that you can add your own text and images to, and then just download them ready to upload elsewhere.

Presets – I only started using presets recently, but they make it really easy to edit all your photos in the same way. I use 123 Presets for mine.

Storyluxe – another app that helps you create collages. The other app I recommend for this is…

Unfold – this app has minimalist templates to use.

Sharing and Promoting

Bloglovin – as an app, not that great at the moment, but I love Bloglovin. I would recommend using the website over the app, as it works a lot better. This site works a lot like Instagram, but for blogs. You can follow bloggers you love, and get their new posts on your feed.

Pinterest – don’t underestimate Pinterest like I did – it can get a lot of traffic to your blog. Use one of the collage apps recommended to make your own Pinterest pins with your blog posts, and share them with the app. Leave a link on the photo back to your blog.

Facebook – a really obvious one, but don’t just share your photos and blog posts on your profile, set up your own page for your blog. Invite everyone to like and follow, and it’ll give you a platform to be a little more interactive with your readers.

Instagram – another obvious one, and the one that most bloggers set up first I think. Make sure to be interactive with other people, and upload photos and stories.

Other/Inspiration

Planning Tools – This doesn’t need to be fancy, I use Microsoft Excel for my planning, or if you’re a more paper-based worker you can find great desk calendars like this one. It’s a good idea to plan out a schedule of the posts you’re going to publish, and plan what day you’re going to do them on, otherwise you’ll hit a wall fast. However, a lot of courses advise to plan way ahead, but as a small-time blogger I like to keep it to about a week to two weeks ahead, especially at the moment. There’s a lot of changing times, so you don’t want to be outdated before you’ve even started.

Fashion Bloggers – if you have Hayu this is definitely worth a watch. It follows five fashion bloggers from Australia that set up amazing shoots for their blogs, and it’ll either inspire you for posts, or give you the drive to make it as big as they have.

Facebook Groups – there are loads of blogger groups that you can join, and they’re full of really supportive fellow bloggers that are ready to either help answer your questions, or ask questions that you hadn’t even thought of yet.

Instagram – again, but this time it’s definitely worth pointing out the save to a collection function on Instagram. You can create a separate collection within the app to keep all the posts that have inspired you, and just refer back to them when you need a little kick with the ideas.

Books – I recommend the Insta books I have, Instastyle and InstaTravel. They’ve got great photos to inspire you, and give great tips and advice, especially when you’re first starting out.

Everything, Everywhere – look everywhere for inspiration. Magazines, when you’re out for your walk, TV – you can find inspiration anywhere. Never stop looking for new ideas.

xx