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I love blogging.  I spend way more time blogging than I ever imagined but it doesn’t bother me at all because it is something that I truly enjoy.  That said though, I have a few favorite blogging tools that make my life a little easier and blogging a little faster.  I know I am always wondering what other bloggers use for their day to day blogging stuff so I thought I would share mine with you!

Photography

Photos are really what helps make a blog something people want to read.  I think you could easily write the best craft tutorial or recipe in the world but no one will care if it isn’t backed up with some great photos.  Now, I still have SO MUCH to learn about photography but I use a few things to help me out along the way while I continue to improve my skills.

 
When I started working with food a lot, I wanted some specialized advice on how to photograph food. This e-book has been great! If you have ever visited Pinch of Yum, you know there is some amazing food pictures over there. This will help you on your journey to making your pictures look awesome too.

Of course, no one takes amazing photos every.single.time {or if they do, I don’t want to meet them} so we all need some photo editing help. I have Photoshop and Lightroom but I find that I use Picmonkey 98% of the time to do any editing on my photos. I have the Royale plan {so worth the money!} so that I can get access to all the fun fonts and the collage layouts.

Social Media:

I work full time at a place that doesn’t offer easy access to Facebook, Twitter or any of my social media accounts. I used to try and do all that one my phone during my coffee break and then I discovered HootSuite. Changed.my.world! Now, when I schedule a post, I click over and schedule almost all of my social media stuff in HootSuite. It is awesome.

ViralTag is my other go to for social media scheduling. It allows me to schedule all of my pins to any of my boards with a few clicks. I always go in and schedule pins for an upcoming post when I schedule it so I don’t forget.

Techy Stuff:

If you met me in real life, you would totally know that I am not a tech-y person.  I usually get my husband to do all that stuff and I just sit back and play Solitaire.  The blog, of course, changed all that because he doesn’t have time to mess with it and I break things a lot.   Thankfully, there are a few things to help me out!

Nellie from Nellie Bellie!  I was passed along her information from another blogger who uses her for tech related stuff and it was like getting the golden ticket.  Nellie {and her assistant} is awesome and always get whatever I need done without costing me any of my children or limbs.

My host.  The few times I’ve had any major problems with my site, the guys over at Bluehost have been super helpful in getting my problem fixed and everything back to normal.  I really went back and forth over which host to choose when I did my switch to WordPress and, so far, I’ve been really happy with my choice!

Money Making:

I never thought about making money when I started my blog. Heck, I didn’t even realize you could do such a thing.  Once I started blogging for awhile, I realized that I had some opportunity to make a small amount of money from my blog. 

The Mom Blog to Money Blog course is awesome.  She is so detailed on all of her instructions and it is great to be able to refer back to over and over.  Heck, I am happy I spent the money just to get the DFP information alone.  It is a little on the pricey side but I definitely thing it is worth it. 

 Affiliate marketing is one of the easiest ways to earn money from your blog. Finding out about affiliate opportunities can be a little tough though. Share A Sale brings a lot of really great opportunities {think brands like One Kings Lane, Craftsy and others} to one place to make it easy to find banners and links when you want to post about them.

What are you some of the things to help you blog better?  I’d love to hear any ideas you have!

**This post may contain affiliate links.  As always, though, all opinions and thoughts expressed her are my own. I use each and every one of these items in my own blogging on a regular basis.**

Don’t forget to check out all of the posts in the How to Blog Series:

How to Start a Blog
How to Create a Watermark in PicMonkey
How to Create a Newsletter
How to Use Facebook Groups to Grow Your Blog
How to Use StumbleUpon to Grow Your Blog
How to Use Pinterest to Grow Your Blog
How to Use Affiliate Marketing
How to Add Contributors to Your Blog