How did you create your blog? I get asked this question pretty regularly when friends, family and sometimes neighbors find out that I have a blog. Creating a blog isn’t very difficult, though I will say that having quite a bit of industry experience has probably helped me skip a few steps.
So who am I? What makes me qualified to talk about blogger tools? What information do I have that may be more valuable than other bloggers?
My name is Jennifer Colson. Pre-COVID (how weird is that to say?) I was a Director of Marketing and Public Relations for Broadway Across America. Before that I was a public relations account exec for an agency, and I’ve worked across the hospitality and entertainment industries with a little sprinkling in B2B and tech for the past decade.
Currently, I consult on websites and marketing strategies (e-blasts/newsletters, traditional and digital marketing campaigns, etc.), and I’ve worked with influencers and media on brands’ public relations goals.
Maybe you’re already blogging and you’re looking for some additional help to make your blog successful. Maybe you’re a complete novice and you’re trying to gain as much insight as possible on blogger tools before you take the plunge. Or, maybe you were checking out some of my regular content like How to Build a Custom Pantry or The Ultimate Green Smoothie to Promote Gut Health and somehow you ended up here.
Welcome. I’m so glad you’re here — and I hope you’ll check out our recipes, DIY projects, and other content we have here on Driftwood & Iron. And definitely subscribe to our newsletter if you want to get exclusive content and special offers.
*Please note: This post contains affiliate links, which means that I do receive a commission should you choose to purchase anything. It doesn’t change the price of the product (sometimes you can get a special offer because I referred you!), and it certainly doesn’t change my opinion about what I include on my blog. I never share anything I don’t 100% believe in and would purchase myself, and many times I turn down sharing products on my blog if I didn’t absolutely love my experience and I don’t plan to repurchase the products myself in the future.
So, let’s talk blogger tools!
The first thing you need to do in order to start a website or a blog is to purchase a domain and pick your hosting platform. I personally use Bluehost for my hosting, which has worked out great because they’re an official partner of WordPress. (SiteGround isn’t a bad choice either) The entire experience (from picking your domain to installing WordPress on your computer) can be done completely within Bluehost. They also offer 24/7 support.
I personally recommend using WordPress to build your website or blog because it’s the most robust and scalable in its capabilities. (Wix, Squarespace, etc. just don’t compare if I’m being honest) I’ve used a good number of website builders, and when it comes to SEO and overall performance I’ve found that WordPress always comes out ahead. You will need to watch a few tutorials to figure out how to make everything work synergistically, but it’s definitely worth the effort in the long run.
Check out Bluehost here.
Pinterest is essential to the success of a blog — but if you’ve spent any time on Pinterest, you know it’s basically like a giant black hole. Tailwind not only helps you schedule posts, it places your posts on a loop so you don’t have to keep re-pinning your material. It also provides analytics on how your pins are performing and gives recommendations on when to share material to maximize engagement and reach.
One of the biggest benefits to using Tailwind is the Communities. Think of “Communities” like groups of bloggers who are constantly sharing new material for you to pin, as well as share your own content.
Check out Tailwind (and get a $15 credit) here!
There are a ton of social media scheduling tools out there. In conjunction with using Tailwind to manage Pinterest, I would highly recommend using another tool like Crowdfire, Hootsuite or Sprout Social.
Crowdfire is an interesting tool because it allows you to connect virtually any platform to your dashboard (your blog or Youtube channel included) which provides a tab of available posts to share across various social media channels. It also will automatically schedule at the best time for each platform. Unfortunately Instagram changed what third party platforms are able to do to assist with in growth about 3 years ago, so that function no longer exists, but the other capabilities are still helpful. Check out Crowdfire here.
Hootsuite and Sprout Social are helpful particularly for social listening, analytics, and simply plugging in your posts for Facebook/Twitter/etc. and just publishing. While Crowdfire will provide some recommended articles to share spaced in with your own content, Hootsuite and Sprout Social are more “you” focused. Think of them as a content calendar — you plug in your scheduled posts for the week/month, and then it schedules it for you so you don’t have to set a million reminders to publish your posts each day.
Check out Hootsuite here, and Sprout Social here.
Photography is a big part of blogging, not only on your blog but on social media as well. Unless you have a professional camera, sometimes you will need to utilize stock photography to fill out your content. (As a side note, I definitely recommend using as much of your own photos and content as possible, as stock photos can make your brand seem fake or flat)
If you ever use someone else’s photography, it must either be license-free or you need to purchase the right to use the photos. There’s a ton of places to license photos, but I personally really like Adobe Stock.
Check out Adobe Stock here.
Canva is a must-have for blogging if you’re not a graphic designer. It’s exactly what you need to create social graphics for Facebook, Instagram Story and Pinterest. Canva does much of the heavy lifting for you where you can select the platform you want to create something for and it will adjust the graphic sizing accordingly.
I use a mix of my Adobe Creative Suite programs (Photoshop, Lightroom, InDesign and Illustrator) and Canva to create my graphics. To be honest, Canva is much more straight-forward and quick when you need to make a bunch of pins for Pinterest.
Check out Canva (and get a Premium credit!) here.
Blogging is hard work. There’s a lot of tools to make it easier and much more streamlined so you can spend less time on the less exciting aspects of it, but you definitely need to put in the work. I love using Trello for my 9-5 job, but it’s perfect for blogging too!
Trello is my little workflow and list manager, but it’s much more freeform than other project management tools. You can add status tags, due dates, checklists, and assign tasks to teammates. It’s a great way to keep yourself organized (and better than using a paper planner in my opinion).
Check out Trello (and get a free month of Gold Premium) here.
No matter what you blog about, chances are that you will need to make business purchases — whether for review purchases or for materials to keep your blog going. If you don’t have Amazon Prime yet, I’d highly recommend getting a subscription for your blog.
Check out Amazon Prime by clicking on the above free trial offer.
If you’re a food, home or lifestyle blogger, I would highly recommend signing up for Thrive Market. It’s basically like a Costco or Sam’s Club but for Whole Foods products — and it’s ONLINE! I did a full review post here sharing our family’s experiences and annual savings, but to cut to the chase, it’s SO worth it.
You can shop everything from clean food, cleaning products, bath, baby, pet, home, supplements and more. The shipping is so fast, and you’re getting clean and healthy products for the same price (or sometimes cheaper!) than going to Kroger or Walmart. When you’re sharing recipes, testing products out, etc., you definitely need to have ways to quickly order what you need so you don’t have to keep getting in the car to go to the store. Thrive Market also offers free shipping whenever you spend over $30, and they’re constantly emailing extra savings opportunities.
Check out Thrive Market (and get 25% off your first order!) here.
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