Starting a blog can be highly intimidating especially in the fast growing world of the internet. It is now an established fact that the world is shifting gears to a much more diverse and tech driven future. With the advent of social media handles, blogs have become ever more visible and valuable than ever before.
From elaborate fashion blogs to awe-inspiring art curated on social feeds, architecture and technology, Lifestyle and travelling – there are so many options that you can choose from. Basically you can blog about the things that inspire you the most or you’re interested in providing them the visibility that you think that they deserve. You can make a blog about Independent artists that inspire you, about places that you have visited, Food and Culture and even politics.
Social media handles such as Instagram, twitter, Facebook and so much more are able to bridge the gap between your blog and the viewers. We live in a world where it has become far easier to express yourself – to be vocal about the things that inspire you and you can communicate with the rest of the world through a simple touch on your smartphone.
Blogging is an interesting yet slightly complex vent of curating art and feed. A lot of people are now able to monetize their curatorial skills through blogging. So if you are new to the realm of virtual wonders of blogging then I would be glad to inform that you have landed at the right place. In this article we will discuss some of the most resourceful avenues to help build your blog. You will also be introduced to some of the technology and apps you can use to make your blog grow exponentially faster.
This includes some of the most interesting yet highly resourceful apps to help you with your graphics – information and curatorial skills. This amazing blogging guide will assist you in establishing a well-renowned prominence amongst the blogging industry. Without further ado, let’s get into some of the most powerful resources to help build your blog.
Resources to help build your blog!
In order to streamline the entire process of learning about helpful resources to help build and grow your blog, I have divided the entire article into sections. These sections will highlight different technical and aesthetical aspects of building a blog. You can learn about graphics and video editing under the respective section while you can sneak in into the marketing section in order to improve the visibility of your blog.
Platforms and Hosting
When it comes to platforms to host and create your blogs on, nothing gets better than WordPress.org/com. I have been running an E-magazine via WordPress.org for the last two years and I must say it never disappoints me.
You can literally buy and run a domain via WordPress.com for free and upgrade it consistently with the latest updates. If you are interested in creating a blog that pays you at the same time and keeps your content secure than you should opt for a blog on WordPress.org. The org allows you to maintain SEO with collaborated software’s added to the domain such as Yeast. Word Press has been meticulously designed in order to assist and promote blog neophytes and aficionado’s respectively.
It is essential to have your blog optimized with competitive SEO strategies in order for it to achieve a high quality prominence and visibility in the virtual realm.
You can also opt for other blog host platforms such as Movable Type. However, I would suggest using WordPress.org, for blogging especially, if you are new to this.
You can also use BlueHost, especially if you are starting new. Over the years Word Press has been constantly encouraging to use Blue Host as a platform to host your blog and site. This comes with 24/7 technical support, amazing technical build-ins such as SEO via a diverse range of software and an amazing single click download WordPress feature. You can also equip your blog with WPEngine, which is an impeccably designed hosting platform that has been integrated to support and attract an immense amount of Web-traffic.
Graphics, Templates and Photo editing
When it comes to blogging it is essential to curate a visual wonder. It is imperative that you put extra effort in curating the visual aesthetics of the blog. You need to make sure your content is highly attractive and in sync with not only your personal aesthetics but also competitive to the rest of the content available online. You can use the following resources to upgrade your blog content and create interesting layouts to attract more viewers.
Canva:
Canva is a great, if not the best resources to help build your blog. You can use Canva to create awe-inspiring, visually saturated graphic content. It is easy and provides multiple free templates that you can edit and use for your social media posts. Canva comes with the following interesting features.
Features:
- Amazing layouts and graphics
- Customizable and Editable templates
- Extensive Font Library
- Social media templates – These come in handy in order to create an interesting yet diverse social media presence
- Easy to use inbuilt drag and drop editor
- Customizable Branding
- You can also edit your photos in the photo Lab
- You can brand and rebrand your products using Canva
- Affordable and easy to use
Pinterest:
Pinterest is highly resourceful when it comes to gathering info-graphics for your online blog. With a single tap on your screen you can have access to an endless library of visually saturated content. One great thing about using Pinterest is the fact that it is also a great way to optimize your search engine ranking. You can save your pins on your dashboard that can be both made public or kept private.
One great feature of using this app is the fact that once you have downloaded and made an account you can literally save anything from anywhere to your visual board. Once you have made an account you will be able to pin this app to your browser. Now whenever you come across any visual information or content that interests you, you can pin it directly into your mood board on Pinterest.
This is a highly recommended resource in order to make your blog interesting and diverse with an array of highly competitive visual content. Some of the most interesting features of Pinterest have been stated below.
Features:
- Browser Extension to save content on your Pinterest mood board
- Visual search feature can be used to search for things with the help of an image. Just drag your image in to the Pinterest visual search bar and it will redirect you to similar visual content.
- Amazing filters to narrow down research
- The search tab displays all the similar researches at all times. This allows the user to switch between different search keywords and be able to access to a diverse range of visual data.
- Allows you to redirect to the actual site – You can backlink your social media handles or Website to the photos posted on Pinterest. This allows a great amount of traffic to be directed to the rest of your platforms.
- Visual data access
- You can also move boards seamlessly – create an endless amount of boards for different information. This feature in particular helps a lot especially if you want to streamline your visual content and make it easy to access.
- Keep boards private or public.
PicMonkey:
This is another great way to get information and visual content for your blog. It is easy to use and highly saturated with good quality visual content. Some of the interesting features include
Features:
- Highly compatible to create and find content for social media
- You can edit photos and improve quality
- Branding
- Use the app to make good quality graphics especially for your social media handles
- A vast and diverse range of Templates and fonts
- Design attractive YouTube Thumbnails
- You can also PicMonkey to edit photos by editing layers separately. This is slightly similar to how Adobe Photoshop works only less complicated.
99 Designs:
99 Designs is your virtual portal to get in touch with thousands of professional graphic designers and Web designers online. If you need professional help with your visual content i:e whether if you need help with a logo or a template or Web Design, then 99 Design offers the best solutions.
Features:
- Web Design and Graphic Design consultation
- Copyright ownership of the content
- Access to Professional Graphic designers who can help you with, curatorial services, logo design, banner design, Seamless editing
- A dedicated manager to help assist you with your work
- Manager as a liaison between you and the designer
- Secure Payment Options
Email Marketing
It is essential to have sufficient tools and references to assist your blog with Email Marketing. This allows you to send frequent essential upgrades, notification and much more to your blog subscribers, in order to improve viewer engagement. Some easy to use and affordable Email – Marketing Software has been listed below
ConvertKit:
ConvertKit has been meticulously designed for Bloggers who want to achieve great things. The Email Marketing Platform provides with diverse yet highly essential tools for automation, page landing, and lead generation. You can subscribe up to a 1000 consumers with free email subscriptions. Some of the features also include
Features:
- Blue print Automation
- Lead Generation
- 1000 email subscribers
- Customizable CSS
- Customizable textures and patters
- Customizable Segmentation
- Broadcasting – this allows you to immediately update your subscriber fuss-free
Feed Blitz:
This platform is a great way to engage blog subscribers with frequent RSS feeds and emails. The platform helps your blog by providing essential RSS feeds that is used to update your Subscribers with blog notifications, new uploads, headlines. You can also share and redirect users to multiple audio and video podcasts. Some of the features also include
Features:
- Seamless RSS feed updates
- Email Marketing – FeedBlitz is one of the best platforms to help generate email updates and market your blog though it.
- Podcasts deliverables
- Feed Blitz also offers great Monetization offers
- Social media sharing
- Social media and blog post scheduling
Resources for Social Media Engagement
It is essential to have a seamlessly designed mode of execution for social media sharing. This helps your blog grow exponentially faster. With so many social media handles it not only becomes tricky but also time consuming to update them regularly. This is why it is essential to have a platform of software to help you post and share content on social media easily.
Agora Pulse:
This platform makes social media sharing and monetization easy. You will be able to schedule all of your posts and visual content with the help of a content calendar. The platform automatically shares your queued posts and content absolutely fuss-free.
You can also use Edgar and Co-Schedule to help manage your social media sharing and content. These platforms make the content sharing highly manageable by providing features like Blog calendars, Scheduling programs, sharing feasibility, Marketing calendars, Podcasts and so much more.
You can also equip your blog with Productivity and team management softwares’ like
- Evernote
- Slack
- Trello
- Wunderlist
- Fantastical
These platforms helps manage and communicate with the rest of your team from a simple touch on your smartphone. You can achieve a seamless project management, internal team communication, create a to-do list or even write and curate your blog post content. These apps are a great way to not only communicate with your team but also generate ideas and note them down as soon as you get an epiphany.
The above mentioned resources will not only help you with your visual content but also aid your blog posting process with a seamlessly designed procedure to aid quick execution of ideas. It is essential that you put extra amount of work on developing a great aesthetical outlay of you content.
You can use multiple sources to not only develop visual content from scratch but also use them to add finesse to already existing content. So what are you waiting for?
Happy blogging!