Glam but first coffeeThis is the blog post that has been planned for me to write for a very long time but somehow I just always postponed the post and wrote other ones instead. Maybe because I do not feel so smart enough to talk about blogging topics; or because I do not think you are going to be interested in this, or maybe it is because being raw on the Internet is not easy.
Telling you what applications I use and how is kind of revealing the secret behind my job and pictures that I post on Instagram every day. Today I am sitting down because I went through the list of my followers yesterday and saw how many struggles with blogging as well that might find this article useful. I also remembered how, when my blogging journey started, I promised myself that I will be as raw as possible. So here I am sharing some tips and help behind the scenes.
WeNote
Any price? 100% Free
Ads: No
To be a good blogger, influencer or Youtuber or just all three together, you have to be very good at planning your time and taking notes with important tasks, reminders, and lists. I will be honest, I am not so good planner myself, but I am trying very hard to plan even my Instagram photos and texts only because it does help a lot and takes off the stress.
A not long time ago I discovered this simple but very helpful app called “WeNote”. This app has a calendar so you can do notes and reminders every day specifically. Or you can create and save up general To-Do lists, wishlists, plans, shopping lists, hashtag lists or any ideas you want on your front page. It also gives the option to create different pages, like “Home”, “Work” or any other you might need to better plan and organize your lists and reminders.
Since I have this app, I have forgotten to use my planner.
Followers- Unfollowers
Price: FREE
Ads: Yes, pop-up ads
If you want to be a successful blogger, Youtuber or influencer, you will need to understand that this industry is rough and everyone is competing against each other. There will be plenty and plenty of people, especially women, who are going to act your best supporters and friends; and the next thing you know she unfollows you the next day! These people are follower collectors and they do not care about your posts or yourself even if you have the prettiest pictures and meaningful texts. For this person, it is all going to be about her/ him!
What do we do on these occasions? We get an app that tells us who you are following, who unfollows you, and who still follows you. I am using the app in a yellow color called Followers- Unfollowers app, but there are plenty in the see. With this app you can even search by the name of your followers, bulk unfollow, or star the people you do not want to accidentally unfollow and so on. If you have many IG accounts, you can add them all and easily change from one to another. Be careful, I have heard that sometimes these apps are mistaken, so do not unfollow your bestie by mistake and start the Dramacon!
UPDATE: Not using anymore. Instagram do not like these apps therefore I decided to not use them anymore!
Instagram stories
Everyone loves a good, pretty and understandable story on people profiles. It should be the same style as your profile and the photos you are taken are. I am very bad at this because I love to post stories at the exact same moment that it is happening, I also like them raw and real. But the stories of brands and products or unboxings I always try to edit using applications to make my message clear and pretty. I use three different apps to edit my Instagram stories.
Story maker
Price: Free
Ads: Yes, pop-up ads
This has one of the best templates I have found- unique, simple but also interesting and for anyone style (minimalistic, vintage, fun, etc.). What I love about this specific app, is that it does not have paid templates (other apps I will talk about has some free designs but most of the pretty ones are with a price tag on).
With this app, you can also edit/ add videos (it is not possible with all of the story apps). You need to remember though, it let it be only 10 sec. long, so you will need to cut it and create many files if your video is more than 10 seconds long. You can add texts, change colors, fonts and add fun stickers!
Story art
Price: Need to pay for some designs but some are FREE
Ads: No
Cons are that many designs are not for free, and therefore sometimes you will feel like scrolling around and throwing away a lot of time to find a nice design which is not paid.
Pros are that you can still find many beautiful designs for free which are unique and can add videos as well. I told you before that not all applications let you edit and add videos on your chosen designs. I spent a lot of time to find apps that let me do that.
Another good thing is that with this application you can also create highlight cover designs so your Instagram profile and highlights would look professional and put together. The con of this is that a lot of people will have these designs but at the same time- do we care? It is just color and few items added to organize your highlights.
“Story art” app has very great story designs for texts incase you write poems or for example want to create special quotes. I will use this option more in the future.
This app is going to cut your videos at 30-second marker– therefor I do use this application more for videos. At the same time, remember that Instagram only lets post 15-second videos in one story. When you will upload 30-second video on your Instagram, it will cut the story in half- creating two stories instead of one (no biggie).
This app is a little bit more simple- you can add texts, and change fonts and colors but that is about it (no stickers and that fun).
Insta Story Pro
Price: Free
Ads: Yes (can pay to remove ads)
I did not know that before but while testing the application and writing this article, I discovered it has a highlight cover maker as well (so here we have options to choose from and I will have some more job to do). And what cute is about this cover maker, it gives you a bunch of themes to choose from like fashion, beauty, religion, animals- so you have a lot of items to choose from.
This is the first story maker I had, and I am rarely using it now because I cannot add and edit videos with this app. For me, it seems also more chaotic and mixed and easy to navigate to.
Insta Story Pro gives great designs in the case if you are a business or an online store. They have many designs for discount posts, as well as fun, colorful story designs. Some are very cute, but most of them are similar to the first two apps. Also, the adds pop up every time I want to navigate and click on some designs- too much! Can add text and colors, for fonts it started to download some file, so this app is a little bit difficult.
Photo editors
I use three photo editors in order to edit my photos for blog, social media and even create thumnails and covers for my youtube video or blog posts. This is the bare minimum (or maximum as well) that I have stayed with and I am happy about.
Airbrush
Price: Can easily work with free app, but for few edit options need to pay for using
Ads: Not that I am aware of
Airbrush is the first photo editor I ever used. I could not find my style in presets, neither create mine that I would like- therefore searched for other options instead which are advised by many bloggers. I still kept it because what I like about this app the most is how easy it is to use it and it helps me to tune up my face a little bit for my makeup shots and selfies. There is the magic button (which is called just like that). The button smooths out the skin, make acne and dark circles disappear, as well as brightens up my skin.
Here you can see the difference that a small touch up can make!
Photo Editor
Price: There is free version and Pro version
Ads: No
Next one I got Photo Editor. Happened the same- just did not find the editing for me and the presets as well- at least not for the free version but I still left it and started to use it to edit my Youtube thumbnails and other covers that I need. Found it interesting, different and unique for my Youtube canal- now I am keeping it to have the same style for all videos.
One of the last Youtube thumbnails that I made using the app.
VSCO
Price: $19.99 (a year)
Ads: No
VSCO is the app every influencer and blogger will know about. One of the best apps you will be able to find- I can assure that because I have tried out many and I was ready to pay the money for this app- that means a lot. Therefore, I can tell you that this is worth the money for sure!
VSCO lets you save the photos in app and then edit them. You can use the saved up presets or create your own. I took advised presets I found on Internet and changed them up to use my style and accordingly to each photo to keep the style for my entire profile. The editing itself seems very easy and simple to understand- I learned it very fast.
Canva
Price: There are free and paid designs
Ads: No
Canva is also very known app between bloggers. Some use Canva to create e-books and brochures to offer and sell to people. Canva designs are also very great for invitations, flyers, posters, resumes and greeting cards. Many bloggers (including myself) use this application to create Pinterest pins.
Why bloggers actively use Pinterest? Pinterest works great for marketing purposes! How many times yourself have searched outfit, crafting, interior or makeup ideas on Pinterest and then saved it up to find it later? Exactly! Pinterest is one of the most important tools for people to search and find ideas. Therefore many bloggers love Pinterest as marketing tool and it works amazingly!
Discussion. These are all the apps that help me with my blogging and social media life. Which ones you use and which ones suggest me? Would you like me to write more about topics like this?
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