When you do something for too long, you naturally learn some hacks along the way and develop “your way” of doing it. Each person has learnt some tricks either passed on by his masters or learnt themselves through different experiences. For instance, professional swimmers eventually find hacks to protect their hair from chlorine in the pool or prevent tanning. A teacher has her own way of imparting knowledge with her students, whether it is by conducting workshops or sharing some inspirational stories that have been inspiring students over the years. Likewise, when you blog for a number of years, you automatically come across resources that help you write better and write faster.
We put in hours to build a blog post. From thinking of a topic to brainstorming pointers to clicking and compiling (and editing) photographs to writing and proofreading the text to sharing it across social media platforms. If there were no resources, our tasks would have lengthened and the stress increased twofold. So we are in a constant hunt to find software and apps to support us and reduce the burden of unnecessary manual work. In this post, I am sharing my secrets with you. The list includes all the resources I actually use and have been vouching through my six years of blogging. This information is extremely valuable to me and I hope it helps you too.
CLEAN TEXT
Cleantext removes all the formatting of a text and puts it back to its raw form. The website is especially helpful when you have written content at different places and want to compile it together in one blog post. Also, if you are pasting text from some other source and don’t want your blog post to look like a circus with different fonts and different colours, then this website is a great option. I agree that Blogger.com has an inbuilt “Remove formatting” option but using this option is okay if you’re editing the entire blog post. However, if you’re just editing a few lines, then cleantext is a better option.
POWER THESAURUS
One of my favourite resources to come up with fancy synonyms when I’m running out of patience and intelligence is Power Thesaurus. There is another website by the same name but I like the interface of this one more. Rather, I use only this website for synonyms. On Power Thesaurus, you can search for synonyms and antonyms of a word or sometimes even a term. You get a ton of options – antonyms, most relevant synonyms, lengthier synonyms, example sentences, definitions, and segregation according to parts of speech.
GRAMMARLY
Grammarly was introduced to me pretty late. I'm using it for over two years and have been impressed so far. This website is especially handy to correct the grammatical errors we ignore when our typing speed is at its top. Sometimes we are not even aware of the errors but Grammarly points them out. There are two versions to it: one is the basic, unpaid version and the second is an advance, paid version, where all the minute grammatical mistakes are corrected. I use the unpaid version and it works really well for my use. If you're looking for a deep grammar check, then you can opt for the paid version. Grammarly is not just a website but a tool as well. Even right now, as I type, Grammarly is checking my sentences, even though I'm typing on Blogger.com. That's because Grammarly comes with browser extensions and plugins.
STOCK SNAP
Where do all the fancy pictures I use on my blog come from? They're from this amazing website Stocksnap.io. The pictures here have a creative commons licence, which means, they can be used by bloggers. Also, the pictures are professional and of high-resolution quality. You get a ton of options to choose from when you type in a keyword. All in all, the pictures are really beautiful and you needn't worry about any copyright issue too.
Update in 2020: I no longer use this website for my photographs, but instead use Pixabay.com.
Update in 2020: I no longer use this website for my photographs, but instead use Pixabay.com.
BITLY, GOO.GL
Shortening links is super important before sharing your posts elsewhere. Pasting a long link doesn't look that appealing and takes up unnecessary space. Social media platforms like Twitter has a character limit so one must be picky in choosing their words. Building sentences could be a tricky business and you have to try all the possible means to find an alternative to say all that you want in a limited space. Link shortener websites come handy to reduce the character count. I currently use bitly.com, however, goo.gl is equally good. These websites also let you see analytics (but I don't bother checking those).
Update in 2020: I no longer use these link shorteners.
Update in 2020: I no longer use these link shorteners.
CANVA
The infographics and free printable calendar you see on my blog are all designed on Canva. I was the luckiest to discover this site as it helps me design whatever I want. The interface is easy and you have many template designs, fonts, colours, typography, and sizes to choose from. This is the website I can't do without and this very website has fostered design skills in me. It also has both free and paid illustrations, shapes, icons, charts, etc. Anyone can be a designer using Canva. They also have a mobile app. Though it is not as functional as their website, it helps in basic creatives for Instagram and other social media platform.
UNUM
UNUM is quite a popular mobile app specially developed for your Instagram. It lets you load multiple pictures in an Instagram-like interface where one can arrange the posts according to what suits best. For instance, I can upload a couple of pictures from my recent trip and then according to the colours and aesthetics, I shall move them around to suit my overall feed. UNUM is not only an Instagram-feed designer but one can even write and save captions. When we're travelling or have a hectic day ahead, we don't have time to write heartfelt captions. UNUM lets you write captions beforehand, which is why I love the app even more.
Update in 2020: I've found a much better alternative to UNUM. It's the Preview app and it lets you store infinite pictures on the app unlike UNUM.
Update in 2020: I've found a much better alternative to UNUM. It's the Preview app and it lets you store infinite pictures on the app unlike UNUM.
HASHTAGGER
This is another app for Instagram that I swear by. You just have to feed in one hashtag in the search bar, and it pulls out the most relevant hashtags for you. So if you put in "indian travel blogger", it pulls out the hashtags like "#travel", #indiantraveller", "wanderlust", etc. Also, you can select any 30 hashtags (maximum hashtags allowed on Instagram) from the list and paste it to your caption. Hashtagger comes in handy to make a list of customisable hashtags.
Update in 2020: This app no longer exists on iOS.
Update in 2020: This app no longer exists on iOS.
P.S. This blog post was originally written in Oct 2018 and edited in April 2020.
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