The Skinny on Blogging: My Favorite iPhone Apps for Bloggers

Happy Monday! Two weeks ago, I reached out to you all and asked what topics you’d like me to cover in my blogging series, “The Skinny on Blogging,” and one of the requests was for me to discuss what apps I use to assist with blogging. I only use a couple, but they’ve come in handy over the last two years. Below you’ll find my favorite apps, as well as a description what I like to use them for. Don’t forget to let me know what your favorites are in the comment section of this post! I always love exploring others tactics that help them be more efficient. 🙂

Shop Today’s Look:

1. Adobe Lightroom – This is one of my favorite editing applications. It is the mobile application for the Adobe lightroom software. It is a paid application, but last I checked, photoshop and lightroom were only $9.99 a month. For how often I use it, I find it well worth it. I have to admit, the desktop application is way better and has a lot more features, but for on the go, I love using Lightroom for photo editing.

2. Dropbox – I use this application to transfer my photos from desktop to phone to ensure the highest file quality during the transfer. I used to e-mail my photos to myself, but after a while I found that the quality compressed significantly during the transfer and many of my photos appeared blurry. This allows that I have the highest quality file and also serves as a great storage application for keeping all my photos.

3. Snug – This application is a free version of the app Planoly. I use this app for planning my Instagram feed to make sure all my images reflect my brand and appear cohesive. I wanted to limit the number of applications I paid for, so because I only use it to plan my feed, I decided Snug (rather than paid version Planoly) worked best for my needs.

4. Liketoknow.it – Yes, as a blogger, I also use the Liketoknow.it app. I love finding inspiration from other bloggers outfits and seeing where they shop. The discover tab of the app is my absolute favorite because it allows me to find and follow other bloggers with similar style. Not to mention, I love that you can search the app via hashtag (#ltkunder50, #ltksalealert), or by my favorite bloggers accounts, so convenient.

5. Google Calendar – Google Calendar has come in handy not only for blogging, but for balancing everyday life alongside blogging. I have a blog calendar as well as a full-time job calendar and a calendar shared with my husband. I can add events to different calendars, move events around all while keeping them in a single place, which keeping me organized. It’s a saving grace for seeing what is coming down the pipeline for blog content each week.

6. Tailwind – I starting using Tailwind to plan and schedule my pins on Pinterest, and it’s been very handy for growing my blog traffic via Pinterest. Recently, Tailwind launched a new feature (that my gf @thecheekybeen told me about) that links to your Instagram and gives you a schedule of the most ideal times to post based off your audience. With the new algorithm it’s difficult to determine the best times, but so far this has proven successful in helping with my engagement.

7. MetaTrixer – I use this app to change the meta data on my images so that it appears they were taken and the last 24 hours, and it allows me to post old content on instastories.

8. Facetune – I use this application following Lightroom to finer tune my images. Whether it’s adding a filter or providing stronger ‘detail’ to features in an image, I think it makes my images sharper and more beautiful for Instagram.

9. VSCO – Depending on the image I am posting, I sometimes use these filters at small percentages for Instagram. In my opinion, VSCO filters are the prettiest. Otherwise, I use this application for storing my images on my phone for easier access in posting.

10. QuickBooks – In owning a blog, you also own a small business. It’s great to keep track of expenses, income, invoicing and mileage while on the road. I link this to the desktop version of my QuickBooks account so that I can easily access thing via mobile for convenience.