It’s no surprise that there are so many tools out there available to bloggers and professionals. It’s kind of overwhelming, if you think about it, but I don’t want YOU to stress. I have 3 tools must have blogging tools that you NEED in 2020. These are my absolute go-to’s and must-haves; my “tried and trues” if you will. I cannot recommend them enough to anyone who’s been doing this a while or to those who are just starting out.
I want you to know that these are 3 tools I use daily, not once a week or month but daily. So I absolutely would not recommend them to you if I, myself, didn’t utilize them.
Are you curious to know what they are? OK let’s go!
3 Must Have Blogging Tools You NEED in 2020
** Please note, this page contains affiliate posts, if you click on a link and make a purchase, I make a very small commission at no cost to you!
Canva
Can I get an AMEN for Canva?! I have been using them for over 4+ years now and I can’t get enough. It’s actually kind of fun to see my journey as an amateur designer for my blog pins, etc. I’ve come a long way, but so has Canva!
You can design so many different types of creatives on Canva and they have the best templates to work with. You name it, you can design it.
I use Canva to design all of my Pins, sometimes IG Stories, and blog content. Separate from the blog, I also used Canva in the past to design my resume. Believe it or not, they have some great templates to choose from, so if you’re looking for a job or just to spruce up your resume – give Canva a try.
While you can utilize Canva for free, as long as your heart desires, you can also upgrade to the PRO version and get so much more.
Canva Pro offers the ability to:
- Resize your designs (if you copy them, etc.)
- Create animated graphics
- Create a Brand hub with your colors, fonts, and more
- Collaborate with shared templates & folders
- Export designs with a transparent background
- and has access to more elements, pictures and more!
Whether you decide to go PRO or utilize the free version, I can’t imagine blogging without Canva. It truly is an amateur designers dream!
Tell me, have you used Canva before? What are your thoughts on it?
Trello
If you haven’t heard of Trello, allow me to introduce you to it, it’s one of my favorite tools as I used it at my previous job. It can be used in all sorts of ways and has so many power-ups to choose from – which is essentially a plugin.
One of the things you can use Trello for, if in blogging, is to create a content calendar and house general information. The image below is an example of what your board could look like. My blog board has lists for blog post ideas, affiliate programs I’m in, to-do lists and more.
Once you create your first card (example below), you can add a label to it and begin color coding your content. This will keep it easy to organize when you begin drafting a content calendar. This is also especially useful if you have a blog that covers a variety of topics. For mine, I talk about lifestyle / travel / marketing – so I need different labels for each. You can customize them any way you like!
Once you’ve labeled your card – you can put a due date on it. If you’ve added the calendar as your power-up (do it in the menu section), you will see all of your due dates there (see example below).
You can also sync your Trello calendar with your personal calendar, if that’s what you use most frequently!
I can’t recommend Trello enough. It’s helped me organize myself in terms of content, what I need to do, what’s been done, the affiliate programs I’m in and more. If you’re like me and you like to visualize things and keep them in one place – I believe you’ll see the benefit of Trello as well.
Let me know if you use it or if you already do, what your thoughts are!
Tailwind
Tailwind is easily my favorite automation tool. They’ve recently introduced the ability to automate your Instagram posts and it’s amazing. I’ll walk you through a few of my favorite features and I’m sure you’ll be just as convinced as I am on why Tailwind is crucial for your blog/business.
Tailwind isn’t just a Pinterest automation tool, now you can automate your IG posts as well! Easily toggle between the two when you login to your dashboard, as seen below. (*Please note: Instagram & Pinterest are separate paid subscriptions)
From the menu bar, you can go down to Publisher and create drafts of your pins. Once they’re ready to go, you can schedule them. You can see your schedule on the right (and how I’m utilizing the free trial right now, but I fully plan on upgrading to PRO soon because it’s SO Worth it!). For reference, Tailwind’s trial is based on 100 scheduled pins or 30 scheduled Instagram posts – NOT 14 or 30 days – like most other platforms!
After you’ve scheduled your pins, or before, you can go into “Add/Remove Time Slots” If you want to post 10+ times a day or just once, you’re able to customize that.
On the right, it will tell you a bit about what you’re looking at. Meaning, Tailwind has designated smart times for your pins to be distributed but you are absolutely able to set your own custom timeslots if you’d like. Tailwind is pretty smart, so it’ll schedule your pins at the best possible time to increase your reach. How nice!? You’re able to sit back, relax, and let Tailwind do all the work for you! All while gaining maximum reach on Pinterest. Hallelujah!
Tailwind Tribes
Tailwind Tribes! I honestly believe Tailwind Tribes are the new Pinterest Group boards, but instead of being on the frontend of your Pinterest profile – they live in Tailwind.
You can find a tribe or start one, whatever your preference is. So far, I’ve joined two and they’ve been great. You can share/schedule others content as well as distribute your own. To give you an example of what your dashboard will look like for tribes, see below.
*Please note, that additional SmartLoop and Tribes functionality can be purchased through PowerUps but you can trial them as well.
If you need any more convincing, see more Pinterest marketing Tailwind tips here.
If you are looking for passive income, less stress, and way more automation – Tailwind is going to be your best friend – I promise.
Give it a try – you can start for FREE – and let me know what you think! Or, if you already use it, can I get an AMEN!?
Finally…
I hope that you found this list helpful. I truly believe you don’t need to over-invest in a bunch of tools in order to make your life a bit easier when it comes to your marketing.
Also, please note that these tools are recommendations for the organization of your blog/business content, automation of Pinterest & IG marketing (organically), and amateur graphic design (when you don’t want to buy photoshop or illustrator). I will do another post that will cover a few tools you can utilize for paid social campaigns and more, but for now, I highly recommend getting started with these three!