My Blogging Must-Haves!

I still can't believe I've been blogging for a whole year, and I still feel like such a newbie. I don't think people realize how hard it is to run a blog, or how fun it can be too. Over time I've found ways of keeping organized and getting my blog to run how I want it to. It's taken time to discover what works best for me and having good blogging tools can make it so much easier!

White Board

For me, visualization is key! I bought this a while ago and it has helped me stay super blog-organized. I basically write up what posts are going up in the current week and the next, which helps remind me which ones I need to work on. Throughout the day when I'm working, I can just look up from my laptop and keep moving on to the next post. I also write up Twitter chats and any goals or reminders I need to work on for that month. This board has made such a difference to my productivity, I can't blog without it now. 

A Design and Layout I love! 

I've found this to be really important from the beginning and I can definitely make a huge difference. Your design is the first impression that people get, so you have to be happy with how it represents you and your writing. If I'm not visually pleased, no one else will be either. Since I'm no good at HTML or anything like that, I've always been happy to purchase designs from others and spend the money making my blog look how I want. Worth every penny!

Camera

I think the biggest factor that stops me from hitting the publish button is if I'm unhappy with my photos. Photography is one of my biggest loves in life and so I have to be proud of each and every picture I post. Last year I took the plunge and bought my first ever digital SLR and I've been so happy with it. of course you can still take great pics with your phone, but I love the fun of working with an actual camera. Definitely worth the investment if you're looking into getting one.

Diary Planner

This is something I've really been making an effort to stick with in 2016, and it's really helped me stay productive. I wrote a post at the start of January showing you guys how I organize my planner, if you want to see how I keep on track. I use it map out my whole month of posts and write a to-do list for each day that I can tick off. They don't always get done, but at least I have good intentions!

Photo-Editing Apps

There are two apps that I always use to make my photos look nice and bright. The first one I open is Afterlight, which has everything I need. I use it to edit my Instagrams too! Then if I'm still not happy with the brightness, I use Photogene4 that has an amazing exposure tool that makes a white background look perfect. It's not as good as Afterlight for general editing purposes, because the tools can be kinda overpowering, but I still use it for most of my photos. Both of them were free too!

Buffer

A while back I finally got into the habit of scheduling my tweets and it's made a real difference. Living in New Zealand can make posting times a little difficult since we are roughly twelve hours or so ahead of the Northern Hemisphere. I heard other bloggers talking about how good Buffer is, so I took the plunge and have been using it ever since! It's super-easy to use and it takes away the stress of not posting when you're too busy/asleep.

What are some of your blogging must-haves? 
Steph x.