In theory, excellent blogging requires nothing more than a word processor, a publishing platform and a few original ideas. In reality, putting out great blog content week after week is nearly impossible without some solid software to ease the process. The following apps are virtual necessities in today’s blogging environment.
PhotoPin
With few exceptions, the best and most popular blogs on the Web are peppered with evocative imagery. A service like PhotoPin comes in handy when scrounging around for visuals. It’s basically a search engine for pictures published under the Creative Commons license that can be paired with a post.
Topsy
If you want a blog post to go viral, you’ll need to time the delivery of said content effectively for maximum impact. Using Twitter to figure out what’s hot at the moment is the best way to optimize publication dates. Topsy is a Twitter keyword research tool that will tell you what’s trending.
Evernote
Planning a superlative blog post and seeing it through to the end can be difficult if you aren’t able to keep everything organised along the way. Evernote is the best tool for keeping many different moving parts straight during the process. It can even sync with blogging platforms like Postach.io.
Rival IQ
If you’re going to pay for just one app that’ll turbocharge your blogging, Rival IQ is the one to splurge on. It’ll help you to keep an eye on your toughest competitors in your specific niche and figure out how to win the blogging popularity contest.
Google Analytics
You can’t build a great blog if you don’t keep an eye on what’s working and what’s not. When it comes to free analytics, Google Analytics is still the best option for the average webmaster. It’ll tell you what you need to know when it comes to keywords, visitor demographics and a whole lot more.
Assembling the Ultimate Blogging Toolkit
If you want to be a hyper-productive blogger, software will have to come along for the ride. Figuring out what works and what doesn’t is going to be critical to your success. These killer apps will get you at least part of the way there.