A Slightly Different List!

I’ve been writing blog posts for a while now and throughout my time writing, I’ve used and discovered many awesome apps that help me make better content and stay on top of things.

I first started writing blog posts as a student back in 2015 when I started a blog called Dominiks Computing Blog. I used it as an area to share and log the things I learned as a student, side projects I’ve been working on as well as general knowledge I gained as a student.

It wasn’t until a few years later that I managed to find my true passion for blogging. In that time I had a few failed launch attempts, but my current blog, techwithdom.com has become more successful than ever before!

You’re probably wondering why I’m mentioning this, well throughout that time, I’ve used and tried many useful apps that have helped me create better content and I decided to share them with you!

So without further ado, here are 10 awesome apps I use for blogging…

1. Bublup 

Bublub is an app that I’ve started using very recently and it has become extremely beneficial for my entire workflow. If you haven’t checked out my review, I highly recommend that you check it out!

Bublup is a great app that is available on the web, Android and iOS and it provides you with a new way of storing things, showcasing your work as well as a whole bunch of other things! 

In terms of blogging, I use Bublup to save links to interesting blog posts that I may voice my opinions on in future blog posts. I save links to blog posts that I enjoyed reading or that provide useful tips and advice that I may need to refer back to in the future.

I also store ideas for future blog posts in Bublup, as well as content that I will be using in future blog posts.

But where Bublup becomes extremely useful is creating quick web pages known as “Rolls” which feature all the things inside your folder. It’s great for showcasing your work, useful articles as well as anything you want to share with others.

This is a feature, I will be using more often within my blog posts as well as my weekly email newsletter.

Speaking of which, Bublup proves to be great as a lead magnet as it allows you to collect email addresses to grow your MailChimp and ConvertKit newsletters, something that I hope to discuss in more detail in a future article!  

If you want to check out Bublup for blogging as well as a handful of other things, I will leave my referral link here. If you use this link you will get extra storage free!

Bublup: A New Way To Organise Your Digital Stuff!

2. Medium Enhanced Stats & Tags

This is another app that I’ve recently started using and so far it has proved to be extremely beneficial, especially as a Medium user.

Medium Enhanced Stats & Tags is a Googe Chrome extension that you can download from the Chrome Web Store free of charge and it improves your statistics to help you get a better picture of your stats. 

As a whole, the app helps you get an overview of your total Medium reach as well as stats for your articles and responses.

I’ve been writing and sharing my blog posts on Medium for well over a year now, and I think it’s a shame that I haven’t discovered Medium Enhanced Stats & Tags sooner! 

It has honestly helped me gain a better understanding of the stats and create more content for audiences that will actually read and enjoy it.

Highly worth checking out!

3. Google Sheets

You probably would never have heard me say this during ICT lessons at school, but spreadsheets are wonderful tools that you can do so much with, their uses are endless! That’s just one of the reasons I use spreadsheets for blogging.

After reading How to make $2,000+ every month on Medium by Mark Ellis, I decided to follow Mark’s advice on creating a spreadsheet and using it as an idea bank. I won’t go into detail as I feel it’s unfair to Mark’s work, but what I will say is that creating this spreadsheet has seriously helped me get more content out!

I use a spreadsheet for listing ideas for my blog, I have a separate one for my YouTube channel and I have one for my weekly newsletters.

I initially started using Office 365 for this sort of thing, but I quickly moved on to Google Sheets as I recently migrated from the Office 365 suite to Google Workspace which I’m enjoying so much more!

I have a link to my idea bank spreadsheets on my phone, so that every time I have an idea worth noting down, I can easily access my idea banks and note the idea down before I forget it.

4. Google Docs

Staying on with Google Apps I wanted to talk about Google Docs, the app I draft all of my blog posts on. 

I’ve tried many apps for writing blog posts, but as someone who works on multiple operating systems, I find that Google Docs works best, especially when it comes to collaborating with others.

In the past, I used Microsoft Word as well as Ulysses, but I stopped using Microsoft Word after moving to Google Workspace and as I now use a Samsung Galaxy Chromebook for writing the majority of my blog posts, I no longer have access to Ulysses.

Google Docs has some incredibly useful features, some of which I can honestly say change the way I work and maybe even my life!

6 Google Docs Productivity Tips That Changed My Life

5. Grammarly

Grammarly is an app that I honestly couldn’t do all of this without. For those of you who haven’t heard of this app before it’s basically Spell Check on steroids!

Not only will Grammarly check your spelling and grammar, but it will also check your style and tone and it will suggest improvements to your writing to help you paint a better picture in the reader’s mind and make the story more interesting.

I’ve been using Grammarly for a number of years now including during my university years and not only has it helped me improve my writing, it always has my back especially since we all make mistakes!

At present, I use the free version of Grammarly, but there is a premium version which has many more features such as a plagiarism checker and many more! 

Grammarly is available on many platforms including Android, iOS, Chrome Web Store, Windows, MacOS, Microsoft Office and many other browsers.

6. TinyPNG

When it comes to uploading graphics for my blog posts I always like to ensure that they are well-optimised so that the web page runs smoother. That’s where TinyPNG comes in!

It’s no secret that photos and images can be unnecessarily large, especially with the quality that camera’s are able to produce these days.

When uploading photos or images to your website, you need to ensure that they aren’t too big and that they are generally well optimised as it will help the web page load faster and you will be able to save space on the server.

TinyPNG is a free online tool that not only is simple to use, but it’s also very quick! You upload your photo to the web app and it does its magic.

Best of all, you don’t have to worry about signing up and it can do multiple images!

I tend to use this service as it’s quick, simple and matches my requirements nicely.

7. Canva

I’ve already spoken many times about Canva in the past, but it’s just such a great tool! 

I create all of my thumbnails and cover pictures with the help of Canva and best of all, it’s completely free to use! You just need to open an account.

I was always an Adobe Fireworks person for this sort of thing, I guess I was brought up on it. For those of you who don’t remember this legendary piece of software, Adobe Fireworks was a bitmap and vector graphics editor which Adobe discontinued back in 2013. That was a sad day for many!

But Canva is a great alternative, in fact, I would go as far as saying that it’s much better compared to anything else I’ve used before. 

With the help of awesome templates, I can actually create some really good thumbnails, cover images as well as graphics for social media.

If you haven’t already checked out Canva, you seriously need to!

8. KanbanFlow

Like many apps in this list, KanbanFlow isn’t strictly an app for blogging, but it certainly helps me plan my week, which is important to me as I run my blog alongside a full-time job. 

I first discovered KanbanFlow thanks to John Sonmez from Bulldog Mindset and I’ve been using John’s method to plan my weeks ever since! 

I highly recommend checking out his video on this which can be found here.

In my view, KanbanFlow is seriously underrated, it’s basic and allows you to track the time you spend on tasks by either using a timer or the Pomodoro technique, which practically got me through some of the toughest assignments at university. 

My only complaint about KanbanFlow is that as this is a web app, there isn’t a dedicated app for your smartphone. But you can create a shortcut to KanbanFlow on your smartphone.

9. NordVPN

This is another app that isn’t strictly related to blogging, but my workflow. 

The reason I wanted to include NordVPN is that I tend to create a lot of content whilst on the move. This means that I often have to rely on insecure public WiFi networks which can leave my information exposed. Due to the fact that I do this so often, I decided to invest in a decent VPN solution, and I tried many. But the one that works best for me happens to be NordVPN.

Not only is the connection decent, but it also has some pretty awesome features such as threat protection, which stops malware, web trackers, ads as well as other common internet threats.

Speaking about security, you also have a dark web monitor which will give you instant alerts if your accounts have been compromised.

You can also create your own private encrypted network for safe file sharing, work or AN parties with the help of Meshnet.

Overall, a really good app to have if you create content on the go or if you travel a lot and use public hotspots. 

But it gets better as one of the main reasons I like NordVPN is that they constantly have great offers on.

3 Apps & 3 Tech Items I Use for Commuting By Public Transport

10. Notion

The last app I wanted to mention in this blog post happens to be Notion. To be truthfully honest, I don’t use it as often as I used to, but I do use it. I use it for managing my entire side hustle (my blog and YouTube channel) as it provides me with a great way to see and find things.

I used to use Notion a lot more a few months ago, but I guess it didn’t stick. I don’t know what it is but I seem to be having a kind of love-and-hate relationship with it. 

It’s a brilliant app and there are some awesome templates available, but it just doesn’t work as well for me as a spreadsheet, KanbanFlow and Google Tasks.

But with that being said, I do use it for other things such as planning my trip to Poland this summer.

Why I Moved Away From Notion – 1-Year Update

Final Thoughts

To summarise this blog post, I wanted to say that there are many apps available for blogging. But after reading several blog posts about what others are recommending, I wanted to give you something a little different.

I wanted to share the apps I use for blogging, but I didn’t only want to include the apps that are specific to writing blog articles, I also wanted to share the apps that I use in the background to help me write blog posts.

If there are any apps I’ve missed that you like to use, let us know in the comments otherwise let us know your top 3 apps that you use for blogging down in the comments.

Disclaimer: This blog post contains Bublup referral links.