I was recently listening to one of Vix Meldrew's podcasts which was alllll about the different tools and platforms she uses to run her blog and social channels and thought for today's post I would share with you the ones I personally use, as well as their costs. If you're new to the blogging scene (or perhaps even just thinking about setting one up yourself) I'm hoping this blog post will help point you in the right direction and give you some sort of idea about where to start/what to use/which platforms I recommend...

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All The Tools I Use To Run My Blog (And Their Costs)

Blogger 

After making the initial decision that I wanted to set up becc4.co.uk, the next thing there was to think about was what blogging platform I wanted to use. Now, I'm going to be honest, I went for Blogger because it's a) cheaper and b) simpler than some of the other options. Blogger is totally free to use and all domains end with .blogspot.com. 

Now, with hindsight, I probably would have opted for Wordpress because of the flexibility there is with everything and the huge range of plugins available. That being said, it is possible to migrate from one to another so it's definitely not a finite decision and Blogger is a great place to start if you're not sure whether blogging is for you or not!

GoDaddy 

To go from becc4.blogspot.com to becc4.co.uk I had to purchase my own domain. I'm going to be honest, I don't know too much about the intricacies and complexities, all I do know is that it's fairly straight forward with Blogger. I chose GoDaddy because they had a fantastic offer for the first two years and have stuck with them for this renewal too. Back in March, I paid £23.98 for my domain and security renewal for this year. 

Lightroom 

To edit all of my photos I use the mobile Lightroom app. It's fab, easy to use, and is free from the app store. I edit all of my photos, in the same way, using a preset, then post them here on my blog as well as on my social media channels. If you don't already use Lightroom, I highly recommend downloading the mobile app and giving it a go. It's definitely what up-levelled my blog photography! 

Crowdfire 

A fairly new addition to my blogging toolbox, I use Crowdfire to schedule all of my promotional tweets. I try to sit down and do a load in bulk, scheduling between three and five a day, to help get my posts seen. I find using a Tweet Planner particularly useful for weekdays - when I'm usually at work - because I can't physically post them manually. (I also wouldn't want to because how dull would that be?!) I used to use the free version of Crowdfire but decided to upgrade my account so that I could schedule more tweets, further in advance! I paid £48.40 for the year, making the weekly cost less than a pound and I don't think I could be without it now.

So there we have it, all of the tools I use to run my blog as well as their associated costs. I hope this post has been informative and somewhat interesting, I'm very nosy so love to hear how other people are doing things...

What tools do you use to run your blog?