I know that many people who follow me are also content creators – or work in the marketing field. And since I occasionally get questions about my feed on Instagram, about filters and apps, I did some stories over there giving some tips from websites and apps. The content engaged a lot me and I decided to bring it to the blog too!
Although many people think that creating content comes down to posting a beautiful photo, there is a lot – A LOT! – of work involved behind. In my case, with a multichannel platform, I write, take photos, treat photos, do research, capture images, edit videos, record podcasts … the list goes on! And, over the years, I found tools that help me with these tasks. Below, I share them with you:
Canva – website and app that helps you to creat the most diverse designs: Insta story, Instagram feed post, Facebook post, infographics, Youtube thumbnail, flyers, presentations, media kit: the list is endless. There are hundreds of layouts that you can customize in the most diverse ways: colors, photos, fonts. Seriously, Canva is just love. The free version is really good, but on the paid version, for example, you can download stories with animation – in addition to having access to more layouts and other benefits.
Unsplash – if you’re going to start creating content, if you just started, if you’re a veteran, it doesn’t matter: do the right thing. The internet is a wonderful territory but you can’t just do whatever you. That means no, you can’t do a search on Google images, save that nice photo, and use it in your blog post or in your company’s ad. Copyright, people. The photos I use for my blog posts are either mine or are stock photos. Stock photos, for those who are familiar, are expensive. However, Unsplash is a wonderful and collaborative initiative. There are thousands of users who make their photos available there – and they can all be used for free. You can use them for commercial and non-commercial purposes. You do not need to ask permission or provide credit to the photographer or Unsplash, although this is appreciated when possible.
Storyblocks – I just love this website! It’s an incredible source of videos – it has thousands of high-resolution clips, related to the most diverse themes. Whoever creates videos for Youtube knows that we often need an image but we don’t have the resources to shoot it, for example. With Storyblocks, you search for the term and that’s it: dozens of clips ready to download. There are three subscription plans – I recommend the second one, which gives you access to unlimited video downloads per month. Don’t forget to check the license details, as these videos are not good for commercial purposes.
Pexels – free photos and videos. It’s not as complete as Unsplash or StoryBlocks, but it is a good help for those who don’t have the money to invest in a paid service now. It has saved me on a few occasions.
VSCO & Snapseed – I edit my photos on Lightroom (either on the computer or on the mobile version). However, I’ve used these two apps a lot! VSCO has free and paid filters and other tools as well. Snapseed is totally free – it’s from Google – and, like VSCO, it allows you to set brightness, saturation, angle, and also offers filters.
Preview – there are those people who take the Instagram feed very seriously, there are those who worry about it, there are those who don’t care. I am one of the persons that cares about it – but not in a way that stops me from posting a picture. My priorities are: using only my photos, taking photos that are beautiful – but not unreal – and using a color pattern. And Preview is an app that shows how a photo will look on the feed. Nowadays, I confess that I use little. In the past, when I was building my style, I used more.
Adobe Suite – Adobe is a reference in the photo, video, and sound software. I use several of their software: Premiere for editing videos and podcasts, Lightroom to edit my photos, Photoshop for arts and other photo treatments, InDesign to edit my e-books. The photo package (Photoshop + Lightroom) is very affordable, but the whole package is a little overpriced, mainly because it doesn’t have a lot of options, even if you don’t use all the software, you pay for everything. As for Lightroom, this is the software that I use to edit the photos I post – I use presets. My sister is a photographer and gave me her presets, but there are several presets on the internet for free download or purchase.
BÔNUS! If you’ve heard of Abode Lightroom, you’ve probably also heard of presets. In Lightroom, presets make editing easier. These are saved actions with certain adjustments of light, color, shadow, texture, etc. Think of presets as professional “filters”. You can create your own presets and also purchase them on the internet. Having a preset for your photos helps to create an identity for your Instagram profile! 123PRESETS is one of the most famous websites for buying presets – and they have mobile presets and also desktop presets. Use the code SUMMER30 to get 30% OFF when purchasing any preset or package. Click here and check it out!
Instaspacer – this app is good for those who like to wrtie long captions on Instagram, because it allows you to insert spaces between one paragraph and another, which not only makes it easier for your audience to read but also makes the post aesthetically more beautiful. Just write on the app, copy and paste on Instagram.
Anchor – a platform for you to host and distribute your podcast. It is owned by Spotify and it offers several tools, from recording to statistics about your podcast. I use it for hosting and distribution – not for recording and editing. It distributes to all platforms like Apple, Spotify and Google (I think only Deezer and Soundcloud are not on their list). Not to mention that I also use the embed link from Anchor to make the episodes available on my website. It’s totally free!
Bublup – it is a wonderful platform for organizing links, photos, videos, files – think of it as a mix of Pinterest + Google Drive! It can be useful both for you as content creator to organize their agendas, timelines and ideas as well as to offer extra materials for your audience. I, for example, use it to make free e-books, guides and other materials available to my audience.
BÔNUS! I thought it was worth recommending the Flodesk platform as well. When we talk about email marketing, the most famous platforms are Mailchimp and Convertikit. I used Mailchimp for a long time and although I really liked it, they charged you according to the number of emails you have on your list and there was a point where I was paying a lot for something that it wasn’t worth it. Then, I discovered Flodesk. It is a new and super simple platform to create email campaigns. I’ve always found it very difficult to create beautiful email marketing and Flodesk simplifies that – the layouts are attractive and easy to customize. I think it is the perfect platform for content creators. And the best part is the price: $ 38 per month, with no limit on subscribers. And if you use my link, you get 50% off your subscription and pay only $19/month. Discount code EEQQUH. You can choose either a monthly or annual subscription.
Content creator and journalist in New York City. Here, I share lifestyle, beauty, NYC tips, thoughts, and the struggles about living in the most amazing city in the world! I’m not gonna pretend to be another person: I’m a Brazilian immigrant and I think this is my soul, it is part of who I am. I hope you enjoy my content! Follow me on Instagram!
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