What else, besides words, do bloggers sometimes need?
Well, words are what bloggers need... but a lot of posts are now full of illustrations, drawings, photographs, and toons. There are hand-drawn illustrations that are photographed and included in the post.
But not everything is as simple as a photograph or a hand-drawn and photographed illustration. There are zillions of apps that bloggers get help from. there are photo-apps that help him or her fine-tune a picture, and then there are things like the Wacom stylus and pad that I've just bought and plan to use it.
There must be hundreds of other ways that help a blogger put forth a point more forcefully. if you aren't very secretive about it, do share your winning ways here in this thread.
Let me begin with an iOS app that I find simply too good not to be featured first. It is the Tayasui Sketches.
The water colour brushes are simply fascinating. of course, this app has all sorts of pencilsand brushes and the facility to resize them all... but an unbeatable feature is layering. And mind you, it is a stylus or your finger that is being used to create great illustrations.
This is a paid app... but not expensive at all.
money
BTW, what I am saying may not apply for everyone. But for my line of work, I would really love an initial investment and get everything i need rather than writing for someone else and earning ad revenues, then use the money to get what I want to.
I agree... money is vital. Though it is a fact that I haven't monetised my blog yet. So I'm not earning anything yet. I do not charge any money from 'The Education Post' too where I hwrite a weekly column. I don't have a job.
So this does make me a stragely eccentric blogger, doesn't it?
Yes, it seems I too need Money 
Sketches
I have used Adobe Ideas IPad app a few times for making sketches.
Mostly, I draw on paper with sketches, water colors and color pencils and sometimes with pen (including coloring). Almost all the time, I redraw sketches from the internet.
For editing pictures, I use Paint. 
, MS Office ( Powerpoint if I want to add a caption in a transparent box over the picture - the featured posts images in my blog's sidebar were made in power point )
For videos, I use Windows Movie Maker.
Paint...! This does surprise me, Ranjith, because not many people even remember this application.
Yes, for videao even i use Win Movie maker, though I have an old version of Elements... but I don't understand it much.
I've tried to use iOS based video apps... but not successfully. I mean, it is such a pain to shoot a clip on a D5100 and then to upload it on your phone to tinker with something that may not give you the result you thought it would. Video-making is something I'd love to know more about... how other bloggers handle it.
I used to sketch on praper first but it turned out too time consuming so I have shifted to online sketching apps. They don't score that good but a little bit of editing using Paint makes them acceptable! My fav is Onemotion. But ofcourse it's not that easy, the output depends on your drawing skills altogether!
is OneMotion an Android app, Bushra?
if you aren't very secretive about it, do share your winning ways here in this thread.
@r
visitors
100000000s of them
It's alright. I guess Mr Passey just intended to spur a discussion regarding tools that bloggers might need, in addition to simply words.
Well, @Sweety... every blog post that manages to get uploaded is a winner in its own small way. And anyway, 'winning ways' here is used more as a metaphor for what what bloggers add to their posts other than words and ideas. :)
Coffee !!!
How did no one mention coffee !!!
In addition to every app and technological assistance, a blogger needs this one and only addictive drug to function well - coffee... :D
Aha! Now you've reminded me of the best coffee I've had in these past few years... the one that Monmouth in London sells. And I'm going to miss our Coffee Saturdays mornings a lot.
Sorry about sitting down to reply after such a long gap... was travelling and am back to Delhi now. :)
Yes, I need coffee... and I need apps... and one app that I liked but have never used for a post is 'Foolproof'... has any of the other bloggers ever used it?
Zemanta comes with Wordpress and so far has been not half bad in finding relevant images I can use for the post. It scans the post and finds reasonably good matches and you can also do a manual keyword search.
My drawing skills are non-existing whether I use a finger or a stylus, so look for free-to-use photos, pictures from the web and make sure I attribute correctly.
As far as money and visitors go: Those are wants not needs. I'd say I value feedback more than anything else. If I can learn how to write, I hope someday I may be asked to write a paid article or two and earn about $50 for them :)
Other tools I use: an offline editor so I can write offline, polish and then paste into Wordpress and finish up with Zemanta. I alos maintain a folder where articles are stored while in writing phase and I also use WP save a draft feature.
I notice that Blogspot is the platform of choice for the bulk of Indian bloggers, so this may not be useful information.
The charming thing about drawing apps for smartphones and tabs and iPads is that they don't really hanker for 'drawing skills'... all they need is a person getting comfortable with their specific interface. For instance, I may find 'Sketches' or 'Paper' easy, but may not be as comfortable while using 'ArtRage' or 'ProCreate'. (These apps that I am talking about are all iOS ones).
I do know people who draw better with a stylus or an S-pen far better than they do with a real pencil... and there are many who are comfortable using a stylus on a tab screen but falter when they have to use one on a Wacom plate connected to a laptop.
You mentioned Zemanta... can I use this even if I have my blog on a Wordpress template, but it isn't a Wordpress blog, if you know what I mean.
I believe WordPress.com severed their ties with Zemanta. The blogs hosted on WordPress.com no longer have Zemata I think.
Do they?
Dunno what you mean by a WP Theme but not on WP. Are you on a self hosted WP platform?
@ Siddharth : Zemanta still works for my WP.COM blog, so not sure where you heard that WP had severed ties with Zemanta.
Discipline.
not possible :{P
Yes, discipline is the most difficult to tame... but then I guess it comes only if you are willing to just pull yourself from whatever it is that you're doing and sit down to punch in a few words. These may be meaningless words but many times this action triggers the mind to come and jump on the track to start writing a saner post.
Video presentation: Windows movie maker, Open Shot Video Editor (Linux) or Powtoons.
Illustrations & Diagrams: Inkskape & Dia.
Those who are having iPhones or iPads, can surely try out these apps:
1. POPartFX
2. Instafusion
3. Union
4. Fuzel
5. PopAGraph
6. DecoSketch
7. FluidFX
8. Studio
9. Phoster
10. InkFlow Plus
The above apps help you transform pictures and ideas into unique works of art, sometimes using words too.
Give the nam eof the simplest app first which can interact with blogger app.
They're all simple, but doing a different job. At times, I tend to use one app to create an artwork, then load it on a second and then even a third app to add effects that may finally give me the output I desire.
The truth is that one can do everything on Photoshop... but it can be more time consuming and complex. Apps do your job faster, though they may not give you the same pixels as output everytime.
is there anyone which can automatically connect with blogger.
So I will still have to use blogger app separately.
For those who are interested in creating videos... let me say that apps on a smartphone do help.
So far as effects are concerned, I have installed a few iOS apps for making videos and keep experimenting with them. They are: iMovie, Diptic Video, 8mm, StackMotion, Hyperlapse, Video in Video, and Stop Motion...
Do let me know if there are any others that are as useful as these.
Will someone please share video-making apps for Windows phones and Android phones too?
Are you searching for this thread, @Ragini? :)
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