Blogging Essentials & Tools: BLOGSTOMP!

Blogging Tools & Essentials: BLOGSTOMP

Alright, I will say this off the bat: I know that a TON of bloggers do “blogging 101” series and “how to blog”-type series all the time. So why would I add in my thoughts to the already saturated mix?

Well, my reasons are approximately three-fold:

  1. Some of THE MOST common questions I get asked are: (and by the most common, I mean I get emails daily asking these questions) – “What blogging tools do you use for this? Or that?” – “I’m looking to start a blog, where do I start?” etc. etc. So, clearly there’s at least someone who wants to know my thoughts?
  2. I’ve been blogging (in SOME form or fashion) for almost 10 years. I’ve had this blog for five. So, I’ve made a ton of mistakes along the way (I STILL make mistakes) and I have just come across different tools, strategies, etc. that I figure it couldn’t hurt to share.
  3. This stuff is so fun for me. I kinda geek out over blog talk. 🙂

Now, while a few posts here or there may have “TIPS” – I am actually going to focus my “Blogging Tools & Essentials” posts more on the things that HELP me with blogging along the way… i.e. actual resources that I use on the regular for my blog.

So, without further adieu, the first blogging tool and essential I want to introduce y’all to is:

BLOGSTOMP!blogstomp

*This post is not sponsored by BlogStomp. They have no idea who I am. I am just obsessed with their product and would be lost in the blogging world without it.

What IS BlogStomp?

Basically, BlogStomp is an image resizing and optimization tool. And, yeah, what does that mean? Well, if you are a blogger that loves to include lots of IMAGES in your posts, then this is basically a tool that will make your life SO MUCH EASIER.

If you’re more of a “text” blogger and you don’t tend to include a ton of images in your posts, then this actually is NOT a great tool for you. It would basically serve you almost no purpose.

So, I’m really talking to the bloggers who include A LOT of images in your posts. Such as:

  • Photographers (duh!)
  • Fashion bloggers
  • Food bloggers
  • DIY / Craft bloggers
  • Any blogger who includes lots of images in your posts (bahaha!)

Now, I blogged for MANY years without BlogStomp – I just got it back in December of 2012. My sweet husband got it for me as a Christmas gift… and I’m kicking myself for not getting it earlier!

I would spend SO MUCH TIME pulling every image into Photoshop to rename and resize it or try and make collages and whatnot. I mean I would spend HOURS in Photoshop.

This was NOT a good use of my time. And I would often get super frustrated because the layouts I’d be working on would get messed up or something. It was bad news bears.

Enter BlogStomp.

So what does BlogStomp actually DO?

Well, you basically get the app, download it to your computer, and you’re pretty much up and running.

This is what the app looks like when you launch it:

blogstomp-1

Then, I import my photos:

blogstomp-2

Now, you can “freestyle” edit your photos or you can “batch” edit them. 9 times out of 10 I freestyle because I like to control the layouts, etc… but “batch” editing allows you to edit a TON at once and super fast.

So, basically, before I edit them, I go into the output and rename the files to what I want them to be named (think Google friendly!):

blogstomp-4

Then, once I have the name for the pictures picked out, I go in and start editing them:

blogstomp-3

This is the freestyle mode (above) – as you can see when you select more than one photo, you can see all the different layout options over to the right. Pick the one you want and you’re good to go – just hit “STOMP IT!” and it’ll get saved to your STOMPED folder on the desktop of your computer.

The other thing I cannot leave out is the ability to save different “sizes,” etc. So, for example, in the “STYLES” tab, you can create different default sizes. You can even add your watermark if you want so that your watermark shows up on every single photo. I don’t personally watermark my images, but if you wanted to, this feature is there.

But I have styles for my blog (“WHITE BORDER”) is for my blog and perfectly sized for my blog. I also have one for Facebook images so those can be a little bigger, etc. You can create as many presets as you want!

blogstomp-5

I’m totally not doing all the features of this app justice. It has a place where you can connect it to your Facebook and Twitter accounts and even your blog – so that you can upload photos directly FROM BlogStomp! It’s AWESOME.

My wedding photographer actually did a post on BlogStomp a while back and she does a MUCH better job of explaining how awesome BlogStomp is. You can see her post here.

Anyway. The one catch is that, yes, BlogStomp is not free. A “Single User” account is $49 and that allows you to install BlogStomp on up to two computers. But it’s a ONE TIME fee – and TRUST ME, it is SO worth it!

It changed my blogging LIFE. It makes things go SO much quicker. Seriously! I use it for EVERY SINGLE BLOG POST! 🙂

Anywho.

Any BlogStomp fans out there want to sound off and share how much you love this program? Anyone interested in trying it?

What blogging tools & essentials questions do YOU have? What would you like to see a future post on?

47 Comments

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  5. Thanks for posting this review! I know this is an old post, but I recently learned about blogstomp and have been trying to determine if I want to purchase it. So this review helped! PS. Do you still use it/love it?

    Reply
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    1. i still use photoshop sometimes to edit the actual photo (like if i’m doing any post-processing…) but most of the time i use my images SOOC (straight out of camera) so i just import them into blogstomp to arrange, resize, rename, and sharpen them!

      Reply

  9. Hey Molly thanks so much for posting this! Just tried the trial and had a quick question in case you came across this – how do you center your stomped pics in your blog (mine is WordPress)? I can’t find anywhere to do this in the app itself.

    Will email support but thought maybe you knew just in case – thanks!!!

    Suzy

    Reply

    1. what do you mean center your stomped pics? I center them using the “center” feature or even in html in the post itself… that’s outside of BlogStomp… just wanna make sure i understand your question…

      Reply

  10. Hey Molly,

    Thanks so much for the advice that you have given and for this post! Starting a blog can be a little overwhelming and the advice does help! I know I have spent a day on ways to improve and the do’s and don’ts of blogging.

    Thanks from a new blogger!!!
    Jasmine

    Reply

  11. I have PhotoShop, but it takes me FOREVVVVER to get anything accomplished… pretty much googling every step along the way! I might have to give BlogStomp a try – thanks for the tips!
    xx

    Reply

        1. Yeah I never used the trial… I just went ahead and bought it. So that’s the downside is the cost, but it has been so worth it for me! The trial would be good to just get a feel for how it works.

          Reply

  12. I have to admit I don’t always read blogging 101 posts. I’m sure you can tell. But this is SO helpful to me!! Definitely going to be checking this out!!!

    Reply

  18. Thanks for this! I have never heard of it, but definitely makes sense! I thought all the bloggers out there were professional graphic artists too. I am definitely going to have to add this to my Christmas list! You should do this is a regular series. I would love to know all your blogging tips and tricks to help us small bloggers out! 🙂

    Reply

  22. Uh, yeah. I’m going to be purchasing that pronto. Seriously, thank you so much for posting about this! I don’t have Photoshop or Lightroom or any of those programs, and I’ll tell you why. I would, as you said, spend HOURS working on pictures. Literally! If I were a graphic designer, then it would make sense to spend the time learning how to use a program like Photoshop, but I just need something that’s easy-ish. I’ve been using picmonkey online, but it’s kind of limiting unless you purchase a monthly membership. Thank you, Molly!

    Reply

    1. it is my FAVORITE!!! you can’t do MAJOR actual “editing” of the photos (although you can do some color correction and sharpening – i still do most of my actual “editing” in iPhoto) – but the resizing, renaming, collaging process is SO MUCH FASTER with BlogStomp. I am obsessed.

      Reply

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