Blogging is more than just writing blog posts. It involves a lot of pre- and post-publication work. A great part of preparatory assignments is dedicated to multimedia content, without which blog posts will look boring and unattractive. In most cases, you don’t paste a picture or a video into the post “as-is”. Multimedia files usually require special preparation to suit your blog design and layout. Let’s check what tools can help you get rich-media content ready to be spotlighted on your blog.
Freemake Video Converter
Freemake Video Converter is a great free tool which you can use to prepare videos for your site. It lets you edit videos (cut, join, rotate), add subtitles, pictures or another audio if necessary. Since your visitors navigate your blog from various browsers, Freemake gives an awesome option “Convert to HTML5”. If you choose it, you’ll get a ready code to embed on your blog and your video in three formats: MP4, OGG, WebM. Thus, all the visitors will be able to enjoy your video from any desktop or mobile browser. With this software, you can also create a slideshow with photos and music to make your post more interesting.
Please note that with a free version you’ll get Freemake branding at the beginning and at the end of your video. The version without it will cost you $9.99 per year or $19.99 for lifetime.
The software is available only for Windows-based PCs starting from Windows Vista.
Snagit
Snagit is popular software that will help you create images for your blog. First of all, it’s a wonderful screenshot making tool. If you write tutorials on how to use desktop and online tools, it’s really a must-have. Snagit lets you capture a particular object, a complete window, a scrolling window, take mini screenshot with custom dimensions and much more. When you are done with it, edit your pic with Snagit editor. You can cut the unnecessary parts, use arrows and shapes to mark an important detail, insert text, highlight objects, use fill and erase options. Snagit editor is well-designed and really easy to use. So you don’t need to follow difficult PhotoShop guides to make simple actions.
Snagit is available for Windows and Mac for $49.95.You can get a full trial version for 15 days before purchasing.
Fotor
Fotor is a free online service for making high-quality picture collages. Fotor allows users to choose a template with up to 13 photos that you can add form your PC hard drive, Dropbox account, Facebook, Picasa or Web. The later requires a direct link to the image. When you paste the pic, you can flip, zoom or rotate it to better fit the collage. As soon as the photos are ready, choose your collage background, border, its color and texture. You are free to add stickers or a text message to the collage. There three free options to use to save a collage. However, you need only two of them: save to PC, and save to Dropbox.
Most of the Fotor frames are free. However, there are Premium ones available for $39.99 per year (there is a 63% discount now) or for $8.99 in case you need the tool just for one month.
SoundCloud
SoundCloud is a world popular service for music fans. Here you can get almost any possible music starting from famous tracks and ending up with new local bands and rare recordings. What is great about SoundCloud is its sharing option. If you want to add a music track into your post, SoundCloud is one of the best choices. What you need to do is to click the Share button under a particular track, choose the Embed tab, choose the embed type (Classic or Visual) and copy a ready code. Then go to your web page and paste the code in a place where you want the track to be shown.
SoundCloud is free for ordinary users. However, if you want to upload numerous track of your own, you are should choose between two plans: PRO for $7 per month or $63 per year or PRO UNLIMITED for $15 per month or $135 per year.
MEF Music Editor
SoundCloud is perfect if you want to paste a ready track of a popular musician or any other audio as is. However, in case you need to edit a song or even record it, you can’t do without MEF Music Editor. It’s a simple yet pretty powerful tool that lets you record music with a microphone, apply various filters, reduce noise, cut unnecessary parts or exchange their positions and even convert voices. MEF Music Editor has a splendid user-friendly design. The visual editing is intuitive; thus, you don’t need to be a professional musician to enhance a music track.
MEF Music Editor would cost you $29.90, but now you can get it absolutely free. Please note that this giveaway won’t last forever. So hurry up to download the software!
Hope these great tools will help you get video, audio and photos ready for your blog. Don’t forget: the better are your visuals, the more attractive your blog is, and thus the higher your revenue is.
Guest article written by: Terry Smith is a freelance blogger, former teacher and web developer. He adores modern technology and shares his thoughts and ideas with other people. You can follow him on Twitter.
Hello,
Thanks for sharing this article.
Since i sometimes write about entertainment, the sub-topic on Soundcloud and how to add a music track to a post was just what i needed.
I’m glad i found it here.
Have a nice day. I’m off to check it out 🙂
Hi Admin,
Thank you for such a helpful post to get content ready for our blog. I appreciate the work of guest author. If the article can be updated with some free tools to do the work, it would be great for newbies.
Hey Admin thanks for sharing such a amazing article. I try some of the tolls but my most favorite tool is Snagit. It’s really easy to use..
Thanks for sharing these multimedia content creation tools, Terry.
To get measurable business results, content today must stand out. These are some great ways for a content writer to step up their game when creating content for business clients.
I agree, Snagit is a great tool to customize images in a way that looks professional and optimized every time. I’m going to give Freemake Video Converter a try.
-Leigh