Free Blogging & YouTube Resources.

Let me just tell you I took it too far when I first started taking my own YouTube channel seriously. As a first time YouTuber or Blogger it can be really overwhelming how much you think there might be to do to get started in forming your style and brand that will become what everyone will know you as. There's logos and banners to design, templates and layouts to organise, playlists and collections to plan, music to find, thumbnails to create, photos to take, videos to film, writing and editing to find time for.

Even years into in we sometimes need to step back and take a deep breath to remember that we are in this for the fun of it too. So here I have put together a list of places to find inspiration and tools for your own creative pursuits. You may not have even thought of using these before so look through and you might find something new to be excited to use and play around with.


❥ MUSIC
YouTube Audio Library - Just go to your channel> Video manager> Create. There's a huge selection of free music for all kinds of videos.

NoCopyrightSounds - It's a YouTube channel full of great music that is there for you to download and use in any way you want. Someone has taken advantage of this and simply reuploaded it as nightcore. It's royalty free, which is something you have to look out for if you want to use your videos for monetization.

incompetech.com/music/royalty-free

purple-planet.com

❥ PICTURES
A Picture paints a thousand words. Sometimes they also make my heart sink with longing and how beautiful they are. There is a number of websites from which you can buy images, or pay for membership to download whenever you need, but it's nice when you can use them for free. Seriously there are a lot of pictures on these sites that I would die for.

pixabay.com

pcwallart.com

publicdomainarchive.com

❥ PHOTO EDITING and THUMBNAILS
Ever heard of PicMonkey.Com? If you have wondered how popular YouTubers create such fun and creative thumbnails for their videos - you know the picture you click on to get to the video, or the picture you avoid because it doesn't look interesting. Well almost all of those were made on PicMonkey. It's fun, it's free, it's easy. And you can head to Gabrielle Marie's YouTube channel to get some examples to try out.

You can also use Pixlr.com for more detailed editing. It's a basic version of PhotoShop and it's free.

Using overlays is a simple way to make photos look extra special. This can be done for a photo or for film. See example my amazing example that I spent way too long making:

❥ FONTS
DaFont.Com

1001FreeFonts.com

kevinandamanda.com/fonts/

❥ TITLE & LOGO ANIMATIONS
KeyNote / PowerPoint - Head over to Gabrielle Marie's YouTube channel and she will show you how to make animated titles that are not available in your basic title selections of iMovie of MovieMaker.

❥ GREENSCREEN & VIDEO OVERLAYS
Take a look at these light leaks and see what you could do with them.
Explosions and the like, you can find on youtube such as this one.
Film Transitions you can also find from Gabrielle Marie.

❥ SOUND EFFECTS
freesound.org

soundbible.com

grsites.com


❥ BLOG TEMPLATES
The catch with these is if you want it to be fully customizable after you've installed a template, then they will have a cost for you. But otherwise, it's fun to just look through and see what ideas you might like. Really if you love designing things like I do, the paid ones are all so gorgeous. Remember though that they sell the ideas to you with their photos in place, but you are going to have to use your own.

mybloggerthemes.com

gooyaabitemplates.com

btemplates.com

themexpose.com

❥ SOCIAL MEDIA WIDGET CODES
To add these to your blog simply go to Layout> Add Gadget> HTML / JavaScript, and paste the code that you obtained from these websites into the box.

- instagram
snapwidget.com or websta.me/tools

- Facebook
There is what is available through blogger gadgets. You probably want something smaller than the one blogger provides so if you find a code for one like this then please let me know so I can share it :)


- Twitter
For a Twitter feed box, you don't have to look any further than the resources within Twitter itself. Click Here to see step by step what to do.

❥SOCIAL VECTOR ICONS

Some are interactive, in that they change colour when you draw the mouse over them, but otherwise, all you need is an image to be linked to your profiles. My personal favourite style is watercolour icons. These images can be used in videos too, don't forget.

flaticon.com

iconfinder.com/social-media-icons

vandelaydesign.com/free-social-media-icons/

If you can't find any that are just right or if the set you love the look of doesn't include an important icon you need, don't be afraid to make them yourself. You know how now so there are no excuses.

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If there's anything else you're looking for then please don't leave without telling me so I can add it for the next person.