Hey, friends! I don’t think I’ve ever given you a look inside my phone before, so I thought I’d do that with this post. I think it’s safe to say I’m pretty hooked on my phone, because it goes everywhere with me. I use it in my car (Thanks, drive safe and save) as both an insurance discount, but also a music player, podcast player, phone call maker…you name it. My phone links to my car through bluetooth, so even when I’m on the phone, I’m not actually ON the PHONE. So, keeping it safe, here, folks.
When I started The Picky Bookworm, though, I became an app afficionado. I have added, deleted, updated, all sorts of apps on my phone over the years, but I have found my 10 ride-or-die apps, so I thought I’d share them with you. Which ones do you have? Let me know in the comments!
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It’s safe to say I’m addicted to Twitter. I’m on there all the time, connecting with my friends, and making new connections for my business. In the past, I’ve tried to use it as a marketing tool, but it hasn’t completely worked that way.
In my experience, Twitter is a way to connect with people and find your ideal audience.
Once you find your ideal audience, there are tons of ways to market to them outside of Twitter. To me, Twitter is more of a conversation starter, or an appetizer, rather than the whole meal. This doesn’t mean I could ever live without Twitter. I take breaks, sure, but I’m always back to connect with my tweeps
Twitter is a way to connect with people and find your ideal audience.
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Now, let’s talk Pinterest. Once I figured I had Twitter down and knew the ins and outs of engaging with my peeps over there, I knew I needed to migrate over to a new platform and learn how to expand my reach.
Twitter is amazing, and I love meeting new people over there, but my content isn’t really evergreen on Twitter. I can tweet something, and less than 24 hours later, it’s gone into the ether, never to be seen again. Unless a random someone come across it and retweets it, I’m not likely to get much engagement past the original day.
Pinterest is different. Everything on Pinterest is evergreen. Once it’s there, it’s on there forever. You can pin something to a board, and 3 years later someone may come across your content because they went on the platform and searched for what you happened to offer. In my research on how to make Pinterest work for my business, I’ve learned so much, and plan on sharing my knowledge in other posts.
OneNote
This is kind of a new addition to my phone’s portfolio, but I am absolutely in love. I can create different notebooks on different subjects and make various pages for different ideas. It helps me organize my blog post ideas, and because it’s synced with my Microsoft account, I can go on my desktop and find all the stuff I added on my phone. OneNote is a great tool for random blog post ideas, or when you need to jot down some thoughts.
OneNote is a great tool for random blog post ideas, or when you need to jot down some thoughts.
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Kindle
Who else can’t exist without Kindle on their phone? Let me know in the comments! Because my phone goes everywhere with me, and I read mainly e-books, I can carry my entire library with me wherever I go. This means I never hurt for something to read, and when the book is especially good (looking at you, The Flock) I don’t want to have to wait until I’m at home on my tablet to read my book. Kindle is another app that syncs across devices, so when I read on my phone, then switch to my tablet, I can get back to where I stopped pretty easily.
YouTube
I watch videos all the time. When I’m in bed, I will either read my book, or watch some YouTube videos before I fall asleep. Yes, I know, screens are bad before sleep, but I make it work. Usually involving some sort of night light on my phone that turns the screen yellow. Annoying, but it works. Sometimes, I fall down the rabbit hole of funny animal videos, but I like to dedicate my YouTube time to learning something new.
Check out 3 of my favorite YouTubers:
ReadMore
I used to try to keep track of my reading on paper. I had this reading journal that I was going to keep up with (remember that post? It died a slow death), and it was going to be pretty, and I was going to have it forever. Yeah, that didn’t work. I couldn’t keep up with it, and it ended up looking worse and worse as time went on.
Enter ReadMore. This app is designed to help you build reading habits, and it gives you the opportunity to set monthly goals, daily goals, and yearly goals. Then, when you enter a book into the app (the search option links with GoodReads or Amazon, I think), it calculates the number of pages in the book, and figures a daily page number that you need to read to meet your target date.
You have to enter the target date manually, and I’ve had to edit the number of pages sometimes, but it’s nothing you can’t handle. Maybe one of these days, I’ll take a deep dive into ReadMore and show you exactly how it works and give you a full review.
I absolutely adore this app. I don’t pay for the premium version on very many apps, but ReadMore has made it so worth it. It was $13.99 I believe for the full, lifetime membership, and I have never regretted that purchase. The whole app is so user friendly, and so useful for keeping track of the books I’ve read and the books I want to read. If you’ve been looking for a reading tracker, consider ReadMore. It’s available on Google Play, and probably iOS.
Anchor
Y’all wouldn’t have The Picky Bookworm podcast without the Anchor app. It makes recording so easy, and I can go check my analytics and listens and all that stuff right on the app. It syncs to the website, too, so I can go update show notes on the website when that’s easier for me. I’m not crazy about the fact that Anchor is a Spotify app, but I take what I can get. Maybe someday I’ll look into a different platform, but Anchor is what works for now.
Amazon Music
As a Prime Member, I have access to tons of music on Amazon. I keep the app on my phone, because it’s easy to create playlists, find new music, and listen to my favorite podcasts. I’ve been addicted to Simple Pin Podcast lately and having an app that filters out episodes I’ve already listened to is super awesome. I do still use Google Podcasts to listen to Incorrect Music Theories by my friend Tim Baughman Jr., but other than that, I use Amazon music for pretty much everything.
Because I have ADHD, my brain tends to distract me from my life on a regular basis. Having access to music that doesn’t have lyrics is so important to me, because when I’m trying to work, and I need to really focus on what I’m doing, having lyrics is not a good thing. Linked below are my favorite instrumental playlists. They are all curated by Amazon, so aren’t anything I’ve created. That said, they’re amazing, and perfect for those times when focus is key.
Discord
Ok, I have a love/hate relationship with Discord. I love the various servers I can join, but I do wish the type were bigger, and I wish it would sync with the website. It does neither of those things, so while I love going on and visiting with my friends in Eliza Stopps’ SFF Collaborative server, I do have trouble seeing the tiny little print. I refuse to get rid of the app, though, because Discord such a fun way to keep in touch with people that you don’t see on Twitter every day.
GoodReads
I have to admit, I don’t use GoodReads for what it’s meant, most of the time. I use GoodReads in conjunction with ReadMore, because occasionally I have to create an entry manually, and GoodReads is a good way to get book covers for those manual entries. When I use GoodReads, I use it mainly on desktop, but having it handy on my phone means I can get what I need pretty quickly, and don’t have to hurry to a computer when I want to add a new book to my ReadMore schedule.
Ok, so there you have it! My 10 favorite blogging phone apps. I absolutely love all 10 apps, and can’t imagine running my business without them.
What about you? What are your favorite apps? Let me know in the comments below, and be sure to subscribe so you never miss a post. I never spam, and you’ll get a weekly newsletter with my newest posts.
Until Next Time, Friends!
My number 1 is also Twitter, but close behind is Discord. I’m in a Discord based book club and love it! I use StoryGraph over GR though.
I tried using Storygraph once, but for some reason I couldn’t get it to work. I’ve heard other people have good experiences with it, though, so I might give it a shot. I love Discord, too. What book club are you in? I’ve thought about starting one on my server, but I’m not sure I have the time to devote to it right now.
I agree with #1 being Twitter and there are a few you mention here that I never thought of and need to look into. Great list!
Thank you so much! These are my ride-or-die apps that will likely be on every phone I own forever. I get so much use out of each of them, and they make running my website so easy!