I started blogging life (seriously anyway) as a personal finance blogger. Some of what I learned about living on a shoestring and putting money where it matters have help me run my business in a lean, mean way.
If you knew Breaking Even B.A. (That would be Before Alice), you’d understand that, while I had the ability to put together a basic looking and functional website, it was not necessarily going to be the most beautiful thing on the internet. Since she has come on board with her Photoshop skills, ability to understand my specs, and attention to detail, Alice has helped us begin to make truly well designed sites. Yes, I feel like with Alice, I can use the word ‘design’ without cringing.
All this said to say that, in our lean mean company with one Photoshop licence at the moment, Alice gets this licence. Clearly.
But people say, Nicole, you give presentations all the time, you blog. You clearly need the ability to manipulate images somewhat. And to them I answer that I use SnagIt.
I first got introduced to SnagIt via Ogy, a great colleague who runs another web development business called Ogosense. (How I know Ogy is a long story but a fun one if you ever want to read it.)
We were on a conference call when I saw a flash go by on his shared screen and he started drawing arrows and circles around things in a program on his computer.
“What is that?”
“SnagIt.”
I did the thirty day free trial of the software and bought a license ($50- but look for coupon codes at retailmenot.com or other places like it because there is often some kind of promo going. I got it for $30).
More then being not super expensive like Photoshop, SnagIt has a lot going for it.
1. It’s Mac and PC compatible.
2. You can do basic image editing, like cropping, resizing, add a watermark, adjust colors etc.
3. You can do extras like blurring text, superimposing your own text, drawing, etc.
4. It allows you to do image screen shots (on PCs this is an issue) and you can do video screen captures if you want to do tutorials.
I am sure I am only understanding tip of the iceberg of what this software can do. But I can honestly say, for most people, SnagIt is probably enough to do the basic image editing and screen capture functions that you need to do as a blogger or someone else who needs to document the internet or your computer.
If you’re on the fence, download a one month trial. And let me know what you think!