Woe to us who are graphic design-challenged... Not!

In my thirteen year stint as a virtual worker, I have never, not even once, attempted to mess around with any task that has something to do with graphics. Heck, I am fashion-challenged and while I am not color blind, I just wouldn't know how to mix and match colors so I always stick with the basics when it comes to my wardrobe. I might wear a geometric or floral top but I make sure that it is paired with the basics - white, gray or black. Okay, worst thing is I couldn't even draw a straight line unless I have a ruler. Or cut a paper straight. My gifts lie elsewhere...

But the world of social media marketing has evolved and nowadays, people react more to visuals. Look at Pinterest today, it has 48.7 million users, Instagram has 130 million users and Flickr has 87 million. The statistics clearly tell us one thing - people have very short attention span and hate reading social network users tend to follow, like and comment on posted images than on text posts. That said, anyone who does online marketing knows the importance of keeping up with the latest trend to maintain relevance. The problem is not everyone knows how to use Photoshop and I know I am not the only person here on earth who couldn't draw a straight line or mix and match colors.That is why, I did a little experiment today with various image editing tools and apps to test the waters and guess what? I am sharing in here what I discovered, so hop on!

Web-based tools:

1. www.picmonkey.com - My favorite so far, not because it is the best but simply because I find it easy to use and it serves my needs. I am not much into big image editing stuff and I like to keep things simple and neat so PicMonkey is great for me. It's pretty user-friendly and doesn't have too much clutter on its interface, too.

2. http://pixlr.com/ - Another user-friendly and simple web-based image editing tool that allows you to edit images, crop, add text and effects. It's like Photoshop, only simpler.

3. http://www.picnik.com/- Offers the basics - vignetting, saturating and cropping. Opens up fast, too and integrates with your Flickr account so you save some time.

Mobile apps

1. InstaQuote - I am loving InstaQuote at the moment because it offers me the flexibility to create quote images like this and picture images like this. Once you've created an image design using this app, you can choose to share it instantly on Instagram, Facebook, email or simply save it to your Camera Roll. Your image will automatically have the InstaQuote watermark, if you want to get rid of it, simply open it up from your Camera Roll and press Edit, then crop. Voila!

2. Labelbox - Labelbox is an image labeling app that allows you to create great looking labels on your photos like this. I snapped that photo in November of 2012 while my boyfriend and I were on a romantic holiday in a small but scenic coastal town north of the country. I have been wanting to use it as a backdrop for some of my profound thoughts but never really knew how to do it until I found Labelbox.

3. Comic Touch - Do you want to create something like this? Comic Touch allows you to create comic strips with your images by incorporating speech bubbles and text. It also lets you edit the image to give it a comic-like texture.

4. EZY Watermark - There are personal photos that we don't mind sharing for the world to view but are quite uneasy about the possibility of it being used by another person for other purposes. Or, simply, we just want some sense of copyright to it. EZY Watermark allows you to do this, like so.

Well, these are just a few tools and apps that are available out there and I am certain there are hundreds more. These ones are my personal favorites at the moment. Are you using another tool or app that is not in this list? I would love to hear about it, please feel free to leave a note on the comment section and I will make sure to jump right in the conversation.

Cheers!