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Blogging is an art, and using the right blogging tools will make your art rise and shine!
This is an epic list of blogging tools to which you can refer (hint: bookmark it!), and find new tools to enhance your blogging experience as well as the experience of your readers!
This epic list of blogging tools consists of resources for all types of bloggers whether professional, part-time or personal. I have structured them into various sections, allowing you to evaluate and choose the right tool for right purpose.
Though the list of available tools is long, every tool is useful in its own way. I also offer a one-line comment for each tool as a quick but helpful reference.
The Ultimate Cheat Sheet of Blogging Tools
Desktop blog editors:
Desk: This will pull you away from all the distractions and help you focus on writing. Available for Mac OS, and the cost is affordable.
Open Live Writer: Best desktop editor for Windows OS, and you can publish directly from your desktop.
Blogo: Desktop publishing tool for Mac that supports WordPress.
Evernote: I use this to take quick notes on my iPhone, and it’s available via cloud syncing.
Content idea generation tools
BuzzSumo : Enter a website or a topic to find the most shared and engaged content.
Quora: Search for your keywords in a search box of Quora, and you will get unlimited ideas for your blog content.
Blog topic generator: Enter your keyword and it will give you post ideas.
Google Trends: Check the currently trending topics or find the search trend for any keyword of your choice.
Blog post title tool:
EMV tool: Checks the emotional marketing value of a title. The higher the EMV score is, the better it will perform on social media channels.
Headline Analyzer: This is the best tool in this lot. Regardless of what you know or don’t know about blogging, you will be churning out the best titles for your blog posts.
TweakBiz title generator: A comprehensive title generator by TweakBiz.
Potent C idea generator: Call it a content idea generator or a title generator – it functions as both.
UpWorthy title generator: The only viral topic generator you need.
Proof-reading tool:
Grammarly: Saviour for a non-native English speaker like me. Helps with proof-reading, suggests words, is a great companion.
Hemingway App: Free web-based tool to improve your writing. I’m sure you will end up bookmarking this one.
Stock images for blogs:
Flickr Advance search: Use Flickr Advance search to find images with a creative common license.
Google image search: Use images with an appropriate license which you can use on your blog.
Image Suite: WordPress plugin which searches 9 different sources to find free-to-use images. The best part is that you don’t have to add image credits!
Blog reading and content discovery tool:
Feedly: Subscribe to any blog feeds or search for your interested topic to discover new blogs to subscribe to.
Pocket: A “read it later†app which is also a productive app. Integrated into all the reading apps mentioned previously and lets you save articles for later reading.
Desktop Image/video recording + editing tools:
Camtasia: Available for both Windows and Mac OS, and let you record screencasts. Offers a one-month free trial.
Snag it: Image capturing and editing tool for Mac and Windows OS. One of the best, and highly recommended for bloggers.
Image Optim: Mac Image compressor tool which optimizes your images for the web.
MPEG Streamclip: A powerful desktop video converter software for Windows and Mac. You can use it to convert, cut, trim and join videos. I usually use it to convert my video format to reduce the size of the video.
Audacity: A sound recorder tool for every major desktop OS. Useful for podcasters, as you can record and then edit your recordings.
Google Plus Hangout: This is one free tool that is underused by bloggers. Use it to co-host a webinar or run a Q&A session with your readers. Streams & records everything on your YouTube channel too.
TubeBuddy: If you are a Youtube publisher or video blogger, you should get Tubebuddy. This one tool can double your Youtube channel traffic & make it easier to manage your Youtube channel. Highly recommended for Youtube publishers.
Visitor stats and analytics tool:
Google Analytics: The best solution for viewing advanced details about your blog traffic. Also shows live traffic status of your blog.
Jetpack plugin: Offers a module called “WordPress.com statsâ€, which allows you to see traffic details from your WordPress dashboard.
Outsourcing websites:
Fiverr: Outsource things like YouTube video intros or buy social media likes & much more for only $5.
oDesk: Great place to hire virtual assistants or freelancers to get a job done.
99designs: Crowd-sourcing websites for your web-design needs. Cheap, but high quality.
Problogger job board: Need a content writer? This job board is the right place to find an authentic writer. Costs $50, but you will find the best of the writers here.
Truelancer: An Indian startup which is going places. You will be able to hire great talent at nominal cost.
Productivity tools: Take control of your time
Headspace: Tired of blogging constantly? Use Headspace and meditate for 5 minutes. You will thank me later!
Wunderlist : Manage your to-do list with Wanderlust. Available on all platforms, and stores data in the cloud.
Trello: A card-based task management tool. I have used it in the past, but have now shifted to Wunderlist. Still, Trello serves a different purpose and is very popular.
Rescuetime: Sends you weekly stats (configurable) of which site you spent the most time on during the previous week. A good idea to start taking note of your counter-productive activity, and save your precious time. Install, configure and it runs in the background.
Selfcontrol: App for Mac which lets you block access to certain sites. Try blocking Facebook, and notice how your productivity increases!
Keyword research tools:
Google Keyword Planner: Free and easy-to-use keyword research tool.
SEMRUSH: Atypical keyword tool that allows you to find keywords that a given website is ranking for. Use it to find long-tail keywords which are easy to rank for.
LongTailPro: Desktop based (Windows & Mac) keyword research tool. Perfect for those who have little experience with keyword research.
SEO tools:
Google Webmaster Tool: Free tool from Google which shows various data such as links to your website, duplicate content and keyword ranking.
Bing Webmaster Tool: Similar to Google Webmaster Tool, but for Bing search engine.
Integrity: Desktop tool for Mac which checks your blog for broken links (internal and external).
ScreamingFrog: Desktop SEO tool which lets you check your blog from the web-spider’s point of view. Available for Windows, Ubuntu and Mac OS.
KWfinder: I discovered this tool while doing research for this post. Guess what? I have fallen in love with it. I will share a detailed review soon, but for now you should bookmark and try it. The free plan lets you make 5 searches in 24 hours, which is pretty neat.
Social Media Tools:
BufferApp: This will never let your social media profile run out of content. Also offers a mobile app called “Dailyâ€, which lets you add high-quality content to your social media profiles.
Hootsuite: Best social media dashboard tool for managing all social media channels from a single dashboard. Supports Google Plus, and you can auto-post content from your blog’s RSS feed. (Free 30-day trial)
Postplanner: Post scheduling tool for Facebook which is constantly updated with new features, and helps you to take care of Facebook’s edge rank algorithm. (Free trial.)
ClickToTweet: Create a single link to tweet. You can use it within your blog post to increase your number of tweets.
SocialPilot: New kid on the block of social media tools, but I love it as they offer an iOS app (and an Android app too). Doesn’t support Google Plus, but offers support for Facebook groups.
Images for social media tool:
ShareAsImage : Create beautiful images and download or share them directly to your social media channels. Easy to use and requires zero experience.
Canva: The most talked about social media image tool. Offers images of various sizes based on specific social-media platforms.
PicMonkey: Online photo editing and photo design tool. Also lets you create photo collages.
Pictochart: Infographics are the most shared content type on social-media, and Pictochart is the best free Infographic tool available right now.
QuotesCover: Create visually appealing quote images.
ButtonFactory: Create call-to-action buttons, and download them to use on your blog. Useful for increasing CTR.
Pablo: This free webapp is by Buffer. Lets you add text over images, and share it on social media sites with a single click.
Vid to gif: .gif images increase CTR, and sites like Google Plus & Twitter support .gif images. Use this tool to create a .gif from any online video.
Blog Monetization:
Google AdSense: The best contextual advertising network. It’s easy to manage and pays on time.
Infolinks: In-text advertising solution which offers various ad formats.
Chitika: A good alternative to Google AdSense with a lower minimum payout.
VigLink: Perfect for bloggers who uses commerce-related words in their articles. Search engine friendly, and lets you earn money from an outbound link.
Po.st : Earn money from social media sharing buttons on your blog. They pay based on CPM and are used by many top publishers.
Affiliate marketplace for affiliate bloggers:
ClickBank : A popular affiliate marketplace for bloggers in any niche. Many different affiliate products to promote.
ShareASale: Another popular affiliate marketplace with tons of affiliate programs from which to choose.
Peerfly: One of the most talked affiliate marketplace where you can get great offer. Promote deals from popular companies like Uber, Booking.com.
Impact Radius: Gaining traction lately as many popular companies like MaxCDN and Media Temple use IR to run their affiliate programs.
Commission Junction: One of the oldest & reliable affiliate marketplace to find great affiliate offers. You can also get paid via Payoneer.
Email marketing tools for bloggers:
Feed burner:: Free service by Google which let you optimize your blog feed, and you can use it’s newsletter feature to send daily updates to your subscribers.
Aweber : Best email marketing software for bloggers offering email automation, personalization and pre-built templates for sending beautiful email newsletters.
Getresponse: Another popular tool among bloggers & internet marketers. Offers Webinars support & 30 days free trial without credit card.
Landing page tool for WordPress:
LeadPages: One of the most trusted landing page tools for WordPress or any other blogging platform.
OptimizePress: Offers WordPress plugins and themes. You can use either to create a landing page on your blog. Also a great solution for creating membership for your WordPress site.
Webhosting resource for bloggers:
Bluehost : Recommended as the #1 hosting service by the official WordPress.org hosting resource page. Cheap and affordable shared hosting with one free domain name.
InmotionHosting: Looking for non-EIG shared hosting? Give InMotion Hosting a try. Not the cheapest, but certainly one of the best in this lot. Based out of Los Angeles & a have a thriving community.
Cloudways: Want to host your WordPress site in the Cloud (Amazon or Digital Ocean)? Look no further than Cloudways. Makes it easier for non-technical users to host their website in the cloud.
KnownHost or Linode : Looking for a managed VPS for your blog? Choose either one of these and you will not be disappointed.
WiredTree: Looking for a managed dedicated server? A WiredTree managed dedicated server starts at $150 and offers one of the best customer support services in the hosting industry.
FileZilla: Desktop FTP tool which is available for every desktop OS.
MySQL WorkBench: An advanced tool for desktop management of your WordPress database. (Recommended only for technical users.)
Blog promotion tools:
Flipboard: Create your own magazines, and curate articles from the web or from your own site. Your creation combined with Flipboard can drive targeted traffic. You can use their bookmarklet to add content to your magazine, or use their mobile app.
Triberr: Create your own tribe, and connect with like-minded people. Or you can join an existing tribe to amplify your post reach on social-media platforms. Recommended by blogging pros.
MakeWebvideo: Use whiteboard style videos for your blog intro or for any topic. See an example here.
Whats new: Show your blog’s new updates since the reader’s last visit. Great idea for a blog and gets tons of return visits.
Wisestamp: Add visually appealing signatures after your email. Use Wisestamp RSS addon and show your latest blog post in every email. A clever technique to market your latest post. I use it to gain subscribers to my social-channels. This is an addon for browsers.
Content marketing tools:
I have covered many content marketing tools above. Following are a few which did not fit into any of the above categories:
SumoMe: Offers various tools to enhance your blog. Do check out heatmap and content analytics to start.
Inbound: A community-driven site to discover the best of inbound marketing content. A website to find content that is worth reading.
BuzzStream: For bloggers’ outreach. Not a free tool, but this is an absolutely amazing tool for serious bloggers & marketers.
Other miscellaneous blogging tools:
Roost: Enables web-push notifications for your blog. A new and innovative way to let users subscribe to your blog updates. Used to be free but now it’s paid.
Google apps: Create domain specific email. Powered by Google & you will get access to all Google products. Also helps in getting AdSense approval fast with domain specific email address.
Speechpad: Offers transcription services for audio or video.
GtMetrix: Check your desktop & mobile site’s loading speed. It also suggests how to improve loading time.
chears and keep on sharing!
