Blogging tools - EasyBlog Themes

Running your personal blog or online business website could mean a lot of work especially if you are just starting to work things out. From marketing to content generation to driving traffic to contacting leads and closing sales, geez! The to-do list goes on and on. Now what if I tell you that there are heaven sent blogging tools to help you lighten the load of managing everything?

The next lines will be dedicated to the different tools available out there, some are for free while others require some premium for you to use them. Regardless of the price, the following blogging tools are bound to step up your game. And yes, you can thank me later!

1. Social Media Leveraging

One of the essential blogging tools one should learn are social media tools. Let’s face it, social media is one thing that’s common to almost any of us. Taking advantage of social media management will save you from a lot of work and you will be thanking me later.

Social media management can be divided into three features namely management, content curation and analytics. I will discuss them one by one below.

A. Management

Managing your personal social media accounts take up so much work already right? How much even more if you have to deal with your different accounts for your Facebook pages, Instagram and Twitter accounts and a lot more? That is why management tools or software can become very useful and not to mention, they save you so much time.

These blogging tools assist you in covering multiple accounts or platforms at once, scheduling new posts and updates and even posting of these updates across all of your accounts simultaneously.

HootSuite – It is one of the leading management tools out there. It is generous enough to offer a 30-day trial for free. If you want to check its features and see if you are comfortable with the tool, then this is very convenient.
Buffer – Another popular choice for those who are looking for a social media management tool. Buffer also has a free version which you can try.
SocialOopmh – It offers a 7-day trial for free. It is one of the cheaper management tools but can still deliver the results you need.
Google Calendar – This is one of Google’s services which aids users in syncing your local calendars and contacts. Google Calendar has a mobile application to keep you on the go.

B. Content Curation

In order to build up your page, you need to have updates and engaging content to attract more audience to your account. However, you can’t do all the job of creating new contents from scratch. That would be way too much work. That’s where content curation tools come in handy. With these tools, you get to access relevant posts and contents related to your SEO or topic.

Some of the platforms listed below are well known for content curation purposes.

Curation Suite – As the name implies, the site offers content curation services. One cool thing about this is that it has a Listening Engine feature. It listens to what your followers or subscribers are talking about and it generates suggestions for you based on that data.
Scoop.It – If you are into SEO already then this navigating through this tool would be easy for you. It uses keywords and gives you high ranking content based on them. You can choose among them and share it immediately in your social media pages. What is even nicer is that it has a free version.
Buzz Sumo – This is a very famous curation tool because it spots trending contents with high number of shares. It offers trend analysis also to give you an idea if what you are posting is timely or not.
HubSpot’s Blog Ideas Generator – If you are having a writer’s block then this tool will save your day. It will give you new topics or ideas based on the keywords that you will input. Quick and easy solutions for you.

C. Analytics

If you do not want to be spending time and resources for nothing, then you have to learn how to analyze your data from audience engagement, post timeliness and others. By analyzing your post’s performance then you can find ways to improve your results. While some social media sites offer analytics for free, it is not often enough. By using a different software, then it would be easier to analyze your data in all your accounts.

Social Metrics Pro – This is a wonderful analytics plugin which helps in monitoring how your content in Facebook or Twitter or any social media is performing. It is simple and easy to use which makes it a top plugin for analytics and is being used by thousands of successful blogs.

2. Web Development Softwares

Web development might sound too intimidating for a newbie to hear. One might think of thousands of lines to code but with how technology evolved in the past years, trust me, you need not to know how to write a single line of code to build your own site. Things are easier especially with the help of different platforms and softwares.

A. Content Management Systems (CMS)

CMS enables you to create your very own website like a pro without the hassle of coding. You use templates or themes that are existing already, customize it for your preference and you can then post your content for the entire world wide web to see.

WordPress – You are not a blogger or a website builder if you haven’t heard of WordPress. It sits right on top of the CMS market. Successful blogs and famous websites such as Forbes, Facebook Newsroom and Google Ventures are powered by WordPress. There are thousands of plugins available which can turn your website into a very powerful one if used properly.
Joomla – This is another CMS platform which you can use. Like WordPress, Joomla is also open-source in nature and comes in second after WordPress as the most used CMS platform.
Other free blogging platforms – There are other platforms that you can use to start a blog like WordPress.com, tumblr, Wix, Ghost, Blogger, Squarespace and more. These are free blog hosting sites that also offer paid options for more advanced functionality.

B. Web Hosting

In order for your website to exist in the web, you need to avail of hosting services. There are free hosting and paid hosting services. Paid hosting can be classified to shared, dedicated and virtual private servers. You need to identify what services your website will be needing at the moment as this will entail costs.

Below are some of the known web hosts with excellent uptime.

HostGator – Another excellent web host also is Hostgator which has a record of 99.9% uptime guarantee for its clients.
BlueHost – Being the top web hosting company as recommended by many WordPress bloggers, BlueHost offer 24/7 technical support with reasonable hosting packages that starts at $3.95.
GoDaddy – This is the most popular web host service provider up to date powering more than 59 million domains. They have starter packs that are affordable and you can easily upgrade your account if your traffic is starting to increase.

Related Post – Top 10 Best WordPress Blog Hosting Sites of 2018

C. Web Design

If you think you are the artistic type, then finding a theme might be a walk in the park for you. You can browse from thousands of themes, whether free or premium paid. Finding a theme that would be attractive and functional at the same time might sound easy but can become a bit of a work sometimes.

WordPress Blog Themes – There are marketplace that offers premium WordPress themes with thousands of different plugins and other add-ons that can transform any website into a very capable site. EasyBlog Themes also offers high quality themes that are SEO-friendly and highly responsive. You can also download free WordPress themes at WordPress Theme Directory.
Stock Photos – Photos bring life to any page, whether social media or your website. Death To The Stock Photo, Unsplash and Free Images offer high quality images which you can use to boost your page.
Fonts, Icons and Shapes – Typography and icons have such a big impact on the success rate of your website. Imagine opening a site that is so pretty but you can barely read the text, it would be a disaster right? FontAwesome has free font styles and icons. You can also get free Fonts from Google.

3. Email Marketing Tools

People do not read as much snail mails as they do in the 80s, that is why you have to put some work in your email marketing. Below are some of the common email marketing tools used by bloggers worldwide.

MailChimp – This is among the top picks for marketing automation for your online business or website. It has outstanding email marketing services with awesome features as well. Don’t worry if you have to work sometimes on mobile because they also have a mobile on-the-go version as well. It even has a free plan for those who are just starting out to grow their numbers.
Aweber – This is another excellent alternative if you are looking for an email marketing automation software. There are built-in templates that can shorten your composition time. With its auto-responder tools, Aweber is worth a shot.

4. Copywriting Tricks

Coming up with a great content is one of the hardest jobs of being an online information provider. You need to learn how to write engaging and tantalizing content while being able to come up with an irresistible headline to capture your audience. While it is not that easy, the universe conspires to provide tools to lighten the task. Let’s breakdown the blogging tools to which applies to headline writing and to the content itself.

A. Headline or Title Writing

Blog Title Generator – If you are having a hard time coming up with a few words to name your content, then this tool will be of great value to your site. It generates smart titles and will even give you hints of what your next content might be. Give it a try, it will not disappoint.
CoSchedule Headline Analyzer – Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone tell you straight to the point if your title is appealing enough or that you need to change it for the better? This software does just that and lets you work out for a more decent headline.

Learn more about How to Create Powerful and Captivating Headlines

B. Content Writing and Editing

Hemingway – Once you have your draft and too lazy to start proofreading it, then just upload it in Hemingway. It will help you evaluate your sentences through highlighted colors. It will turn yellow if your sentence is too long and complex. It will become red once it detects that your sentence is way too dense for an audience to comprehend. It lets you edit your words to a simpler one.
Grammarly – Another popular content editing tool is Grammarly which the name suggests is all about grammar. It enhances your content by spotting on grammatical and spelling errors that might be a turn off for your audience.
Evernote – This app allows you to keep a list of your ideas for future purposes, you can access your notes through different devices and even add it as a plugin in your WordPress theme. You can update your recent works also regardless of what device you are using at the moment.

Here is the 10 Tips on Writing Great Content To Capture Your Readers

5. Graphic Design Apps

Next thing you must consider is how to have appealing visuals for your content. People are visual in nature no matter what others say. Regardless of how well written your content is, most of your readers will be looking out for at least one relevant photo to keep them reading your post. With that being said, you must learn how to take advantage of editing and graphic design tools that are available at the end of your fingertips.

No need for complicated Adobe photoshop edits, if you are in a hurry you can easily drag and drop photos and icons using these softwares.

Removal.AI – This is a free background remover that can remove the background from the image within a few seconds. It also comes with a photo editor that would be useful for those who want to make banners, edit images, etc.
Canva – This is one of the coolest blogging tools for your graphic designs. With Canva, you can simply choose from different designs and layouts whether for a Facebook or Instagram post, customize your text, add your own icons and voila you have a decent graphic post in a few minutes. The templates are sleek and modern so you have poor chances of coming up with cheap stuff.
Infogram – If you need to come up with charts and graphs for your online content, Infogram is just the app that you need. You can have animated charts and professional looking graphs without having to do some coding. What makes it cooler is that it has a free version.
Piktochart – It makes creating infographics an easy job, no longer requiring the need for complicated photoshop tricks. Have beautiful infographics in a short span to increase your audience’s engagement.

Check out these 10 Free Tools to Create Blog Graphics and Improve Social Media Branding

6. E-Commerce Plugins

Here’s one of the blogging tips I have learned ever since: You must have a product in mind to sell regardless of whatever niche you are blogging about. It might not be your objective to be an entrepreneur at the start, but for you to level up you must be ready to offer something to your audience. Hence, e-Commerce plugins are very valuable to learn.

A. Online Shops

WooCommerce – WooCommerce’s simplicity and flexibility features make it the top choice for e-Commerce services needs of various websites. It is very easy to use and can be customized to cater to your personal branding and needs.
Magento – This is owned by eBay and is a very robust e-Commerce platform. It might not be easy to start with and would require some serious work to set it up but once you get the hang of it, you will be able to appreciate its high versatility capabilities.
Shopify – If your business is just starting out, Shopify might be an ideal tool for you to get your feet wet in the e-Commerce business. No need to fret if you do not have any CSS background, because Shopify makes it easy for their clients to design their online shop without needing to learn HTML and CSS. It offers one of the cheapest e-Commerce platforms available.
Easy Digital Downloads – This plugin is perfect for eBook downloads, audio downloads and all other digital products. You can easily sell any products using its easy-to-use shopping cart system. It allows users to have multiple or single purchase and pay using credit card or PayPal.

B. Payment Collection

Of course, you have to collect payments for whatever product you are selling. You would be needing a reliable payment collection platform because your clients will be transacting online and if something goes wrong you might get sued.

PayPal – As one of the pioneering online payment gateway, PayPal allows you to get paid easier – through mobile or however you do business online. Available and trusted by over 200 countries, you can assure that all your business transactions online are safe and secured.
Authorize.net – It is one of the oldest and most trusted payment gateway for online transactions. Their charges will vary if you sign up with them directly or via an account service provider. It can support various payment methods and currencies.
Gravity Payment – It offers customizable solutions to each merchant and therefore the premiums to be paid also vary. Fees are disclosed upfront to the client upon inquiry for the services that they want so there are no hidden charges.

C. Customer Service

Another aspect an entrepreneur needs to consider is setting up a customer service. This is very important because you are selling online and therefore has no physical shop where clients can throw their complaints if there are any. You could easily address queries and will have higher closing rate when you can get back to them right away.

Chatra – Chat and talk to your customers using this free software. Build a good relationships with your website visitors by answering their questions in real time. Let your customers feel that your company or blog is reliable by helping them.
ZenDesk – Probably this is among the top picks for helpdesk services of e-Commerce entrepreneurs. It has live chat features and is integrated with Google Analytics. Their packages vary so you must identify first your needs in order to avoid throwing money at them.
ClickDesk –They offer services from live chats to video chat and voice calls at affordable rates especially for start-up companies. It also gives you analytics regarding customer and agent’s chats or engagements.
Help Scout – This one’s another alternative if you are looking for a cheaper helpdesk support for your small to medium scale online businesses. Help Scout is easy to set up and can deliver the work at a much lower premium.

7. Marketing Tools

If you want to generate income from your site or blog then you gotta learn how to market it and leverage using the thousands of blogging tools available.

CoSchedule is the leading marketing content calendar and is widely used by successful blogs. It helps you organize your content before publishing them in your social media platforms. Plan your editorial content, email newsletters and even marketing promotions using one calendar in CoSchedule. If this is not convenient for you, then I do not know what is.

8. SEO Hacks

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a very important aspect of having a blog page or an online business website. If you have high SEO rankings, it would be easier for you to have passive traffic going to your site. However, building your SEO rankings for your niche is not as easy as it sounds. That’s where SEO plugins or tools will be of big help to your business.

A. Keywords and Backlinks

In order to get on top of the SEO rankings, you have to pay attention to the keywords you are using for your editorial content and building the backlinks to your site. These two components will have a huge impact for the success rate of your SEO rankings in search engine sites like Google. The good news is that the Internet can never run out of things to make life easier for you even if it concerns SEO.

Google Keyword Planner – Choose the right keywords and reach your target blog visitors. Keyword Planner will help you find more keyword ideas for your blog and so you can easily create effective campaigns with Adwords and publish SEO friendly blog post that ranks top on Google.
Keyword Tool – Being an alternative to Google Keyword Planner, Keyword Tool helps you search for best keywords that Google suggests. With its easy-to-use and easy-to-understand interface, you can easily employ the effective keywords for your blog.
SEOPressor Connect – This plugin is available to WordPress themes and has great reviews from its users. Some brand it as their personal assistant for their SEO needs and even assists in keyword optimization. SEOPressor Connect’s outstanding feature is you only have to click refresh for the updated SEO score. It offers lifetime free updates for its existing clients.
LSIGraph – Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords are keywords that are semantically related to your main keyword. LSIGraph is a free SEO tool that will generate you unlimited LSI keywords. Easily input your primary keyword then it will give you top and relevant LSI keywords.
AHrefs Backlink Checker – This is a paid backlink checker that gives you a detailed analysis of your site’s backlinks performance. It makes data analysis easier for you and is one of the best backlink checkers in the market.

B. Analytics

With all the work that you have to do, you need to be able to evaluate your site’s performance for a specific period of time. Analytics will tell you what are the things that you have to stop doing because they are not leading to the achievement of your goals and what are the actions that you have to keep doing.

Google Analytics – Google offers this free analytics service that measures how your website is performing in terms of traffic, user interaction and other metrics. It gives you much data that would serve you well as long as you learn how to use them to your advantage. Google Analytics has an e-commerce reporting that you can maximize to obtain sales data.
Moz Rank Tracker – SEO rankings as I’ve said are essential for your page’s success. This tool tracks rankings for a page or a keyword in different search engines like Google and Bing.

9. Paid Advertisements

For you to be seen in the vast world of the Internet, you need to make yourself visible through the use advertisements. Yes, ads are no longer for television and magazines alone but even for your website. Paid advertising becomes a necessity however you got to learn first how to position yourself properly.

Google AdWords – This is another service developed by Google wherein you as an advertiser will pay for a short advertisement specific for your keyword. It will be displayed within Google’s network and where they think the ad will be relevant. AdWords lets you conduct the effectivity of a new ad and improve it before fully blasting it.
Social Media Ads – Ads that you can see on your YouTube, Facebook or Twitter feed or any social media account have evolved so much in a very short span. These ads have specific target audience and can be predetermined by different social media platforms.

Summary

So basically that covers, if not all, most of the essential blogging tools you can use to your advantage. These tools are helpful when used properly. However, not all will be applicable to you in a single time. It would be wise to select a few that might be needed by your account to run more efficiently.

There are still a lot of tools that are yet to be explored but if you wish to start freeing up some of your most precious time then go back to organizing your thoughts and plan out carefully your actions. The tools you will have to use should be in line with the achievement of your goal, whether monetary or fame or whatever. You get to decide how much income you want out of your blog and website. The sky is the limit, you just have to be willing to do the work.

If the above blogging tips helped, do let me know and leave a message. Or if you have other personal picks also, I would love to hear them! Comment below:)