Contrary to popular belief, blogging isn’t exactly easy. Many are under the misconception that all bloggers do are write their thoughts down and post a couple of their favourite photos on their website every week. However, anyone who is blogging as a career will know that this is but a mere 1% of everything that needs to be done in the world of blogging.
Beyond writing creative and attention grabbing text, bloggers need to create eye-popping visuals and market their posts on social media platforms such as Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter. On top of that, bloggers need to pay attention to business stats in Google Analytics and craft their posts around what their audience likes to read, the keywords that are used to find their blog and so on. Not so easy after all! This is why it is so important for bloggers to really learn how to use tools that will help make their lives less hectic. To help you out with that, here is a list of 7 essential tools that every blogger needs.
Grammarly
If you write for a living, you will know that writing content is only 20% of the battle. The remaining 80% is in proof-reading, editing and making sure that everything you have written is perfect to a tee. This is the only way a writer can truly master their skill. However, in this day and age where technology rules, why not get a little help from a tool such as Grammarly? Grammarly makes you a better writer by helping you spotting grammatical errors in your writing and offering synonym suggestions. You’ll be able to eliminate almost every type of mistake in your writing that could potentially sneak its way through your editorial process. This is one tool that you definitely want to get on.
HubSpot Blog Topic Generator
Sometimes, brain block hits even the best of us. Ever just sit down at your computer and stare at it for an hour, without being able to come up with anything to write? When creative juices are lacking, try using Hubspot’s Blog Topic Generator. This tool will help you generate multiple ideas, in minimal time. All you have to do is type in a few terms in the form provided and let the magic happen. The generator helps you produce up to a week’s worth of blog topics, ensuring you’ll never run out of things to talk about.
Google Keyword Planner
Ever put any thought in to how your target audience will go about finding your content on the internet? Well, it all starts with trying to increase your organic search traffic, and one way you can do this is via Google Keyword Planner. GKP is highly effective when it comes to forming keyword ideas, viewing historical statistics, as well as generating traffic forecasts. You can also find out what the competition for each of your keywords looks like with Keyword Planner, helping you eliminate keywords that need not be optimised and selecting the ones that will work best in driving traffic to your blog.
HostGeek
When it comes to blogging, online presence is absolutely essential in building your brand and attracting new readers. One of the most important things is ensuring that your website is always up and that you don’t run into problems with your site crashing, leaving visitors confused and unsure as to whether your blog is still up and running. This is why great hosting is essential, and when it comes to great hosting, we have you covered.
Sprout Social
In order to ensure your work is spread to the widest audience possible, you will need to work on content promotion. Social media is one of the best ways to promote content, but with so many platforms out there right now, managing all of them can truly be a time-consuming task. Well, fret not, Sprout Social is here to rescue you. This tool allows you to schedule and publish your content across several social media platforms, so that you don’t have to spend all day promoting your content. With its powerful analytics, you will even be able to identify the content of yours which is the most popular with readers and discover trending topics in your mentions.
Dropbox
Let’s face it, most of us do not lug our laptops around all day long. Sometimes, this means that we are stuck in a situation where we need to access a file but do not have a computer to do so. Well, Dropbox solves that problem by giving you access to your files from any device, anywhere. Download the Dropbox app into your smartphone and you’ll be able to open your files straight away on your phone. Dropbox also makes it that much more convenient to collaborate on projects with your partners or fellow bloggers.
Yoast SEO
Last but not least, no blog is complete without the Yoast SEO plugin. Used by hundreds of thousands of professionals, this is a plugin that really helps you amplify your SEO game. Yoast allows you to easily optimise your content, and includes everything from a snippet editor and real time page analysis functionality that helps you optimize your pages content, images titles, meta descriptions and more to XML sitemaps, and loads of optimization options in between.
