There are so many blog tools out there that it can be a bit overwhelming. What should you use? What should you choose? What is worth your time, and in some cases your money?
In this post, I’m rounding up the 16 best blog tools. I’ve been blogging for nearly 8 years, and there are plenty of times that I’ve tried something and stopped because it wasn’t useful any more. There are paid tools and free tools in this post! I’ve also tried to include the prices for the paid ones.
This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Kate the (Almost) Great!
Best Blog Tools (In General)
Plugins
I know, I know: This is extremely general. But plugins are the perfect way to make your website your own. (I initially wrote “WordPress plugins” but I know that WordPress isn’t the only platform that has plugins.) You can find plugins for all sorts of things, from Instagram feeds to MailerLite.
You want to be careful that there aren’t too many plugins on your site, though, because that will make your site really slow. So if you’re not using a plugin or 2, I’d suggest not only deactivating it but also deleting it from your site.
I’ve written before about the plugins I use (and I regularly update that post, FYI), but I want to cover some of my favorite plugins here.
I really love Revive Old Posts because it, well, revives old posts. I schedule promotions of old(er) posts for every day, but I also use this plugin so it promotes random posts. You can customize which social media networks to link to; what to write in those posts, such as {throwback post}, which I use to indicate that it’s not a new post; and when it should consider a post old enough to share.
I’m also a fan of Reduce Bounce Rate, which helps reduce your bounce rate. This is a game changer!
Oh, and that table of contents up there? That’s a plugin.
Another one I love is WordPress Popular Posts. It helps you share, well, your popular posts. While I don’t have these in my sidebar anymore, I still use it for my popular posts page. I have the settings set to show the featured image for the post, to show the 10 most popular posts, and have that “popular” measurement to be based on page views.
Be sure to check out the other plugins I love here
Self-Hosted WordPress
My blogging platform is self-hosted WordPress. WordPress is available in two versions: free (.com) and self-hosted (.org). Free WordPress is, well, free. In that case, WordPress is your host. Self-hosted WordPress means that I use WordPress as my platform, but it is hosted somewhere else. Most important, self-hosted means that I am the owner of my content.
If you want to own your content, to customize your blog down to the smallest thing, and you want to use WordPress, dot-org is for you.
The dot-org site says, “WordPress is software designed for everyone, emphasizing accessibility, performance, security, and ease of use. We believe great software should work with minimum set up, so you can focus on sharing your story, product, or services freely. The basic WordPress software is simple and predictable so you can easily get started. It also offers powerful features for growth and success” (x).
On the back-end, your dot-org WordPress site can be as simple or complex as you want. This is something that I love about WordPress.
What blogging platform should I use?
Tailwind
Tailwind for Pinterest
I use Tailwind for Pinterest and Instagram scheduling, and it is beyond incredible. According to their website, they have “Multi-board pinning, bulk upload, drag-and-drop calendar, and many more shortcuts built with your busy schedule in mind.” I love it.
My blog traffic grew so much when I started using Tailwind … and then it grew again when I actually started using it for more than just scheduling pins.
Tailwind describes itself as “the smartest way to schedule on Pinterest & Instagram” (x).
In this post, I share how to get the most out of your Tailwind for Pinterest account. In this post, I share why Tailwind is worth the money.
Tailwind also has this new program called “Tailwind Create.” This is Tailwind’s new smart tool for making new images. You add a link to a blog post, the title or wait for it to populate from that link, choose some photos (including from stock images they have), and it makes a bunch of images. You choose with ones you like and download or schedule them!
Are these pins the best ones? Not usually. But you can generally find one or two that are nice enough to use, and it’s super easy. It’s perfect for when you don’t have a lot of time or energy or if you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed with making new posts for Pinterest.
Get your first month of Tailwind for Pinterest free here.
Tailwind for Instagram
If you want to use Tailwind for Instagram, sadly it is not within the same payment, but it has revolutionized my Instagram use and growth.
One of the biggest draws, for me, is Tailwind is one of the only sites that can automatically post to Instagram without requiring you to open the app to post. So, while you’re at a day job or a doctor’s appointment, Tailwind can post for you. If you’re posting to your Story or you’re posting a Carousel, you do need to use that method. But otherwise? Go live your life.
I also love that Tailwind helps you figure out what is the best day and time for your to post on Pinterest and Instagram, that they have “hashtag lists” where you can store lists of your favorite hashtags to use for different purposes on Instagram, that they provide suggested hashtags for Instagram, and so much more.
When you click here for a free trial, if you opt for Instagram, you get your first 30 posts free instead of the first month.
Buffer
I use Buffer to schedule Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn posts. With the subscription that I have, I can schedule up to 100 posts on each network (aka 300 posts total, not 100 across the 3).
One thing I really like about it is you can look at your scheduled posts in a list or in a calendar format, which is very helpful when trying to figure out if a time is already being used for one post. I made the switch to Buffer when Hootsuite changed their subscriptions; if I stayed with them, I would pay more for less posts a month.
The plan I have costs $144 a year and can connect to up to 10 networks. Overall, I think that’s a really awesome deal. In addition to Twitter profile, Facebook page, and LinkedIn profile, the possible networks you could connect to Buffer include Facebook groups, Instagram business (it does NOT automatically post for you), LinkedIn page, and Pinterest.
How I manage social media platforms for my blog
MailerLite
MailerLite is a great service! You can easily create landing pages to help grow your newsletter, and they make automation super easy. Your first 1,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails per month are free! It’s then $10 per month for $1,000 subscribers and unlimited emails and $15 per month for 1,001-2,500 subscribers. And it’s easy to use!
MailerLite has a great forms section that helps you set up pop-ups and embedded forms. They also have an easy-to-use landing pages tool. That’s what I use for my free downloads. These all look great, too!
Initially, I used Mailchimp, and I’m so glad I switched. And it was easy to do!
If you’re logged into MailChimp and MailerLite, MailerLite has a feature where you can add your subscribers from MailChimp. It is so easy it felt like I was doing it wrong.
Why I switched to MailerLite from Mailchimp
Pinterest with Ell
I’ve seen a lot of Pinterest courses over the years, and I don’t think that I ever purchased one. (Or at least, I don’t remember ever purchasing one.) I’ve been a member of Ell’s Facebook group for at least a year, and I’ve seen a lot of people say how helpful Ell’s course is. I thought that I was pretty good at Pinterest already (and, not to brag, I was definitely better than the average user), but this course showed me more ways to use Pinterest that have clearly brought me more traffic.
The reason that I chose Ell’s course is that I’ve heard so much about it since I’ve been in her Facebook group, and it wasn’t just from people who were new to blogging and using Pinterest for blogging. It was also from bloggers like me, who already used Pinterest and already thought that they were experts.
The course itself is $39, which is a pretty good price, especially if you’re new to Pinterest and using it for blogging. To me, it’s worth it. Especially because Ell regularly updates the course, so you can get up-to-date Pinterest information without paying again.
Missinglettr
Missinglettr is a tool that lets you set up an automated set of social media posts, and I learned about this resource from taking the Ramp up your visibility by getting your blog posts in front of waaaay more people course. The free plan gives you 1 social media network and 50 scheduled posts at any given time. The posts look like this:
These are the steps for creating a campaign in Missinglettr:
- Set up a campaign for a new blog post
- Accept or reject different quotes it pulls from the post
- Choose hashtags and images from the post
- Review the posts
- Decide if I want the posts to be scheduled over the course of an entire year or over less time
- Approve the campaign
Then I don’t think about those posts any more!
Since I started using Missinglettr last November, I have gotten 468 clicks just from Missinglettr. That’s so many to get from a resource I didn’t know existed 6 months ago! Go sign up now.
Free Blog Resources
Google Analytics
This is the site for tracking your blog statistics.
Google Analytics is a free web analyzer tool made by, you guessed it, Google. It doesn’t just track info from Google; it also tracks views and users who have found my blog through Yahoo and Bing! Not to mention social media networks, websites that mention your site, and basically everywhere online.
To me, there’s a sort of chicken-versus-egg situation with Google Analytics: which came first, everyone using Google Analytics so companies requiring its info or companies requiring its info so Analytics becomes the go-to?
As Moz says, “Do you have a blog? Do you have a static website? If the answer is yes, whether they are for personal or business use, then you need Google Analytics” (x). Moz points out that Google Analytics will help you figure out how many people use your website, where in the world they are, where your traffic is coming from, the most popular pages on your site, and more.
How to track blog traffic in Google Analytics
Canva
It took me a while to get into Canva, and wow was I missing out. I use Canva to make new pins for old(er) posts, and I schedule them with Pinterest’s scheduler and with Tailwind. But you can share them directly to Pinterest from Canva!
I also use it to make some of my Instagram posts and some infographics to add to posts. Plus, I make my media kit with it.
Canva has a wealth of free templates, pictures, and elements that you can use without paying. But if you want to use it for more, you can get a paid membership and gain even more access to it.
I’ve also used it to build free downloads for my readers and, more importantly, my ebook for chronic illness bloggers.
I’ve already talked about how Pinterest with Ell helped me take my Pinterest use to the next level. But why exactly is Pinterest so good?
We tend to think about search engine optimization (SEO) as a thing for websites alone, but it does wonders for Pinterest, too. In fact, my blog traffic started rising when I started taking SEO for Pinterest seriously. And that’s because Pinterest is more visual search engine than social media network.
You really want to make your images as Pinterest-friendly as possible. There are a couple of ways to do this.
1) Vertical over horizontal! Every time! Vertical images do SO much better on Pinterest than horizontal ones do.
2) Make sure your images are large enough. I’ve seen a variety of sizes put as “ideal,” but my go-to is making images for Pinterest that are 1500px tall. But that size is generally too big for my blog posts, especially because those images are then generally 1000px wide. This means that I save 2 different versions of each image for blog posts: a blog one and a Pinterest one. This is super easy because all I do is resize the image when I build it and it takes less than a minute.
Finally, you want to make sure you have an easy-pinning tool for your blog. This is frequently found with a plugin. People can’t share your blog posts if you don’t have an easy way to do it because humans (myself included) can be very lazy.
If you roll your mouse over any images in posts on my blog, you’ll see a “pin it” button appear. This is from the plugin jQuery Pin It Button for Images plugin.
How to use Pinterest for blog traffic
Google Drive
I use Google docs for a variety of purposes.
One: Writing copy
I don’t always write my blog posts in Google docs (although I am writing this one there right now), but I generally write my newsletters in them. I also write the copy for my blog’s pages, among other things.
I took a break for a few years, but for the majority of my blogging career I have been meticulous about planning and managing my social media. This involves intentionally planning out social media posts for Twitter, Facebook, and now Pinterest. I do this in Google docs (1 doc per month) with one tab per social media network.
Everyday on Twitter I share:
- someone else’s blog post
- a question to encourage engagement
- an inspirational quote
- one of my blog posts.
Everyday on Facebook I share: one of my blog posts and I alternate sharing other people’s blog posts, a question to encourage engagement, and an inspirational quote (with an image for it).
Organizing the blog posts I share when I don’t have a new post in a Google doc helps me be more intentional. It also helps me make sure I’m not sharing the same posts multiple times in one month.
I share other people’s posts to help build community, and since I started doing sharing others’ posts again, I only share health bloggers’ posts because that’s my niche. I share inspirational quotes to provide value for my followers, encourage interaction with my content, and ensure my profiles aren’t posting only links to my posts. I also ask questions to build community as well as to not solely share links to my posts.
I’m now also using my editorial calendars to help track whether or not I’ve made new pins for older blog posts. Essentially, I make at least 1 new pin every time I schedule an older post. I make these new pins with Canva or Tailwind Create and I, of course, schedule Pinterest posts with Tailwind.
Three: Sharing my free downloads
When I make free downloads, I store them in my Google Drive. Then I create a shareable link with the permissions that I want, such as anyone with the link can view it.
I use this strategy for both free downloads available to everyone from my blog as well as those just for my newsletter subscribers.
50+ Incredible Free Blog Resources
Now that I’ve talked about the best blog tools in general and the best free tools, let’s talk about tools specifically for SEO.
Blog SEO Tools
First things first: What is SEO? Moz says, “SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results” (x).
It’s how people find your blog by searching Google or Yahoo or Pinterest. Learn more about SEO from Moz, which is one of the most reputable sources out there.
These tools are all free, but since they’re all about SEO, I decided to put them in their own category.
Ubersuggest
This is such a valuable tool. It was originally something that relied on Google only, but when Neil Patel acquired it, he and his team “expanded the feature set significantly” (x). (More on him below)
I use Ubersuggest to find SEO keywords to use. Not only does it give you keyword suggestions, but you can also find related keywords, long-tail keywords, questions, prepositions, and more. It will tell you what the search volume is for each keyword, as well as how competitive it is so you can choose the most successful keyword. And so much more.
You can get a basically unlimited amount of info if you sign up for a subscription, but a free membership still gives you 3 searches per day.
Check out Backlinko for more info on how to use Ubersuggest.
Look. If I had to identify the Internet’s SEO expert, I’d say it’s Neil Patel. He is so knowledgeable and he also gives away so much info for free.
In addition to Ubersuggest, he also has a newsletter and he wrote this post with 19 ways to improve your SEO.
You can also use the Ubersuggest/Neil Patel tool to analyze your website’s SEO. I did, and it gave me so many helpful tips.
SEO challenges in general
In October 2019, I decided what I really needed to jump start my SEO was to do a 1-month SEO challenge. It was basically an SEO boot camp.
I did this challenge by SEO Ibérica, and it’s a free way to improve your site’s SEO. Not every task will apply to you and your blog, either because of your niche or because you’re already doing it. Some of them take 5 minutes, others several days.
That challenge taught me that SEO can involve so much more than what I knew! I knew it could be tricky – I’ve been utilizing it for years – but doing that SEO “boot camp” really emphasized that.
I don’t want to give away too much because it’s not my content, but that SEO challenge was so helpful. It made me stretch my SEO muscles, in a good way.
Yoast SEO Plugin
This is an absolute must-have if you have WordPress. It helps rate your blog posts’ SEO and their readability by using a stoplight system (red, yellow, green).
It also gives you concrete things you can change in your post so you’re not just hoping for the best. You can write the meta description that will show up on search engines instead of the first few sentences of the post, and so much more.
You can upgrade to premium, but you really don’t need to.
I hope that this post has helped you! Blogging can be overwhelming and confusion, but it doesn’t have to be.
How many of these blog tools were new to you?
Like this post? Check out:
12 Tips for New Health Bloggers, Getting Smart with an Editorial Calendar for Bloggers + Free Editorial Calendar, How I Manage Social Media Platforms for My Blog, The Benefits of a Social Media Editorial Calendar
Kate Mitchell is a blogger, chronic illness patient, and advocate who helps people understand chronic illness and helps chronic illness patients live their best lives.
Ubersuggest sounds like such a helpful tool! I love Yoast SEO! It’s always been so useful for me. I use Photoshop and was without my computer for a few days. I tried Canva and was so frustrated. 😂 I’m sure if I spent more time with it it would be fine, but the first thing I tried to was resize an image and you have to pay for that feature apparently.
I love Canva and UberSuggest, but I’m definitely going to try some of the others on this list! Thank you!!
CANVA IS A LIFESAVER!! I absolutely adore it… even the free version is great!
I am excited to try out your other tools! Thanks!
I have really appreciated you sharing blogging tips. I found you when I first started blogging (your first blog, I think, sharing books). Being I was a middle school English teacher that really connected. Then, as you shared your blogging ideas, that has helped me up my knowledge, slowly…. It can get a bit overwhelming, so I am trying to take it one little chunk at a time. The SEO stuff just really doesn’t make a ton of sense to me, but I guess I’m doing a bit more than I was, so that’s good.
Oh my gosh, I could have written this list! You literally included all of my favorite resources like the free version of Canva and also Tailwind and MissingLttr for sharing. Those are such valuable tools. The only other thing I used is project management software to keep me organized.
I can’t live without Google Drive, I use for almost anything, from writinf posts to keep my analytics
I use many of these but there were a few new to me as well! Definitely checking out missinglettr. I also saw you mentioned you use buffer for Linked In – I don’t really use linked in at all. How do you feel it has worked for your blog?