*Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links for products I love and recommend. If you use an affiliate link to make a purchase, I may receive a small commission.
Every blogger has a list of blogging tools that helps them slay everyday. Everyone has preferences and blogging tools that jive better than others. However, there do tend to be a few favorites among us! Either way, today at The Priestley Project, I am sharing what makes the blog happen behind the scenes. These blogging tools are indispensable.
Web Hosting
Obviously, one of the first steps to growing a blog, is creating one! This all starts with web hosting. This is the company you trust to keep your website online. I use Bluehost to host my website. It is very affordable, works seamlessly with WordPress, and is easy to set-up. They even offer you a domain name for free when you sign-up. If you use my link, plans start at $2.75/month! Check-out Bluehost.
WordPress And Plug-ins
If you choose Bluehost for web hosting, the next step is a breeze. With a one-step WordPress install, you’ll have your website up and running in no time. Self-hosted WordPress is the way to go if you want to monetize or build a business. Avoid the version hosted on WordPress’ website. It may be free, but it comes with a lot of limitations!
WordPress is an open-source software, and there is a plethora of third-party plug-ins that can enhance your website and help with your business building efforts. Below, I’ll outline my favorite plug-ins that I currently use on my website.
My Favorite Plug-Ins
- Elegant Themes-They own my favorite WordPress theme called Divi. Using Divi takes the guesswork out of coding your website and struggling to get things to look the way you’d like. Divi has a drag-drop editor that is similar to some of the other website platforms out there that help the less tech savvy of us, make beautiful websites. Elegant Themes also owns my favorite opt-in tool Bloom. Using Bloom makes tracking the success of my lead magnets a breeze! The last plugin I use from Elegant Themes is Monarch. This plug-in is for social media connectivity and social buttons.
- SEO Yoast helps you optimize your website for SEO. It analyzes your writing and gives suggestions on how to make your blog posts more SEO friendly. You choose your keywords or keyword phrases, and SEO Yoast will give you suggestions. You are also able to manage the meta data and snippet for search engines. SEO Yoast is free, but does have a paid upgrade that is so very valuable! I absolutely love it.
- Monster Insights shows you key analytics for your website. This includes your page views, individual browsing sessions, average session time, and bounce rate. It connects to your Google Analytics, and helps you manage all your website stats in one place.
- Compress JPEG and PNG Images helps keep my website running smoothly by automatically compressing images. Large image sizes can slow down your website and cause issues with speed and loading. This can hurt your bottom line if your website visitors bail due to slow loading times or a crashed website.
- Insert Headers and Footers is essential to embedding all your tracking codes and pixels. This is a must if you want to track statistics on how your campaigns are performing and what your conversion rate is. This is how I track my Facebook Pixel, Pinterest Pixels, and other tracking mechanisms for my ad campaigns.
- Thrive Themes-is a suite of several products that can help you with your online business endeavors in several different ways. However, my favorite is the quiz builder. It is exactly what I need to build quick and interactive opt-ins for my website.
- JetPack protects my website from malicious attacks and backs up my website regularly. In the event of a crash, I could easily restore my website. There is both a free and paid version. I use the paid version for a few extra features and piece of mind.
- Askimet-Anti-Spam helps keep my site spam free, and is a free a great free spam blocker.
Email Marketing
You need an email list. This is a non-negotiable as a blogger. It is the best way to get in contact with your readers and let them know about all your upcoming sales and offers. In order to keep an email list, you need to use an email marketing tool. I use and prefer ConvertKit.
With ConvertKit, you can categorize and tag your subscribers. You also pay just once no matter how many times a single subscriber opts into one of your lead magnets or offers. This makes ConvertKit easier to organize, less cluttered, and more financially feasible for my business in the long run. If you want to try it for free, check out this link.
I have tried other email marketing tools and would also highly recommend Get Response as an alternative that is just a bit lower in price to start. Get Response organizes users in a more traditional way. Though you pay for each opt-in even if it is the same person…the cost of each subscriber is a bit less in the beginning making the cost a bit more manageable. Here is a link to a free trial.
Social Media Management
There is no way I would have any free time without social media management tools! Don’t get me wrong, I love social media, but I am also a person who likes to “turn off” and not worry about what is happening in the world of Facebook and Instagram.
I use three types of social media management tools to automate and manage all my social media channels. Here is what I use:
- Buffer is a social media manager that I use indirectly to get my social posts automated. In my case, Buffer works with CoSchedule and my social profiles to ensure my content gets posted on autopilot.
- CoSchedule helps me schedule out and automate my social campaigns. I create and publish a campaign and CoSchedule posts the messages to my social channels at the intervals I selected. I do a weekly promo of each new blog post, and in five mintues I’ve published all the messages I need to spread the word.
- Tailwind is a god send for Pinterest management. I create and batch my pins for all my posts. Once per week, I spend 15 minutes scheduling all my pins and filling my queue. I do this every week, but some pinners only schedule content once per month and it runs on autopilot.
Organizational Tools
I need a hub to keep all my tasks organized. I do most of this in Trello a free platform for organization. CoSchedule also offers a few ways of organizing projects and tasks. I use Trello to track idea generation, affiliate programs, and the storage and sharing of key documents. Trello is a powerhouse and has so many tools for keeping you organized.
CoSchedule helps me manage workflow on my content creation. I use task lists in CoSchedule to help me with blog post creation and social campaigns. Other team members can also view the progress and if we are sharing work, it is easy to collaborate.
Training And Mentoring
Every responsible new blogger knows that it takes a lot of effort to build a sustainable business online. There are so many tips, tricks, tools, and skills to learn. I do not recommend going into it blindly! First off, sign-up for my free masterclass on Starting Your First Blog. After that, sign-up for a trial of The Business Lounge.
Without The Business Lounge, I wouldn’t have achieved the success I have so far. When I first started my blog, there were a lot of tech related questions, and a lot of growth and learning to do.
The Business Lounge is a membership site that provides endless courses to help you build the online biz of your dreams. Using a model called The Success Path, you learn how to build your business from the ground up.
The Business Lounge also has a private Facebook group where you can get 1:1 support. There are also monthly Q&A lives with the experts who will directly answer your questions and give you feedback. It is the best value I have seen online. It is the single most important thing I did as a new blogger.
You can sign up with my link to get a 7-day trial for only $1. Try it for yourself and decide.
Stock Photos
You’ll definitely need stock photos for your website, blog posts, Pinterest images, and email marketing messages. I use Ivory Mix which focuses on business related stock images.
If you use free tools like Canva, you may also like Pexels which has now partnered up with Canva. Many images are available for free.
Course Creation
I use Teachable to publish online courses. Many bloggers eventually want to offer their own products, and digital information products are a very sustainable form of income that can be easily scaled.
With Teachable, you can create both free and paid course content. They will manage every step of the process including pesky sales tax, if you sign-up for a paid plan.
However, when you are first starting out and want to create a free mini-course or similar as a lead magnet, the free version works just fine!
Money Management
I currently use two tools for money in my online business. The first is Wave Accounting. This is an app that allows me to balance my books and keep all my expenses and receipts digital. Most features are free and that is the best part.
I use PayPal to receive payments for both products I offer, and affiliate products I promote.
I hope this list of tools, plug-ins, apps, and programs helps you find a much needed resource for your business. If you need an ongoing list of tools, check our our Tools for Bloggers list. Are there any awesome tools you use that I missed? Drop a comment below.
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