Time-saving Blogging Tools you can Start using Today!
Blogging has gained popularity over the years and if you haven’t gotten yourself on that wave🌊 already, it’s best that you do so ASAP. Blog content writing can help you generate more leads, foster trust with your readers, and improve your rankings on search. It is also a great way to increase user engagement and to provide extra value to your customers through indepth information surrounding your product or services.
Thanks to technology, there are blogging tools designed to help start a blog, improve search engine SEO and take things through any given social media channel. Don’t get me wrong though, these tools aren’t magic as you still have to put in the time, effort and research to create engaging posts but that time you intend on using can be cut by half.
With that being said, let’s dive right into these time-saving blogging tools you can start using today:
Brainstorming & Content Ideas Tools
Quora❓
This a Q&A website where you can ask questions and you will be answered accordingly by users. Here you can find questions people are asking then answer them in depth in your blog post. Search for your keyword or topic you would want to focus on then go through the questions.
BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo can be used to track the performance📈 of content in your niche. You just have to key in your topic in the search bar and you will get all the information you need. It’s important to know which topics/content is popular with social media users before you start planning your content.
HubSpot’s Blog Ideas Generator
After doing research on the keywords you would like to focus on for your content, type them in the search bar then select “Give me blog ideas” and a list of blog topics will appear.
Google Trends
This can help you create a content strategy that incorporates seasonal trends, attracts a global audience🌍, and includes related keywords that people are looking for.
Blog Content Writing Tools
After generating content ideas and topics using the above tools, the next step is to draft your content.
Google Docs
Before loading your content on a blog hosting platform like WordPress, you could consider using Google Docs. This way, you can easily collaborate with your colleagues and receive feedback from them. You could tap into its editing features.
Grammarly
Reading content that is full of spelling errors and zero punctuation is a nightmare. Grammarly is an online grammar checker✔️ that checks for spelling errors, sentence structure, punctuation, plagiarism and more. As a blogger, make use of this tool to avoid embarrassment.
Toggl ⏲️
This is a time tracking app that lets you add a task, push the Start/Stop button, and check back in to see a dashboard of statistics on how you spend your time. This tool helps you as a blogger to be more time conscious.
Evernote
Evernote is an app for note taking, organizing and task management. As a writer, you never know when an idea💡 worth noting may strike hence why it is crucial to have such an app on your phone. With Evernote, you could either start with a template, which has a predefined look and feel, or start an entirely new note.
Tools for Blog Images
Blog posts that include quality images get more readers hence why it is important to include them to break up your texts. This will make your content more engaging and memorable.
Canva🎨
Canva consists of beautiful templates for blog videos, drop and drag features, logo designs and you can also create custom images. With these features, Canva makes image creation fun and easy.
Meme Generator
You can never miss when it comes to memes. Everybody loves them. Memes tend to pass messages more effectively than a simple picture. Meme Generator gives a chance to make your own meme from scratch or you could pre existing ones and add your own style to it.
Skitch
This one comes in handy when writing “how to” blog content or content that needs illustrations. Use skitch to include screenshots to your posts that act as guides to the reader. You will need the Evernote account to use this.
Blog Hosting Tools
A hosting platform will give you SEO features and security you need to create and grow your blog.
WordPress
WordPress.org is one of the most popular blogging platforms used worldly. It comes with thousands of themes and plugins giving you the chance to customize your blog the way you want. Note that you may need to spend money when purchasing some of these third party tools and templates but it will definitely be worth it.
One of the best plugins for WordPress is Yoast SEO. Yoast SEO analyzes the readability of your text, offering suggestions to improve your grammar, sentence structure, reading level, just to mention a few. This tool will offer suggestions for adding keywords, optimizing your meta descriptions and URLS, and adding internal links. WordPress is ideal for those who are taking business seriously and don’t want the high risk overheads. WordPress is low cost, high functionality and it is easy to use.
Wix
Wix also comes with the drag and drop feature plus a number of templates you can customize for your content. No coding skills required. Although you must consider if you are just playing around or taking your business seriously. Wix may not be your business solution but it is a great starting point. You are bound by pay walls as you increase functionality as your business grows so you can be up for $1000 of dollars in overheads just to keep your business going.
Tools for Sharing your Blogs
Promoting your content is important so that readers can find it , engage with it and share it with friends 🧑🤝🧑. There is no need of going through the hustle of planning and writing your content if you won’t promote it. There are a good number of tools that can help with this.
Buffer
When you think about how after all the research and writing you have been doing you still have to upload your blog posts on every social media platform, you may reconsider writing a second post again. Luckily, you can use a third party tool like Buffer to automate the process.
Buffer allows you to schedule your blog posts on different social media platforms. The days of setting a reminder or an alarm to alert you to post yourself are long gone. You can schedule these posts at multiple times using different images as well.
Digg Digg
Digg Digg gives you the flexibility of placing the share buttons wherever you may want on your blog posts either floating to the left or right or bottom of your post.
MailChimp🐵
Use this tool to send emails to your list of contacts. You can set up automated campaigns that deliver each new post that you write, or you can create campaigns from scratch.
Note that the list is quite extensive and you will be spoiled for choice. Using these tools will help you achieve significant results. It’s important to do your research and find out what works best for your content and audience. Remember that your blog posts are by you but not for you😃
