Best Blogging Tools for Beginners (Free & Paid)

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When you first start blogging, you need the best blogging tools for beginners. Some of the best blogging tools are free and others are paid.

With the right blogging tools for beginners, you can actually grow and monetize your blog. Every new blogger is looking for success. The right tools go a long way to achieving the success you desire.

If you’re new to blogging, get started with my How to Start a Blog FREE Guide by going here now!

Then, come back to this post and find out about the best blogging tools for beginners both free and paid, from my personal recommendation.

(PSSSTT! Side note: If you still need to Start a Blog, my guide, “12 Easy Steps to Blogging Success” makes it simple! Click here and download this guide for FREE!)

Table of Contents

Best Hosting & Domain Tools for Blogging

Since you need a domain and good blog hosting to get things started, it only makes sense to kick off the list of the best blogging tools for beginners with hosting and domain tools.

I recommend two hosting companies because they are the absolute best when it comes to WordPress hosting for bloggers.

Blog Hosting Recommendation #1 – Kinsta Hosting

The absolute best WordPress hosting you will find for bloggers comes from Kinsta Hosting. They offer the best platform to start your blog and the best tools for hosting your blog with WordPress.

Kinsta is known as one of the top choices for customer support and you’ll be set up to gain better SEO because they give you the necessary tools for a faster website. If you want the absolute best WordPress hosting for bloggers, sign up with Kinsta Hosting by going here now!

Blog Hosting Recommendation #2 – SiteGround WordPress Hosting

I have been using SiteGround WordPress Hosting for some of my websites for a few years now. They are one of the best cheap blog hosting companies I have ever found.

SiteGround offers fast and reliable service with excellent support. You can read my full review of SiteGround WordPress Hosting here and you can get the best deal on blog hosting from SiteGround by going here now!

Other good blog hosting options:

Domain Tools for Beginner Bloggers

You can buy your domain name through your hosting company, but I don’t recommend it. While there’s nothing wrong with it, usually, hosting companies charge more for domain registration than an actual domain registrar.

I prefer using NameCheap.com and GoDaddy.com because you can usually score a pretty good deal on a domain name. If you get a deal for a .com under $10 per year, I recommend registering it for 5 years or longer to take full advantage of the deal.

Sometimes, NameCheap and GoDaddy will run deals for new customers with .com domains for just a dollar or two. There’s always some type of deal out there and it will save you a few bucks compared to buying your domain through your hosting company.

Now, some hosting companies do offer a free domain for one year with your hosting package. If this is the case, take the free domain with your hosting company.

Other domain registration options include:

Compare a few of these domain options as they often have deals going on.

Domain Search Tools for Bloggers

Along with actually registering your domain, you may want to use one of the domain search tools to find the right domain for you. A few of the best domain tools for bloggers include:

Blog Security & Backup Tools

When you’re looking for the best blogging tools for beginners, you want to make sure you get good blog security and backup tools. WordPress offers updates often and plugins for WordPress are always updating things.

Just like anything else online, WordPress is susceptible to hackers and other types of issues. You need strong security and you want to make sure you can back up your blog at any time.

Sucuri Security Plugin

My personal choice for blog security is the Sucuri Security Plugin. I prefer the upgraded plugin for even better security. You don’t want to skimp on blog security and Sucuri will certainly make sure you’re protected.

While they do offer a free option, it’s not nearly as good as the upgraded option. If you end up getting hacked, trust me, having the Sucuri Security Plugin with a paid plan will be something you’ll be glad you have.

Get the Sucuri Plugin Today by Going Here Now!

WordFence Security Plugin

Another good choice for blog security is the WordFence Security Plugin. The free version offers good security and it’s pretty much plug-and-play.

If you plan to run a successful blog, the WordFence Security Plugin is one of the best blogging tools to add to your arsenal.

Updraft Plus Site Backup Plugin

Another good option for security and backups, the Updraft Plus Plugin offers both free and paid versions. It’s a good choice for those looking for an easy tool for better blog security.

JetPack Premium Backups

One of my favorite WordPress plugins, JetPack offers much more than just a plugin for backing up your website. The premium version offers so many tools you can use for SEO, social media, backing up your site, and so much more.

These four plugins are some of the best blogging tools you will find for security and backups. As a beginner, you want to make sure you have a secure foundation for your blog. I use Sucuri and JetPack for my security and backups.

Best Blog Design Tools and WordPress Themes for Bloggers

Of course, the best design tools for bloggers come in the form of WordPress themes. While there are a few decent free WordPress themes out there, I highly recommend getting a premium theme.

Not only will you gain better design tools, but you will also gain better security with a premium theme. Some free themes don’t get updated very often and they don’t provide the type of security you get from a premium theme.

The best WordPress themes for bloggers include:

Divi Theme

One of the best choices for beginners, the Divi Theme is highly customizable and very user-friendly. It’s the top theme on the market for beginning bloggers because it’s so easy to use.

When you choose the Divi theme, you’ll gain access to more than 70 other themes from Elegant Themes. This means you’ll have a large variety of premium themes to use for future blogs or if Divi isn’t the one you end up using for your blog.

Find out more about the Divi Theme by going here now.

Thrive Themes

A great choice offering plenty of excellent designs, Thrive Themes provide all the tools you need if you get the full suite of products.

You can choose the entire toolkit or just what you need. If you get everything from Thrive Themes, you’ll have an opt-in form builder, a comments plugin, a general page builder, and so much more.

While some of the tools offered by Thrive Themes may be a bit advanced, they are very easy to use and very easy to learn. Check out Thrive Themes by going here now.

StudioPress Themes

Another good choice using the Genesis Framework, StudioPress Themes offers excellent options for WordPress blogs. The Genesis Framework is known as one of the best options and offers the ability to use child themes for better SEO and responsiveness.

A ton of support is offered for this framework, as well. With StudioPress, you get the Genesis Framework with a bundle of child themes for a reasonable price. You’ll end up with a massive library of child themes to choose from, which is great if you plan to develop more than one blog.

Find out more about StudioPress Themes by going here now.

Genesis Theme

The Genesis Framework is one of the best you will find and one of the fastest for WordPress currently available. There is a bit of a learning curve with the Genesis Theme, however.

If you’re willing to do the work to learn how to use the Genesis Theme, you’ll have one of the best themes on the market for WordPress blogs.

The biggest issue with this theme is the fact that it’s complicated to use. You may need the help of a decent web developer to customize the theme to fit your needs.

The Genesis Theme is also a bit expensive compared to the others on this list. You can find out more about the Genesis Theme by going here now.

Investing in one of these premium themes is vital to your success as a blogger. After getting a domain and excellent blog hosting from Kinsta Hosting or SiteGround Hosting, I highly recommend investing in one of these premium themes for your blog.

(HEY! Don’t Forget: If You want my 12 Easy Steps to Blogging Success – even if you’re a Complete Beginner – Click Here and download the guide for FREE!)

Best Keyword Research Tools for Bloggers

When it comes to paid and free blogging tools for beginners, you need the right choices for your keyword research. If you plan to use SEO to gain traffic at all, you will want to choose the right keywords.

I prefer going after long-tail keywords in my blog posts and it works pretty well for me. Regardless, I couldn’t gain the ranking on Google I have without using the best keywords research tools for bloggers.

SEMRush

By far, IMHO, the very best keyword research tool for SEO on the planet is SEMRush. Some may say it’s an advanced tool and it is, to an extent. SEMRush offers so many tools within the package it can get a bit overwhelming.

As a beginner to blogging, you can ignore many of the tools for right now and just use the keyword research tool. As you become more familiar with SEMRush, you can advance into other tools offered by this incredible keyword research tool.

You’ll be able to track your progress and see how your blog is performing with SEMRush. It will even show you who is linking to you so you can build backlinks properly.

If you want to use SEO as one of your main ways of gaining traffic for your blog, investing in SEMRush is necessary. Find out more about this powerful keyword tool by going here now.

UberSuggest

One of my favorite keyword research tools comes from Neil Patel. UberSuggest offers both a free and a paid version. While the free version will give you a good tool for finding decent keywords for your blog posts, the paid version offers much more.

If you’re just getting started and you don’t have much to invest, using the free UberSuggest keyword tool is a good choice.

Long Tail Pro

Another keyword tool I use and love is Long Tail Pro. This keyword tool offers a great way to find a ton of long-tail keywords for your blog posts. It’s one of the most reliable keyword research tools in my arsenal and I use it for pretty much every blog post I create.

Long Tail Pro does offer a 7-day trial to help you try it out. It’s also less expensive than many of the other tools on this list. As a beginner, it will be one of the easiest keyword tools for you to use, as well.

Find out more about the very powerful Long Tail Pro blogging tool by going here now.

Google Keyword Planner

I don’t use the Google Keyword Planner anymore because I have tools that pull basically the same data and more. However, it’s a free choice and does offer a good option, if you just want to do some basic keyword research.

AnswerThePublic

A tool that’s like a much-needed upgrade from the Google Keyword Planner, AnswerThePublic starts free and offers paid options, as well. This tool is more accurate when it comes to long-tail keywords than the Google tool and offers something most keyword tools don’t have: a mind mapping feature.

Find Out More about AnswerThePublic by going here now.

Ahrefs

If I had to choose an alternative to SEMRush it would be Ahrefs. They really know SEO and this tool is one of the best out there for keyword research.

Those looking for a good keyword tool, especially if you plan to build backlinks, Ahrefs is a good choice.

Soolve

A unique and free tool perfect for finding all the best keyword suggestions, Soovle is an excellent choice. It will pull related keywords from multiple places, such as Google, Wikipedia, Answers, Bing, Yahoo, Amazon, and YouTube.

When used correctly, this free blogging tool for beginners can be very powerful.

Moz Keyword Research

Another alternative to SEMRush and Ahrefs, Moz offers what some believe to be the top SEO tool on the market. It’s a good keyword research tool and claims to be the “World’s Most Accurate.”

The Moz Keyword Research blogging tool is rather accurate and does offer an excellent choice for beginners. It’s pretty easy to use and packs plenty of features into one product.

Mangools KWFinder

Mangools offers several tools and the KWFinder is just one of the tools they offer. It’s a very well-done option and provides a lower price compared to SEMRush, Ahrefs, and Moz.

If you want to be able to find keywords for your blogs, this tool is one of the best you will find. They also offer a few other very good SEO tools including SERPWatcher, SERPChecker, and LINKMiner.

Find out more about KWFinder and the SEO blogging tools for beginners from Mangools by going here now.

Keywords Everywhere

A free extension for Google Chrome, Keywords Everywhere offers a simple, yet powerful tool. It will give you search results from Soovle, AnswerThePublic, and other tools all in one extension.

There are a wide variety of great keyword research tools out there. As I was researching these blogging tools for beginners, I came across a very helpful SEO tip from DoYouEvenBlog.com:

“99% of bloggers do NOT need these tools 12 months a year.
Instead, spend one month’s worth, and do enough keyword research and content planning for several months–then cancel!
You can always renew for another month down the road.”

I have used this tip several times and will often pay for my premium SEO tools for about 2 to 3 months out of the year. It saves me quite a bit of cash and I still get to use the best keyword research tools, such as SEMRush for my blog.

Best SEO Blogging Tools for Beginners

While the keyword research tools above will certainly help with your SEO, you need the right SEO blogging tools for beginners to ensure you’re hitting the mark. Some of the best tools are plugins for WordPress, while others are just helpful for specific tasks.

My favorite SEO tool for blogging is the SEOPressor WordPress Plugin. It has helped put me on the Google map faster than any other SEO tool on this list.

SEOPressor WordPress Plugin

A tool offering the best clarity when it comes to your SEO, the SEOPressor Plugin is easy to use and provides plenty of custom features. You can easily gain control over your blog’s SEO fast with this plugin.

SEOPressor includes all of the following:

On-Page Analysis
SEO Intelligence
Semantic Builder
Crawler Control
Link Management

You can optimize each post for up to three keywords and get on-point SEO suggestions to make your posts better. The plugin will even help you include the right LSI Keywords to make your posts even better for both readers and for search engines.

If you want to dominate Google with your new blog, you need the SEOPressor WordPress Plugin. Find out more about this powerful SEO blogging tool by going here now.

Yoast SEO Plugin

Probably the most recommended SEO plugin for WordPress, Yoast SEO has done a great job of branding themselves as one of the best. They offer a free and a paid version with a readability and an SEO score for each blog post.

The plugin will even give you items you can fix or do better with to increase your overall SEO. It’s a powerful plugin, especially with the paid version.

Find out more about the Yoast SEO Plugin by going here now.

SEOPress Plugin

A bit of a fast and dirty SEO plugin, the SEOPress Plugin offers an easy-to-use choice with plenty of good features. It’s an all-in-one SEO option with breadcrumbs, schemas, sitemaps, redirects, and much more.

The big selling point for this specific SEO plugin is the price. It’s only $39 a year for unlimited sites. While it may not be quite as powerful as SEOPressor or the Yoast SEO Plugin, it offers a lower price point and plenty of great features.

Find out more about the SEOPress plugin for WordPress by going here now.

Broken Link Check

A quick and easy tool you can use for free to find broke links, Broken Link Check is a tool you should have in your arsenal.

Dr. Link Checker

Another option for checking broken links, Dr. Link Checker is a good free blogging tool for beginners.

SEO Web Page Analyzer

Another free and helpful SEO blogging tool for beginners, SEO Web Page Analyzer will point out issues with your blog from an SEO perspective. It’s pretty easy to use and provides a good look at your overall SEO.

WP Rocket

When it comes to your blog’s SEO, speed matters. WP Rocket will help to speed up your blog. It’s one of the best caching plugins for WordPress on the market.

Simply put, it takes just a few clicks to make your site load much faster. No free caching plugin can do what WP Rocket can do for your WordPress blog.

Find out more about WP Rocket by going here now.

W3 Total Cache

If you don’t want to spend the money on WP Rocket, you can still speed up your WordPress blog a little bit with W3 Total Cache.

PageSpeed Insights

A Google tool allowing you to see how fast your blog loads, the PageSpeed Insights tool will help with your SEO. Knowing how fast your site loads matters and this tool will give you an idea where you sit and it’s free.

SEO Analyzer from Neil Patel

Another good free blogging tool for SEO is the SEO Analyzer from Neil Patel. This tool allows you to see any critical errors and warnings about your overall SEO. It even makes recommendations to help you improve your site’s SEO profile.

Best Blogging Tools for Writing Blog Posts

There are a ton of great blogging tools for beginners when it comes to actually writing blog posts. For many new bloggers, the hardest thing is the writing. It can be difficult to come up with new ideas for new blog posts regularly.

Some of the tools on this list will help with grammar and spelling; while others will help you come up with ideas, good headlines, and more.

A Few Basic Blogging Tools for Writing Blog Posts

Some of the most basic blogging tools for beginners start with a program to actually write in. There are several choices out there and the tool you decide to use will likely depend on the computer you own or the preference you already have.

I write all my content in Notepad on my computer. Then, I copy it into Microsoft Word to do the first spelling and grammar check, along with some of the formatting.

The reason I choose Notepad is due to the distractions Microsoft Word creates. When you make a mistake in Word, it will point it out, which is great for fixing it, but also horrible for writing.

Writing should be done without interruption or worry about making a mistake. Mistakes are to be fixed during the editing process, not the writing process.

As a beginner to blogging, it’s very important to write freely and allow yourself to make mistakes. Let the mistakes be fixed as you edit your content, not as you’re trying to write.

A few of the most common blogging tools used for writing content include:

Notepad
WordPad
Microsoft Word
Google Docs
TextEdit (Mac)
FocusWriter (A bit more advanced with additional tools, such as timers and alarms)

Any of these will work just fine. It’s best to figure out what you’re most comfortable with and use a system you like.

Idea Generating Blogging Tools for Beginners

Along with the actual word processor you will use for writing your content, it’s helpful to have a blog idea generator to help you create a list of fresh blog post ideas. Let’s look at a few of the best options.

Twitter Trending Topics

Trending topics are great for blog posts in some niches. While they are often time-sensitive, they can drive a ton of traffic to your blog very quickly.

If you plan to write about trending topics, Twitter is a very good tool for finding out what’s popular. Just check the hottest #s and you’re sure to find plenty of great blogging ideas.

Google Trends

Another great free blogging tool for trending blog post topics is Google Trends. You can use this tool to see what other people are searching for the most and quickly generate plenty of blog topic ideas.

Writing Evergreen Blog Content

Trending topics are great for blogging, but most bloggers will prefer writing evergreen blog content. An evergreen post is one that will gain traffic today and many years into the future. It has to be filled with the information the reader will find useful today and in the future.

For example, a blog post about the top 7 tips for growing tomatoes in your garden is an evergreen post. However, a blog post about the hottest selling fertilizer for your tomatoes isn’t an evergreen post because the next growing season, it could be a completely different type of fertilizer.

If you’re looking for evergreen blog post ideas, the following tools are great for finding all kinds of topics to write about.

Hubspot’s Blog Idea Generator

A very simple and easy to use tool, the Hubspot Blog Idea Generator will give you all kinds of ideas. You just have to provide three nouns and it will do the rest!

Build Your Own Blog’s Blog Post Ideas Generator

Another very simple and free blog post idea-generating tool, the Build Your Own Blog’s Blog Post Ideas Generator will give you titles and you just fill in a few blanks.

Quora

While you cannot just click a button and generate ideas, Quora offers a ton of questions asked by users. You can search a general topic, such as “tomatoes gardening” to find out what other people are asking.

Any question on Quora can become a good blog topic. Spend an hour searching for blog topics on here and you’ll have ideas for the next few weeks!

Just like Quora, you can use Reddit to find blog topics by searching a more general topic. When something becomes a little bit popular on Reddit, it has the potential to be a good blog topic. If there’s a conversation going on about it, other people are also searching for that topic and it will make a good blog idea.

Niche Forums

Every niche likely has a few very popular forums you can join for free. Forums make great places to find blog topic ideas because users are often looking for answers to their questions or solutions to their problems.

When you search a forum about your niche, you’ll likely be able to find dozens of great blog ideas.

If you’re low on blog ideas, use these free blogging tools for beginners to generate new ideas. I like to keep a running list of blog ideas on my computer and on my phone. If an idea pops into my head and I am not at my computer, I just add it to the notes app on my phone for later.

Grammar and Spelling Blogging Tools for Beginners

Coming up with ideas for your blog posts is rather important. However, you also need the right tools to make your blog posts better once you’ve written the content.

While I am not an advocate for perfection in blogging, I do believe in using a good grammar and spelling tool outside of the one supplied by Microsoft Word. If you’ve never used one of the blogging tools on this list, you might be surprised to find out how inaccurate most spelling and grammar checks found in word processors are.

I prefer to start with the tool in Microsoft Word, and then use the premium version of Grammarly. Since it can be installed directly into Microsoft Word, it makes the process much easier.

Grammarly

While it won’t catch every single mistake under the sun, using Grammarly Premium will certainly improve your writing. You can use the free version, which is better than just using the grammar tool in Microsoft Word, but the premium version takes things to an entirely different level.

Grammarly Premium is the grammar tool trusted by most bloggers and online writers today. It’s an easy tool to use and it integrates directly into Microsoft Word. It will even work with Microsoft Outlook to help improve your email writing.

Hemingway Editor

While it’s not a traditional grammar and spelling check, the Hemingway Editor allows you to see ways to improve your writing. This simple little tool helps make your blog posts more readable and even includes a readability grade.

The cool thing about this blogging tool is how easy you can post to your WordPress blog once you’re done. The Hemingway App allows you to publish directly to WordPress as a live post or as a draft as soon as you’re done editing your content.

Ginger Grammar Check

A free and easy to use grammar and spelling check, you can download Ginger for Chrome, Office, Safari, Keyboard, or Page. It will certainly catch mistakes a basic grammar and spelling check won’t catch.

Slick Write

Another free tool you can use to check your grammar and spelling, Slick Write makes it easy to catch all kinds of mistakes. It will even look at potential mistakes based on the style of the content.

This free blogging tool for beginners also offers customizable features, along with a grade and impact reports.

Paperrater

You don’t have to download anything to use Paperrater. This tool offers a grammar check, writing suggestions, and a plagiarism checking tool.

you can use the free version for up to 50 submissions per month and 10 plagiarism checks per month. If you need more or you want to use the tool ad-free with the full suite of features, they do offer a premium version.

Best Headline Blogging Tools for Beginners

One of the most important parts of any good blog post is the headline. If you write a good headline, you have a better chance of gaining traffic and becoming a successful blogger.

With the right blogging tools, you can write amazing headlines. Here are a few of the best headline tools you will ever find.

Headline Analyzer from Co-Schedule

Creating a click-worthy headline becomes much easier with the Headline Analyzer from Co-Schedule. This free tool helps you choose the right character count, the right phrase, and the right words for your headline.

it will generate a headline score to help you see how good or bad your headline is before you hit the publish button. Many bloggers use this tool and it’s known as the top free headline analyzer found online.

Link Bait Title Generator

A free tool helping you create better headlines, the Link Bait Title Generator comes from Content Row. This tool will help you generate the best headline for your content and it gives you a long list to choose from.

Sharethrough Headline Analyzer

Very similar to the headline analyzer from Co-Schedule, but with a different algorithm, the Sharethrough Headline Analyzer provides another option. It’s free, just like the other two blogging tools for headlines and it will also give you a score.

Note Taking Blogging Tools for Beginners

I find it important to take notes whenever I need to and wherever I am. Most of the time, I have my phone with me, so it’s pretty easy to jot something down in an app when inspiration hits me.

Whether it’s a new blog post idea or I am fleshing out a current idea, having a good note-taking app helps. Here are a few of the best note-taking blogging tools for beginners.

Evernote

The very best note-taking tool I have found is Evernote. They offer both a free and paid version. I love it because it’s “notes in the cloud” so I can access my notes anywhere.

You can easily create checklists, copy and paste images, take notes, and so much more. The free plan allows for two devices, while the premium plan gives you unlimited devices and many other features.

Google Keep

If you’re looking for something a bit simpler and a bit more like a sticky-note, Google Keep is the option for you. It’s free if you have a google account and makes it easy to take quick notes.

Instapaper

An easy to use tool offering the ability to save videos, articles, and images in one place, Instapaper is great, especially when you’re writing longer blog posts. It’s a great way to bookmark things so you can keep your web browser bookmarks cleaner. They offer both a free and a paid version.

Bear

It’s a free writing app you can use to take all kinds of notes. It can be used to take podcast notes, keep a list of ideas, track to-dos, and so much more. Bear only works for Mac and iOS, however.

A Few More Blogging Tools for Writing Blog Posts

Along with the free blogging tools and the paid blogging tools for beginners above, you can use the following tools to make writing blog posts much easier.

Readability Test Tool

You want your blog posts to be readable and a good readability test tool will help. You may already have one with the SEO WordPress Plugin you’re using, but a tool outside of WordPress can also be helpful.

The readability test tool from WebFX.com is a good choice. Another option is the tool from Readable.com. Both offer good free versions and provide a readability score for your content.

Dictionaries and Thesaurus

Online dictionaries and thesauruses come in handy when you’re writing. You might catch yourself repeating the same word or you just cannot think of the right word. These tools help in a pinch.

Article Rewriter

Before I introduce this tool, it’s important to note, I don’t advocate article spinning whatsoever. Don’t do it unless you really want Google to punish your content.

The Article Rewriter Tool is a free blogging tool for beginners you can use to get different versions of sentences. Sometimes, grammar and spelling check tools don’t offer a suggestion. When this happens, copy and paste the sentence or paragraph into this tool and you’ll be able to see different wording options.

(HEY! Don’t Forget: If You want my 12 Easy Steps to Blogging Success – even if you’re a Complete Beginner – Click Here and download the guide for FREE!)

Blog Growth Tools for Beginners

Writing great content for your blog is the foundation, but growing your blog requires you to share your content all over the internet. This can be a daunting and time-consuming task without the right tools.

When you have the best blogging tools for sharing your content, you can grow faster and easier. Most of these tools will have to do with social media since you will get most of your immediate traffic from sharing blog posts on social sites.

Tailwind App

My absolute favorite blogging tool for gaining traffic, the Tailwind App is great for sharing on Pinterest and Instagram. It makes scheduling your content and content from other people seamless.

Anybody getting a good amount of traffic from Pinterest is using the Tailwind App to schedule their posts. It’s by far the best choice and it became even better when they started allowing you to share to Instagram, too.

They even have a built-in feature allowing you to use Tribes. The Tribes allow others to see and Pin your content to their Pin Boards, which can explode your traffic fast!

While they do offer a free version, I recommend the paid version. You can get a free month of the paid version of the Tailwind App through my exclusive link by Going Here Now!

SmarterQueue

Another great choice for growing your blog through social, SmarterQueue offers smart features for sharing and resharing. You can use it with Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Linkedin. They even allow you to split-test images and actual posts to see which perform best with your evergreen content.

I am going to mention Hootsuite, meetEdgar, and Buffer as alternatives to SmarterQueue, but SmarterQueue is the most intuitive and the best of the bunch. It will save you plenty of time and it’s so easy to use.

I actually used to use Buffer’s paid plan, but they only allow up to 8 profiles and the next upgrade is highly expensive to get more accounts. I switched to SmarterQueue so I could use more social profiles and it’s a far better tool compared to Buffer.

I don’t use SmarterQueue for Pinterest, however. The Tailwind App, which I mentioned above, is by far the best tool for Pinterest and it’s the only tool with Tribes, which really explode your traffic.

You can try SmarterQueue for free. They usually offer a 14-day trial, but with my link Right Here, you can get a full 30-day trial.

Social Pilot

Another excellent blogging tool for beginners, Social Pilot will help you grow fast. You get a ton of social profiles with this too and plenty of posts. Compared to some of the other tools out there, like Hootsuite and Buffer, Social Pilot simply offers more for less money.

SocialOomph

If you really want to explode your blog growth by using Twitter, SocialOomph offers a great option. While it works with Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pinterest, too, it was originally designed for Twitter. In addition, you can use SocialOomph with Mastodon and Reddit, which makes it very powerful.

I have been using SocialOomph for a few years now and it’s one of the better options for a reasonable price out there. You can start with one social profile for free and all plans offer unlimited scheduled posts.

One of the coolest features of SocialOomph is the ability to use RSS feeds for post sourcing. They will also allow you to add additional social profiles at the Professional level to ensure you have the right number of profiles available for your blog growth.

Try SocialOomph for free today by going here now.

Buffer

After using Buffer on an upgraded plan for an entire year, I switched to SmarterQueue. It’s a good tool, but there are limitations, such as the 100 posts in your queue at once. While that may seem like quite a few, if you’re posting to Twitter 10 or 15 times per day, you will run through your queue fast.

While Buffer is a fine tool for blog growth, it’s not my favorite of the blogging tools for beginners. As a beginner, it’s nice to know you have a tool you can grow with.

If you’re looking for a free tool for social media sharing, SmarterQueue offers a 30-day trial through my link here. You can also use SocialOomph for free if you plan on using just one social profile.

Buffer offers a free account with 3 social profiles, but you can only have 10 posts in your queue at once, which doesn’t do you much good for real blog growth.

For my money, I use the Tailwind App for Pinterest, SocialQueue for Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, and I use SocialOomph for Twitter, Mastodon, and Reddit.

Hootsuite

Another popular social sharing tool, Hootsuite was the first to really make automatic sharing a thing. It’s expensive, compared to others and I don’t find this blogging tool to be as user-friendly.

While there’s nothing really wrong with Hootsuite, I prefer other social sharing tools because of their price and the features they offer.

MeetEdgar

Some bloggers swear by the meetEdgar social sharing tool and it’s a good blogging tool for sure. It’s not my favorite, but there are many that love using it.

MeetEdgar works with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. They give you 25 social accounts for around $50 per month, which is more expensive than some of the other tools I mentioned. They do offer a cheaper option at $19 per month, too.

Start Working with meetEdgar by going here now!

Hello Bar

Have you seen the websites with a bar across the top advertising their newsletter or something else? That’s known as a Hello Bar and can be a powerful way to convert visitors into subscribers or customers.

This is a powerful tool you can use to build a list or promote your most popular product. You can use the free option for up to 5,000 views per month and they do offer tow upgrades as your traffic grows.

I recommend upgrading to allow the HelloBar logo to be eliminated and to gain access to unlimited popups. The upgraded option also offers more design features and more testing features.

Get the Hello Bar by going here now!

Revive Old Post

A very cool tool you can use to share old blog posts automatically, Revive Old Post is just what it sounds like. It will randomly choose old posts from your blog with your settings and share them, thus reviving the old post.

This WordPress plugin has a free and paid version. The free version works with Facebook and Twitter, while the premium version will also work with LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr.

Personally, I prefer the premium version as it helps me really get the most out of my blog posts on social media. the Revive Old Posts plugin is one of the best blogging tools for beginners looking to grow now and in the future.

Get Revive Old Posts now by going here.

Google Analytics

When it comes to growing your blog, a huge part of the growth comes from knowing where your traffic is coming from. If you want to make sure you always know what’s working, Google Analytics is a great free blogging tool to use.

You can connect your WordPress blog directly to a free Google Analytics account, through a plugin from MonsterInsights. This will make it easy to see where your traffic is coming from and double or triple your efforts to gain even more traffic.

Clicky

An alternative to Google Analytics is Clicky. It’s free for up to 3,000 pageviews a day, which makes it a great choice for beginners. It’s not the same as Google Analytics and some bloggers prefer Clicky.

Social Warfare

An excellent WordPress plugin for blog growth, Social Warfare offers a fast social sharing option for adding buttons to your blog. It will add buttons to any size screen making it rather intuitive and useful. You can even customize the buttons to your liking.

You’ll gain full control over what people share and how they share it with this plugin. When it comes to blogging tools for beginners, Social Warfare is a must. It will help you drive traffic to your site.

The customization allowed in this plugin is incredible. They allow you to customize just about everything and you can even integrate Click-to-Tweet into your blog posts.

They offer a free version, but the Pro upgrade is certainly worth it. With the Pro upgrade, you gain access to tons more social networks including Reddit, Tumblr, and the WhatsApp. You’ll also be able to track Twitter tweet counts and the Pin button will be on all your images.

The Pro upgrade will also allow you to choose the image, title, and description shared on the social networks. You can even add a custom Pinterest images and there are additional button designs in the Pro version.

There are a ton more features in the Pro upgrade than the free version of Social Warfare. It’s one of the most affordable and easy-to-use blogging tools for beginners looking to spread their content like wildfire.

Snip.ly

A rather simple tool offering plenty of power, Snip.ly allows you to add a call-to-action to any page on the web. It will engage your followers every single time you share something on social media and help grow your blog. You can start with the free plan and upgrade as you gain more traffic.

Sumo

Some bloggers swear by this free blogging tool. Sumo offers plenty of things you can do all in one plugin. It will add social sharing buttons, provide analytics, offer a/b split testing, and more.

The free version only offers some of the features, but there is a Pro version with the full features offered. This tool works great for those trying to build a list, as well.

TweetDeck

A blogging tool from Twitter, TweetDeck makes it easy to see all your stuff in one place. It will show you the home feed, notifications, messages, what’s trending, and more. It’s an easy way to view your Twitter feed and can help with blog growth.

If you have multiple Twitter accounts, you can even view all of them in one place.

Disqus

A plugin you can add to your blog for more unique comment feeds, Disqus is a very popular choice. If you want to customize the comments section and allow rich media commenting more like a social media feed, this is the blogging tool for you.

AddThis

A simple plugin for WordPress makes it easy to add share buttons to your website, many bloggers use AddThis. Along with the ability to add share buttons for social media to your blog, AddThis allows you to use the list building, link promoting, and post recommending tools to help you build your audience and your traffic.

Best Tools for Making Money as a Blogger

Once you’ve set up your blog and you’re ready to start promoting it, you’ll want to monetize your blog and make some money. There are plenty of tools to help you with making money from your blog. Whether you want to display ads, sell your own products, or use affiliate marketing, these blogging tools are the best for making money as a beginner.

ShareASale

One of the top affiliate marketing options, ShareASale offers many different companies, products, and services you can promote. If you want to promote a product from a top corporation or from a small business, you’ll probably find it here.

You can sign up with ShareASale for free and start promoting products on your blog today by going here!

FlexOffers

Another great affiliate site for bloggers, FlexOffers provides a ton of products and services you can promote. Some pay per click and per lead, instead of just a commission for each sale.

Many of the best online products you can promote are found on FlexOffers.com. You can sign up for free and start promoting products from FlexOffers by going here now.

A few other good affiliate sites to use if you want to monetize your blog with affiliate products include:

With the right affiliate networks, you’ll have plenty of products and services to promote.

Teachable

Another excellent blogging tool for those looking to create courses and programs to sell, Teachable makes monetizing your blog with your own products easy. You can create sales pages, checkout pages, course curriculum, and even create an affiliate program for others to use to promote your courses and programs.

Teachable is a blogging tool with everything you need to create and sell your own course or program. If you want to really make money as a blogger, creating your own product is a great way to go and Teachable will make it easy.

You get a full month trial to give it a try. from there, you’ll get to choose from three monthly plans based on your specific needs. All levels allow you to teach your course or program to unlimited students and all levels offer instant payouts when you get paid for your course.

You’ll even gain access to full training for creating your own course and you can use coupon codes to run sales. If you’re interested in creating a course or program to sell on your blog, try Teachable for one month free by going here now.

Gumroad

A stand-alone software program allowing you to sell any digital or physical product on your website, Gumroad offers a great alternative to the WooCommerce and Shopify options listed below. It’s very easy to use and you don’t have to spend forever worrying about APIs, payment processors, and software design.

All you have to do is sign up, create a product, place your buy button on your site and you’re ready to go. It’s also a bit cheaper WooCommerce and Shopify making it a better blogging tool for beginners.

Thrivecart

A more advanced choice for selling products on your website, Thrivecart provides a great option with one fee for the lifetime of the product. you can easily set up product checkout pages, upsells, and so much more. They even allow you to create an affiliate program and manage all your affiliates easily.

Many bloggers swear by Thrivecart. While the lifetime membership may seem a bit expensive, it’s really cheap compared to other products charging a monthly fee forever. If you want to sell many guides, programs, video training courses, and other products, Thrivecart is a great choice for your needs.

WooCommerce

While it’s a free WordPress plugin, you will likely need to upgrade to get the full use of WooCommerce. It’s a good tool and many bloggers love using WooCommerce for monetizing their blog.

Shopify

A very popular stand-alone software for selling products online, Shopify is a great tool. In fact, many bloggers have their own Shopify store separate from their main blog or website.

If you want to sell products online, Shopify makes it easy and they provide all the support you need.

Ad Networks

If you prefer to display ads and get paid when visitors click on your ads, you need one of the top ad networks. There are several great options and they offer ways to monetize your site.

I prefer to run ads on a few of my sites, but I tend to make more money running ads for affiliate products than I do running ads from the networks. However, if you prefer to use an ad network to make money from your blog, some of the best options include:

Just be careful and don’t go overboard. If ads annoy you when you go to someone else’s site, you probably want to monetize your blog in a different way. Personally, I use some ads, but I try not to use popups or anything too intrusive.

Email Marketing/List Building Tools for Bloggers

One of the smartest things any new blogger can do is build a list of subscribers. This can easily be done with a landing page, a downloadable free guide, and some blog traffic.

I do this with my Websites that Pay Writers guide here and my How to Start a Blog That Makes Money guide here.

Both have longer landing pages and much simpler landing pages I use for different reasons. I also promote both of these landing pages in the Warrior Forum as Warrior Special Offers to gain even more subscribers.

I designed my landing pages from scratch, but there are tools to make this much easier for you. I use GetResponse as my autoresponder and email management software because I believe it’s the best of the options. I have used almost all the big Email Marketing Software options and have found GetResponse to be the most user-friendly and the most intuitive of the choices.

GetResponse

I love GetResponse! It’s a bit of a personal preference, but I find with an annual plan, I get a fair price with plenty of features and great support. I manage several lists and GetResponse makes it easy.

The design tools for both forms and emails are great and they offer plenty of other features, as well. GetResponse makes it easy to build landing pages, manage your autoresponder, send out newsletters, and even create webinars. They are my one-stop-shop solution for all my email marketing needs.

Sign up for Free with GetResponse today by going here now!

Convertkit

One of the best blogging tools for beginners looking to build a list is Convertkit. This tool offers a great way to build relationships with your audience through email marketing. It was even founded by a blogger.

While I prefer GetResponse as my autoresponder, Convertkit is a good option for beginners. It does make things a bit easier and there are a ton of customizable landing page options. You can also create all kinds of forms and they integrate with WordPress very easily.

They offer a free account for up to 500 subscribers and the fee after that is pretty reasonable. There are several good features missing in the free account, however, including reporting and automated email sequences.

They do offer a free trial, which you can find right here. While Convertkit is a great tool for beginning bloggers, I still prefer GetResponse for my email marketing needs.

Aweber

If GetResponse went out of business, I would switch over to Aweber for my email marketing needs. They offer a 30-day free trial and they have great features, excellent automation options, and excellent customer service.

For me, they were just a bit higher in price than GetResponse and I like the design tools from GetResponse better. However, if you don’t like GetResponse, for some reason, Aweber is a great alternative option.

Sign up for a 30-day free trial of Aweber here.

Mailchimp

The one main benefit to Mailchimp is the fact that you can start for free and have up to 2,000 subscribes before you have to pay. However, I used Mailchimp when I first started out and I didn’t find it to be very user-friendly.

I also found that the features provided in the free account are rather basic. I would have needed to upgrade to the Standard plan for $15 per month to get all the features I wanted.

Even though Mailchimp wasn’t the email marketing program for me, it’s still a solid product with plenty of good features.

Drip

Another autoresponder option is Drip. However, it’s a bit expensive and they no longer offer a free account for your first 100 subscribers.

Regardless of the price, Drip does offer excellent tools and tracking. They offer a bit more than some of the other email marketing options on this list, which is part of why they charge a higher price.

They do offer a 14-day free trial so you can test it out and see if Drip is for you.

MailerLite

If you’re making a decision about your email marketing software solely on budget, MailerLite is a good option. They offer plenty of features and they are cheaper than most of the other options on the list. You can even have up to 1,000 subscribers on a free account.

ActiveCampaign

As a beginning blogger, ActiveCampaign may be a bit more advanced, but it’s another good email marketing tool. This program offers a reasonable price for new bloggers and plenty of features to help you build your list of subscribers.

SendGrid

Another option when it comes to your autoresponder and email marketing, SendGrid provides a good tool with plenty of features. It’s trusted by many and offers a great choice for the right type of blogger.

MailPoet

It’s actually a plugin for WordPress and a way to send emails to plenty of loyal subscribers. MailPoet will help to transform the emails you send from WordPress to blog subscribers.

You can add content and images right from your media library without uploading anything to a third-party.

As one of the top WordPress blogging tools, MailPoet allows you to use it free of charge up to 1,000 subscribers. It comes with a reasonable price after that and offers a great way to seamlessly integrate your email marketing right into your WordPress website.

LeadPages

One of the better landing page options out there, LeadPages offers plenty of features and it’s very easy to use. You’ll be able to do A/B testing, create basic squeeze pages for list building, and so much more.

Start your free 14-day trial of LeadPages here.

Elementor

A powerful plugin specifically designed for WordPress, Elementor offers plenty of features for new bloggers. Some bloggers swear by this plugin because of the easy-to-use drag-n-drop page builder.

Elementor offers an excellent option for creating opt-in pages and much more. Compared to LeadPages, it’s less expensive and many bloggers find it much easier to use.

You can start using it for free, but you will probably want to upgrade to the Personal plan pretty quickly. If you have multiple sites, you’ll need the Plus or Expert plan, but compared to LeadPages, Elementor is far more affordable.

The free version will give you just the drag-and-drop page builder and 30 basic widgets. When you upgrade, you get everything you could ever need for creating amazing landing pages for your blog. The upgrade even offers a WooCommerce builder and shop widgets.

If you’re looking for the best WordPress blogging tool for beginners trying to build landing pages, look no further. Elementor is the right choice. Try it for free by going here now!

ONTRApages

A free option with an upgrade option, ONTRApages provides a good choice for building landing pages. They provide 40 templates and you can connect your email service providers very easily. You’ll get to use A/B testing with ONTRApages and you’ll get to see your metrics.

The big downfall is the free version is branded by ONTRApages and doesn’t allow you to use your own domain name. If you’re going to use this blogging tool for your landing pages, the upgrade is necessary.

QuickPages

Another free blogging tool for beginners allowing you to create landing pages, QuickPages provides six templates. It’s an easy-to-use tool and makes building nice landing pages simple. You won’t be able to do any A/B testing, but you will be able to see how many visitors and conversions you had.

For a free blogging tool, it’s a good choice, but if you really want to create good landing pages, you need a better tool than QuickPages.

Optinmonster

A lead generation tool offering the power you need to grow your email list fast, Optinmonster is one of the most powerful blogging tools for beginners. It’s known as one of the top choices if you want to convert more of your blog traffic into subscribers.

Optinmonster offers pre-built templates you can customize to fit your specific needs. It’s designed to ensure you get the very best conversions possible and helps give you all the stats you need.

Packed with features and requiring minimal setup, Optinmonster is one of those blogging tools that will help set you apart.

Find out more about Optinmonster by going here now!

SumoList Builder

A tool allowing you to create beautiful pop-ups and capture more leads, SumoList Builder offers an easy-to-use option. It’s a blogging tool made for beginners giving you the ability to capture your visitors and turn them into subscribers.

SendinBlue

A tool with many tools in one, SendinBlue offers a great tool for creating email templates. They also offer heat-maps, A/B testing, SMS marketing tools, and even live chat.

While it’s far better for e-commerce websites, some bloggers have found many of the tools offered by SendinBlue very helpful. It’s certainly one of the blogging tools you should consider looking into.

Other Blogging Tools for Beginners to Help with Email Marketing

Bananatag
Gmelius – Great for teams!
Mixmax
GetNotify – Made for Email Tracking
Online Email Extractor – Can be helpful for blogger outreach

These email marketing tools for bloggers make it much easier to build a list and really build an income blogging. The money is in the list and many bloggers will tell you, they make more from sending one email than they do from the traffic coming to their blog.

When you need the best blogging tools for beginners trying to build a list, start with GetResponse. It’s an all-inclusive email marketing option with everything you need to build great squeeze pages, autoresponder campaigns, and so much more!

Find out more about GetResponse by going here now!

Best Image & Design Tools for Beginning Bloggers

Designing a great-looking blog matters and you’ll need plenty of images for all your blog posts. There are free options and there are paid options, which always offer better images.

Free image sites are great, but they have a limited selection. Often, the pictures are from foreign countries and it can be difficult to find the right image for your specific needs.

With the right image service, you’ll have great-looking images for all your blog posts. As a beginning blogger, investing in good images will help you gain better traction as you grow.

Top Image Blogging Tools for Beginners

Most of the image sites are about the same. They allow you to search, find the right image, download it, and provide credit (if necessary).

The best images sites for bloggers include:

DepositPhotos – A great choice offering on-demand images and monthly subscription plans. Get images for less super cheap with a big subscription plan or pay per image with options for standard use license and extended licenses. AF LINK
123RF.com – I love 123RF because they provide super cheap pricing options with excellent, high-quality images. I use images from this site for my freelance writing clients and for my own website. Get images for as low as 27 cents per image by going here now!
Shutterstock – A great choice, but more expensive than the 123RF or DepositPhotos, Shutterstock offers high-quality images. PENDING APPROVAL
Pexels – A free option for pictures with plenty of variety and good choices for your blog. One of the top choices for beginning bloggers on a tight budget.
Pixabay – One of my favorite free options for images, Pixabay has clean, good-looking images and you can set up a free account for faster downloading.
All The Free Stock – Offering an option for searching multiple free stock image sites at once, All The Free Stock can save you time. It’s a great option for those seeking access to a ton of free images for their blog.

BeFunky

A great design tool allowing you to easily resize and edit images before uploading them to WordPress, BeFunky makes it easy. It’s a simple tool, so it’s great for beginners without much image editing experience.

You can easily make pictures a different size and add a few other things, such as text, borders, and colors.

GIMP

A free alternative to Photoshop, GIMP is a desktop software you can use to edit and refine your images. It’s pretty easy to use and rather beginner-friendly. If you’re on a tight budget, GIMP might be the perfect blogging tool for your image editing.

PhotoScape

A simple and free tool you can use to resize images, enhance images, add filters, and do quite a bit more, PhotoScape is one of my go-to image editing tools. It can help you take that massive screenshot and make it smaller or take those huge pictures from your DSLR camera and make them smaller before uploading.

Canva

You can use the free version of Canva, but upgrading does offer access to more images and it will allow you to resize any image you create for all the social media sites with just a click.

Canva is one of the best image creation tools for those planning to use Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social sites. You can easily create beautiful images with plenty of filters and options.

I use Canva for many of the images I create and I find it to be one of the most useful blogging tools for beginners. Use Canva for free here and you can even use the premium version for free for 30 days!

PRO TIP: If you know you need to design a bunch of images for different social platforms, buy Canva for a month, design all your images, and then cancel the premium plan. Of course, there’s always the chance you’ll fall in love with the premium version (like I did) and find a way to rationalize the small monthly fee.

Stencil

It’s a blogging tool similar to Canva, but more geared towards the bloggers and social media influencers of the word. You can easily and quickly create great images with Stencil making it a good blogging tool for beginners.

They don’t offer as big of a database of images as Canva, but they give you more availability without the upgrade. However, upgrading does offer excellent features you don’t get with the free version of Stencil.

Sketch

If you prefer an image editing option without needing an internet connection, Sketch is one of the better choices. It’s a non-browser-based tool with the ability to do so much with your images.

There are a ton of tutorials on the Sketch websites making it very easy to use for even a beginner. Many bloggers use Sketch for social media images and featured images. It’s a great blogging tool for beginners.

ColorPick Eyedropper

When you need to choose a color for your images or for your website, ColorPick Eyedropper comes in handy. It’s an easy extension for Chrome and Firefox that will pick the color you click on and tell you the code.

LogoMakr

A free logo design tool, you can use LogoMakr to create your own logo. They also offer custom design services for logos if you prefer to have someone else do the work for you.

Coolors

If you need to create a color scheme, you can use the Coolors.co tool online. This tool will help create the perfect color combination for your blog or an image.

Design Hill

If you want to create your own images, Design Hill is a good choice. It’s actually a design marketplace allowing you to hire someone to create pictures for you. They allow you to receive plenty of designs and choose the one you like the best.

Design Hill is good for logo design and for other graphics.

Fiverr.com

One of my absolute favorite places for image design, Fiverr.com offers plenty of quality designers for all kinds of images. I use Fiverr for Pin design for Pinterest, images for Instagram, and more.

Usually, you can order images for around $1 each, sometimes even cheaper. Once you find a quality image creator, you can go back over and over for more images, too.

Find the best image designers for a very low price at Fiverr.com by visiting their website HERE.

ShortPixel

An excellent option for compressing your images, ShortPixel makes it easy. It will reduce the image size on your website for faster load times automatically. This WordPress plugin is a great choice if you want to speed up your website for better SEO.

Compressor.io

Another way to compress images, Compressor.io does it in your browser. You have to drag the image into the tool and it will compress it before you upload the image to WordPress.

Optimizilla

A free tool helping you optimize your images, you can use this web-based application to easily compress your files. However, you will have to compress the images before you upload them to WordPress with this tool.

Along with these tools to compress images, there are several WordPress plugins you can use for this task including:

Other great blogging tools for beginners to design include:

Lumen5 – A great option for video creation making it easy to take a blog post and turn it into a professional video.
Tookapic – A unique photo website offering a cool way to learn how to take your own pictures.
My Stock Photos – Another place to get free stock pictures for your blog posts.
PicMonkey – A photo editor and graphic design maker, you can use PicMonkey to create better images.
Adobe Stock – Offering high-quality pictures you can buy for your website, Adobe Stock is another choice for good images.

Best Organizational Blogging Tools for Beginners

As a blogger, you need to know how to post, add images, and market your blog. You certainly need the right blogging tools for all these tasks and you need some good WordPress blogging tools.

In addition to all the tools you need for your actual blog, you’ll need some good organizational blogging tools. Some of these tools are free and will make your life so much easier, while others you may need to pay for.

Here’s a look at some of the top blogging tools for beginners looking to stay organized.

Dropbox

When you become a blogger, you need plenty of storage. You will likely end up with a huge collection of images, video, and written content files, especially if you use social media as one of your main marketing methods.

You can’t just trust the storage on your computer because it will be limited and most computers will slow down if they become bloated with images and videos.

Dropbox offers a great choice for storing and sharing documents and files. You can store all your important files, images, and videos to the cloud freeing up plenty for space on your computer.

It’s even possible to sync Dropbox to your computer making it much easier to access your files.

In addition, if you have a computer issue, you won’t lose everything. It will be secure in your Dropbox, which can be linked to any device you want.

Google Drive

Another option very similar to Dropbox, Google Drive offers a great top for backing up everything and keeping files off your computer. For those with Google accounts, this is probably the best choice for keeping everything secure.

Google Drive offers a free account, but it won’t have a ton of space. When you run out, you can upgrade for a very reasonable price on a monthly or yearly basis.

Trello

A great free blogging tool making project management a breeze, Trello makes organizing your projects and tasks super simple. If you’re a visual person, this is a great tool to help you stay organized.

while Trello is free, many bloggers believe the “Butler” power-up makes it even more powerful. This power-up will help with automation and makes the Trello tool work even better.

Trello also has a premium option called Trello Gold, which is super cheap. It offers three power-ups for each board, custom backgrounds, premium stickers, a larger attachment limit, saved searches, and even better automation.

I think Trello Gold is well worth the small price. When I wrote this it was just $45 a year or $5 a month, which is nothing compared to the time Trello Gold saves me.

Asana

Another free project management tool, Asana offers a bit of a different option. For those that like to create lists, this is the right project management tool It will save you a ton of time and will help you stay organized as a blogger.

LastPass

A free choice for managing your passwords, LastPass will save you a ton of time.

TextExpander

If you get sick of typing things over and over, you can use TextExpander to help. It will allow you to create shortcuts for things like an email signature, URLs, hashtag lists, and more. It’s a very helpful tool!

Freedom.to

You can selectively block distractions, such as Gmail, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook on your phone and computer when you need to. Freedom can help increase your productivity as you eliminate the things distracting you from getting your blog posts written and published.

Voxer

A free mobile app you can use to speed up your texting and messaging, Voxer can replace your texting and make it much easier.

Yoink

Yoink is just for the MAC and iOS users out there. It’s a drag-n-drop file app making life just a little bit easier.

Scanner Pro

Another good app to speed up your work, Scanner Pro makes it easy to create PDFs. Of course, if you use Microsoft Word, you can create PDFs, just by saving your document properly.

Alfred

If you use a MAC computer, you can use Alfred to make your searching a bit easier.

Otter.ai

A great free blogging tool for audio transcription, if you use it, Otter.ai will help you take notes by voice and can also be used to transcribe videos and podcasts.

Google Calendar

A good free blogging tool for beginners, Google Calendar will help you stay organized. You can add your entire schedule and give others access, if necessary.

E.ggtimer.com

If you want to use Pomodoros or any other type of timer to keep you moving, this is a great choice. It’s a quick and easy egg timer site that allows you to use special times for pomodoros, the morning, brushing your teeth and so much more. Plus, it’s a free blogging tool, so you don’t have to pay a dime to use it.

Other Cool Blogging Tools for Beginners

Along with all the tools above, there are a few other tools that really don’t fit into a category to consider.

ThirstyAffiliates WordPress Plugin

When you start promoting affiliate products, you end up with ugly links that don’t really do the trick. You want better-looking links that are protected from people stealing your commissions.

The ThirstyAffiliates plugin makes link management easy and helps you create better-looking links. Plus, if a product is ever removed you can easily replace all the links to that product just by switching out one link. I use this plugin all the time and believe it’s one of the best free blogging tools for beginners you will find.

They offer a free version and an upgraded version with features, such as automatic keyword linking and Amazon API importing.

F.lux

One of my favorite blogging tools for beginners helps with saving your eyes and helping you sleep at night, F.lux will adjust your screen colors for nighttime blogging. It’s a free tool helping to prevent eye strain and giving you a break from blue light when the sunsets.

Snip.ly

A cool little tool to help you gain more traffic, Snip.ly lets you share other people’s content on social media with a call to action to your own blog. It’s very easy to use and offers both a free and pro option.

Ad Inserter WordPress Plugin

An easy to use free plugin, Ad Inserter allows you to easily place ads on your blog. It can be used with Google AdSense or another similar program. You can also use it to place sponsorship ads or affiliate ads on your blog.

Add Link to Copied Text WordPress Plugin

Have you ever copied text from a website and when you paste it, you end up with a link to the website with the text? The Add Link to Copied Text Plugin offers a good strategy to ensure you always get credit for your work.

With so many snippets of text shared through email, if you add this plugin to your WordPress blog when someone tries to copy your content, they will end up with a link back to your site, too.

GTranslate WordPress Plugin

Another one of the good blogging tools for beginners, the GTranslate WordPress Plugin will allow those in other countries to enjoy your blog. It makes your website multilingual and available to the entire world. There is even a premium version, which allows Search Engine Optimization for other countries!

There are a ton of great blogging tools out there. Some are designed specifically to help you with writing better blog posts, while others provide better SEO or other types of blog marketing.

My list of paid and free blogging tools for beginners includes many WordPress blogging tools because I believe WordPress is the best platform for bloggers. If you want to become a better blogger, use the tools above and you’ll quickly be on the path towards becoming a successful blogger.