Learning the ropes of effective blogging can be a big task when you’re in the beginning stages of your platform. But no one ever seems to talk about that awkward transition. Not small-small, but definitely haven't made it big. Can't afford help, but need it.
Luckily, there are great tools to help along the way. Here are six tools that are worth paying for when you are still small to assist with your blog.
1.) Siteground
Many beginning bloggers start their websites on free services like Wix or WordPress.org. If you're starting out and want to skip the trial and error and learn from other bloggers, just commit and invest in Siteground right now.
I highly recommend Siteground. It has world-class customer service which I utilize almost daily even for the smallest of matters, and is truly worthwhile. It’s not as cheap as its competitors but it works in all countries and is worth investing in if you plan to at least have your blog for the next 1-2 years.
The Start-Up Plan is only $6.99 per month, so save yourself the headache and commit!
[bctt tweet=”I started out with Bluehost—as many bloggers do—and ended up Siteground. It's been 3 years now. Scroll through a few pages of Google and you'll see many similar stories. I wish I'd known sooner!” username=”packslight”]
2.) Keysearch
To successfully attract an audience, quality SEO is a must. Keysearch provides the tools you need to track your SEO efforts. It will help you find keywords that will bring in the most traffic to your blog.
Keysearch’s blog has a free SEO crash course with great tutorials. After a free one-month trial, the Starter pack is priced at $17 per month. It's not as cheap as it's competitors, but you truly get what you pay for!
3.) Tailwind
Cut your time in half and explode on Pinterest by using Tailwind. This tool tells you the best times to post, which hashtags to use, and can help you schedule pins out months in advance. No more logging on daily and spending an hour engaging! Set it and forget it.
Their Plus Programs provide services that help with growing your audience, meeting and teaming up with new influencers, an easy way to reshare pins and seasonal content. After the free trial, it is $9.99 per month on an annual payment plan, or $15 per month, paid monthly.
4.) Storage (iCloud, DropBox, etc)
As a blogger, you will need storage for your content. You have many options. Google Drive, DropBox, ZDNet, PCMag… the list goes on! You'll want somewhere with cloud storage where you can easily save notes, photographs, and documents.
If you have an iPhone, iCloud is $2.99 per month for 200GB worth of space and is great to access for photos you need on your blog and on your phone.
5.) Boomerang
Boomerang is a tool for maximized email productivity, helping you write more effective emails by giving insight into how you write and increasing the responses received from clients.
I use Boomerang daily to
- Quick insert common email templates and responses
- Automatically save emails into my contacts
- Track when people open my emails 😯
- Schedule emails to be delayed went sent out (ex. scheduling Monday morning emails on Sunday night)
It works with Gmail, Outlook, and mobile, and has plans starting at $4.99 per month.
[bctt tweet=”You need help, but can't afford to hire someone full time. Let me introduce you to: automation tools” username=”packslight”]
6.) Grammarly Premium
If you’re a beginner blogger you’re most likely building up your experience and figuring out your writing style and voice. Grammarly is an extremely useful tool that will be your lifeline with your spelling, grammar, and writing style. Trust me, even the strongest writer can be supported by the premium version of Grammarly.
It double-checks your emails, documents, essays, and more for things as simple as a double-space or extra comma which are easy to miss! There is a free version for Google Chrome, but trust me. Investing in making your writing grammatically and structurally strong will only benefit an update for $25 per month.
(And yes, I used Grammarly to check this blog post as I'm writing it 😉 )
Use these tools to strategically invest your time while you scale your blog and business. While these tools handle the annoying menial tasks that can be automated, you can be spending active time on the things that matter: your content and community!
Did you learn anything? Starting a blog? Leave a comment below.
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1 comment
Thanks Gabby! This was helpful. I’ve heard a lot of good things about Site ground. 🙂 This sealed the deal