When you are starting as a blogger, it isn’t easy! There are several factors and processes that are involved in becoming a successful blogger. But there are some blogging resources and tools available to make the process easier.
People have asked me what tools and resources I use to blog effectively. Well, the truth is, I started my blogging journey blindly. I found some helpful blogging tools and resources through several trials and errors.
It takes a lot of work, time, money and experimentation to find reliable tools and resources and when you go through the whole trial-and-error process you are bound to make a lot of mistakes.
That is why I’ve created a list of the best blogging resources and tools that I think will help you fast track the process and help you achieve your desired blogging success.
It’s Important to invest in your blog
Usually, I’ve seen people blog as a hobby or small side hustle, but after a few years, when they see results for their efforts they start taking blogging seriously.
Some people even quit their high-paying job to pursue a blogging career. Blogging can become from just a hobby to actual legitimate business in 2-3 years. But what if he/she considers blogging as a business from the very beginning?
Well, then they can earn some serious money from it and live the life of their dreams in just 8 months to 1 year’s time. For this, a blogger needs to invest in some very important tools that will speed up the process.
Blogging has become very competitive there are over 1 billion blogs on the Internet, that’s 1 for every 7 human beings. Without investing time, energy, and money, it’s very difficult to become a high earning blogger in this day and age.
Blog Platforms
WordPress
When talking about blogging platforms, WordPress is the only platform I’ll recommend. Do you know that 35% of the websites on the Internet are on WordPress today?
Because when you are new to the blogging space you face a lot of issues that need help and support and WordPress support forum helps in fixing those issues.
WordPress has tons of themes to choose from, and you can also, add various plugins that will help you become a better blogger and customize your website design.
Its SEO friendly and it’s easier to monetize your blog on WordPress than on any other platform.
Domain
When creating a website there are 2 very essential things you need – A domain and Hosting
The domain is a unique name for your website, one should choose a domain name that is easy to remember, catchy, memorable and related to your niche.
Bigrock
Get .COM at Rs.999 For 2 years
Click here for more information on Bigrock
Namecheap
Click here for more information on Namecheap
GoDaddy
Click here for more information on GoDaddy
Hosting
Siteground
One of the best hosting out there, in fact, Whoishostingthis ranked Siteground as #1 of 381 hosts overall. Digital Growth Ninja is hosted on Siteground and after using it some time I can say it’s very beginner-friendly. It is one of the 3 hostings recommended by WordPress.
Siteground is famous for its fast speed, reliable service, and great customer support.
Read my full Siteground review here
Kinsta
If you have a big website and you can afford a hosting service which is a little costly but gives excellent performance then Kinsta is the best choice for you.
Kinsta offers fast and reliable hosting and it gives big emphasis on website speed and security. It offers free migration and has highly trained support.
Bluehost
I consider Bluehost the #1 host for beginners. It’s great for people who want to start their blogging journey as a hobby or side hustle as its very budget-friendly too.
Bluehost provides Free SSL, free domain for 1 year, 1-click WordPress install
Hostgator
Hostgator is easy and affordable and it provides real value for money.
The best thing about Hostgator is its unmetered bandwidth and unlimited space which is very beneficial for smaller websites. Its overall good option for websites which don’t have very high traffic.
They claim 99.9% uptime and also provide free SSL and email service.
Themes
OceanWp
A multi-purpose, highly customizable WordPress theme. Its lightweight and a user can create almost any type of website. The best thing about OceanWP is its add-on plug-ins.
Astra
A lightweight, fast, fully customizable theme mainly used for blogs, business websites, personal portfolios, and professional websites.
Generatepress
It’s a multi-purpose theme that is extremely lightweight that makes blog websites load very fast. It’s great for users who are looking for great performance and fast page speed.
StudioPress Themes
It provides a perfect SEO based framework for the user. It has some great layout options with good speed and performance. It also has a mobile responsive design.
You get a FREE premium theme when you buy hosting from WPengine
Click here to avail extra 10% off your first payment
Thrive Themes
It’s an all-in-one toolbox that provides conversion-focused WordPress themes and plugins.
Elegant Themes – Divi
Elegant themes market Divi as the most popular WordPress theme with a drag and drop visual page builder by which a user can create attractive designs.
Its very beginner friendly and the great thing about Divi is it’s regularly updated to avoid any bugs.
MyThemeShop
It provides premium WordPress themes and plugins, that are fast, responsive and very attractive.
Themify.me
It’s a theme shop that provides themes for diverse fields that are affordable with good quality and customer service.
Design – Website and Page
Beaver Builder
It’s an open-source and developer-friendly page builder with drag and drop options. It’s easy to use for a non-technical person. It’s one of the important blogging tools because through beaver builder we can create a stunning website.
Elementor
Elementor is the most popular page builder. Though the interface and function of elementor and beaver are almost similar, the main difference between these two is that-
Beaver is more developer-friendly while elementor is more designer-friendly.
WordPress Plugins
Google Site Kit
This single plugin provides unified data that are present separately in different Google services like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Google Adsense, and Google PageSpeed Insights.
Yoast SEO
This plugin helps us optimize our website for various search engines so we can rank on top of the search results. It’s one of the best blogging SEO tools out there.
With Yoast SEO plugin you can do keyword optimization, check your readability score, add breadcrumbs, create a sitemap and you get interlinking suggestions
Thirsty Affiliate
Thirsty Affiliate lets us cloak ugly affiliate links and organize affiliate marketing efforts.
Sucuri
The security of your WordPress website is very important, there are malwares that can ruin your website. Sucuri is a WordPress security plugin that offers tons of security features like malware scanning, activity auditing, security backup, etc.
20 Must-Have WordPress Plugins for Effective Blogging
Proofreading Tool
Grammarly
Grammarly is one of the best proofreading and Grammar checker tools out there due to it’s easy to use interface and accuracy. It checks for hundreds of contextual and grammatical mistakes.
The great thing about Grammarly is along with grammar and spell checker it also comes with a plagiarism checker.
It is a freemium tool and I believe for someone like me who produces a lot of content on a daily basis Grammarly premium is a must-have.
Read my complete Grammarly Review – Features, Pros, Cons and My Verdict
ProWritingAid
A great alternative to Grammarly, ProWritingAid is an online writing editor and proofreader, with a thesaurus. It checks grammatical errors, spelling errors, and plagiarism in the content.
7 Free Online Proofreading Tools for Flawless Content Writing
Email Marketing
ConvertKit
A perfect email marketing tool for bloggers because its best for people who write streamlined, text-only emails to their users.
Its a simple, easy, and user-friendly platform, with seamless drag and drop features. You can create easy forms. It can be used for drip email campaigns to automatically send mails to new subscribers
Convertkit made email marketing simpler.
Optin Monster
One of the finest lead generation and conversion tools out there. It’s a complete conversion optimization software that helps in growing an email list.
A user can create beautiful opt-in forms with Optin Monster like – mobile-friendly form, sidebar, full-page, floating forms, etc.
GetResponse
It calls itself the easiest email marketing tool and it’s used for newsletters, followup emails, campaigns, online surveys, etc.
It has autoresponder 2.0 which helps in email automation. You can create landing pages, run A/B split tests with different newsletters, subject line, content and time. It also comes with more than 500 email templates.
Aweber
Like other email marking tools Aweber also comes with an autoresponder, A/B split tests, email templates (more than any of its competitors).
It’s a reasonably priced and easy to use software
MailChimp
When you think of an email marking tool the name MailChimp first comes to our mind, it’s one of the most popular email marketing software.
It has the easiest WordPress integration and gives thorough reporting. mail chimp is an all-in-one solution for inbound marketing and CRM.
The biggest issue with MailChimp is under its Terms and Conditions it strictly prohibits affiliate marketing which is one of the biggest monetization sources for a blogger.
ConvertFlow
Its an all in one platform for audience conversion for your website.
You can create landing pages, forms, surveys, sticky sidebars, popups with convertflow.
Chat Bots
LiveChat
Livechat is a customer service software with live support through which you can chat with your customers, build relationships, boost credibility and be productive.
Collect.chat
It’s a chatbot through which you can simply drag and drop relevant questions. Through collect.chat you can be available to your customers 24×7. You can also integrate other apps through it without coding.
Mobile Monkey
Mobile Monkey is a facebook messenger chatbot its one of the most useful blogging tools because through Mobile Monkey you can drive traffic to your website, interact with your audience, grow contact list and conversion rate.
Facebook messenger has high open rates 50-60% and what mobile monkey does is create a new channel your you to interact with your audience and drive traffic.
Tawk.to
Tawk.to is a 100% free software for live chat. You can monitor real-time. It has customizable widgets. Basically, t gives lots of premium features for free.
Tidio Live Chat
100% free for up to 3 operators. It’s without any chat limits. On Tidio you can also set up emails also. Paid plans are affordable looking at its features. Easy integration on WordPress.
Stock Photos
Pixabay
1- million+ free high-quality stock photos. Pixabay is one of the best blogging resources to find free stock photos for the blog.
Pexels
Similar to pixabay it provides free stock images from a global network of creators.
Pikwizard
Pikwizard is the next entry to our list. They have over 100,000 completely free images on the site, and of those over 20,000 are completely exclusive to them. A wonderful resource if you need a natural-looking stock photo of people, which tends to be rare in free stock photo sites.
Unsplash
Similar to pexels and pixabay it provides free images under the Unsplash license. It is one of the largest image suppliers on the internet due to its permissive copyright terms on its photos.
Shutterstock
On Shuttershock you can get stock photography, stock footage, stock music, and editing tools
Graphic Design
Picmonkey
Online editing and design tool
Canva
Online graphic design tool which uses the -and-drop format to add vectors, images, templates, fonts, etc. It’s one of the very useful blogging tools for creating blog banners (featured image).
Canva is a freemium tool, you can find almost every kind of template used in marketing. You can create social media posts, flyers, blog banners, infographic and logos on Canva.
Stencil
A great alternative to Canva, the Stensil is an online graphic designing tool and image editor useful for bloggers and online marketers.
SEO
Ahrefs
With Ahrefs you can audit a website, research keywords and check backlinks. It’s a highly effective keyword tool as it’s powered by Bigdata and its recommended by top bloggers and SEOs.
SEMrush
One of the top SEO tool SEMrush marketing analytics software. It is an all-in-one marketing toolkit. It provides position tracking, backlink audit, analytics, technical SEO audit, etc.
UberSuggest
Its a completely free keyword tool by Neil Patel that helps you search top pages on any website, give keyword suggestions, content ideas, and backlink data.
LongTailPro
Keyword research tool for long-tail keywords. You can measure keyword competitiveness on LongTailPro.
Spyfu
Its a competitor’s keyword research tool. Its a eat tool if you want to find out what’s working and what’s not working for your competitors.
Google Trends
It’s helpful to analyzes the popularity of top search queries in Google Search across various regions and languages. It’s one of the blogging tools to check the latest trends because the last thing you want to do is to write blogs no one wants to read.
Web Analytics
Google Analytics
It lets you track your website performance and help you measure your ROI through advertising campaigns.
You can also track video and social networking sites and applications on Google Analytics. It’s also a great tool to analyze audience behavior.
Clicky
Clicky provides real-time onsite analytics and heatmaps with great detail. All its reports are up-to-the-minute in real-time.
Social Media Management
Note: All social media management tools have almost similar features
Hootsuite
Buffer
Coschedule
Sprout Social
Blog Monetization
Google Adsense
The most common way to monetize a blog is through Google Adsense. Its high payout, transparency, no minimum traffic requirement, and good performance is the reason why people choose Google Adsense over others.
And also due to the fact that Google has the largest market share in the search engine world.
BuySellAds
It brings buyers and sellers together through its platform. It provides the publisher to develop a transparent relationship with advertisers.
Facebook Audience Network
With facebook instant articles you can monetize your articles through its audience network.
Media.net
Top Google Adsense alternative. Its AdSense for Yahoo Bing! The great thing about media.net is they take on average less than 2 days for your account to be approved and gives you an extra 10% over your earnings on your first 3 months.
Note: All their payments are made now via Payoneer, not Paypal.
List of Affiliate Networks:
ShareASale
It has over 4,000 affiliate programs in 40 different categories. it’s safe and secure and has a consistent payout schedule. ShareASale pay you via checks
ClickBank
It has over 6-7 million affiliate products to choose from. it has a flexible payment schedule and you can choose the different payment options. Payment through Payoneer is available but not Paypal.
CJ Affiliate
More than 20 years in the business and too big to fail. You’ll get paid monthly and 2 payment options via check or direct deposit. No Payoneer, no PayPal.
Amazon Associates
Larget e-commerce store in the world. Huge product range. Safe and secure. payment through amazon pay, checks or direct deposit.
Note – I’ve compiled a List of Life Recurring Affiliate Programs
Other Blogging Resources and Tools
DMCA.com
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) helps to avoid theft with content protection tools, secure original images and takedown stolen content.
Instamojo
The best platform to sell and collect payment in India. Users can upload their product on Instamojo and the buyer can pay via instamojo payment gateway. Payment for physical goods can also be collected through Instamojo
Payoneer
The best PayPal alternative to get paid by companies and marketplaces worldwide. And the best thing is there is no transaction fee between Payoneer accounts.
BuzzSumo
Its one of the very important blogging tools to find out what type of content in a particular niche is working and who shared content similar to you. You get content ideas, insights and can find influencers on Buzzsumo.
WPForms
Drag and Drop WordPress form builder plugin. Mobile-Friendly responsive forms. Instant notification on your email. It also provides spam protection.
Know more about WPforms features here
Easy Digital Downloads
If you are selling digital products from your blog it’s a perfect plugin for you. You can sell ebooks, courses, plugins very easily through this plugin.
CoSchedule Headline analyzer
It helps you write a headline for your blog articles that will drive traffic, social shares and search result ranking.
Click here for CoSchedule for headline analyzer
Disclosure – This article may contain affiliate links, which means Digital Growth Ninja will earn a small commission when you signup.
Note – By signing up with our affiliate links won’t charge you anything extra but it will help us sustain. Also, almost all Blogging resources and tools mentioned above are tried and tested by us or are very popular amongst the blogging community.