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Maybe you just started your own blog, or are 3 months into it your blogging journey. Knowing what to do, and how to help yourself grow your blog can be overwhelming.
And not to mention scary!
As a beginning blogger, you probably have little-to-no budget for investment and with a long list of activities you need to keep up with, you may be short on time as well.
Thankfully, I can tell you about the best blogging tools for beginners out there that will make your work easier! Plus, they will keep you from making amateur blogger mistakes that can prevent you from real success.
Before you do any more work on your blog, grab these best blogging tools for beginners to quickly amplify your blog growth, improve your chance to make money and make your work easier.
Why do you need tools for blogging?
Blogging can make you a lot of money, but it does require a lot of time and work to get there.
But, working smartly will help you get there a lot faster. For this reason, blogging tools, especially, especially for beginners are a must-have.
They can help you with graphics, photos and most importantly, how to write blog posts that will help you get real traffic to your blog. If you haven’t started a blog yet, here are the easy steps to to do it.
Easy Click Start
Get a free domain name
Click here to start your blog the easy way by signing up with Blue Host and get your blog domain for free. Blue Host will take you step-by-step through the set-up.
Best Blogging Tools for Beginners
If you want help working on your blog and growing it into a money-maker, these blogging tools will help you.
1. Koala AI Writer
First up in our list of blogging tools is an AI tool called Koala. While you need to be careful with how you use AI for writing blog posts, it is an extremely helpful tool.
I personally use Koala and find it to be the best tool for AI blog post writing. Please know that you need to heavily edit AI-written drafts.
You need to make them more conversational and also less repetitive. I find they sometimes repeat points within the posts.
It is also super important to vet the copy for accuracy. Make sure any stats or facts mentioned are true.
But when it comes to making my life easier and allowing me to write and publish more and better blog posts, Koala is the best AI tool.
It is well worth the money as it pulls from Google search so that your posts are already SEO-optimized which will help your posts rank higher with search engines. SEO is extremely important in creating a successful blog.
Plus, they are regularly adding features to the platform. It will now insert images and videos into your posts, in whatever style you prefer! Again, I save a lot of time and energy using Koala.
There are some free AI tools out there but don’t waste your time! Koala is a much better tool, and I like it better than Jasper which I have tried as well. Here are some free content writing tools you might want.
2. Stock Images and Templates for Your Blog
Another blogging tool you need is nice stock photography. And this is actually one of the free blogging tools you can find. There are some free stock photography sites out there like Unsplash and Pixabay.
These work great, especially if you are just starting out and on a tight budget. However, sometimes these pics are getting used by everyone and can be unoriginal.
If you have a little budget for your blogging tools I would opt for one of these paid stock photo options:
All of the above stock photo tools include images, graphic templates, social media post images and more. HauteStock is probably my favorite, they have beautiful photos that will amplify the look and feel of your blog.
And make sure you are set up with an Image smoosher like Imagify. Images carry a lot of file size and they will slow down your blog. Imagify will automatically reduce and compress all your images to improve the speed of your website.
3. Constant Contact for Email Subscriptions
An essential blog traffic builder is an email subscriber list. The more readers you have signed up for your emails, the more traffic you can send to your blog.
When you have email subscribers, you can send regular communications to your readers to keep them coming back. This is called email marketing.
With a platform like Constant Contact, you can build an email template and send out a promotion of your latest blog post with the click of a button. It is an essential blog management tool.
Plus, once you have products to sell, you can use it to promote and sell more products or affiliate links. Cha-Ching!
The reason this is a best tool for beginning bloggers, is because you want to capitalize on every single visitor you get. From the very beginning!
It can be challenging when you first start a blog to gain traffic. So make the most of the traffic you are getting, and offer them a way to sign up for future posts and communications.
They may read and love a blog post from you. But chances are they will forget your site and not return UNLESS you get their email address before they go.
Give them the chance to sign up for reminders so they won’t miss the next blog post you write that they may love! Constant Contact makes it easy to do this.
And of course, offering a “freebie” in exchange for their email is essential.
Your blog readers will be more inclined to sign up if they get a free pdf, financial planner or ebook for doing so. (Remember Canva in blogging tool #1? You can use it to create your freebie giveaway!)
With Constant Contact, you can easily integrate it with sign up forms on your blog. So when someone enters their email address, it automatically gets added to your blog subscriber list.
You can also use Constant Contact to create custom sign up forms like the one below for your blog, your Facebook page and more.
They have a ton of form options, and you can customize them with your brand colors and fonts, or include an image of your freebie give-away.
Constant Contact also lets you set up a Welcome email that automatically sends to anyone new who signs up. So basically it does the work for you, so you can spend your time creating awesome new blog content instead!
And their drag and drop templates make building your own visually stunning email with your blog logo and colors easy!
Plus, in addition to all your email marketing needs, they also have other tools for google ads, social media ads, and more. So I highly recommend signing up for one of their plans.
As your blog and your blog revenue grows, this can be a one-stop shop for help and traffic generation. Learn more.
Another email marketing tool you can use is called ConvertKit.
4. Canva
As a newbie blogger you most likely don’t have the extra funds for a graphic designer. And, you may not be a trained graphic designer yourself. But the good news is with a free tool like Canva, you don’t need either!
Canva is a design resource online that helps amateur bloggers like you and me look like pros. You can easily create your own graphic designs with their drag and drop feature and pre-made templates.
This is basically an essential blogging tool for beginners. But, best of all, it is a free blogging tool! They have a pro, paid version you can opt for if you want but the free version works well.
With tons of templates, free pictures, fonts and more, you can quickly, and more importantly, cheaply, start creating your very own blogging graphics. Pinterest pins and social media graphics are a must-have for your blog and this allows you to do-it-yourself.
You can create all the images you need for your blog the easy way with Canva. You can even use it to create an infographic!
Here are a couple examples of designs you can create for your blog or website with the Canva tool:
When you start your blog, the look and feel of everything you do needs to look as beautiful and professional as possible which makes Canva one of the best free blogging tools out there.
While the basic plan is free, the pro plan is only $9.95 per month and gives you even more access to fonts and pictures. Plus, you can create and save your own blog branding and graphic styling for a consistent look which is why I recommend the pro plan.
With the pro plan, you can actually create video snippets which is SUPER cool! Canva is one of the best blogging tools out there since there are so many ways you can use graphic design for your blog.
I also recommend looking at Creative Market for pre-built Canva templates to amplify your blog designs. They have literally thousands of templates for every kind of design you might want.
You can purchase a package of Pinterest design templates for example, upload them to your Canva account, and easily create new and cool pins to promote your blog.
Pinterest has started to give a lot of play and search rankings to video pins, so this is something you should make use of in your social media strategy.
5. Tailwind for Pinterest
This is another excellent tool for beginning bloggers! With Tailwind, you can submit each blog post Pinterest pin you create to something called a ‘Tribe.”
Each tribe is made up of many other website and blog owners who are also trying to promote their pins. You share one of their pins, and you get to submit one of yours for them to share.
So when you submit your blog post Pinterest pin to a tribe made up of 200 people, that’s 200 people who may share your pin! And all their followers will see, and potentially re-share your pin.
If you’ve ever wondered how a Pinterest pin can go viral, this is the first step to getting there.
Plus, every time you share pins within the Tribes,
So not only are you getting the opportunity to amplify sharing of your pins, you are also getting to easily schedule a month of pins to your boards in one 10 minute session!
Check out this image of the growth of www.mommakescents.com Pinterest viewers within a month and half of starting Tailwind:
Tailwind will also show you analytics for your boards and pins, so you can see what is working and what isn’t.
The Smart Loop function lets you schedule automatic resharing of popular pins, to help drive even more traffic. And Tailwind is an official Pinterest partner, so you won’t get dinged for bad activity.
The more active your Pinterest account is, the more followers you will get. And the more followers you have, the more your pins will get shared! So I can tell you that getting started with Tailwind today is crucial for the growth of your blog.
Check out just a few of the stats on Tailwind averages with six months of use for beginning bloggers:
Not only is Tailwind ideal for Pinterest, it also now provides the same help for your Instagram account!
Use this link to try Tailwind for free for 30 days!
Since you are going to use some blogging tools to help grow your traffic, getting signed up with affiliate programs that increase with your traffic is a good idea.
It can be hard as a beginner to get approved for pay-per-click and pay-per-impressions advertising programs. But Media.net is perfect for that! It is not difficult to get accepted to their program and start making money right away.
Another great tool for your blog that is free is a social media scheduling tool. Check out the top 7 choices of social post schedulers here.
6. Grammarly
As a blogger, writing error-free blog posts with no grammatical mistakes is super important. But you may not have the APA guide quite memorized!
You can make it easier for yourself by using the tool called Grammarly. It is a free blogging tool that will proof and correct your writing.
It will work anywhere you are writing as well! In Google docs, in WordPress or even in an email. The tool will basically follow you around showing you how to fix your text as you go.
Like your own personal English teacher! It will not only fix your spelling and grammatical errors, but will also make suggestions to improve your writing or tone. Some of these additional features come with the paid premium plans however.
But, as a blogger, it is worth upgrading to the paid plan. Plus, you can also access a generative AI tool within Grammarly.
7. Google Search Console
There are some analytics tools that you will need as a serious blogger. Google Search Console is a very important one. This allows you to see how your blog is performing in Google Search.
When it comes to seo tools, this is sort of the first stop. Once you set up your GSC account, you will be able to see what keywords your blog posts are ranking for, and which posts are ranking. (Or not ranking!)
This can help you to improve your ranking. Ranking high with search engines determines how much traffic you get. Improving your search engine optimization will help.
To create an account, go to the GSC page. You have to sign into your main Google account (or create a new one if you don’t already have one.) You then create a domain property and put your blog url in.
You need to add a tag to your site and verify ownership. Check out this helpful article with more information on using Google Search Console.
There are other search engines as well like Yahoo and Bing. You can use their webmaster tools to see how you are doing in those search results.
8. Google Analytics
Google Analytics is something you will have to have as a blogger if you want to know how your blog is performing. You can use GA to see how much traffic your blog is getting and where it is coming from.
You can use it to see for instance just how many visits your Pinterest pins are getting you. Or, if organic search is sending anyone to your blog. When it comes to analytics tools, this is the number one most important one!
To set up your account, just visit the Google Analytics site and create an account.
Once you have gone through all the steps needed to set up the account, Google will want you to verify ownership of your site and also tag it so it can be tracked. Google will have you add a google tag to your blog that allows tracking.
The easiest way to do this is to use a plugin called “Insert Headers and Footers.” It makes adding the tag very easy.
Here is an in-depth guide on setting up Google Analytics if you want to see each step of the process.
9. WP Forms
One important tactic for getting traffic to your site is to get your visitors to come back. You can do this by capturing their email addresses when they visit your site and then emailing them later.
You can email them your latest blog posts or even affiliate products you want to make money from. From the first day your blog is live, you need to have. a form on your site that makes this possible.
It can be something that allows them to sign up for your newsletter or promotions. Or even better, you can offer them an “opt-in” in exchange.
This is where in exchange for giving you their email address and signing up, they get something for free. Maybe a digital download planner or eguide.
WP Forms allows you to do that. You can also use it for your general “contact us” form on your website. It has an easy to use drag and drop form builder with lots of pre-built templates and options.
Plus, you can adjust the colors to match the look of your blog. There are actually over 1,200 templates! You can even do survey forms.
OptinMonster is another product created by the same people as WP Forms but has even more capabilities beyond a simple form.
It helps you take your opt-in freebie that you are offering visitors into a whole other level. You can create pop-up forms, lightboxes and more.
Plus, you can use it to generate sales and revenue with specific offers. It is built to improve conversion. You can test lead generation styles and offers and only use what works best.
10. WordPress
At this point, you may likely already know about WordPress and even be using it as your blogging platform.
It is the beginning tool for blogging you need! In order to start your blog, you will need to have it set up on WordPress.
WordPress is a content management system and the most widely used platform for hosting blogs. You want to have a self-hosted blog on wordpress.org though, not a free blog on wordpress.com.
To get set up on WordPress, you will just need to open a web hosting account with a provider like Blue Host or WP Engine. They will include a free domain with that.
There are free blogging platforms out there that don’t require that, but it is not recommended you choose those. You won’t have a custom url and your site will be limited.
WordPress allows you to create your website, publish your blog posts and much more.
11. Hemingway App
If you want a free tool to help your improve your blog post writing, the Hemingway App will help.
It will analyze your writing and make suggestions on how to improve it. It gives you tips on reducing complexity of the writing and adding active voice for example.
It can be challenging to always write the best possible blog posts, but with a tool like the Hemingway app it is much easier.
12. Buffer
Running a blog website includes many tasks. Writing posts, working on promotion and publishing to social media platforms are just a few of the things on a blogging to-do list.
But a tool like Buffer can help make your social media management simpler and faster. It helps you automate posting and schedule out your social media way in advance. You can set everything and forget it!
It can also guide you about what type of social media posts are trending and will create more engagement. It tells you what to publish in order to make your content more click-worthy.
There are several other social media scheduling tools you can use that are similar to Buffer like Later and Planoly.
SEO Blogging Tools
Another crucial aspect of your blog, especially in the beginning is your SEO. SEO stands for search engine optimization.
This determines how high in google your blog ranks! So for example, if someone searches a keyword of “doggie toys” and you have a blog post review of toys, you want to show up on the first page.
Because if you do, you will get more traffic. So building your blog and your posts with optimized SEO from the beginning will make all the difference.
Here are some seo tools that you will need.
13. Stupid Simple SEO Course
This is the most expensive blogging tool in this post, but it is well-worth the investment. Well, it is not so much a tool as it is an educational asset.
If is a little pricier but if you plan on making your blog into a money-making business, you should consider investing in it. It is a course called Stupid Simple SEO and it is the ultimate SEO blogging tool for success.
It details all the tactics you need to adopt to get your blog ranking in Google and getting the traffic you need in order to make money.
It is especially important that you take this course right when, if not before, you start your blog! It will affect everything, including how much your blog grows and how much money you make.
I absolutely wish I had bough this course in the beginning of my blogging journey. If I could do it over again, this would have been one of my first investments once my blog was live. It has made a HUGE difference in my SEO!
Here are just two screenshots from people who have taken the course and see a big increase in their Google rankings and their traffic. There are many more though!
So click this link today and sign up for the Stupid Simple SEO course!
14. Yoast SEO Plugin
Do not write a single blog post until you have the Yoast SEO plugin! It is one of the best free blogging tools for beginners. They of course have a premium upgrade if you want, but I’m still using the freebie and it is great!
This SEO blogging tool will help you start optimizing your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) from the get-go. It helps guide how you write your blog posts in a way that will improve the SEO of your blog.
Which of course, improves your ranking in search, your domain authority, your traffic and more!
SEO may sound scary and as a newbie blogger you may feel inclined to wait on learning about it or using it in your blog.
But do not wait! I can’t emphasize enough that SEO should be a part of everything you do on your blog from day 1.
It is super important and an essential part of blogging for beginners. And the great thing about the Yoast plugin is it gets you started with SEO optimization but makes is SUPER easy.
So you can literally know nothing about SEO, but still be writing your first few blog posts like you are an SEO pro. Do not skip this must-have blogging tool!
15. Keysearch
There is a reason why I have more than one blogging tool in this post that is related to SEO!
You may be thinking mostly about social media as a way to grow your blog and build your blog traffic.
But you also need to think about SEO. It is just, if not more, important.
Search Engine Optimization of your blog will help it rank higher in internet searches, which in turn will get your more traffic. And that can mean making more money from blogging.
Keysearch is probably one of the most important seo tools you will need.
If not, you will only realize later you wasted a lot of time and effort! I know because I made this mistake.
For this reason, I think this may actually be one of the best blogging tools a beginner should have! It honestly is worth the price tag. If you use this link, you can sign up for a free Masterclass that is given as the first step towards the full course!
If you absolutely can’t afford the main plan, they do offer a smaller, less expensive one here.
So, back to Keysearch lol. One of the tools that you learn how to use in the Stupid Simple SEO course is Keysearch. Most of the course uses Ahrefs, but Keysearch is a more affordable option than Ahrefs.
It is a keyword research tool that you can use to find the best keywords to use when writing blog posts that will bring your blog traffic.
Here are just a few features of Keysearch:
- In-depth keyword research
- Keyword difficulty scoring
- Backlink checker
- Competition analysis
- Content assistant
- Brainstorm niche ideas
Another keyword research tool for your blog that I recommend is Long Tail Pro. Long tail keywords can be very helpful in google rankings.
With Long Tail Pro, you can find find long tail keyword phrases with high volume and low competition that are ideal for your blog posts.
If you sign up with this link, you get 30% off their plan!
16. SEMRush
So while Keysearch is the budget-friendly beginner’s option, SEMrush is what you get if you have more budget.
It is all the SEO tools you could want in one place. You can monitor keyword tracking and site traffic and view who your competitor’s are and what they are ranking for
For keyword research, this is the premium tool and can do even more for you than Keysearch. It might be good to start with Keysearch and then as you have more knowledge, upgrade to SEMRush.
SEMrush has a keyword magic tool, content suggestions and backlink profiles and provides suggestions for backlink building.
Plus, they have a new content topic cluster tool that is amazing. It helps you pick out topic clusters for your site which is a very significant way to improve your site ranking.
The competitive research part of the tool is fantastic and it can help you identify keyword gaps you can take advantage of.
SEMrush is THE tool you need if you are focused on being a successful, money-making blogger.
17. UberSuggest
Neil Patel and Ubersuggest are another tool you can leverage.
Neil Patel’s blog has a ton of great articles and helpful tips to guide your SEO tactics. So even though it is a website and not so much a tool, I’m putting this in my list of best tools for beginning bloggers!
One of the best tools for a beginning blogger is information. As you work on your blog, make sure you are reading and learning from other successful bloggers like Neil Patel.
Within Neil’s website, there is however a tool called Ubersuggest. This tool gives you the ability to do keyword research, backlink opportunity research and more. You can only do a set amount of searches each month for free though.
To do more searches requires signing up for a paid plan, but I NOT recommend the paid plan with Ubersuggest. If you are going to pay for keyword research, opt for Keysearch instead as they have better data and features.
However, you can use the Ubersuggest tool for free a little bit in order to see what your competitors are doing and use tactics they use to grow the traffic to your blog.
I suggest you learn about SEO first through Neil’s website, and then try the Ubersuggest tool out for yourself!
Frequently Asked Questions
What Tools Do You Need to Start a Blog?
To start a blog you will need WordPress as your platform and content management system. To get set up with it, you will need to sign up for web hosting with a company like Blue Host or WP Engine.
These are the main tools you need to start blogging but adding some important plugins like Ninja Forms, Insert Headers and Footers and Yoast are other important beginning tools.
What Does a Beginning Blogger Need?
A beginning blogger needs tools that will save time and work. And also tools to help track their blog and help boost growth.
Some of the most important things a beginning blogger needs are Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Koala AI Writer and Keysearch for keyword research.
What are the Best Blogging Tools?
Really all of the tools we have listed in this post are helpful and worth using. But, if I had to choose my favorites and the best I would say WordPress for starters since you can’t create a blog without it. And then I would choose the Stupid Simple SEO course, Koala AI, Constant Contact, SEMrush or Keysearch, depending on your budget, and the Yoast plugin.
Final thoughts on blogging tools for beginners
Wherever you are on your blogging journey, make sure you have the right blogging tools in your toolbox. These tools can help you start the right way and maximize your blog growth and blog success.
Not started your blog yet? Walk through these steps and start it today!
Next beginner blogging tips posts:
Learn How Several Bloggers Went from Part-time to Pro
75 Blog Post Ideas for Beginners
Best Blogging Platform to Make Money
How to Grow Your Email Subscriber List
How to Write a Blog Description
My favorite helpful blogging tools:
Tailwind for Pinterest to help boost your blog traffic
ConvertKit for email marketing
Keysearch for keyword research
Elegant Themes for design themes
Canva for graphic design
Stupid Simple SEO course for SEO tactics
Long Tail Pro keyword research
Fiverr for freelance designers
Tailwind sounds great – new to me, and excited to try it; ubersuggest I have seen before but I keep hearing about it so I guess I owe it a revisit. Thanks!
Thanks Eric! Ubersuggest has been helpful for me!