Blogging tools play a big part in your blogging success.
I record all my blogging tools on this page.
It took me a while to find these tools, I hope following resources will save you lots of time and money.
Research Tool
Keyword research can make or break your business.
- Google Keyword Tool: Free tool works really great if you understand the basics of keyword research.
- Market Samurai: This is a great tool to do advanced keyword research for a one-off payment. Often paid keyword research tools to come with the monthly subscription. Click here to watch market samurai in action.
- SEMrush: For advance cloud based keyword research, rank tracking, site audit and to obtain competitive intelligence.
Home Base Building Tools
Following tools will help you to build a quality home base (website/blog).
- Domain Name: This will be your address on the web. It’s a good idea to own it, especially when it’s only about $10 a year only. I use Godaddy to buy domain names.
- Hosting: Really important aspect of running an online business. I use bluehost and Siteground for hosting my websites. Have a look at the short video below to know what is hosting and why it is so important for running a blog or website.
- WordPress: Free tool that has revolutionized the way you build your blog/website. Really easy to use and customizable. All my blogs & websites are built using WordPress and Genesis platform.
- Premium WordPress Themes: Check out Thesis & Genesis framework If you’re really serious about blogging or want to build a professional website.
- Email Autoresponder / Marketing: If you haven’t started to build your email list you’re losing out big time. I use Aweber to manage all my emails.
Blog Management
Bloggers juggle with plenty of different things during their workday.
Without a task management tool, it can be really overwhelming. I have found the following planning tools work best for me.
- Evernote: A Great free tool that works really great for storing your ideas and notes.
- Assana: My favorite CRM / Project management tool. This has really made my life really easy to collaborate with my team on different projects. This is a free tool for up to 30 users created by co-founder of Facebook
- Dropbox: I don’t have to say much about the importance of data backup. Dropbox has really simplified the way we back up our data with minimum fuss. You get 2GB of storage by opening a free account
Video Recording
Here is the list of tools I use to create videos:
- Screenflow (Screen capture tool for Mac users)
- Camtasia Studio (Screen capture tool for PC)
- Jing Project for Screen Capture (Free)
- Mac or Kodak Zi with External Mic
Test & Tweaking
Following are the tools I use to test different aspects of my business.
Outsourcing
- Upwork.com
- 99 Designs
Recommended Reading
The Internet changes real quick.
You got to learn consistently to stay on top of your game. Following are my top five favorite resources to stay up to date with the industry changes & learning new trends.
- Social Media Examiner: There is ton of great information you can find on how to best use social media tools like Facebook, Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn to connect with your customers, generate more brand awareness and increase sales.
- Chris Brogan: Chris is the author of New York Times best-selling book “Trust Agents”. He talks a lot about “human business” and there are plenty of things to learn from him about people skills. Don’t forget social media is all about how to deal with people, it’s not about the tools.
- Copy Blogger: Content is the fuel of doing social media marketing and there is no better place than copy blogger to learn about copywriting. I highly recommend reading and understanding the basic principles of copywriting. You don’t have to master copywriting yourself but it is highly important to know the basics so you can outsource your copywriting well.
- Kikolani: Kristi Hines is the master of creating “How to Posts”. Look no further than Kikolani.com if you are looking for any of your Internet marketing question.
- Quick Sprout: Neil Patel is one of the best writers I have come across so far. Neil writes great tips on his blog about Internet marketing, SEO & business management. Most of his posts are very detailed but easy to read and implement.
I have found these golden nuggets after spending the enormous amount of time reading hundreds of blogs.
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