Here is a list of blog resources and tools I use to help me run my blog. I don’t like to feel overwhelmed, so I wanted to choose tools that would help me with creating content, distributing content, and growing traffic. After doing my research, I think these are tools every blogger should use.
I Use the Adobe color wheel to design my blog and get ideas on how to design my images. No more guessing what color text to put on a picture or what color combination works best together. I have used this tool to get the exact color match for an image, which then allows me to add that color to Canva.
WhatFont Allows you to see what font style and size a website is using. I use it when I come across a font I like and want to know what it is. It is a free Chrome extension and is very helpful in choosing what font to use on your blog.
This is one of my favorite platforms to be creative and design images for all my projects. Canva offers a free version and a paid version for only $12.95. I love Canva because you can design anything you want, and it is easy to use.
Bluehost is the company I use to host my blog. They are affordable and one of the best based on my research. Bluehost has been around for many years and offers 24/7 customer service. When you sign up with Bluehost, you get a free domain for the first year, and you also get a professional email.
IvoryMix provides high-quality editable images you can use for all your blogging needs. You can edit them and change the colors to fit your brand.
This is where I purchased my theme; Envato Market offers a selection of themes, graphics, etc. Envato offers some of the best templates, graphics and they are all at a good price.
I search for time tracking, and I found this company. They offer free and paid memberships. I will be using it to track the time I spend working on my blog and other activities. It is always helpful just to see how well your time is spent on each task.
MailerLite is the platform I currently use for my email marketing and opt-in forms. This platform is free for your first 1000 subscribers and very easy to navigate and set up. I think this is the best free option for affiliate marketers and bloggers.
Optin Monster allows you to generate leads and create awesome capture pages. I have not started to use this tool yet but have done my research and is on my list because I plan to use it as my main source of opt-in forms.
CovertKit offers a free 14-day trial and provides the automation and email marketing tools you need to grow your business. I love the many different features CoverKit has and the ease of use.
SpeechNotes allows you to convert your speech to text. This is a very helpful app because it can help you to write a blog post and get content created in a much faster time. I came up with this idea because I am not much of a writer and find it can be difficult writing at times. With this app, I can speak my thoughts and then edit it and turn it into content for my audience.
Natural Reader is a professional text to speech program that converts written text into spoken words. Natural Reader has the best sounding voices compared to other similar software. They also have over 57 different premium voices to choose from with different accents and languages.
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Grammarly is the number one tool that I recommend for all blogs and content publishers because it helps with grammar and spelling errors. It is by no means perfect, but it does help a lot in catching simple mistakes.
Tiny png enables you to resize your image without losing its quality. This is awesome because you want to optimize your images as much as possible to save the space it takes up on your blog. Having images that are smaller in size helps your blog to be faster.
Tailwind allows you to schedule your pins and helps to grow your business and gain an audience. If you plan on using Pinterest to grow your business, then you will need this tool. It provides detailed analytics that you can use to drive even more traffic to your blog. I also find it to be one of the fastest and most effective sources of traffic compared to others. You can get a $15 credit if you join via my link.
MaxCDN helps to make your website run faster, which in turn improves the conversion rate. I find this service to be one of the best in improving your website speed. The speed of your website has a lot to do with bounce rate and also affect your income.
Sucuri provides complete website security from hackers and keeps your content safe. It is a little pricey for beginner bloggers but is worth it in the long run. It will help you to feel secure knowing that your content is being monitored and protected from hackers. You can also check your website security with Sucuri for free.
Wave allows you to track your payments, expenses and much more. This is a very good free option to keep track of how much you are spending on your business. It will be very helpful when tax season comes around; no need to guess how much you spent on your blog. Free Business Software For Freelancers & Studios This is another free option to Wave and is owned by Fiverr.
Buffer allows you to schedule content on your social media account. There is a free version which is limited to 3 social media platforms and an upgrade to a wider range of social media platforms.
Website grader provides you with information on how well your website is performing and provides steps that you need to take to make it run faster and better. This website helps you to see how well your website is performing and how to improve performance.
Online Quote Maker – With this tool you can create a beautiful image with nice looking typography easily and fast. You can export it to any image dimension ranging from digital content to high-resolution images for prints.
Azure Text to Speech – Build apps and services that speak naturally, choosing from more than 200 voices and over 50 languages and variants. Differentiate your brand with a customized voice, and access voices with different speaking styles and emotional tones to fit your use case—all in your preferred programming language.