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31 BEST BLOGGING TOOLS THAT WILL SAVE YOU PRECIOUS TIME AND EFFORT

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<strong>31</strong> <strong>BEST</strong> <strong>BLOGGING</strong> <strong>TOOLS</strong> <strong>THAT</strong> <strong>WILL</strong><br />

<strong>SAVE</strong> <strong>YOU</strong> <strong>PRECIOUS</strong> <strong>TIME</strong> <strong>AND</strong> <strong>EFFORT</strong><br />

Blogging is more than just posting compelling and engaging content online. It’s also about<br />

creating and maintaining a content marketing strategy to grow your website. Are you in need of a<br />

blogging tool for your WordPress blog? If yes, read on! Let’s contribute to your blog’s success<br />

by helping you choose among the best paid and free blogging tools around.<br />

Whether you are looking for efficient marketing applications, design plugins or blog writing<br />

tools, you’ve come to the right place. Creating, publishing and promoting blog posts can take<br />

several hours, but you don’t need to worry! This article lists reliable blogging tools under<br />

different categories that can save you immense time and effort. Time to put together great<br />

content efficiently and strategically!<br />

<strong>BLOGGING</strong> IS NOT JUST A HOBBY, <strong>YOU</strong><br />

CAN TURN IT INTO A BUSINESS! ASIDE<br />

FROM USING THE <strong>BEST</strong> <strong>BLOGGING</strong><br />

<strong>TOOLS</strong>, HERE ARE 10 MORE WAYS TO BE<br />

A SUCCESSFUL ONLINE ENTREPRENEUR!<br />

IMAGE COMPRESSION <strong>AND</strong><br />

OPTIMIZATION<br />

1. WP SMUSH<br />

Are you searching for one of the best blogging tools for image optimization and compression?<br />

Try optimizing and compressing your WordPress blog images using WP Smush.


It is one of the easiest and widely used plugins for website photos, even the ones uploaded and<br />

stored in a mobile device’s photo library. You can even use a free version if you’re just looking<br />

into trying light compression work using limited features.<br />

Cost<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

Free Version – Allows limited compression and limited features<br />

WP Smush Pro Version – $19 per month<br />

WP Smush Pro Plus – $99 per month<br />

Save<br />

2. IMAGIFY<br />

Imagify is a reliable image optimizer designed to help bloggers compress photos so their<br />

websites can load faster. There may be a lot of free blogging tools out there offering the same<br />

feature, but through Imagify, you can surely compress images without compromising their<br />

quality!


It provides 3 different levels of compressions: Normal, Aggressive and Ultra. This gives you<br />

more freedom to choose which compression level suits your needs.<br />

Cost<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

Lite – $4.99 per month, you get 1 GB data, about 10,000 images<br />

Basic – $8.99 per month, you get 2 GB data, about 20,000 images<br />

Standard – $19.99 per month, you get 5 GB data, about 50,000 images<br />

Plus – $39.99 per month, you get 15 GB data, about 150,000 images<br />

Enterprise – $69.99 per month, you get 50 GB data, about 500,000 images<br />

BLOG BACKUP UTILITY<br />

3. WPBACKITUP<br />

Many blogging tools are designed to protect a user from the loss of important website data as a<br />

result of server crashes, hacking, power outage and other issues. WPBackItUP is one of them.<br />

This blog tool helps you store the backup in your dashboard, so it can be easily downloaded<br />

whenever needed.<br />

Too preoccupied to manage your WordPress blog backup? Track your progress by using<br />

WPBackItUP’s reminder feature!<br />

Cost<br />

All will expire after 1 year of purchase<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

Personal – $79, can be used for 1 website only<br />

Professional – $99, can be used for 5 websites<br />

Premium – $199, can be used for 20 websites<br />

DRAG <strong>AND</strong> DROP WEBSITE<br />

BUILDER<br />

4. ELEGANT THEMES<br />

Elegant Themes provides a wide range of themes for all types of blogs. The featured themes are<br />

simple and easy to use, making them ideal choices for new bloggers.


You don’t need to be a trained professional web designer to make a nice blog layout. Elegant<br />

themes is one of the best blogging tools created to customize websites using simple templates.<br />

Moreover, it helps bloggers optimize their web pages for better search results.<br />

Cost<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

Personal – $69 per year with limited features<br />

Developer – $89 per year with advanced features<br />

Lifetime Access – $249 with a lifetime access to all functions (one-time purchase)<br />

SEO <strong>BLOGGING</strong><br />

5. PREMIUM SEO PACK<br />

If you want to customize your WordPress blog for better rankings in search engines and social<br />

media platforms, get Premium SEO Pack. It allows you to compress the codes of your pages to<br />

the minimum size without any loss of information, and track keywords and pages to improve<br />

your website’s SEO value.<br />

Looking for a free SEO blog tool to help you start your WordPress website? Premium SEO Pack<br />

is not a 100% free blog tool, but its Lite Version offers limited features which can be useful for<br />

up-and-coming bloggers.<br />

Cost<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

Lite Version – free but offers limited features<br />

Regular License – $44, offers additional features<br />

Extended License – $400, offers all features and modules<br />

6. SEMRUSH<br />

Premium SEO Pack is a competitor analysis blogging tool that helps business owners to stay on<br />

top of their competition. Do you want to know your competitors’ keywords and track your<br />

rankings? If yes, then SEMRush is the right tool for you. SEO strategy and backlinks can be a bit<br />

complicated for a newbie blogger and entrepreneur, so you will definitely need help in analyzing<br />

the impact of your existing SEO campaign.<br />

Costs


Pro: $99.95 per month, you get 10,000 results reports<br />

Guru: $199.95 per month, you get 30,000 results<br />

Business: $399.95 per month, you get 50,000 results


Save<br />

BLOG SPEED OPTIMIZATION<br />

7. BJ LAZY LOAD<br />

Looking for free blogging tools for blog speed optimization? Do you want a solution for your<br />

website which takes forever to load because of too much image content? If you love uploading<br />

photos in your WordPress blog, you might want to regularly optimize them for loading. BJ Lazy<br />

Load is a great option.<br />

If the user chooses not to scroll down the page, the photos on the lower part are not loaded. This<br />

improves the bandwidth of the server. With BJ Lazy Load’s image selection feature, you can<br />

pick which photos you do not want to lazy load, whereas the rest of the images will continue to<br />

work.<br />

Cost<br />

You can download BJ Lazy Load for free!<br />

8. WP ROCKET<br />

Do you want to improve user engagement and user engagement in your website? WP Rocket can<br />

speed up and at the same time monetize your WordPress blog. It is a blogging tool providing<br />

efficient database optimization, cache preloading, GZIP compression and more useful features.<br />

You can improve your website’s performance through regular database cleaning schedules!<br />

Costs<br />

Offers a 30-day money-back guarantee<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

WP Rocket Personal Plan – $39, 1 site<br />

Business Plan – $99, 3 sites<br />

Pro Plan – $199, unlimited sites


APPOINTMENT SCHEDULE <strong>AND</strong><br />

BOOKING<br />

9. BIRCHPRESS<br />

BirchPress is a plugin offering online bookings and appointments. It is perfect for business<br />

expansion, and for making the business reservation process more efficient. This blogging tool<br />

also allows you to customize a booking form using a shortcode which can be integrated in your<br />

mobile phone’s calendar.<br />

Costs<br />

Personal Package – $99<br />

Business Package – $199<br />

Business+ Package – $249<br />

MISCELLANEOUS BLOG DESIGN<br />

PLUGINS<br />

10. SOLILOQUY<br />

If you want to improve the aesthetics, user experience and loading time of your website,<br />

Soliloquy is one of your best options. It is an affordable blogging tool allowing users to add<br />

responsive sliders to posts and web pages. Moreover, a drag-and-drop interface makes it easier<br />

for on-the-go bloggers to navigate even in their mobile devices.<br />

Cost<br />

Personal – $19<br />

Multi – $49<br />

Developer – $99<br />

Master – $249<br />

Get a list of 5 additional blogging tools by joining our Free Resource Library, just CLICK<br />

BELOW!


11. ENVIRA GALLERY<br />

Save<br />

Envira Gallery is a popular blogging tool for creating video galleries and responsive images for<br />

WordPress sites. There is a simple drag-and-drop builder to upload everything and organize them<br />

into albums. Easy sorting and access, right? You can also share photos conveniently to your<br />

favorite social media platforms, straight from your mobile devices.<br />

Cost<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

Lite Version – Free<br />

Bronze – $19, available for just 1 website with limited add-ons<br />

Silver – $49, available for 3 websites<br />

Gold – $99, available for unlimited websites with advanced add-ons<br />

Platinum – $249, available for unlimited websites<br />

12. WPFORMS<br />

Having a blog means connecting to, and engaging with your readers using the right blogging<br />

tool. Do you want to create practical forms and enhance user experience while protecting<br />

yourself from spammers? WPForms makes it easier to add contact forms to websites through<br />

pre-designed templates.<br />

Cost<br />

<br />

• Basic – $39 per year, offers limited functions


• Plus – $99 per year<br />

• Pro – $199 per year, offers additional features and third-party integrations<br />

• Agency – $499 per year, offers all features<br />

BLOG DESIGN <strong>AND</strong> LA<strong>YOU</strong>T<br />

CUSTOMIZATION<br />

13. CSS HERO<br />

Edit the CSS of any theme without having to write any codes! If you love customizing your blog<br />

layout designs, CSS hero is the blogging tool for you. This blogging tool helps you customize the<br />

design of your website, even if you’re not into programming or coding. Also, you don’t need to<br />

worry about the software being expensive because CSS Hero has affordable packages.<br />

Cost<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

Starter – $29 per year<br />

Personal – $59 per year<br />

Pro – $199 per year<br />

14. QUICK <strong>AND</strong> EASY FAQS<br />

Do you have an online business? Are you thinking of providing a FAQs section without contact<br />

customer support? Quick and Easy FAQs is a free blogging tool for those who offer products and<br />

services. It helps you create a user-friendly FAQs section which can be added as a custom post<br />

and then displayed as shortcode.<br />

Cost<br />

You can download Quick and Easy FAQs for free!<br />

BLOG <strong>AND</strong> SOCIAL MEDIA<br />

SHARING<br />

15. SHAREBANG


Sharebang is one of the best tools you can use to stay on top of all your social media platforms. It<br />

allows you to get maximum traffic for your website through a fast and simple setup process. You<br />

can use its view counter feature to track the number of views of your products, pages, articles<br />

and other similar content.<br />

Moreover, as a blogger, you would always want to write about awesome, relevant things. This<br />

efficient blogging tool can help you spark interest by telling you which topics are trending.<br />

Do you need more social media sharing tools? Check this list of the top 10 social media<br />

management tools!<br />

Cost<br />

Regular License – $12<br />

Extended License – $95


Save<br />

ANALYTICS<br />

16. MONSTERINSIGHTS<br />

MonsterInsights is a Google analytical blogging tool that helps bloggers see how their audience<br />

reach their websites. By using the referral tracking feature, you can check if they saw your blog<br />

through a search engine result or a paid advertisement on social media.<br />

This is not a free blog tool, but trust me, it’s worth it! It can also show you which favored article<br />

format and content can grab your target readers’ attention.<br />

Cost<br />

Basic – $39<br />

Plus – $99<br />

Pro – $199, with access to all functions<br />

SECURITY, MONITORING <strong>AND</strong><br />

HACKING PROTECTION<br />

17. DEFENDER<br />

Defender is a fairly popular blogging tool which enhances a WordPress website’s overall<br />

security. It constantly works to detect any malevolent code in your site, and sends you alerts<br />

upon detection. Protect your blog from hackers by doing regular scans and looking for any<br />

corrupt files. Setting up automated scans is also possible, to make sure you wouldn’t forget<br />

anything.<br />

Cost<br />

Free 30-day trial period<br />

<br />

$49 per month


SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT<br />

18. HOOTSUITE<br />

Social media management can be made easy through Hootsuite. It is handy for integrated<br />

campaigns that can be launched across all social media platforms simultaneously. Aside from<br />

scheduling content, this blogging tool allows you to track your brand mentions and find the<br />

demographics of your target audience.<br />

While Hootsuite is not an overall free blog tool, you can still use some helpful features even<br />

without a paid plan.<br />

Cost<br />

Each has a 30-day trial period:<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

Business – $499 per month<br />

Team – $99 per month<br />

Professional – $19 per month<br />

Enterprise – Hootsuite’s customer service has to be contacted for the pricing information of this plan<br />

SOCIAL BOOKMARKING<br />

19. POCKET<br />

Are you always distracted by off-topic online articles and videos while working on your<br />

projects? Pocket is perfect for individuals who read and watch a lot of materials online, and<br />

badly need a “save it later” feature. This tool allows you to save content on your device so you<br />

can view things whenever you want, even if you’re offline.<br />

Cost<br />

Free – Limited use<br />

Premium – $4.99 per month, full functionality


ONLINE MARKETING CONTENT<br />

<strong>AND</strong> INFLUENCER OUTREACH<br />

20. BUZZSUMO<br />

BuzzSumo is a great blogging tool for those who want to stay on top and write about the mosttalked<br />

about topics. Creating interesting and relevant content is critical for every digital PR link<br />

building and blogging strategy, so it is important to gain access to different trending subjects on<br />

different social media platforms.<br />

Cost<br />

Subscription is required<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

Pro Version – $79 per month, allows 5 users and basic functions<br />

Agency Version – $299 per month, allows 10 users and advanced features<br />

Enterprise Version – $699 per month, allows 100 users and is inclusive of all functions


Save<br />

BLOG E-MAIL MARKETING<br />

APPLICATIONS<br />

21. MAILCHIMP


MailChimp is one of the best blogging tools designed to help a user manage his own e-mail lists<br />

using drag and drop elements. Through MailChimp, you can design e-mails and newsletters<br />

using different templates reach out to your subscribers. In addition, it helps you improve<br />

performance by tracking and collecting essential stats.<br />

Cost<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

Free Plan – Allows you to send about 12,000 e-mails to 2,000 subscribers every month<br />

Monthly Plans – From $10 (500 subscribers) to $375 (75,000 subscribers)<br />

Annual Plans – From $120 (500 subscribers) to $4,500 with (75,000 subscribers)<br />

22. CONSTANT CONTACT<br />

Constant Contact is an email management solution for online storage and brand specific e-mail<br />

creations. This blogging tool is capable of creating newsletters and e-mail lists using more than<br />

400 free templates.<br />

Cost<br />

Offers a 60-day free trial<br />

<br />

<br />

E-mail – Starts at $20 per month<br />

E-mail Plus – Starts at $45 per month<br />

WEB FEED MANAGEMENT<br />

23. FEEDBURNER<br />

FeedBurner is one of the most well-known free blogging tools when it comes creating and<br />

organizing website RSS feeds. You can use this software to track almost all the data you want,<br />

from the number of daily and all-time subscriptions to the number of users who view or click<br />

your content.<br />

Cost<br />

You can download FeedBurner for free!


NOTE-TAKING <strong>AND</strong> BLOG<br />

WRITING TOOL<br />

24. EVERNOTE<br />

Do you love writing and taking down notes? If yes, Evernote is just the right blog writing tool<br />

for you. It can help you not only with documenting your ideas, but also when it comes to<br />

managing images and contacts. Good ideas come to us anytime, anywhere, so you may want to<br />

use this tool to organize and make sure you never forget anything.<br />

You can create notebooks for all types of content, and what makes it convenient is that they can<br />

be accessed anywhere and on any device.<br />

Cost<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

Basic – Limited features are offered for free<br />

Plus – $34.99 per month<br />

Premium – $69.99 per month<br />

Get a list of 5 additional blogging tools by joining our Free Resource Library, just CLICK<br />

BELOW!<br />

IMAGE EDITING<br />

25. IMAGESUITE<br />

Save


ImageSuite is a blogging tool that allows you to find free stock photos with no copyright<br />

complications. It has its own editing features, and can help you edit the image without learning a<br />

complicated software like Photoshop. Later on, you can tweak the downloaded image and upload<br />

it to your WordPress website.<br />

Cost<br />

Offers money-back guarantee within 30 days<br />

<br />

Available for $67 (discounted offers that pop up frequently)<br />

LEAD GENERATION<br />

26. OPTINMONSTER<br />

With the help of OptinMonster, it is now possible to convert your about-to-leave website visitors<br />

to e-mail subscribers. It is a widely used lead generation blogging tool that helps bloggers create<br />

signup forms using different themes, templates and layouts. You can now have that long e-mail<br />

subscriber list without spending too much time!<br />

Cost<br />

<br />

• Basic – $9 per month<br />

• Plus – $19 per month<br />

• Pro – $29 per month<br />

CLOUD ACCOUNTING<br />

27. FRESHBOOKS<br />

FreshBooks is one of the most popular accounting blog tools for small business owners<br />

worldwide. It is an excellent software for new entrepreneurs who want to manage their finances,<br />

payments, invoices and accounts online.<br />

Managing your brand can be easier and more manageable through its customizable invoice<br />

templates for logos, colors and fonts. 30-day trial period.


Cost<br />

Lite Package – $15 per month, lets you handle 5 clients<br />

Plus Package – $25 per month, lets you handle 50 clients<br />

Premium Package – $50 per month, lets your handle 500 clients<br />

WEB ANALYTICS<br />

28. GOOGLE ANALYTICS<br />

Google Analytics can track both website traffic and user engagement. It allows you to<br />

understand your blog readers better by telling you which types of content they prefer. You just<br />

need to set your goals and monitor the performance of your website from time to time. These<br />

website performance reports can be sent to you through e-mail, according to pre-defined<br />

schedules.<br />

Cost<br />

Free Version – Limited features<br />

GRAPHIC DESIGN<br />

29. CANVA<br />

If you want to make beautiful graphics and visuals for your blogs and social media profiles, use<br />

Canva. Not all of us are photoshop experts. More so, most people don’t have the time and<br />

patience to learn new, complicated editing applications. This is the perfect free blogging tool for<br />

you if you want your visuals to look like a professionally done graphic design project.<br />

Cost<br />

Free Forever – Free with limited features<br />

Canva for Work – $12.95 per month and per user, advanced features<br />

Enterprise – Customer service should be contacted for price information


Save<br />

WRITING <strong>AND</strong> GRAMMAR<br />

30. FEEDLY<br />

Feedly is one of the most reliable Google Reader replacements out there. Oftentimes, we’re too<br />

busy to read all the web articles we find interesting, so we’ll always save them for later. This<br />

user-friendly blogging tool has a “save for later” feature, so you surely wouldn’t lose any of<br />

those interesting content.<br />

You can keep them organized by categorizing them into separate folders and use them as a<br />

reference for your blog posts later on.


Cost<br />

Free Version – Allows you to organize your feeds, and integrate different social media platforms<br />

Pro Version – Offers 2 different subscription plans with more advanced features such as third-party<br />

integration, improved search and full article search; new content is made available faster with premium<br />

support. $65 and $145 per year.<br />

<strong>31</strong>. GRAMMARLY<br />

By far, we can say that Grammarly is one of the best blog writing tools out there. It is designed<br />

to make your written content free from grammatical errors, and improve the overall quality of<br />

your posts.<br />

From increasing your content proofreading speed to double checking existing online content for<br />

plagiarism, rest assured that it will come in handy when producing posts for your new blog.<br />

Cost<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

Free – Limited features<br />

Premium – Access to all features<br />

Monthly – $29.95 per month<br />

Quarterly – $59.95 as one-time payment, which totals up to $19.98 per month<br />

Yearly – $139.95 as one-time payment, which totals up to $11.66 per month<br />

OPTIMIZING <strong>YOU</strong>R BLOG IS<br />

OPTIMIZING <strong>YOU</strong>R BUSINESS!<br />

It’s 2018, and we are very lucky to be exposed to powerful blogging tools that can help us drive<br />

more qualified leads to content marketing. Never let your blog fall behind the competition. Save<br />

more time. Grow your blog and business.<br />

TO EARN SERIOUS MONEY AS A<br />

BLOGGER, <strong>YOU</strong> NEED TO TREAT <strong>YOU</strong>R<br />

BLOG AS A BUSINESS. THESE 9<br />

EFFECTIVE TIPS ARE THE FORMULAS TO<br />

<strong>YOU</strong>R SUCCESS!

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