7 Blogging Tools that every Professional Blogger needs

Succeeding online as a Blogger requires planning, in terms of content generation and marketing strategy. There are various blogging tools that are essential to get you started, going and finally providing you with away  to your success. In this article, I  look at some of the key tools you need as a professional blogger as detailed below:

Blog Hosting

If you are serious blogger and wants to make money online through blogging, then I would recommend self-hosting. Most bloggers shy away from spending so much when they are starting out; hence getting a cheap hosting is priority for them. You can get an affordable hosting from say Namecheap hosting starting @$1.98 per month. This comes with various free additional offers like:

• Domain name
• 30 mailboxes
• Website builder
• 20 GB SSD

In case you want to make a switch or you want to start a new blog, simply sign up with Namecheap here.

Jetpack

For WordPress users, Jetpack adds additional features to your blog. With Jetpack, you have:

• Concise site stats about your traffic
• Social sharing, you can automatically publicize your posts
• You have access to free and paid search engine optimization tools
• Security & backup services: You are able to identify attacks, prevent threats, backup, restore and easily migrate your site.
• You are able to stay in touch with your audience through free email subscriptions, engage with them through advanced comments and contact forms, you can also protect your readers from spam through the use of filters
• Jetpack also offers free high-speed CDN image tools like slideshows, Carousels etc.

From the above, you can see that Jetpack can really enhance your site and put it to another level. If this is something you want to try on your blog, you can check out their services and plans here.

Convertkit

This is one of the best Email Marketing service providers for bloggers and businesses. Convertkit provides key features to help you build, engage your subscribers. Convertkit comes with the following features:

• Easy to create Auto Responders
• Automation, this saves you time and makes your time easier. For example, you can create a specific sequence for every subscriber to enter an email once they download your freebie. With automation, you can also choose which day and time to send emails.
• You have access to a number of stats: open rates, click rates, conversion rates, visitors, subscribers, % of conversion based on referrers.
• Easy on boarding for new users. If you are joining the email service provider for the first time or switching from another service, you are assured of full support from Convertkit support team.
• You can easily create Twitter cards to increase your engagements on the campaigns you choose to share on twitter.
• Convertkit gives the option to show different information to those who have already seen the landing page or form. This can be a link to another offer or freebie etc.
• You can filter your audience with ease, for example you can choose to send emails to subscribers who have joined the list in the past one month and leave out others.

Convertkit is the best tool for email marketing for bloggers.

Also Read: Over 9 Best tools to help you Manage your Social Media Networks

Hootsuite

This is a social media management tool. You can be able to manage, and monitor your social media accounts just from one central point. Hootsuite provides you with a well-equipped dashboard to efficiently measure and manage all your social media networks. With Hootsuite, you are able to:

• Track conversion as well as monitor the results of your social media campaigns from a single place
• You can schedule your tweets and messages, monitor brand mentions as well as analysis on the traffic.

Hootsuite provides a 30 day free trial which enables you to test their services and see if they are worth investing your money in.

Milotree

Building a social media following appears to be one of the daunting tasks to bloggers especially if you don’t want to spend money. Building a following base may take time if not well planned and executed. Milotree has proven to be the best tool for helping bloggers in building their social media followings.

So what is Milotree? Milotree is a smart pop-up that helps you use your blog traffic to increase your followers on your social media networks as well as your Email subscribers. Milotree has unique features that make it better than any other similar tools out there, with Milotree, you can:

• Choose multiple platforms at once
• Customize your pop-up with your best background, text and button colours
• Easily set it up on your blog, WordPress users can simply install Milotree plugin, and add their social media accounts
• Access the analytics, with this you are able to know the number of clicks you are receiving on the pop-up and this can be a determining factor especially if you are taking the 30 day free trial.

This is one tool I would recommend to those looking to increase their social media followers. You can test their services just by signing up for their free trial.

Tailwind

Just like Hootsuite; Tailwind is a scheduling tool but it is most commonly used for Pinterest, although you can also use for scheduling posts to Instagram and Facebook Pages. Manual Pinning can be a time-consuming task and at the same time tiresome, but with Tailwind, you can:

• Schedule your pins at your appropriate time
• Upload images quickly
• Measure and analyse how your pins are performing
• Grow your audience through Tailwind Tribes

With this tool, you can increase your Pinterest followers, and traffic to your blog tremendously. If you are using Pinterest to market your blog or business, then this is the tool you need to help you automate pinning tasks. Simply test out their services by signing up for their free trial.

Also Read: 5 Best Email Marketing Services for Bloggers

Canva

Having images included in your content is a key factor to increasing engagements on your posts. Canva provides image templates and different ways to format, edit and size them. You can also format or edit your own images on Canva simply by uploading them to the platform. If you are a user of Pinterest, then you know the importance of having good images to improve the engagement and click-through rates on your pins. Canva has a free plan for those who want simple features. But if you want enhanced features on your images, then you go for paid plans.

Bottom Line

The above are just but few of the tools that a professional blogger needs. Succeeding online is not just about writing, but you need platforms to create your content, market it to the desired audience while engaging the audience at the same time. Feel free to share thoughts,  or some of the blogging tools you are currently using in the comments section below.