Whether you blog to share your experiences or to
promote your business, blogging is the best way
to connect with the outer world.
But blogging is definitely much more than
writing.
The work does not end when you hit publish. You
should be able to attract your readers time and
time again to your site, and keep them engaged.
Are you ever worried about maintaining an
engaged blog audience?
It all starts with detailed research and using the
right blogging tools.
Here is the deal: Tools alone won’t solve your
problems, but they will help you get things done
more efficiently.
With that being said, I have compiled a list of 21
free blogging tools that you can start using
today. These tools are a great way to improve
your performance as a blogger, in terms of
workflow, writing quality and visuals.
A perfect topic can make or break
your content workflow
It doesn’t matter how great you are at writing,
every now and then you will fall into a blogger’s
pit AKA blogger’s block.
According to Allee Creative , producing enough
content and content that engages, are the two
most difficult struggles that over 50% of B2B
marketers face.
Creating enough content is proportional to blog
topic ideas. If you can’t find topics to write
about, you can’t fill up the content calendar.
These are the tools that will you help find blog
topics every day.
1. Answer the Public
Answer the Public is one of the coolest search
query tools I have used in a while. This handy
little tool fetches and maps suggestions based
on visualization after you type in a keyword.
It breaks down keyword listings to three different
parts:
1. Question: what, who, when, why?
2. Preposition: for, like, with
3. Alphabetical: keyword + a, keyword + b
With this tool, you can also get a ton of LSI
keywords that you can easily sprinkle throughout
your post.
2. BuzzSumo
What if you could find a topic that you know has
the potential to go viral? That’s what BuzzSumo
is all about.
It gives a list of posts that have got maximum
amount of shares in a given period. This way you
know the potential of the topic.
It’s easy to use interface is one of its many
benefits that makes it one of my favorite tools.
Not only does it hook you up with great data, it
binds you to topical relevance. So, you don’t go
off topic when searching for ideas.
Just looking at the above topics you can easily
tell that list posts are the ones that get the most
social love.
Can you do better than that?
3. Google Keyword Planner
Meet Google’s most awesome and popular
keyword tool, Keyword Planner. And Yeah, it’s
totally free of cost.
In order to use this incredibly powerful keyword
research tool, first of all you need to get an
AdWords account. And then, you can start the
journey to find the right keywords for your
business.
Google Keyword Planner might not give you the
exact keyword suggestions, but it surely gives
you a pretty good number of variations to your
keywords, followed by average monthly searches,
level of competition (high, medium, or low),
average cost per click, and much more.
Effective tip: You can find more blogging ideas
by putting your competitor’s url into keyword
planner’s landing page search box.
4. Google Trends
How can I leave out one of the most versatile
tools, Google Trends ?
Google Trends displays a list of the top hot
searches and charts of the day. You can also see
searches by category.
Like other keyword research tools, Google Trends
does not give you the actual keyword search
number. But, it does not mean that it is
completely useless. You need to be smart here
and use this tool with the Keyword Planner tool
to get the best results.
Rule content marketing by writing
captivating headlines
Headlines are the bread and butter of great
content. A great headline not only grabs a
reader’s attention, it’s the main source of
increasing click through rate from organic traffic.
According to a test done by Koechly at Upworthy,
traffic varies up to 500% depending upon your
headline .
Whether you need to engage your audience on
social media, or increase the open rate of your
emails, a magnetic headline carries a heavy load.
Here are the free blogging tools that can help you
write enticing headlines.
5. Impact Blog Title Generator
Impact blog title generator is a great tool for
quickly coming up with blog ideas and titles.
Just like any other headline generator, you need
to type in your primary keyword. It will then pull
out hundreds of enticing title options that you can
use.
Hit the heart button if you like any given titles. It
will then be transferred to a notebook which you
can email later.
One of the creative and fun ways of dealing with
writer’s block in this tool is the writer’s block
option. Click it and start doodling.
6. SEOPressor Blog Title
Generator
If you are a WordPress blogger, you will
absolutely love this simple but highly effective
tool. Yes, it comes with a WP plugin, but the
web version is equally as useful.
You can simply type in your keyword and get a
bunch of blog ideas (it has its own pre-decided
keyword categories).
Then, it pulls out a list of easy to use headlines.
You can also modify it so that it looks more
convincing.
To get more blog ideas, you have to put in your
email. And, it will send the list directly to your
inbox.
7. Link Bait Title Generator
This is not a fancy tool with flashy visuals.
However, as the name suggests it gets the job
done. As a marketer, we need a headline that
entices users to click.
Basically it pulls in headlines that can be a little
buzzfeed-esque and targets click bait. If you are
a blogger in an entertainment niche, you will fall
in love with this tool. Some suggestions might
be really insane but it gets the job done.
8. Emotional Marketing Value
Headline Analyzer
According to Psychology Today, consumer
decision making is highly influenced by emotion.
With this tool you can check the emotion weight
of your desired headlines.
Although it’s not as colorful as the other tools in
the market, it is easy to use and works perfectly.
All you have to do is plug in the headline and
choose an appropriate category. You will receive
an EMV score that defines the emotional
credibility of your headline.
37.50% may look bad as a number. But if you
look closely, anything above 50% is considered
the best. So, if you have anything within that
range, you are doing great.
Add a touch of image beauty to
make your blog attractive
Photos play an important role in making your
blog visually stunning. If you have photography
talent along with your writing skill, then trust me,
you don’t need anything else.
The right post with the right photo is what
audiences are looking for. But, in many cases, a
blogger ignores the fact that images are an
important component to user engagement and
messes up with cheap stock images.
One case study states that a tweet with an image
is likely to boost retweets by 35 percent .
Here is a list of awesome tools that I use to
flood my post with top-notch free images .
9. Pixabay
Finding free high quality images that perfectly
match your blog content can be a challenging
and daunting task. To help you with your free
stock photo hunt, Pixabay offers millions of high
quality images free.
Pixabay is a resource created with no copyright
restrictions. You can use the images for whatever
purposes you want, even for commercial
purposes too.
A great thing about Pixabay is that there is no
registration required. You can simply jump in,
find photos and begin to use them.
10. Death to the Stock Photo
Are you fed up with visiting websites in search of
free stock photos? Well, here’s a solution for
your problem.
Death to the Stock Photo sends you free high
resolution photos of different categories to your
email every month. All you need to do is submit
an email address where you want to receive
those images. Amazing, right?
Now, you can make your blog posts livelier and
more visually appealing with the high quality
resolution images that you receive from Death to
the Stock Photo.
11. Evernote
One of the best ways to grab images is through
screenshots. And, one of the best tools in the
market to do that is evernote. It not only gives
you sleek and clean graphics, it organizes your
images in a proper format.
First go to evernote and sign up for a free
account. Then, download it’s free chrome plugin .
Now, whenever you need to take a screenshot,
click the little elephant icon in the top right hand
corner. You can select the part and save it. It
automatically gets saved in your evernote
account.
12. PicMonkey
Are you looking for a photo editing tool which
can spruce up your images and make your blog
look attractive? PicMonkey is the best tool to
check out.
You can use this fantastic photo editing tool
without downloading it to your computer.
With its awesome photo edit, touch up, design
and collage features, you have got everything that
you need to make your ideas come to life.
PicMonkey also publishes awesome guides to
help you create your own visually attractive
images. So, if you are an amateur designer and
don’t have good experience with editing tools,
then PicMonkey is what you need to have.
13. Canva
Canva is one of the most used photo editing
tools in the world. From its drag and drop
feature, the professional layouts and amazing
design graphics, Canva has everything that you
need for creating your own stunning images.
Whether you are an experienced designer or just
a beginner, Canva makes image creation super
easy and fun.
With millions of images, hundreds of fonts,
numbers of free icons and shapes, and amazing
photo filters; Canva is without a doubt the most
loved photo editing tool online.
Make writing faster and easier
Anyone can write a blog, but only an experienced
and skilled blogger can write an extraordinary
piece of content that offers valuable insights and
attracts user engagement.
There are millions of amazing blog
posts uploaded every second, which grab
people’s attention and compel them to share on
social media channels. If you want your content
to receive such attention from readers, then you
need to write amazing and original content.
Do you have a favorite blogging tool that helps
you with this?
There are tons of writing tools available online
and choosing the right one definitely takes lots
of your time and effort. Here are a few tools that
can help you with easy and fast writing.
14. Google Docs
Many bloggers use their blogging platform to
write and edit their content. But, are you aware of
the blog editing and posting features of Google
Docs?
Yes, you heard me correctly. Google Docs can be
used as a blog editor and you can post your blog
entries directly from it.
Google Docs is my favorite blog editor. It allows
you to collaborate with others and its amazing
spelling and grammar checking tools are worth
trying. Being a product of Google itself, you can
directly research your queries from it.
15. Readable
Readable is one of the most interesting free
blogging tools, which quickly analyzes your text
for readability. This awesome tool takes your text
and analyzes it by giving it a score for the most
used readability indicators. So, your text is easier
to understand.
It gives you flexible options to carry out a test;
test by url, test by directly entering your text, and
test by entering a referral link.
16. Grammarly
Is your content free from grammatical errors?
Readers really hate to read content with
grammatical errors.
Posts with many grammar errors can make a
reader lose interest in reading further. They might
not even bother reading your future blog posts.
So, make sure to perform grammar checks
before publishing your blog.
Grammarly is one of the most used online
grammar checkers. It checks for spelling,
sentence structure, style, punctuation,
alternatives, etc. All you need to do is copy your
content and paste it into Grammarly’s online
grammar checker.
You can add this tool to your chrome browser
and easily use it whenever you need to.
Get more engagement on social
media
You just published a post, and you immediately
share it to your social accounts. What you see
after a few days rattles you.
Only a couple of people have engaged with your
post. Sounds familiar?
One of the many reasons why you aren’t seeing
any engagement on social media is because you
are not doing it right.
For example, your preferred audience may be in
a different time zone than yours. The frequency
and timing of your post depends completely on
the industry and brands.
You can take something from what the big
brands do. Every brand has a different set of
times to post on Facebook, Twitter or share it on
other social accounts. Always check the analytics
of your social account to get a better grip of your
audience.
After you know the best time, you can schedule
your post with these tools and save time.
17. Buffer
Buffer has to be one of the most efficient social
media managment tools I have ever used. Even
though Hootsuite has more supported networks,
and is bigger than Buffer, I feel Buffer is
easier to use.
Just like any content scheduling tool, you can
easily integrate your social media accounts and
start scheduling your posts. It also gives you a
brief analysis that lets you A/B test your headline
versions.
18. Ahalogy
Pinterest can been a great source of traffic for
many bloggers. Unfortunately, if you aren’t using
the paid version, it’s not possible to schedule
Pinterest pins from Buffer.
Out comes Ahalogy to solve this problem. You
can easily schedule all your pins to your personal
and community boards.
However, the catch is you have to get accepted
by Ahalogy to start using it. You can do that by
filling out a simple form here .
Once you get accepted, you have to place a code
to track your results. If this is something you
don’t want to do, you can download the Ahalogy
plugin and it automatically pushes your content
to your Pinterest account.
19. Click to tweet
Click to tweet are tweetable quotes that are used
widely on numerous blogs. What it basically
does is offer more traffic from twitter and gives
an easy one click path for the user to share your
content.
Working with click to tweet is really simple. All
you need to do is sign up for a free account. On
your dashboard, you can type in the message
you would like to tweet. Then, it generates a new
line of code. Copy and paste it into the post that
you want to display it. You can also see the
engagement of your audience and click through
rate of that simple tweet button.
Improve your productivity
The tough part after starting a blog is maintaining
its quality. If you are a professional blog writer,
then you must know how hard it is to write a
quality blog with valuable insights at a given
time.
Do you want to write better and faster?
There’s a number of free blogging tools that will
not only make your writing easier but also help
with your time management problem. Check out
the time tracking tools listed below which can
help you write faster.
20. Egg Timer
Egg Timer is a simple countdown timer, where
you can enter the time that you want to work.
As a writer, you must know how easily time goes
by once you start writing. You have no idea how
much time you are giving to researching your
work, editing or writing. With this free time
tracking tool, you can find out how productive
you are and manage time for each individual
task.
To start, set the time for your task, hit the “Go”
button to start time tracking. When the time’s up,
you will see a pop up appearing on the screen
with the timer sound.
21. Toggle
Toggle is a fun time tracking tool which can help
boost your productivity.
This one-click time tracking tool allows you to
add tasks, and after completing your work, check
the dashboard to know how long you spent on
each task.
If you are a writer who spends a lot of your time
on research and writing, and are looking for a
tool that can help you manage your time, Toogle
is definitely worth a try.
Track visitors on your site
A thing that separates a good blogger from
others is the way he or she keeps monitoring
and tracking the web traffic they receive.
Yes, it is true that anyone can write, but not
everyone is capable of writing a high quality user
engaging blog. The problem seen in most startup
bloggers is that they just keep writing blindly.
They have no idea whether their blog is getting
exposure or not.
To be a good blogger and improve your writing,
you should know what is working, and what isn’t,
so that you can make improvements.
With so many web traffic analyzer tools available
online, you can easily track visitors and traffic to
your blog.
Here’s my favorite 2 blog tracking tools:
22. Google Analytics
Google Analytics (GA) is the most popular and
most used visitor tracking tool. And yes, it is
totally free of cost.
This amazing tool not only gives accurate
statistics on traffic, but it also tracks almost
everything a cookie can store on each unique
visitor. You can also see the live traffic status of
your blog through GA.
It provides a variety of features like monitoring
visitor’s behavior, source of incoming traffic,
social media buttons, number of visitors each
day, unique visitors, returning visitors, most
visited pages, and much more.
23. Sitemeter
Sitemeter is another great analytics program
which I use after Google Analytics. It comes in
two versions: Free and Paid. You can simply use
the free version as it offers almost all the tools a
webmaster needs.
You can keep track of your visitors’ referral
information and at the same time also find how
many people are online on your blog.
Sitemeter allows you to see some of the most
important information regarding your latest
referring URLs, live visitors, and visitors from the
last 1 hr, day and a week.
Wrapping up
Content creation should be the top priority of any
blogger. I wish I could tell you that tools alone
will make you a better writer, but that’s not true
at all.
In fact, there are other key elements and
methodologies that you need to implement to
produce quality content. However, tools offer
additional support and help you get things done
more efficiently.
I hope these 23 free blogging tools can help you
get through some tough times like they did for
me.
If I have missed any important tools, feel free to
share them in the comments below.
Guest Author: Nirmal is the Founder of Nirmal
Web Design – A web based agency in Sydney. He
is a self-taught web developer and copywriter. He
excels in topics related with web design,
entrepreneurship, and online marketing. Apart from
writing, he keeps himself indulged in twitter. You
can follow him on twitter
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