This post is all about blogging tools for beginners so they can grow in 2023. This post contains affiliate links. Read here for full disclosure.
Look, I know the frustration. Blogging can be an emotional rollercoaster, especially if you're trying to run it as a business and make money.
While I had every intention to make money from my blog in the beginning, there wasn't much pressure – thanks to my corporate job.
It wasn't until summer of 2022 that I really felt the pressure. You see, I quit my job (prematurely? maybe) and decided to go all in on my blog Bella Style Living.
One thing I did realize early on is that the amount of success you see from your blog is directly correlated to the amount of QUALITY time you spend working on your blog.
I say quality because I was spending upwards of 20+ hours blogging on top of my corporate and home life. Many of those hours were spent trying to figure out what the hell I was doing.
Lucky for us, YouTube and Google are free and extremely easy to use.
Along the way, I've come across some resources that have really helped me plan my blog content and start getting results.
In case you're new to blogging, I suggest you first read this post all about how to start a blog. It has great information to get you started.
FREE BLOGGING TOOLS FOR BEGINNERS
1. GOOGLE ANALYTICS
One of the first things you want to do when you start your blog is upload Google Analytics (UA) to you blog.
Google Analytics tracks and shares a ton of valuable information. Information that will let you know how well, or poor, your content is performing.
Time is money and the last thing you want to do is spin your wheels and create content that is not converting and not being read by anyone.
*GOOGLE ANALYTICS UPDATE - Google has announced the end of Google Analytics and its replacement Google Analytics 4. According to Google, On July 1, 2023, standard Universal Analytics properties will stop processing new hits. If you still rely on Universal Analytics, we recommend that you prepare to use Google Analytics 4 going forward - Oct 27, 2022
This means that we will no longer get the valuable information that we've been tracking for years. So make sure your site is being tracked by GA4 ASAP!
This resource allows me to see how many page views my blog is generating, which posts are getting the most views and which sources are sending the most traffic to my blog (Pinterest, Instagram, or Organic such as Google.)
This information is crucial to know where to allocate my marketing efforts to get the most return (views to my blog.)
2. SEMRUSH
SEMRUSH, S-E-M Rush, whatever you call it, it's amazing! If you're looking to really deep dive into your blog analytics and keyword research, Semrush is great!
There is a free version, but it is very limited. For example, you can track 10 keywords and their performance on the free version, but 500 - 5,000 on the paid versions.
I signed up for the Pro package ($119/month
) for a few months and it was amazing. I could no longer afford it and was sad to have to go back to the free version.
It's really a wealth of information and I hope to get back to the paid version ASAP.
You can even deep dive into your competitors to help you out rank them for keywords you may not have touched on.
There is was also the Semrush SEO Writing Assistant feature to help you when writing your blog posts.
This feature can be found in your WordPress and would suggest keywords to include so you could increase your chances of ranking.
The free version is still very useful, but the paid is unmatched. If you can, I would highly recommend the Pro package.
3. YOAST SEO
The next of the best blogging tools for beginners to use utilize is Yoast SEO. This is a WordPress plugin that I use to help me write my blog posts. Without SEO, you're just writing content blindly so this is a must of blogging tools for beginners.
SEO is Search Engine Optimization and it helps increase the visibility of your site on search engines.
In order for your blog posts to rank and be seen by people, it needs to show up on search engines.
We cannot control what Google shows to people. But we can better our chances of ranking by writing posts that will favor the Google algorithm and have us on the first page of Google (greater possibility to be seen because how many time have you gone all the way to page 10 of Google?)
You can install a free Yoast SEO plugin to your WordPress to start. It will give you a green bullet when your posts are optimized.
If not, it will highlight what is keeping a good post from being great! The free version also allows you to view 5 courses so you can learn more about SEO!
Yoast SEO Premium costs me about $80 a year, but it is very helpful when writing blog posts. It also allows for more keyword analysis per post.
4. PINTEREST
Pinterest is my #1 traffic driver and is a crucial component to my blog marketing strategy. I have been on Pinterest for years for personal use and while I knew the importance of Pinterest for blog growth, it wasn't until this past month that I saw a major increase in traffic to my blog.
Whether you have a Pinterest account or not, be sure you get a dedicated one for your blog. You also want to make sure you get the business version.
This allows you to get valuable information about your pins. These analytics will help when deciding which pin designs are performing well and which may need some design tweaks.
I took this Pinterest course and it literally saved me so much time when creating pins to promote my blog.
If you're not familiar with Pinterest, it's a search engine, not social media, where people can search relevant content for just about anything! Think more Google, less Instagram.
OCTOBER 2022
(before I took Pinterest course)
NOVEMBER 2022
DECEMBER 2022
(1.5 months into using Pinterest consistently)
Pinterest will share my pins that are linked to my blog but, you guessed it, there's a strategy to it.
And a lot of it has to do with SEO. I will share more on my SEO strategy and how I doubled my blog growth at a later date so stay tuned for that.
5. CANVA
Finally, we have Canva. Canva is the resource I use to create blog graphics, LTK graphics and Pinterest pins.
There is a free version that many blogger use and get by with it very well. I would definitely start off on the free version (I did for many years.)
Last year, I signed up for the paid version. I pay about $13/month to use the Pro version.
The paid Canva version gives you more tools and also allows you to upload your own fonts. Personally, branding is a big (HUGE) deal to me so I want everything to match.
Using my own fonts on my graphics and blog allow my audience to get to know my style and get familiar with my content.
key takeaways
I hope this was helpful to you and maybe exposed you to some blogging tools and resources you may not have known about before.
Honestly, I've noticed a ton of bloggers mention these resources so it was a matter of time before you came across them.
Create a strategy and learn as much as you can so that you are not wasting time and money trying to grow your blogging business.
Be sure to bookmark my blogging page and check back regularly for updates on blogging and how to make money blogging.
This post was all about blogging tools for beginners to help you build a successful blogging business.
