Do you feel like your blog isn’t living up to its potential?
Drive and writing proficiency aren’t enough for blogs to stand out in today’s hyper-competitive landscape. Here are the seven tools you’ll want to start using to boost your blog’s discovery, reader engagement, security, and influence! While some are standalone, you can get many of our suggestions as plug-ins, too.
A Grammar Checker
Some people “could care less” about their spelling and grammar, but you don’t have that luxury. Every word you write needs to be in its place, and a grammar checker can eliminate the guesswork.
This tool’s superficial use is self-explanatory, but there’s more to it. Grammar checkers also aid in tailoring your voice to the article’s requirements. Whether you aim posts about marketing strategies at fellow professionals or talk about kittens with a casual crowd, a grammar checker will help you nail the tone.
Cloud Storage
You’ll want a space for securely storing drafts, backups of old posts, and any other files you may need to maintain your blog. Keeping them on a PC or laptop is fine but impractical, especially if you write from different places using various devices.
Cloud storage gets rid of such problems elegantly by offering a repository you can access regardless of device or location. Files you send to the cloud double as backups, so a broken or stolen laptop isn’t the end of the world. Best of all, cloud storage encrypts everything, meaning that no one except yourself can make sense of a file’s contents.
Analytics Tools
Ever wonder why blogs with similar audiences, content, and quality don’t have the same outreach? The right analytics tools will point out trends and steer your blog in the right direction.
They’re not as homogenous as some of our other recommendations. Some tools offer insight into visitors’ demographics and interests. Others let you perform A/B testing or see which parts of the blog visitors engage with the most.
A Design Tool
Modern readers have a short attention span. You don’t want to hit them with a wall o’ text, no matter how good your writing is. Plus, your blog won’t draw attention without a unique visual identity. You don’t have to pay a designer to come up with featured images and other visual content for your blog if you have the time to whip some up.
Online design tools have exploded in popularity. They’re easy to use yet powerful for creating templates & layouts or resizing images. A membership nets you access to thousands of assets you can use to shape your blog’s unique identity.
Search Engine Optimization Tools
A blog without SEO is like the proverbial tree no one heard fall. The easiest way for people to discover your content is if it’s at or near the top of their search results. SEO tools make it happen.
Some will help with research and suggest the most appropriate keywords. Others focus on gauging your blog’s readability. You’ll want to aim for relevant keywords few competitors are using and make them part of the text in a natural way.
A Password Manager
As our list makes clear, a successful blog needs lots of integrations. All these services come with accounts, leaving you with even more passwords to remember. Most users brush the need for password security off and end up using the same ones or variations over & over. As a blogger whose livelihood depends on secure access to all their accounts and data, you need to do better.
Password managers take care of all your password-related woes. They provide distinct and complex passwords for any number of accounts. The encryption used to generate these is so advanced that even the best supercomputers would need millennia to crack them. Some managers also incorporate 2FA, further protecting accounts compromised through human error.
A Chatbot
Chatbots are ushering in a customer service revolution, and you should set one up if you use your blog for e-commerce. Customers love it when someone can answer their questions 24/7. Want to know the uncanny part? Many already can’t tell the difference between a chatbot and a human!
These tireless helpers are excellent at answering FAQs and directing readers to further resources. They’re also great for collecting survey data and contact information.