9 Top Blogging Tools To Increase Your Productivity

Blogging takes time. First, you need to do some research in order to come up with a relevant topic. Then you need to write a catchy headline, use your knowledge and experience to compose a great article, source images and work out your SEO.

Wait, that’s not all.

That was just the creation part. Once you’re done with that, you need to promote and share your content on different social media channels and spread the word.

Running a successful blog requires time. Creating valuable and highly relevant content can be challenging indeed, especially if you’re not making use of the amazing blogging tools that are listed below.

To help you go through the blogging process more smoothly, I decided to put together a list of blogging tools that have helped me cut my writing time by more than half. See what they can do for you.

Essential blogging tools

1. BuzzSumo

When it comes to content research, BuzzSumo is my very first stop. You simply type in your keywords or the URL that you want analyzed and hit the search button. The tool will list the most popular articles and the websites that perform best.

Here’s an example:

Let’s say you want to know more about what’s trending for “marketing tools”. Add the keyword in BuzzSumo and see the potential this has in regards to social media shares.

In this particular case, you’ll notice that the top 3 influencers are Social Media Examiner, Entrepreneur and Buffer App.

2. Feedly

I came across Feedly a couple of months ago and since it’s become the place I go to keep up with what my favorite bloggers write about. Instead of hopping from HubSpot to Copyblogger and QuickSprout to Mashable, I get all my content in one place. Pretty awesome, right?

Feedly allows you to search by title, URL or topic. Furthermore, you can explore sites and publications based on their niche.

3. Quora

Quora is a fantastic resource for bloggers, entrepreneurs, techies and marketing professionals. Quora is basically a simple Q&A website where people post their questions on different topics and get answers from insiders & Co.

Have a look at some of the most frequently asked questions within your specific industry. This alone will give you a pretty neat understanding as to what people’s needs are aka the problems they have and the solutions they are looking for. See if you find questions that are relevant to your target audience and use them to create blog posts, newsletters, or podcasts for example.

4. Portent Headline Generator

Admittedly, this is one of my favorite blogging tools. Portent’s title maker is super easy to use and a great resource to fill your swipe file with click-worthy headlines.

For example, if you type in the keyword “marketing tools”, one of the results will be “What the Amish Can Teach You About Marketing Tools”. Just out of curiosity, you would click on that title to see “what on earth can these Amish people really teach me about marketing? I thought they were stuck in the 17th century”.

5. Canva

If you’re looking for an easy way to create stunning blog images with a click of a mouse, you should definitely checkout Canva. The drag-and-drop interface allows you to add images, icons and text. Nothing fancy, no Photoshop skills required. Canva enables everyone to become a designer.

6. WordPress SEO by Yoast

If you’re running your blog on WordPress you better have a good SEO plugin. Over the course of four years I’ve used three different SEO plugins. If I were to start from scratch I’d pick SEO by Yoast from the beginning.

The plugin is free. It’s easy to optimize; you set the parameters once and you’re good to go. The best part about Yoast is that it guides you through the blogging process by actively helping you optimize each piece of content.

7. LeadPages

LeadPages is a great tool to create mobile-responsive opt-in pages, webinar and event pages or sales funnels. An awesome feature that was introduced a few months ago is called LeadBoxes.

LeadBoxes can turn an image, a link, text or button into an opt-in form thus boosting conversion rates.

8. GetResponse

GetResponse is one of the most popular email marketing providers. Neil Patel, the co-founder of KISSmetrics and Crazy Egg is one the most prominent users of GetResponse.

Prior to using GetResponse I worked with iContact. Compared to GetResponse which is super user-friendly, iContact was a total mess. Although I love tech and trying out complex things, I found iContact to be a pain in the butt.

The reason why I chose GetResponse over other email marketing services is the ease of use, the simple drag-and-drop functionality, the awesome customer support, and the tracking system.

9. SumoMe

SumoMe by AppSumo is another great blogging tool for WordPress. The plugin includes a list builder, scroll box, smart bar, heat maps, content analytics and many more. And, did I mention it’s free?

Wrapping It Up

Obviously, this list of blogging tools is not complete. There are a ton of marketing tools on the market; some of them are pretty easy to use, others are more advanced.

The nine I have mentioned above are fairly straightforward. Whether you’re new to blogging or not, these tools with help you boost your productivity and generate quality content a lot faster.

What are your favorite blogging tools? What other tools would you add to the list?

 

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