Top 12 Blogging Tools For Beginners (2019 Update)
Updating a blog with quality content requires some hard work; promoting the blog itself is another task. In this tutorial, I’ll share with you the best blogging tools for newbie bloggers which will help in handling blogging more productively.
However, there are a couple of tools that are designed to simplify everything for you. You have at your disposal editors that help you create grammatically-accurate and reader-friendly content for your readers.
You also have at your disposal tools that make your blogging portal look more compelling by adding engaging stock images, crafting headlines, optimizing SEO, and promoting it.
All the highlighted tools are awesome for all newbie bloggers to get started with even without spending a dime. And they ensure that the quality of your blog is enhanced.
Top 12 Blogging Tools For Beginners
1) Ginger Grammar Check
Ginger is related to Grammarly because it helps to detect errors in grammar and spellings throughout your content. You can add Ginger as a Chrome browser extension.
Like Grammarly, you can as well purchase the pro version of Ginger to enjoy more integrated features.
It suggests insights into the most appropriate synonyms and makes the statements more sensible through reduction of word redundancy. It has a built-in English dictionary that helps to check for validity of statements and gives the right synonym suggestions where necessary.
Aside from the features above, Ginger can help with translation of content into more than 40 different languages. The pro version is in three parts for those who really need more integrated features of the tool.
2) Grammarly (Checks Grammar and Spellings)
This is the simple blogging tool that helps to check and correct the grammatical errors in your posts.
Grammarly can be added as a 100% free Chrome extension. You can get Grammarly here without spending a dime. However, if you’re willing to use the pro version of Grammarly, check it out here.
It gives you suggesting corrections while using it to proofread any of your content. Here are the key functions of Grammarly:
Grammarly Chrome extension functions compatibly will all data areas of your browser. Grammarly works with all docs while writing except for Google Docs. Grammarly isn’t compatible with Google Docs.
Since it’s compatible with the WordPress editor, you can use that to create your content all the time, ensuring you keep at error-free, readable content for your audience.
Grammarly is a completely-free, reader-friendly and helpful blogging tool for bloggers. It ensures proper and quick proofreading of your content.
3) Slick Write
Slick Write is equally an editor tool that is used for proofreading content. You can either upload a doc containing your article to the editor or, perhaps create your content using the web editor of Slick Write.
Slick Write enables you to save your work in a text document, unlike the Hemingway web editor. It has a feature which shows the statistical representation of your content.
It also has the word association section which helps to deal with writer’s block. Once you’ve entered the words, the association options to select from will show up.
Slick Write has a lot of features and can be used as a Firefox or Chrome browser extension to conveniently submit work to the Slick Write editor.
4) HemingwayApp
Hemingway is an editing tool while Grammarly or Ginger helps to check all grammatical errors and spelling mistakes. So, the function of Hemingway is to help in checking readability levels.
Hemmingway is a completely-free editing tool, and you can check it out here.
Open the web interface and begin to write. Readers will always love to be on your blog when content is delivered in a quick, simple way.
The Hemingway editing tool gives easier suggestions for complex words and spotlights those statements that are hard to read. The most complex statements are spotlighted so you can always try simplifying them.
The web interface of the Hemingway editor has features that suggest active statements for better readability, draws your attention to the use of passive statements, and highlights adverbs and many more.
However, with this editor, your work cannot be saved. But that can be done in the desktop version of the app. To get the pro version which is compatible with the desktop, you can get that for $19.99.
5) Google Analytics
Once your site is live on the web, you’ll surely want to find out whether it’s getting page views or not. Through Google Analytics integration, you can figure out in real-time how your site is performing in terms of traffic, the quality of time spent by visitors on your site, what visitors do on your site per visit and lots more.
It’s an analytical tool that has many integrated tools to help keep track of real-time traffic stats and draw intuitions. It helps newbie bloggers with the following functions:
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Indicates what pages are performing well and which ones are performing poorly
Through Google Analytics, you can easily get to know what pages are doing well and which ones are not on your blog. With this, you can identify where there are poor performances and what to do to modify them.
You can assess the page patterns and style among those with high traffic and implement the same tactics used for those pages on the ones that are performing poorly.
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Gives the total number of unique visits per period.
This indicates the real picture of how your blog is performing and how many visitors are reading your posts in real-time. Google Analytics shows the accurate reports on the real number of visits within a specified period of time.
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Awesome comparison features
Google Analytics helps you compare how your blog is performing at different periods. You can easily compare the performance of any one week with that of the other. This feature makes your campaign and tracking progress easier.
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Gives Intuitions on Demographics
Utilize the Demographics reports to know who your audience is. Once you’ve known who your audiences are and their passion, you can then start creating the kind of content they would always love to read.
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Other features for more integrated reports about your site traffic
Those talked about above were basic features of Google Analytics. Aside from all of that, there exist some more integrated features that you can utilize such as event tracking for your campaign management, and many more.
Google Analytics is a completely-free SEO tool. Once you’ve begun to use it and started keeping track of your blog, you can easily strategize blogging and scale your strategies ahead.
6) PaperRater
PaperRater is a spell-checking tool for bloggers. It also helps to check grammatical errors as well as detect plagiarism.
It has a scoring system which helps to evaluate your content readability levels. Any of your pre-written articles can be uploaded in a word document, WordPad, or Notepad file.
Like most other tools out there, PaperRater has both free and pro versions. So, you have the chance to upgrade to the pro version whenever you want.
One of the things I cherish about PaperRater is that it works extremely fast in helping you detect grammatical/writing errors and correct all in real-time using the most appropriate suggestions.
If you want to use the different synonyms, it has a vocabulary builder feature as well. You can either leverage the web interface of PaperRater for free or, perhaps use the pro version which goes for $7.48 on a monthly plan or $47.70 on a yearly plan.
7) Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is such a simple, SEO-friendly tool that helps to improve your WordPress site in search results. It’s known as a WordPress plugin and it’s compatible with nearly all WordPressthemes.
This plugin lets you manage slug, sets keywords, and many more. It enables you to optimize any post for which keyword is set. It also gives you an accurate report on your content readability.
Yoast SEO helps to ensure that every post and page of your site is fully optimized.
8) Email Marketing Tools
There are so many ways by which email marketing can be explored to help boost your business blog. Not only it ensures that your blog is promoted, it’s an awesome blogging channel that helps you stay connected with your readers. You have at your disposal a considerable number of email marketing tools to explore.
You may spend so much time in producing great content on your blog, but that won’t suffice if you don’t find a suitable way to promote your blog content. The email marketing channel can be used to share your blog posts with the existing readers, promote exclusive products or offers, and keep the audience aware of new products.
If you’re a WordPress site owner, you have a couple of tools at your disposal that will help promote your blog, some of which are highlighted as follows:
If the email marketing channel is widely explored, it can yield great results for your WordPress site.
9) Canva Blogging Tool
If you’re a newbie blogger, you might not yet be able to design professional blog logos or images without hiring a graphic design expert.
You may possibly have reasons to design a brand logo for your brand-new website, but this may not work out for you because you don’t yet have the design expertise as a newbie blogger.
Canva is completely free and can be leveraged once you’ve registered. It allows you to come up with customized images for your blog or website.
10) Headline Analyzer from Co-schedule
The Headline Analyzer helps you make your headline well-crafted and captivating as this is vital in making visitors read your content down the page.
There are a lot of articles on the web that teach you how to craft your content headline to make it captivating enough. This tool can as well help you create compelling headlines. It shows the analysis of what determines the strength of your headline.
If you need to create a productive call-to-action text on your blog, this tool can help you achieve that.
11) Stock Images
A business blog can be more instinctive leveraging the stock images. They are not actually blogging tools but vital accessories for your content readability.
The use of stock images ensures that your blog looks less boring and more attractive. Ordinary text does not impress enough, but the content with a considerable number of videos or images added can catch readers’ attention and increase blog readership.
Whenever you want to create a new blog post, always try adding some quality images to make the post easy to read and understand for your readers.
Stock images can be accessed for free, and there are a couple of sites that offer these for free.
Some of them are
However, if you need to use a premium stock image website, you can check out Shutterstock.
12) Keyword Research Moz
Almost all the blogging tools talked about above will help the user and readability experience of your blog content. It’s one of the most effective tools for performing keyword analysis and research.
It helps in choosing the right keyword for your blog content. And even after hitting the Publish button, you can still use the Moz tool to evaluate the performance of your content for strategic keywords.
If you’re specifically creating for SEO purposes, you can leverage this tool to evaluate your keyword stats. It helps you search the right keyword for your write-ups, thus helping you create specific content on your blog. It displays the various opportunities for your keywords, shows the search volume and the difficulty experienced in ranking those keywords.
Aside from these, there are still other Moz tools that you can leverage to ensure your posting endeavors are not going for nothing. These are tools for evaluating on-page SEO metrics, link building, and many more.
Thanks for reading my post. Please ask any questions or drop me a comment below. You may also like to read my other posts:
I think first time bloggers do not put into consideration what needs to be done after they have set up their blog. When I started this business a few months ago, I though I would just write contents, post them on my blog and the wait to see the magic happen. Well, no magic happened.But as I have progressed, I have learnt to use the tools that you have suggested, and currently, Grammarly is one of my best tools. I am still using the free version, which is great by the way. I plan to get the Pro version of it as I find Grammarly very useful. It is catching the errors that I otherwise wouldn’t have caught.
I also plan to get into Email Marketing. Thank you for your suggestions on what to use for this service. These are very great insights.
Hi Carol,
Thanks for reading my post.
I am so happy you enjoyed it.
thank you so much Chris for this post. it was as if you wrote it with me in mind. it was really helpful to me as though it was addressed to me personally. I just ventured into the blogging world sometime last week and with this cutting edge information you just shared in this post, i believe and i am fully persuaded that i am positioned for success in the blogging world. thank you so much for this awesome list
Hi Emmanuel,
Thanks for reading my post.
I am so happy you enjoyed it.
Hey Chris, awesome article. Definitely an awesome read. You know, I wish I would’ve known that before I started my business online, I was so lost but your article can help newbie find their way which is totally awesome. The worst feeling in the world is trying to find your way and can’t find a decent answer regarding where to start. Overall, your post rocked and I’m bookmarking it because there’s some parts in there I can refer to. Awesome job!
Hi R.J,
Thanks for reading my post.
I am so happy you enjoyed it.
Wow, thanks for sharing such wonderful post. I have only retired from my job recently and I have heard alot about affiliate marketing as a means of making cool money, and in the process, I’ll need to open a blog post. However I have a good understanding about having a blog but I don’t really know about the tools to be used. Thanks for helping out with these tools here, I’ve heard about email marketing and wish to learn more about it.
Hi Chloe,
Thanks for reading my post.
I am so happy you enjoyed it.
Thanks for this informative article, Writing a blog sometimes can be hard work, promoting it is equally difficult and I must say this article has given the best blogging tools for beginners to handle blogging more efficiently and also optimize your blog, promote it and ultimately help it towards being successful. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Seun,
Thanks for reading my post.
I am so happy you enjoyed it
Having the right tools when it comes to affiliate marketing would help anyone make money online. When I first started my blog, I had no idea the effectiveness of using a tool for for ones site, so I went on without a tool and realize how empty I have been going until I started using some of these tools and my blog started making sense. I’ll urge any newbie to try these tools because they are really effective. Best regards
Hi Dane,
Thanks for reading my post.
I am so happy you enjoyed it