The absolutely ultimate beginner blogging tool.

WordPress is the actual software that powers this blog, as well as something like 33% of the entire internet!

It is by far the best choice for bloggers, over competitors like…

• Wix
• Weebly
• Squarespace
• Joomla?

It offers far more customization (even if that DOES come with a learning curve at first), and comes loaded with the most power.

There’s a reason WordPress is dang-near a household name. They’re awesome. Use it.

If you’re new to blogging and want to learn how to set WordPress up, check out the beginner guide to starting a blog.

Just start typing domain name ideas in–and watch the availability pop up!

NOTE: If you click any of the available domains, you’ll be triggering an affiliate link for Instant Domain Search, and it’ll take you to Godaddy!

I recommend purchasing domains through either Godaddy or Namecheap–even if you’re using another provider for hosting!

Other cool domain name tools:

• Learn Domain Search: Similar, fun to play around with.
• Wordoid: Create a new word completely, shows availability!

You can also use the widget below to search right here on this page

DYEB Pro Tip: I really, really, really suggest finding a domain with an available .com, as long as it’s easy to pronounce, spell, and say!!

A website is really just a collection of files (like the files on your computer).

A hosting company simply “hosts” your website’s files on their server so people everywhere can access them!

They have my recommendation–for new bloggers especially.

That said, here is my affiliate link to Bluehost. I’m happy to promote it.

Some other great hosting options:

• Siteground – I’ve used them in the past, and they’re fantastic! My top recommendation for bloggers w/ over 20,000 pageviews/month.

I do NOT recommend hosting your site with Godaddy, Namecheap, Bigscoots, or Hostgator (I have used all of these).

I’ve used every tool you can imagine, including PicMonkey, Snappa, etc, and Canva wins for 2 reasons:

1. Their free version is still A+
2. You can export to PowerPoint!

For those who prefer to edit using software NOT in the browser, or who find Canva a bit clunky, you can now export to PowerPoint for further edits.

Pro Tip: Canva has REALLY great pre-made templates. I stole 10-15 Instagram templates, exported them to PowerPoint, and proceed to edit those as normal.

Sketch – A NON-browser-based tool ($99)

This tool is a bit more advanced, as it was created with professional designers in mind. However, I’ve found the user interface pretty easy to navigate, especially with their MANY tutorials on the Sketch website.

This is what I use for logos, pins, and other advanced graphics that need a bit more customization than I can get with Snappa.

There are a metric ton of stock photo sites, but here are my recommendations:

Pexels (free)

This is my go-to for pretty much everything. The variety is a bit more than average, and it’s 100% free.

All The Free Stock (free)

What if there was a way to search several stock photo sites at once?

That’s what this site does. It can be a bit tricky to navigate (click “multi-site search” on the left menu), but if I can’t find it on Pexels, I’ll generally come here next.

There are several different functions for these tools!

• On-page SEO plugin
• Keyword & competitor research
• SERP tracking
• SEO audit tools

Yoast – Free! There’s a $90 premium version too.

I use it. Everyone uses it. You should too. It’s awesome for on-page SEO.

Will getting all of Yoast’s little green lights guarantee ranking in Google? NO. But it IS still a handy tool for gently optimizing blog posts (especially for beginners).

KWFinder and SERPWatcher (Free and Pro Versions available)

As far as really well-done keyword research tools go, Moz, Ahrefs, SEMRush, Majestic, etc, all cost over $1,000 a year for their cheapest plans.

Give the Mangools apps a try:

• KWFinder
• SERPChecker
• SERPWatcher
• LINKMiner

For a smooth $30/month, you get access to ALL of these tools. Keyword research, domain and keyword tracking, competitor analysis, backlink miner. It’s crazy how good these are, and it’s less than HALF the cost of other SEO tools

• keyword research
• content planning
• backlink analysis
• SERP tracking
• Site audit tools
• way more

SO much more affordable than the big names (even though I actually use Ahrefs. Full disclaimer, but it IS expensive).

Google Keyword Planner (Free)

There are LOADS of SEO tools out there for keyword research, Google competition analysis, etc. Moz, Ahrefs, Market Samuria, Keyword.io…all these are great (but most are expensive).

Google’s keyword tool is the top blogging tools for beginners. It’s free, (fairly) easy to use, and contains all the data you would ever need.

Use it till you can afford KWFinder or Ahrefs.

Soolve –  Free

I love this tool, and use it every time I create content.

It basically suggest keywords (just like the actual Google search bar), but for multiple search engines at once(!). Use it!

Keywords Everywhere – Free Chrome extension!

This tool is incredible! Simply activate the extension, and Keywords Everywhere will start to show you search volume in Google search results, using Soolve, Answer the Public, and more!

Pro tip: you can’t rely on the exact numbers! Paid keyword tools will likely be more accurate–but this is a great starting point considering it’s free!

We’ll talk more about site speed below, but managing broken links, redirects, etc, is important!

Broken Link Check – Free

It takes a hot minute to scan your site, but it also provides handy links straight to your content–so you can dive in and fix broken links!

Dr. Link Check – Free

Essentially the same thing.

SEO Web Page Analyzer – Free

This is a cool blogging tool. This little page analyzes a TON of stuff on any page–yours or any other site.

Image compressors (already discussed above), cache plugins, and CDNs!

Tools that’ll make your website load faster and make readers (and Google) happy.

WP Rocket – $49 Cache Plugin

1. Install and activate the plugin
2. Switch on a few settings
3. BOOM. Your website is now WAY faster

No, it’s not free–but it’s cheap and far superior to other cache plugins I’ve tried (and I’ve tried them all). It’s the most user-friendly cache plugin I’ve found.

WP Rocket is worth it. One of my “mandatory top-5 plugins” for bloggers.

Free cache plugin alternative: W3 Total Cache

If you’re a seriously casual blogger and really just want a speed increase on the cheap, try W3.

It’s complicated to set up optimally and has too many features, but it can give speed increases “out of the box” as well.

Cloudflare – Free CDN!

1. It’s easy to set-up (just requires ONE new cname record added to your cPanel account–tutorials of which are plentiful in a quick Google search)
2. It’s 100% free for one website
3. It leads to amazing speed increases

There’s no reason not to use a CDN with your blog! There is no downside at all.

I’ve tried Hootsuite, meetEdgar, and Buffer…..and NONE of them compare to SmarterQueue.

I NO LONGER spend 30-60 minutes a week loading up my queues. I set up scheduled times, content groups, and now I ONLY have to add new content.

The rest is done for me. It “recycles” evergreen content. 

• Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest? Check!
• Split-testing share images and copy? Check!

I HIGHLY recommend you try it out for 14 days (Use my affiliate link for 30 days free!).

(Also, I wrote an entire review of SmarterQueue here)

Free alternative = Buffer.

Given SmarterQueue is paid only, I feel the need to recommendation my favorite free tool for scheduling a social media queue.

The free plan on Buffer is fantastic, and covers the basic needs for 99% of bloggers!

It doesn’t have content groups or evergreen “recycling,” however, so it’s not nearly as powerful as SmarterQueue or Meet Edgar.

Tailwind = $10/mo for Pinterest Sharing and Automation.

Pinterest user? Tailwind is essentially the ONLY tool you need.

• Automate your pins,
• Analyze your profile, board, and group board stats
• Chrome extension to share anything from anywhere (to multiple boards, groups, tribes, etc!)
• Tailwind Tribes access

(P.S. Use my affiliate link here and we BOTH get $15. That’s a full month free) After you have it, go listen to Alisa from Tailwind on the podcast! She drops awesome Pinterest traffic bombs

Note: I don’t recommend Hootsuite or Meet Edgar or Social Bee for bloggers. These are great tools, but do not fit the needs of bloggers as well as SmarterQueue and Buffer.

These tools will make sure your website stays nice and safe–free from hackers and bots

Protecting your blog from attacks is a REAL threat.

Luckily, there are free (and cheap) solutions for this, and WordFence is my favorite. It’s largely plug and go, with minimal set-up.

If you’d like to learn a TON more, you should check out my entire blog post on-site security and backups here.

Updraft is the ONLY backup plugin I’ve seen that has 3rd-part backups (i.e. Google Drive, Dropbox, etc), available in their free version.

Woot!

P.S. Many premium WordPress hosting providers ALSO include some sort of backup tool. I know Siteground, Bigscoots, and Kinsta provide this!

Out of everything I do here at Do You Even Blog, THIS is the blogging tool question I get most often:

“Which email marketing software is right for ME?”

Below are my honest–but controversial–recommendations for bloggers.

Flodesk is my new favorite thing EVER.

Why? It’s incredibly easy to use, the email builder is amazing, and everything looks. so. good.

Oh yeah, and they have forms and automations–and UNLIMITED subscribers for one low price??

While it does lack some of the more powerful features for email marketing, it’s definitely a solid choice for new folks.

If you have complicated email marketing funnels–your options are Drip and ActiveCampaign.

I used to use Drip.

Then they unexpectedly jacked up their prices without telling anybody. They switched their focus to serving big ecommerce companies, and left the rest of us high and dry.

So I’m moving to ActiveCampaign!

Outreach, productivity, email tracking, etc:

• Bananatag
• Gmelius – best free version (what I currently use)
• Mixmax – most powerful

All of these tools do roughly the same thing, but Gmelius is my fave:

1. email tracking analytics
2. email scheduling
3. templates
4. organizational features

FYI – if you’re looking for some beginner tactics to grow your email list–here’s my full guide.

Use these to produce better, more engaging content that’ll have your readers sharing, commenting, and buying

Bear –Free Writing App (Mac and iOS only)

Bear is lightweight, pretty, distraction-free, and an AMAZING tool to compose in.

I use this to…

• Take podcast interview notes
• Draft blog posts
• Brainstorm ideas
• Keep track of my daily to-do’s
• Save content to read later (the Chrome extension is amazing).

Google Docs – Free

At the end of the day, Google docs is simply to easy, and too FREE to leave out. 

Coschedule Headline Analyzer for creating amazing headlines (Free)

We all know headlines are important, yes?

This tool is great for working through different headline strategies, and it’s also addicting and fun

Also, I wrote an entire headline analyzer guide for using the CoSchedule tool, as well as another favorite, the AMI Emotional Headline Analyzer.

Hemingway App for crafting short and compelling language (Free)

This software was literally created to be a super fun (and slightly addicting) way to potentially make your writing a lot more crisp, clear, bold, and maybe way more impactful.

Oops, guess that last sentence should’ve been:

A fun (and slightly addicting) software to make your writing crisp, clear, bold, and way more impactful.

Grammarly for spelling & grammar (free)

This is a MANDATORY blogging tool for writing.

Grammarly will pop-up in most applications, browsers, and apps, and tell you what you’re doing wrong (and gives you an easy way to fix grammar errors!).

Social Warfare – Social Sharing Plugin (Free and cheap paid version)

This plugin makes it easy for people to share your content–a must-have in blogging.

Trello – Free project management tool

Trello is INSANELY simple to use, and organizes tasks and projects in a highly visual format (kanban boards!).

I pretty much stink at organizing and planning out operations for my team (and creating a content calendar), but even I’ve found using Trello handy.

Pro Tip: “Butler” is a specific “power-up” you can enable for Trello boards, allowing you to do some helpful automations. Check out a video on that here.

Asana – Also a free project management tool

My buddy Matt Giovansci–actually has an awesome course on how to use Asana for bloggers–he runs his entire business on the free plan.

If you like the more “list” visual aspect, Asana is very powerful

TextExpander ($30/year) – If you find yourself typing things repeatedly–email signatures, URLs, phrases, etc, TextExpander allows you to create shortcuts for bunks of text. Example: I simply hit “hhdd” and out pops https://doyouevenblog.com.

Freedom.to ($20/year) – This app works on both mobile and desktop, and allows me to selectively block Gmail, Twitter, Facebook, IG, etc, so I won’t even be tempted to be distracted.

Voxer (Free mobile app) – It’s half texting/messaging and half walkie-talkie app! I use this instead of texting for most of my online relationships–including Team DYEB.

Lastpass (Free) – My password manager of choice. It’s absolutely amazing and I think e ery human should use it.

Yoink (Mac & iOS only. Roughly $7 in App Store) – I had NO CLUE I needed something to make dragging-n-dropping files better–but I did. I use this every day.

Scanner Pro ($4 mobile app) – Makes scanning paper-ish things a SNAP–and can also create multi-page PDFs.

Alfred (Mac only. Free & Paid) – It’s like an insanely functional search bar for your Mac. I use it no less than 50 times a day.

Rocket (Mac only. Free) – Makes it easy to insert emojis! ?

Wi-Fi Sweetspots (Free mobile app) – I use this to find the best wi-fi spots when I travel to different coffee shops, public places, etc.

Otter.ai (free) – Hands down the best audio transcription tool on the internet! Great for quickly taking voice notes and seeing transcriptions–or for podcast transcripts

These tools make it simple for you to market, sell, and deliver your own products (or help sell affiliate marketing products!)

This is NOT an e-commerce or store option–like WooCommerce or Shopify.

Rather, Gumroad is stand-alone software to sell digital or physical products from just about anywhere–from embeddable buy buttons, links, etc.

The reason Gumroad gets my recommendation is because of its simplicity. No reason to stress over software design, APIs, payment processors, etc. Just sign up, create a product, embed buy button, and BOOM. You’re selling something.

I have to mention this for advanced bloggers with established courses, etc. This is what I use to process ALL my transactions these days.

• Quickly get product checkout pages set-up and optimized
• Upsells
• Bump offers
• Cookied countdown timers on carts
• Affiliate management
• GREAT integrations

WooCommerce (WordPress plugin. Free, but not really)

It’s still a great product, but a bit hard to set-up and make “perfect.” Also, while the core plugin and functionality is free–you have to shell out $$ for even basic expansions.

Shopify (Stand-alone. Starts at $29/month)

If you can front the $29/month price tag, Shopify is a fantastic stand-alone e-commerce platform. I know several bloggers who have separate Shopify shops in addition to their main site.

For more on monetizing your blog, check out our mega-guide here.

There is no better page-building plugin for WordPress.

Period.

You can use it for opt-in pages–like my New Blogger Bootcamp landing page, or even blog posts–like my manifesto–or even widgets/headers/more.

I do NOT recommend Leadpages. It’s too expensive, clunky, and does half of what Elementor does.

Interested in learning how to USE Elementor? Click here to read my comprehensive tutorial!

StudioPress makes amazing WordPress themes that are…

• fast-loading
• clean
• easy to design
• easy to learn/configure
• affordable

YES–there’s a learning curve when you first pick up a Genesis theme, but it’s like riding a bike: If you ever switch themes, you’ll already be comfortable with design, helping you get up and running ASAP.

Alternative – the default WordPress themes (Free!)

At the time I’m writing this, I’m currently on the Twenty-Nineteen theme, and I love it!

You can’t go wrong with a default WP theme. They’re simple, fast, and clean.

These are random tools that add value to my career as a blogger, podcaster, course creator, etc

Also, if you’d like to see my HARDWARE tools, you can check out my Blog Bag post here!

Justgetflux.com for adjusting screen colors for nighttime blogging (Free)

Flux helps save your eyes! It prevents strain by altering the natural screen light from your computer, based on the time of day.

Snip.ly for getting a bit of extra traffic when you share other people’s content (Free and Pro versions available)

A fun little traffic tool. Here’s how it works:

1. You find an article you want to share (someone else’s, not your own!)
2. You “snip” it, creating a small Call-to-action widget.
3. You share the article w/ the world
4. When someone clicks on the link, they see the article you shared w/ YOUR call-to-action on the page.

Feels a little bit like hacking. Try it out and let me know if you see any cool results (seriously. Email me and let me feature you?)

ColorPick Eyedropper for identifying any colors on any website (Free)

Chrome extension that lets you hover over any website page, and snag the color code!

I’m ashamed to say I’ve tried dozens of these tools, and this one is my favorite. (lol)