Tools That Make Your Blog Better Without Breaking the Bank

If you’ve been wanting to start a blog or already have one but want to make it better, figuring out where to start can be daunting. Unless your blog is your full-time job, you don’t want to spend more than half of your time maintaining it. Fortunately, there are countless blog tools available that can help you keep your blog on track without costing you too much time or money. Here are some top picks for tools to help you create a blog you’re proud of.

Quora

Quora is a crowdsourcing website designed specifically for bloggers to ask each other questions, give advice and collaborate. According to the blog Buffer Social, you can search and subscribe to topics related to your blog or ask about any topic or term that other bloggers can answer. You can even give advice yourself. This is a great answer site to grow your own blog’s name and make yourself a better blogger while helping others with their sites as well.

Google Analytics

You’ve undoubtedly heard of Google Analytics and its benefits, but if you’re unsure how to get started with it, you simply add the Google Analytics code to your site. It will track your blog’s statistics and offer insight, such as where your readers are coming from, how long they are staying on your page, what posts they are reading and where they are clicking, according to BlogBasics.com. Using these statistics can help you focus your blog on what is getting you the most readers.

BuzzSumo

Social Media Examiner recommends Buzzsumo as one of the best ways to brainstorm content or plan your social media or email outreach strategy. Type in your domain name to search social media standing and your most popular blog posts. You can also search your competitors, similar blogs or authors and users. BuzzSumo also offers helpful features such as downloading your results to a spreadsheet, creating email alerts and filtering your search results.

Portent or HubSpot Topic Generators

The blog Torque recommends using a tool like Portent or HubSpot’s topic generators to spark some inspiration if you’re having trouble thinking of blog topics. With Portent, you type in a keyword and it will generate a topic for you to write your post on. HubSpot’s generator is similar, but with higher volume. You can enter up to three keywords and it will generate five headlines for you to choose from.

Shutterstock Photos and Videos

Images can really make your blog or website look sleek and polished, but you don’t always have access to a professional photographer or interesting and unique photos. Sites like Shutterstock offer high-quality images and videos that you can use as background or feature images to make your design stand out, and it is still much less expensive than hiring a designer to create a page for you.

Rignite

JeffBullas.com suggests using Rignite to get the most out of your social media interactions. Rignite is a social media dashboard that enables you to monitor and track as well as schedule social media posts related to your blog. What makes Rignite a cut above the rest is its campaigns feature that helps you set up a strategy for sharing and posting on social media.

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