My Recommendations

People often ask me the different tools I use, the training I refer to, the resources available in the market, the secret behind many successful blogs, and the services available for blogging.

Most of all, they want to know about the tools I use to run my blogs effectively. 

Tools are a crucial part of running a profitable blog. Whether you are a new blogger or a newbie, I am pretty much sure that this list of tools will add life to your venture.

Before moving with the list of tools, I would like to add that all the recommendations I have mentioned here are tested and my viewpoints are based upon my personal experience.

For your convenience, I have categorized different tools under their purpose of usage. 

Start a Blog

Bluehost Hosting 

Bluehost is the hosting I am using. I highly recommend Bluehost hosting services for those who want to start their blog at little cost. The tool offers a one-click WordPress install button, and that comes as a significant benefit while starting a blog. 

The hosting service never makes you wait for resolving issues. Take a look at the features of the best web hosting:

• They offer you a free domain name for 1st year.
• It includes free SSL certification as well.
• They offer 1-click WordPress Install. It allows you to enjoy the hassle-free CMS platform on all accounts.  

The experts from Bluehost services offer 24/7 support. Their robust support also includes guides and video tutorials. 

Bluehost’s special intro offer is available with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Customer satisfaction is their top priority for them. The offer starts from $3.95 per month.

Get Bluehost for as low as $3.95 per month and a free domain by clicking here.

Astra Pro

I prefer to use this premium theme for my website and blogs. It is basically a set of site layouts that enables you to design and build websites to serve your needs and suit your niche.

It gives you access to better typography options with 800+ Google fonts to make your typography stand out. It allows you to manage the color and background of your website.  

Astra Pro is the most accurate tool when it comes to building professional websites quickly and easily. Take a look at its exclusive features:

• Nav Menu
• White label
• Blog Layout
• Site layout
• WooCommerce integration
• Sticky header
• Page header
• Custom layouts
• More control on colors
• Spacing control

Click here to buy Astra Pro.

Elementor Pro

How about this most straightforward tool to take your design to an absolutely new level? The combination of 50+ Pro widgets and counting and trusted by top professionals is loaded with many unbelievable features. Let us have a look:

• It designs every part of your blog and allows you to take control of your theme without a code.
• It allows you to control your favorite marketing tools.
• It provides you with beautiful portfolios to showcase your best projects. 
• You can also integrate it with your Woo-commerce builder and customize your every single product.
• It allows you to design fantastic WordPress pop-ups. 
• The tool offers animations that can bring life to your website. You can use parallax scrolling, 3D tilt, and Mouse track. 

You won’t be able to stop yourself from buying this tool after going through its features and structure. Click here to proceed.  

StudioPress themes

Astra Pro is not the only option you have for selecting themes. If you don’t like it by chance or if it is not much suitable for your blog, you can check out other themes for selecting the theme you want. 

StudioPress themes open up new possibilities for you to take your business to the next level. 

The fantastic framework allows you to focus on your technical resources and create an excellent end-user experience. Take a look at its features:

• If properly configured, the tool enhances your WordPress experience. 
• The response time of this award-winning support is less than three minutes per person. 

StudioPress gives you access to different plans to choose from. Decide upon one that fits your needs. Visit the StudioPress themes by clicking here:

Cloudflare 

You definitely need a reliable CDN for your website. It is one of the largest cloud network platforms that give you access to the faster, secure, and safe internet experience.

It speeds up and protects more than millions of websites. Read on to know about the features of this CDN:

• The global CDN improves the performance of your website dramatically through web optimization features. 
• It provides free SSL and also defends websites from DDoS from any online threat or hacking. 
• Cloudflare owns a 35% share in the world’s market as it is one of the most reliable and fastest managed DNS services.
• It makes sure that your website can identify between visitor and bot behavior. 

Visit Cloudflare to check the other features and your requirements.

Email Marketing

ConvertKit

Email marketing is one of the best email marketing tools to date. I use ConvertKit as my email marketing platform to send emails to my subscribers.

The tool allows you to make a connection with your audience by sitting at home and doing the work you love. 

• ConvertKit proves how your email list is your biggest asset. It helps you grow your subscribers and increase your income. 
• The tags and segments based on their interests and activities help you understand your audience in a better way and send them the right messages at the right time. 
• The automated emails that give a personal feel help you increase conversions. 
• It can be easily integrated with the best tools like WordPress, ClickFunnels, LeadPages, etc and build your business. 

Click here to check out this email marketing tool

Thrive Architect

Thrive Architect is a drag and drop page builder, and I am personally using this tool for building my landing pages.

This landing page builder tool allows you to turn your ideas and visions into beautiful landing pages. It is more than an opportunity for creating engaging content and visually impressive WordPress layouts. 

It is an excellent tool because it does not take much of your time and energy. This visual page builder helps you in creating conversion-focused pages. It understands how busy the entrepreneur is and practically removes every barrier that can stop you from establishing your online presence. 

It is different from other building tools because:

• With the instant drag and drop editing, you can build the required page at the speed of thought. 
• There is a number of landing page templates available to choose from. Using this tool does not require any design or coding skills.  
• The pre-built conversion elements of the tool help you in generating leads. 

If you really want to build a landing page for your business or website, click here and check out this tool. 

Thrive Leads

This is a popular plugin that helps you in creating a mailing list faster than you can even imagine.

I am using this plugin to display the opt-in form on my website and build an active and ever-increasing email list.

The lead generation plugin in WordPress creates the most cutting-edge solutions and allows you to use these solutions on your website. These powerful pieces of software can be easily used on your website and can bring you fantastic business benefits. 

• It combines every opt-in plugin you need and lets you create a perfect design.
• It is a massive conversion tool and enables you to create hyper-targeted and super-profitable lists.
• It provides you with an easy to A/B testing feature. 
• This plugin also allows you to check where your traffic is coming from. 

Content Creation

UberSuggest

SEO is no less than a game, and you need the right tools to win over this. You definitely need an effective content creation strategy to increase traffic on your website.

UberSuggest is the most effective tool to suggest the right content ideas. You need to type in the right keyword or domain and start.

This fantastic tool allows you to reverse the content ideas, SEO strategy, content marketing, and social media marketing strategy of your competitors. It gives you an insight into the strategies prevailing in the market so that you can match that level. 

• This practical tool gives you an idea of what people want to read or what kind of content is gaining traffic so that your content can also achieve similar popularity. 
• The free keyword tool helps you with the list of keywords that people are typing on Google. 
• It helps you in creating better links by checking the backlink data and designing an effective backlink strategy. 

Click here to improve your content strategy by leaps and bounds. 

BuzzSumo

Key influencers play an important role when it comes to promoting your content. A particular content performs in a specific way, and that is why you need to analyze what kind of content performs best for your topic. 

BuzzSumo gives you an insight regarding content discovery, content curation, Content Insights, and Content research and planning along with Competitor research, Brand monitoring, influencer marketing, and question analyzer. 

You can choose a suitable plan among the four given plans which can be interchanged at any instant of time.

The tool provides you with a free 7-days trial without asking for your credit card details and any commitment. 

Log in to the website to purchase the tool or to take a trial. 

Grammarly

Everyone wants to write correctly, but perfection does not come easily. However, why to leave mistakes or spend so much time in finding your mistakes, when you can use a tool to mark your errors and correct them. 

The AI-powered writing assistant tool helps you in creating composed, precise, and error-free content. It allows you to enhance your writing skills in the following ways.

• It can fix hundreds of grammatical errors whether related to subject-verb agreement, correct article, or modifier placement.
• It can detect right spelled words used in the wrong context. 

Grammarly is the most trusted platform trusted by many students, professors, professionals, and bloggers; basically, everyone who strives to write better.

The toll adapts to your writing style and understands your needs. It fills you with the confidence of writing better and establishing a mistake-free communication every time.  

Click here to have access to this free and most-effective content tool. 

Driving Traffic through Pinterest Marketing

Tailwind App

This is the right tool for smarter visual marketing. This is an end-to-end solution for winning over high traffic from Pinterest and Instagram.

This single tool allows you to discover content, schedule posts, monitor conversations, amplify reach and analyze results. You can take certain benefits from this tool:

• It provides you with numerous shortcuts that help in saving your mind.
• It optimizes your images right at the time when your users are most engaged.
• Deep analytics of the tool and insights allows you to know what is working and what is not.
• The browser extension allows you to schedule your posts like a pro.
• It makes you a more informed and efficient.
• The tool is quite affordable for small businesses. 

Successful bloggers and growing businesses extremely trust the marketing tool because of the faster growth it provides.

If you log in to this Tailwind app through this link, you get a credit of $15 directly to your account. 

Making Pinterest Possible

Also, it teaches you how to track your progress and interpret the Pinterest analytics. 

Achieve your Pinterest target by purchasing this ebook and applying strategies they suggest.

Get Making Pinterest Possible Now

Stock Photography and Image editing

I am mentioning a few free and paid tools for stock photography. Let us see how they can help you. 

Pixabay (Free)

Pixabay provides you with the royalty-free stock of images. It allows you to surf through their collection and choose the right picture for your web designing or any other projects. 

It is built by a vibrant community of creative artists that keep sharing copyright-free images and videos on this platform. Every picture, every content is released under the Pixabay license.

The tool allows you to use these images for commercial purposes without paying a penny for it. The images can be cropped, modified, copied, distributed, or edited while using. 

Use a Safe search filter to find the most appropriate images. The screen is 100% accurate and saves you from explicit photos.   

Unsplash (Free)

Unsplash is one of the most significant internet sources of free images. Creators from everywhere have put in their efforts in creating this open pool of images. 

They have images for every niche or topic you can think of such as “New York public libraries, mobile app developers, flower, food, animals, background, etc.”.

Unsplash is a collection of more than 1,000,000 high-resolution images clicked and brought by the world’s most generous photographers. These images are an inspiration giving direction to your content. These help you in writing your content in a more organized way. 

And yes, the tool is really free. It is tough to find the usable images, and Unsplash brings thousands of images that can be used fluently. It is the belief of millions of people that have made splash popular. 

Shutterstock (Paid)

Can you believe that Shutterstock grants you access to more than 295 million images and videos? The underlying stock of Shutterstock can power your creativity immensely. 

The best quality, royalty-free images, vectors, photos, and illustrations from the never-ending stock of Shutterstock can cover your blogs and websites. Their massive collection of stock footage and music tracks can be used in any short or feature film. 

You need to purchase a membership to access incredible beautiful images and royalty-free videos. Shutterstock has images about everything you can think about you can need.

The photos range from spaceships to aliens, and even the perception of astronauts walking on the moon. You can also make unbelievable videos with the help of these images.  

Big Stock Photo (Paid)

The royalty-free license of Big Stock photo lets you use any image you are looking for. The impressive imagery collection of Big Stock comes with straightforward pricing. The tool is ideal for you if you are looking for something different. 

The tool offers six different subscription plans at different prices. You can choose any image or video plan for any budget. The subscription includes images in the form of small, medium, large and extra-large JPG and vector files. 

You can cancel or change your plan anytime you want to.

Canva

Canva is a fantastic Stock Photography tool that allows you to create stunning designs. Canva gives you this chance of creating images from scratch. The features of the tool are capable of turning your ideas into amazing designs. 

The best graphics, photos, and fonts of the tool along with its drag and drop feature, lets you create any design you want. 

• The photo straightener feature of this tool keeps your photos inline. 
• The image cropper feature allows you to crop your photos for exceptional framing and master positions.
• It allows you to add text to your photos. This way, you can create a narrative for any image you want. 
• You can also add speech to the photos by using a speech bubble maker feature of the tool. 
• The blur slider adds artistry to your images. 
• The photo vignette feature of the tool adds vintage flair to your photos. 

Optimizilla

Optimizilla is an online image optimizer to shrink JPEG and PNG images to the optimum size required. The tool uses a combination of compression algorithms and the best optimization techniques.

You can upload 20 images at a time and let them compress. This is the most significant advantage of this tool.

The simple interface of the tool makes it entirely more comfortable to use it. The superbly amazing image preview feature lets you rate the quality of the image. 

There is this quality slider feature that allows you to compress the image further if you don’t like its quality.  

Search Engine Optimisation

Schema Pro

Schema Pro is a quick and easy way to automate schema mark up. You don’t need any development, programming, or coding skills to mark up the site automatically. This one-time schema set up assures you with better search engine results. 

The favorite tool of digital marketers helps you in outperforming your competitors in search engine results. Take a look at its benefits:

• The tool delivers eye-catching results for your websites. It will give you access to additional information like reviews, ratings, and time so that your snippet will stand out in the crowd. 
• You will observe a potential increase in your CTR. It encourages visitors to visit your page by displaying positive information, including ratings and votes.
• You can use it on any type of posts.  

Use this tool to create a valid schema for your website.  

Google Keyword Planner 

Keywords play the most crucial role in search engine optimization. It is the keywords that are optimized. Google keyword planner helps you in finding the right keyword that can be used in your content or in your Google ads campaign.

It is a perfect tool when it comes to boosting website traffic and sales. You can search for keywords that are relevant to your product, services, and customers. This free keyword search tool allows you to get search volume as well. 

This is an authentic tool provided by Google that can change your SEO results overnight.

UberSuggest

Ubersuggest works on the same principle as many other keywords search tool. It helps you in finding the keyword and later uses the entered keyword. It puts it in Google search (API), adds required suffix or prefix along with it and converts it into LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing). 

The website was revamped recently after Neil Patel acquired it. The user interface of the site had changed completely since then. 

The most comprehensive free tool helps you in getting insights into the strategies so that you can check the potential of the keywords. 

Click here to improve your content strategy by leaps and bounds. 

Google Analytics

The web analytics service by Google helps you in tracking the traffic of your website. The tool helps you in understanding your customers in a better way. It is one of the essential tools when it comes to Search engine optimization and marketing. 

The free tool allows you to analyze the traffic of your website in these three simple steps.

• Sign up for Google analytics. They will ask about some necessary information.
• You will get a tracking code after signing up. Pasting this tracking code on your Google pages will let Google know your exact time of visiting the pages. 
• The tool will only take a few hours to show the data on your website. It will help you learn more about your audience.

Broken Link Checker

This is the right tool if you want to check the broken online links. The tool provides you with the following features:

• It helps you in checking dead links of your websites and blogs.
• It helps you in scanning an unlimited number of web pages within minutes.
• It validates both the internal and external URLs of your website.
• Above all, it shows you the location of your problematic links in HTML.
• Broken link checker generates report error codes (404) for bad URLs.

Broken link checker has made finding and fixing link problems simpler.

GTMetrix

GTmetrix detects the performance of a website. The speed of the site is the most critical factor when it comes to its optimization. 

GT Metrix is a fantastic tool that helps you in checking the speed of your website. The free tool reveals the reason behind the slow speed of your website and discovers different opportunities to optimize it.

GTMetrix will do certain things for you:

• It allows you to test the speed of your page in different counties, browsers, and connections.
• It gives you a summarized report of your page’s performance by breaking it down.
• It makes a schedule to test the performance of your website over time.
• It will notify you when the speed of your page will decrease.

Swift Performance

WordPress serves as the most reliable CMS platform for your website. However, the speed of the website needs to be perfect to run it successfully. The Swift Performance speeds up your site in just one-click through following ways:

• The intelligent and modern caching system of the tool cache your dynamic pages, AJAX requests exceptions for your website.
• It provides you with a highly customizable and unlimited page optimizer to achieve your best.

Productivity and Time Management

LastPass

Do you forget your password often? Has it been troubling you to remember your password each time? If yes, then the Last Pass is the right tool for you. 

The free tool remembers you each password for you so that you don’t need to take stress for this. The tool will simplify your life without charging you anything. However, you can always upgrade to its premium version by paying a little amount.  

The flexible sharing and emergency access of the tool remove all your obstacles and make it easier for you to get back to your favorite things. 

EverNote

Making notes of whatever information you gather is the most effective way of using the information. Moreover, it makes sharing ideas easier.

Evernote is a free tool that enables you to create notes, web pages, projects, and to-do lists without letting anything fall through the cracks. 

The notes you create on Evernote helps you in the following ways:

• It helps you in managing everything from your professional to personal things.
• You can record different ideas and inspirations in your notes.
• The written records never let you lose track of your deadlines and routine tasks. 

Start using EverNote and remember everything that is important for you.

Trello

Trello is an incredible free tool that helps you in organizing your daily tasks. It helps you to work more collaboratively and get you every job done. 

The tool provides you with different boards, lists, and cards, and you can use them to note down your projects and priorities on them. It is a fun, flexible, and rewarding way of listing your tasks and finishing them in time. 

Trello especially helps you if you are working with your team on a particular task. It helps you and your teamwork in an organized manner.  

The smart planning tool is absolutely free and can be easily accessed through this tool. 

Dropbox

The free file hosting service acts as a home for all your work. The cloud storage provider allows you to share your files and arrange your work in a suitable form. 

You can use this tool, whether you are working alone or with a team. Read on to know about the features of Dropbox:

• It is one safe place to store your work. Store all your files and documents on this single platform. Get the files from your computer, phone, or tab, or you can turn on the automatic sync feature to get the data stored.
• The cloud storage allows you to store every type of file, either small or big.
• It can be used as a team management tool, as well. You can track the activities of your team through this tool by providing them with secure access. 

Dropbox is readily available on different platforms and can be purchased for free. 

Uptime Robot

Uptime Robot allows you to track or monitor your website every 5 minutes without charging a penny for it. It notifies you through its powerful features:

• It can check multiple types: all the https, ping port, and keywords.
• It alerts you via email, SMS, voice calls, telegram, slack, or push notifications.
• It allows you to know your uptime, downtime, and response time.
• It can be verified through different locations.
• It used API to perform every function.
• It allows you to share your stats with your teammates and visitors. 

Website Backup and security

Sucuri Security

The security of your blog or website is as essential as creating it. Sucuri Security is an efficient tool that protects and secures your site and restore your peace of mind. 

It prevents your website from hacks and future attacks too. This cloud-based platform is available for every platform.

Learn more about the features of Sucuri Security:

• It provides WAF Protection to your website and defends it against hacks and DDoS.
• The various alerting option of the tool helps you in identifying multiple alerting options.
• It removes unlimited malware from your website.
• The lightning-fast speed of this tool highly optimizes the CDN and speed of your page. 

UpdraftPlus – Backup/ Restore

Backing up, restoring and cloning your WordPress provides you security against hacking, server crashes, dodgy updates, and user errors.

You cannot let such stupid things ruin your year’s long hard work. 

Conclusion:

It is not easy to create a profit-generating blog and manage it in this ever-developing digital world. These tools will keep you updated and make sure you never lag behind your competitors. They are a great way to stay ahead of every kind of competition.