Introduction
Starting a blog and online business can rapidly go from being a side hustle to a full-time career. This is especially true if you use some of the best blogging tools and follow a clear strategy.
Don’t get me wrong: making money blogging in 2024 is much harder than it used to be 10 years ago due to higher competition.
However, there are now countless tools and resources that can help you speed up the process and take your online business to the next level in just a few months.
In this blog post, we will discuss the 31 best blogging tools and resources for beginner bloggers in 2024.
If you’re ready to start a blog or take your existing blog to the next level, this post is a great place to start!
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How will these Blogging Tools help you?
These 31 best blogging tools and resources will help you make most blogging tasks faster and easier.
Whether you haven’t launched your website yet or are already making money blogging, these blogging tools and resources will help you streamline processes and be more efficient and organized.
Optimizing your current processes will save you a lot of time, which you can then dedicate to growing your blog and online business.
Let’s face it: There is only so much we can do with our time, and we all wish we could do more. Well, this is exactly what the 31 best blogging tools on this list will help you achieve!
Let’s dive in, shall we?
1. WordPress
The very first thing you need to know when launching a profitable blog in 2024 is that you cannot create a free blog if you want to make money.
If you create a free blog, it will be nearly impossible to make money with your website. If you don’t self-host your blog, you will not have control over the ads displayed on your website or your website’s name and URL.
This decision will also impact your ability to become an authority in your niche and build an audience. And that will limit your chances of working with brands as well.
Self-hosting your blog should be the first investment you make.
However, before you get there, you will first need to choose a blogging platform (also named Content Management System – CMS) and a web hosting company.
WordPress is the most popular CMS. Over 43% of all blogs online in 2023 were created on this platform.
If you search WordPress on Google, you will notice that you’ll find results for both WordPress.com and WordPress.org.
And there is a big difference between these 2 platforms.
WordPress.com is a free platform on which you can create a blog. However, if you do so, your website will be hosted directly by WordPress. And you will not own it.
To create a WordPress self-hosted website, you need to create your blog with WordPress.org and choose a web host independently.
Self-hosting your blog will also allow you to choose your own domain.
This website’s URL is rankingstrategies.io because it is self-hosted. If that weren’t the case, the URL would have been rankingstrategies.wordpress.com.
See why self-hosting your blog is key to becoming an authority in your niche? The first alternative looks much more professional than the latter.
2. Dreamhost
After choosing your publishing platform, it’s time to look for a web host.
Most bloggers recommend Bluehost.com to get started. And this is actually the biggest mistake I made with my first website.
Bluehost offers high affiliate commissions to bloggers recommending their plans. And this is why most bloggers recommend beginner bloggers host their blogs with Bluehost.
Yes, Bluehost is cheap and offers you a free custom domain.
However, you need to understand something about blogging in 2024: some savings are just not worth it.
Your domain will usually cost you less than $20 per year. That’s less than $2 a month.
Are these 2 dollars really worth being stuck with a web hosting plan that does not suit all your needs?
You’ve guessed it; the answer is NO.
I’ve used Bluehost for a year with my first website, and no matter the changes I made, my site was always super slow.
Moreover, it was frequently down for no obvious reason, and I regularly struggled to reach the login page (it often seemed busy or down!).
A free domain or a slightly lower price is not worth the struggle of trying to figure out what went wrong every time your website is slow.
Or losing money because you can’t make sales when your site is down.
This is the reason why I switched to Dreamhost as soon as my first-year promotional offer ended.
And I have no regrets!
Dreamhost is an amazing web-hosting company offering a free domain for the first year, super cheap plans for the first year, and reasonable prices afterward.
Dreamhost is super fast and offers great customer service. If your website is already hosted by another company and you’re afraid to make the switch, note that Dreamhost offers an amazing free functionality allowing you to transfer your website and all its content to their platform in just a few clicks!
3. Elementor
Want to launch a profitable blog or online business but don’t know how to code? Elementor has your back!
Elementor is a drag-and-drop tool that will help you create your blog’s pages in just a few clicks without HTML coding.
Starting a professional website and launching it in just a couple of days is possible with Elementor. It’s a freemium tool, and the free plan will offer you a ton of functionalities.
However, if you want to build a professional website, the Pro plan will make your life even easier.
For just a few dollars per year, you can copy entire sections of your pages to create new ones, create page templates in a few clicks, and even create template blocks you can reuse in all your blog posts.
Whether you decide to go with Elementor’s free or paid plan, Elementor is an essential tool if you want to create an online business, don’t know how to code, and don’t want to pay a fortune for someone to design it for you.
4. Pix&Hue themes
Elementor is an amazing tool for creating an online business if you have no coding experience. However, to use the tool, you need to use a compatible theme.
Choosing your website’s theme is another important decision you need to make when starting your blog.
When getting started, you might want to use a free theme. Most people do not want to spend money when they start their blogs because they know that making money blogging takes time and don’t know if blogging is for them.
I understand that.
But hear me out: you will not make any money if you don’t establish a solid basis for your online business.
The problem with free themes is that they are very basic and usually not updated frequently. WordPress and other blogging platforms make updates several times a year.
And this can quickly become a problem.
If your theme is not regularly updated and suddenly breaks after a WordPress update, chances are that no one will be there to help you.
And you will end up with a non-functioning website.
Purchasing a premium theme gives you security as a beginner blogger: your theme will be updated whenever necessary, and you can reach out to support when facing issues.
My absolute favorite themes are from Pix&Hue.
Louise’s gorgeous SEO-friendly themes can be installed in a few seconds and edited just as fast using Elementor’s free or paid plan, depending on the theme you choose.
I almost gave up on my first website because I struggled for weeks to install and personalize the theme I initially purchased and wasn’t satisfied with it.
If you have been thinking about launching a blog or online business but keep procrastinating because setting up your blog seems like too much of a hassle, a premium theme compatible with Elementor is all you need!
5. YOAST SEO
YOAST SEO is a search engine optimization plugin that will help you optimize each of your website’s pages for SEO.
This plugin is very useful for ensuring that your blog posts are SEO-friendly and driving traffic to your blog through search engines.
This free tool will help you with the following:
- Write original SEO-optimized blog post titles that people will want to click
- Write straightforward meta-descriptions
- Improve readability
- Overall SEO analysis
YOAST SEO is a great tool to get an introduction to search engine optimization and work on SEO basics.
6. Pinterest
Pinterest is a visual search engine that will help you promote your content and build an audience.
In January 2023, Pinterest drove + 140,000 pageviews to my first website with less than 2 hours per week spent on the platform.
This is just how powerful Pinterest can be when you implement a solid strategy.
Pinterest SEO seems overwhelming at first, but understanding a few basics will take your blog traffic to a whole new level.
If you don’t want to spread yourself too thin, and only want to focus on one or two platforms to promote your content, Pinterest should definitely be one of them.
Unlike with other social media platforms, the content you create on Pinterest will drive traffic to your website for years!
In fact, content on Pinterest ages like wine. Your pins will not get traffic right away after publishing them.
It will take a few months to rank your pins and drive significant traffic to your website using Pinterest, and this is why most people give up on using the platform.
However, once your pins start showing in the search results, you can get a lot of traffic fast. All you need is a solid strategy and a bit of patience.
Want to give Pinterest a try in 2024 or implement a Pinterest strategy that actually works? My Pinterest Ranking Strategies course will help you copy my entire Pinterest strategy to drive traffic to your blog with Pinterest.
7. Canva
If you want to start a profitable online business, you will need to promote your content a lot.
In fact, you will quickly realize that you will need to spend far more time promoting your content than actually creating it.
So you will need to create a lot of social media posts.
And Canva is the best tool for creating visual content.
Canva will help you create pins, Instagram posts, Facebook posts, opt-ins, and paid products to sell to your audience.
The platform gathers thousands of free resources, from stock photos to pin templates, smart mockups, and printables you can edit and share on your website.
Canva is definitely a resource you need when creating an online business!
8. Trello
If you have already launched your blog, you already figured it out: keeping your business organized is hard.
Starting an online business as a solopreneur is like taking 21 new jobs.
You need to decide how you want to allocate your time and prioritize tasks because, let’s face it; creating an online business is a lot of work.
The good news is that all it takes to make your life easier is to be more organized.
And a simple way to achieve this is to use a content management system.
That’s when Trello comes in handy!
Trello is an easy-to-use tool for organizing your content and creating to-do lists. It’s free to use and will help you keep all aspects of your business organized.
Note that Trello is also a great collaboration tool. You can share access to your boards and to-do lists with whomever you want.
No matter the stage of your business, whether you are doing everything on your own or working with a small team, Trello has functionalities that will help you stay organized.
9. Tailwind
Tailwind is definitely one of the best blogging tools for beginners.
No matter which platform you decide to use to promote your content, whether it is Pinterest, Facebook, or Instagram, Tailwind will be a great help in optimizing your content for each platform.
Tailwind allows you to drag and drop images created on Canva and automatically resizes them to follow each platform’s best practices.
This tool is key to automating your Pinterest strategy and scheduling your posts on social media platforms.
Note that Tailwind is a freemium tool. The free version allows you to connect one Pinterest and one Instagram account only.
Furthermore, the free plan limits the monthly posts you can schedule.
If you plan to be very active on social media but don’t want to waste your time posting content manually, Tailwind’s Pro plan is definitely worth it!
10. Jetpack
Jetpack is a freemium plugin including a large variety of features that will help you boost your WordPress blog.
This plugin focuses on security, performance, and marketing. It will help you optimize your content for SEO, speed up your site, and ensure it is secured.
All these features are key to maintaining a successful blog.
If you don’t know what plugin to use for SEO and security when getting started, Jetpack is definitely a tool you want to try.
The Jetpack mobile app will also allow you to check analytics on the go, answer comments, and make quick changes to your blog posts.
This tool is packed with a lot of functionalities that will make your life easier as a beginner blogger.
11. Boosted
Boosted is one of my favorite apps on this list.
Having an online business represents a lot of work. Especially when you do everything yourself.
You have to define your priorities and be smart with your time. And this is when Boosted comes in handy!
Boosted is a time management app that allows you to create projects and log your time.
Knowing exactly how much time you spend on one task is key to optimizing your time allocation and focusing on what really matters to grow your business.
To use the app, start by creating projects such as:
- Keyword research
- Blog posts
- Site improvements
- Pinterest Strategy
- Instagram Strategy
- Facebook Strategy
- Email marketing
- Affiliate marketing
- Etc
Whenever you start a new activity, simply select the project and click “Start.”
Remember to hit “End” once you’re done, and voilà! The app will automatically log your time and tell you exactly when and for how long you worked on a specific project.
Logging your time with Boosted will not only help you optimize your schedule.
It will also give you precious information if you plan to outsource some of these activities in the future.
12. Google Analytics
Using Google Analytics is a must when it comes to tracking and understanding your traffic.
This free resource will give you insightful data on your website’s performance and audience. Analyzing your traffic is important to ensure your blogging efforts pay off.
Driving organic traffic to your website will take time. It’s the result of trial and error.
And I hate to break it to you, but you will make many, many errors with your online business.
Getting everything right the first time is impossible.
You will need to try different things and focus on what will show results.
Using analytics tools such as Google Analytics will help you find what your popular blog content has in common and focus your efforts on creating more similar content.
As soon as you launch your first products, you will be able to use your analytics to precisely identify your potential customers and better target them in the new content you create.
Taking a hard look at your analytics and reacting to them is what makes all the difference between blogging as a hobby and actually making money.
13. Stripe
Speaking about making money…
If you plan to sell products to make money blogging (hint: you should!), you will need an online payment processing system, and Stripe is definitely a great option to consider!
Stripe processes payments with the following:
- Visa
- Mastercard
- American Express
- China UnionPay
- Alipay
- Apple Pay
- Google Pay
- WeChat Pay
- Link
- Band redirects
- Klarna (Buy now, Pay Later)
- And even Bank debits!
Stripe charges you a rate (this rate varies depending on your country), but it is relatively low and usually less than 3%.
You can set up your Stripe account to automatically wire your balance to a selected bank account on a daily basis or less frequently, depending on your preferences.
Note that there is a minimum balance to be eligible for payment. As long as your Stripe balance is lower than the minimum defined for your location, your money will sit in your Stripe account until you exceed the minimum balance.
A lot of people use PayPal to make payments online. And don’t get me wrong: PayPal is a great resource. However, you should never rely on one processing payment system.
Especially if that system is Paypal.
Because PayPal can (and will) block your account pretty easily.
In fact, most PayPal business accounts get blocked when processing their first payments.
To unlock your funds, you need to process at least 10 sales or have no disputed sales in the first 90 days after creating your account.
This is not really a problem because you will quickly make these first 10 sales. However, PayPal can hold your funds for verification at any time, and since their customer service relies mostly on chatbots, getting in touch with an actual human is hard.
You definitely want a second payment processing system in case PayPal blocks your funds. Now this doesn’t mean you should skip using Paypal altogether because a lot of people use Paypal to make payments online.
In fact, roughly 30% of my customers purchase my products using PayPal. If you don’t use it, you’re definitely leaving money on the table.
14. Kaboom Pics
If you want free gorgeous stock photos, Kaboom Pics is a resource you must check out!
I absolutely love this website and use its free images on my blog and digital products all the time.
They have a wide range of pictures with mostly beige and natural tones, which makes them perfect for professional blogs.
Furthermore, their content is original, so you can use their photos without being afraid of finding the exact same pictures on other blogs.
15. Styled Stock Society
Styled Stock Society is another great resource for stock photos.
The SSS membership might seem pricey at $40 per month, but trust me, it is well worth the investment!
This site gathers thousands of stock photos, stock videos, social media templates, eBook templates, and even social media prompts you can use to promote your website and products.
These professional templates will help you save a ton of time when creating your opt-ins and paid products and scheduling your content on social media!
Plus, Styled Stock uploads new content every single week.
Still reluctant to pay for a membership?
Subscribe to their newsletter and check your inbox regularly: the company offers big discounts on their memberships at least once a year!
16. Surfer SEO
If you want to get traffic from Google, you need to focus on creating content that will rank high in search results.
Now, this might seem like mission impossible with a new website and low Domain Authority (DA). But hear me out: DA is just one ranking factor among over 200!
If anyone tells you that you need a solid DA to rank on page 1 on Google, don’t listen because it is totally possible when using the right strategies and tools.
And this is exactly what Surfer SEO will help you achieve.
Surfer is an AI-powered tool that will help you optimize blog posts for SEO by analyzing the top search results for your selected keywords.
The online editor will tell you exactly how long your blog post should be, what keywords it needs to include, and how many times you need to include them to rank on page 1 in Google search results.
Thanks to this analysis and other SEO features, you will be able to write a very informative post to get traffic from Google.
When using Surfer SEO, you will quickly realize that the hardest part of the process is not actually writing your content but finding the right keywords to target.
But don’t worry: the following tool on this list will help you with that too!
17. Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest is a keyword research tool that will help you target the right keywords in your blog posts to ensure you rank on Google search results.
SEO tools are game changers when it comes to driving traffic to your website.
Unfortunately, creating high-quality content is no longer enough to grow your audience. You also need to make sure you understand how search engines work and how to please their algorithms.
The easiest way to do it is to target low-competition keywords.
And Ubersuggest will help you find these keywords in just a few clicks.
This tool will show you the keyword difficulty and search volume for each of your keywords and will also suggest related keywords.
Ubersuggest includes many different features in a free and paid plan. The paid plan is definitely worth it because it will help you analyze an unlimited number of keywords, track projects, find keyword opportunities, and even spy on your competition!
There are plenty of keyword research tools.
If you’re lost and don’t know which one to try, Ubersuggest is definitely one of the best SEO tools for beginner bloggers because it is user-friendly and the cheapest alternative available!
18. Convertkit
Another resource you will need to drive traffic to your blog, make sales, and grow your audience is an email marketing tool.
An email marketing tool will help you collect email addresses, schedule and send broadcasts to your email list, and create automations, sequences, and sale funnels to promote your products.
Convertkit is one of the best tools for growing your audience. It is free as long as you have less than 1,000 subscribers!
The only downside of using this platform is the limited number of email templates available.
If you are a creative person (and I bet you are), you will probably want more options to choose from.
But don’t worry; the next tool on this list will help you unleash your creativity.
19. BeeFree
BeeFree is my secret to creating gorgeous email templates for free!
The platform has a ton of email templates you can tweak to create your own templates.
Create your template by dragging and dropping the desired elements in the canvas, and once you are satisfied with the result, export the HTML code of your template.
You will then be able to create a new template in Convertkit by uploading this HTML code.
Note that BeeFree also allows you to create gorgeous landing pages. Unfortunately, you will not be able to export the HTML code of your page to self-host it unless you pay a subscription.
This is the only way to keep control over the web address of your landing page.
I definitely do not recommend using this tool to create landing pages unless you are ready to pay to export the code.
This will allow you to keep control over your web pages and improve your branding and authority.
20. Sendowl
Sendowl is a digital sales platform that will allow you to upload digital paid products and process sales and payments.
To sell your products on the platform, upload your PDF (or a link to your digital product), set a price, and write a product description.
Don’t forget to connect your payment processing systems (Stripe and Paypal, for instance) to receive your funds, and you’ll be ready to make money with your digital products.
21. Podia
Podia is a content management tool that allows users to create and sell online courses, digital downloads, and memberships.
The website also offers a no-code website builder, so you can use it to create a website if you don’t want to use WordPress.
However, I do not recommend using Podia as a blogging platform because, as already mentioned, having a self-hosted website is key to growing an audience and becoming a reference in your niche.
Nevertheless, there is another interesting functionality Podia has to offer: hosting communities.
A community is a space for people with shared interests to connect, collaborate, and learn from each other.
Communities are great for building trust with your audience and can replace Facebook groups.
You can create a free community, which is a great way to offer customers a space to ask questions about a product they purchased, give feedback, or share their wins.
Paid communities are a great upsell to a paid product.
You can, for instance, launch a cheap entry-level product and offer a subscription to a paid community where customers can contact you and ask questions about the content of your course.
Just like Facebook groups, Podia communities are a great way to bond with your audience.
22. WordPress mobile app
The WordPress mobile app is a basic but super useful app you need on your phone as a blogger.
It will let you answer comments on the go, make quick changes to your posts, and work on your drafts.
I doubt you will use it to write blog posts since doing so on a smartphone is not super-efficient. However, it’s really useful to reply to comments and make quick edits to existing blog posts.
Since most of the people who stumble upon my website read my articles on their mobile phones, I reach each and every blog post on my smartphone right after publishing it.
This helps me ensure that user experience and readability are optimized.
Whenever I notice a typo, I just open the blog post on the WordPress app and quickly correct it.
Note that it used to be possible to check stats directly in the WordPress app. However, as of April 2023, you will need to download the Jetpack app to check your stats on the go.
23. Ad Inserter
As you can guess, the Ad Inserter plugin is a WordPress plugin that will allow you to choose where you want to display Google AdSense ads or Mediavine ads on your blog. If you want to display any.
I personally hate ads, so I will never use them to monetize my websites. I rather focus on user experience and branding to sell courses.
But this is just a personal choice. And if you want to monetize your blog using ads, feel free to do so.
Since I am not using ads, you might wonder why I use the Ad Inserter plugin for.
Well, it’s actually a super simple and effective tool to display disclaimers on your blog.
If you want to use affiliate marketing as an additional income stream, you must include a disclaimer before your affiliate links, ideally at the top of each blog post.
To do it using the Ad Inserter plugin, just write your disclaimer in the content editor and select where you want to display it. That’s it!
24. Easy Table of Contents
Depending on your niche, you may need to write long blog posts to rank in Google search results.
Your content needs to be useful and provide a complete answer/solution to your readers’ problems. So you will need to write very informative articles.
A simple way to improve user experience and readability when writing long articles is to add a table of contents at the top of your blog posts.
Using Easy Table of Contents will add a dropdown table of contents at the top of your blog posts.
Each title will be hyperlinked so users can go right to the point.
The best part is that it will only take a few seconds to design your table of contents from scratch with this plugin!
25. Grow Social by Mediavine
To grow your website and audience, you need to make sure people who love your content can share it easily.
One of the easiest ways to do it is to add sharing buttons at the top of each of your blog posts.
Grow Social is a free plugin from Mediavine that will allow your readers to share your content on other platforms with just a click!
This is key to growing your audience and boosting your traffic.
Never underestimate the power of word of mouth; some of the pins that send the most traffic to my websites are pins created by other users sharing my content with Grow Social!
26. Pinterest save button
Another tool you should use as a professional blogger is the Pinterest Save Button.
A lot of bloggers use it to promote 3rd party content. And you should use it too!
Downloading this free browser add-on will allow you to save images from 3rd party websites and publish them on your Pinterest account.
This is very useful, especially when you’re starting out and don’t have enough of your own content to promote on Pinterest.
This free addon will help you build your authority and grow your audience.
To make sure others can use it to share your Pins on Pinterest, share at least one Pinterest-optimized image in each of your blog posts.
Readers will be able to share it by hovering over the image. A Pinterest icon will appear. Clicking it will open a small window allowing them to select the board they want to pin the image to.
The Pinterest Save Button automatically fetches the blog title and meta description from the webpage to create the Pin title and description.
Note that these 3rd party pins will all show as FRESH in the eyes of the Pinterest algorithm.
And this is amazing news!
27. Tailwind browser extension
If you want to use Pinterest to drive traffic to your blog, using Tailwind is key to automating your strategy and saving time so you can focus on other activities.
Just like with the Pinterest Save Button, the Tailwind browser extension will allow you to schedule 3rd party images and add them to your Tailwind queue.
Pinterest’s algorithm will consider all third-party pins scheduled using the extension fresh, which is key to growing on the platform.
Need help with that?
I’ve got your back! Check out the exact Pinterest strategy that helped me get +140,000 pageviews on my blog in January 2023 alone.
28. One Click Demo Import
If you don’t know how to code, the One Click Demo Import plugin will save you a lot of time when installing your theme and tweaking it.
One Click Demo Import, when used with a compatible theme, will allow you to import, in just one click, all demo data pages from your theme.
If the premium theme you use includes demo data, you can import each page with just 3 clicks and less than 60 seconds.
You will then be able to make all the changes you want in a few minutes using Elementor.
Building a website from scratch has never been so easy!
29. Total Upkeep
Another important thing to keep in mind as an online business owner is that you need to make regular backups of your databases and data in general.
Total Upkeep is a free plugin that will allow you to schedule automatic weekly backups and create restoration points before making important changes to your website.
Making regular backups of your database is key to being able to reinstall your site in case something goes wrong.
However, you should also keep in mind to make regular backups of your laptop or synchronize it with a cloud storage service to ensure you don’t lose your data.
As an online business owner, you will use your laptop A LOT!
Losing your data can have a terrible impact on your business, so take a few minutes to install a security plugin now and back up your computer and phone.
Scheduling automatic backups will save you a lot of trouble if you get hacked or lose your computer.
30. Grammarly
Grammarly is probably one of the resources you will use the most as a blogger.
This AI-powered addon will greatly improve the quality of your content by correcting typos and rewriting wordy sentences.
There is nothing more annoying than stumbling upon an article written with poor grammar, so take a few minutes to scan your text with Grammarly before you hit “publish”.
Your readers will thank you.
Although Grammarly works like a charm when it comes to correcting typos, don’t forget that AI tools are not fined-tuned yet, so you should read suggestions before actually accepting them and letting Grammarly rewrite your content.
Once the addon is installed, Grammarly will automatically scan the content you write (on all websites you use!) and suggest corrections.
31. Complianz
Complianz is a WordPress plugin you will only need to use once: when setting up your blog.
This plugin will help you generate disclaimers and other legal pages you need to include on your website to comply with the current laws.
Since regulations vary greatly from country to country, Complianz will ask you where your target audience is located to determine what legal pages to generate.
Note that you do not need to create pages for visitors who will accidentally stumble upon your website. You only need disclaimers for your targeted audience and the regulations that apply in their countries.
Complianz will also allow you to create a cookie banner that will pop up the first time a visitor lands on your website to ask them to accept or deny cookies. This is also a must to comply with regulations, so do not skip this step.
Final Thoughts
Launching a profitable blog in 2024 is definitely harder than it used to be in the past due to higher competition and smarter search engine algorithms.
However, technology evolving at a rapid pace can also be a great help for bloggers and content creators.
Using the right tools to automate and speed up processes can make your blogging journey much easier.
So don’t be afraid to spend time trying them out.
Trying out new tools might seem like a waste of time when your schedule is super busy, but once the learning curve has passed, using these blogging tools will save you a lot of time!
Need more help launching a profitable blog in 2024?
Download the free Blog Launch Checklist to ensure your blog is SEO-optimized and ready to grow!
