Are Your Blogging Tools in Order?
Every Blogger needs the right Blogging Tools in their toolbox.
Turning up to work armed with the wrong tools is kinda like burning green wood. It burns, but it takes aaaayyyggesss to light and won’t deliver half the heat of dry, seasoned timber.
Not to mention all that smelly smoke… (cough cough)
Instead of spending your time struggling to get your blogging fire started with your bare hands, let the right blogging tools do the heavy lifting for you.
I’d rather be relaxed and comfortable with my family and doing the things I love than endlessly clicking away on the mouse when I don’t have to. So from where I’m sitting, it makes a whole lotta sense to call in the technology to make my blogging life easier.
This list includes only tools that I use, have used, or have very highly recommend from trusted sources. Some are free, some are paid.
If you decide to buy any of the premium tools below, I may receive some commission – (this is what keeps Blogger’s Alchemy up and running – so thanks in advance!)
Blogging Tools – the Basics
Blog Software
WordPress.org – still the best blogging software by far for most purposes. It’s free, but you’ll need hosting & domain.
If you really have no budget at all at all, or don’t plan to make any income from your blog, WordPress.com will get you started without cost. But I highly recommend the minimal hosting and domain fees to go with WordPress.org.
Hosting
Hostgator – World Class hosting, fantastic support, various plans and levels available. Support from these guys is unbelievable, they’ve even helped me fix problems on the spot which had nothing to do with hosting. Thumbs up!
VPS.net – Top quality, great value Cloud hosting (it’s fast!)
Domain
GoDaddy – Register your domain name here, I’ve used GoDaddy for all my domain names, their customer service and ease of use is superb (discount thru this link)
For help on choosing a domain and blog name, read my post on creating blog names
Theme
Flexibility 3 – free, simple, extremely customizable
Thesis – Very popular, custimizable and optimized WP theme. If you want to get creative with it
StudioPress – Makers of Genesis – another popular, professional and optimized premium theme
Swift – The fastest WordPress theme (I’m currently using this, though not the latest version – yet)
AutoResponder
MailChimp – free for small numbers (but you can’t use it for any kind of affiliate marketing)
AWeber – The best autoresponder and email broadcast software on the web
WP Subscribers – Total subscription form integration – my new favorite list building software
Analytics
Google Analytics – the standard, highly recommended (read my intro to Google Analytics). You’ll also need the Google Analytics plugin
Clicky Analytics – Simpler, friendlier and fluffier than Google – again, you’ll need the Clicky plugin too
WordPress.com Stats – Simple Analytics
Content Distribution Networks (CDN)
Either of these will provide security and speed up your site. read my CloudFlare and Incapsula reviews for more info (pick one, they do the same job)
Incapsula – I’m using this one at the moment, you’ll need the Incapsula plugin too
CloudFlare – I’ve also used this one, and like it a lot. Here’s the CloudFlare plugin
SEO & Keyword Tools
Google’s Keyword Tool – free, basic keyword research tool
Market Samurai – The best keyword research tool available (contact me for a discount!)
SpyFu – Spy on your competitors keywords (read my SpyFu Review)
SEOQuake – Useful SEO Statistics tool (read my SEOQuake Review)
SEMRush – Similar to SpyFu, good for ‘investigating’ competitiors keywords
Blog Speed Optimization Tools
Pingdom – Gives a great breakdown of eash element no your page
Which Loads Faster – fun way to compare sites
YSlow – more detail, requires Firebug Firefox plugin
Gtmetrix – identifies slow loading ‘trouble spots’
W3 Total Cache – Excellent caching plugin which speeds up your blog loading time
WP Super Cache – Like Total Cache but with no settings to tweak. If the thought of tinkering about ‘under the hood’ makes you feel nautious, use Super Cache instead (but don’t use both!)
Gravatar Local Cache – caches Commenter Gravatars
WP Smush.it – Compresses your images automatically
Pixlr.com – Use this to optimize your images before uploading – read my post on image size optimization for a simple tutorial
Useful WordPress Plugins
CommentLuv Premium Does loads of cool stuff. Builds community, helps create systematic deep backlinks… It’s my favorite plugin. Read my CommentLuv Premium Review to discover why.
ReplyMe Let your commenters know that you’ve replied to their comments
WordPress SEO Hands down the best SEO meta-data plugin available
Fast Secure Contact Form is a good way to your readers get in touch with you
Plus One Profits Allows you to transfer +1 clicks and redirect visitors who click on the +1. Another fave, I don’t use this enough. I wrote about it in my post on Getting More +1′s
Sharebar is the plugin I use to add floating social sharing buttons to the side of my posts and pages
Other Handy Tools
SocialMonkee Builds free backlinks
Alexa.com – Site traffic ranking resource (read my Alexa review post)
WiseStamp – Customizable email signatures
Jing – Easy to use software for creating video ‘screencasts’
It’s possible to get some good results without using these tools. But I guarantee you that your results will be better (easier and faster too) if you do.
Got any questions about these blogging tools?
Wondering about other tools that I haven’t mentioned here, or which tools you should be using for certain tasks?
Shoot me an email, I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
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