Spotlight on the 38 Essential Tools for Bloggers

Starting a blog can be both exciting and a bit overwhelming, especially when you’re figuring out everything from writing your first post to getting your site noticed by search engines. I get it—it can feel like there’s so much to do, and not all of it is easy to figure out. But here’s the good news: you don’t have to do it all alone. I’ve put together a list of 38 essential tools for bloggers, to help take the stress out of the process and set you up for success.

These tools have worked for me personally, and I think you will be able to replicate my success with the resources in this blog post. Whether you’re just starting your blog or ready to take it to the next level, these tools will help with everything from content creation to growing your audience and even making money from your blog. I’m excited to share these with you because, trust me, the right tools can make all the difference.

Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. If you click on them, I may earn a commission, at no additional cost to you.  See my disclaimer page for more information.

Essential Tools for Bloggers – Tools & Resources

➡ Email Marketing Platform

01. Kit (Formerly Convertkit)

The money is in the list. It doesn’t matter how brand new you are to blogging, you need to be growing and nurturing your email subscriber list TODAY.

Kit is an email marketing platform that creatives use to grow their subscriber list. I have tried other email platforms, and I stuck with Kit for a long time, simply because it is the easiest to use. It also a high, reliable deliverability rate (99.73%).

So what’s in it for you to use Kit? High email deliverability rates are essential for an email marketing platform to have in the blogging business because sending emails is how you nurture your list (and eventually turn them into leads, hopefully).

One of my favorite features of Kit, is the ability to set up my email copy, sales funnels, and automations ahead of time. Then I can just forget about it, because the software automatically sends my emails for me. This means your audience is nurtured, but you don’t have to worry about sending emails in the middle of the day when you’re busy, and you don’t have to question if it’s going to be delivered or not. What a relief.

I have also found that setting up automations within Kit is the easiest of the email marketing platforms. This task has the potential to get complex, and I didn’t realize how hard other platforms make it until I saw how easy Kit made it. Creating automations with Kit felt intuitive to me, even as a Kit beginner.

02. Flodesk

I absolutely love the beautiful email templates that Flodesk has. If you are looking for aesthetic, on-brand emails to send to your audience, well, Flodesk just can’t be beat. It also has easy workflows (automations) and ways to embed forms into your content. I really like that I can use my premium fonts in this platform. My average deliverability rate with Flodesk is 99.5%.

➡ Drag-and-Drop Website Builder

03. Showit

Showit is a drag-and-drop webpage builder that connects with WordPress and the one I use currently. It allows users to create visually stunning, custom websites without coding knowledge, offering features like a visual editor and templates (both free and paid options). Showit also hosts for your website and content files, so you don’t have to pay for separate hosting.

Note: Showit does not host your domain name, so you need to make a one-time purchase from a domain registrar, and connect the domain to Showit via DNS records. For example, I bought sarahgracevogler.com from Namecheap, for only $9.16. If you currently already have a blog on WordPress.org, WordPress.com, or Squarespace, Showit offers free, complete blog migration to Showit. I just submitted the migration request and they moved it all for me. This saves so much time.

For a free month of Showit, click this link to get started.

04. Elementor

Elementor is a webpage builder plugin in WordPress. It allows users to create custom web layouts, design elements, and styling without the use of coding. Elementor allows you to visualize your website as you design it, so you see exactly what your visitors will see.

You can even upload free or premium templates to Elementor, with the majority of the design done for you, and then you can customize them as you wish.

As someone who had no idea about web design or CSS coding, this plugin was a lifesaver for me when I first started blogging. With my very limited tech knowledge, I was still able to create a website that I was proud of, all by myself.

05. Davey & Krista (Elementor & Showit Website Templates)

Davey & Krista create BEAUTIFUL Showit and Elementor website templates. You can buy full websites, add-on pages, and even get custom designs on templates and branding.

Use coupon code NQXSJOKBC1 for 15% off Davey & Krista products.

➡ Online Learning Platform (to learn)

Udemy and Skillshare are both online learning platforms that you can use for prossional development. On both platforms, you can learn new skills or refine your current expertise. You can learn anything you want: digital marketing, copywriting, sales funnels, email marketing, content creation and more. It is my opinion that you should never stop learning in this industry, and if you do, you’ll be left behind. Take a look at some of my favorite courses on each platform below

06. SkillShare

Click here to get a free month of Skillshare. Here are some Skillshare courses that I found to be especially helpful:

• “Digital Marketing Strategy: Profitable Sales Funnel Mastery: By Maggie Stara
• “Email Marketing for Beginners – Growing your list and Biggest Mistakes Copywriters Make” By Jun Wu
• “Customer Service Mastery:Delight Every Customer” By Chris Croft

07. Udemy

Here are some of my favorite Udemy courses, that I found to be so valuable:

• “Build a Six-Figure Online Business Selling Online Courses” By Eli Natoli
• “Digital Marketing: Lead Generation & Sales Conversion Course” By Eli Natoli
• “Sales with ChatGPT AI – Negotiation Marketing Funnels Leads” By Jun Wu
• “DESIGN RULESl Principles + Practices for Great UI Design” By Joe Natoli

➡ Online Learning Platform (to teach and monetize)

08. Thinkific

Thinkific is an online learning platform that you can use to create online courses. You only need to do this if you are wanting to create a lead magnet, or a course to sell. The free version only allows you to create one course, but one course is all you need to start making money! I created my online course, How to Start a Blog on Thinkific, and would recommend it to anyone that wants to get started with online courses, without the cost on the front end.

09. LearnPress

If you would like to keep your blog and online course all together on the same platform, try the LearnPress plugin on WordPress. LearnPress is a learning management system, in which you can create course lessons and quizzes for your audience. The best part about it: IT IS COMPLETELY FREE!

➡ Website Hosting

10. Bluehost

Bluehost is a hosting provider recommended by WordPress, and by me. Hosting plans start at just $2.95 a month (but I recommend the Choice Plus plan that they offer for only $5.45/month. The Choice Plus plan is still affordable, but offers you more security, backups, and storage).

With Bluehost, all WordPress plans come with a free domain for one year, 24/7 customer support, a free SSL, custom WordPress themes and one year of professional email service. 

One of my favorite features of Bluehost is that it installs WordPress for you. I also like that WordPress has a domain registration option, so I can manage my domain and hosting under one account. It’s not a necessity, but I find it helpful in making things easier.

For more information on How to start a WordPress Blog on Bluehost, see my online course: How to Start a Blog.

11. BigScoots

BigScoots is another website hosting provider that I have used and, I was impressed with. They offer free website migrations and 90-second support 24/7/365. Additionally, BigScoots users get the added benefit of Cloudflare to optimize website speed and page load times. If top-notch speed and performance are on the top of your priority list, Managed Hosting for WordPress is the best way to go. You will also get more personalized support from their excellent support team with this hosting plan.

I like both hosting platforms for different reasons. If budget is a concern, or if you haven’t started making money in your business yet, Bluehost is probably the more affordable option. If you are making some money and performance is important to you, BigScoots is the speediest option.

RELATED: How Bloggers Make Money in 2025

With that being said, I use Showit as my website host AND drag-and-drop website builder. It’s the best platform for all of your needs (making it super easy for you, whether you are a beginner or just need to save time), and by far, my favorite.

➡ Content Management System

12. WordPress.org

WordPress is a content management system (CMS) that houses all of the digital content of your website, so you can create it, store it, and share it.

WordPress.org is an open-source, self-hosted platform. This specific WordPress platform (WordPress.ORG, rather than WordPress.COM) allows for full website customization and plugin installation, without hidden fees. WordPress.org provides the most flexibility in web design, security measures, monetization, and functionality.

This platform allows you to monetize your website any way you choose and does not force you to share the revenue with anyone.

With WordPress.org, you 100% own the content on your website. The domain name that you purchase is not shared with a subdomain, giving your brand a more professional look. With a self-hosted platform, you do have to purchase a hosting plan and domain up front, but the customization and monetization options are beyond worth it.

I specifically mention all of these features, because they are essential if you are wanting to make money from your blog. Free hosted options, includingWordPress.COM, just don’t offer these features. And if they do, they are at a premium.

The verdict: A self-hosted WordPress.ORG is the best option.

➡ SEO Tools

13. Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO Plugin is so helpful with reminding you to incorporate all the little details that make up SEO (Search Engine Optimization) best practices (like making sure your keyword is found in all the necessary places in your blog post). And I honestly don’t know how to even write a meta description without the Yoast SEO plugin. It gives suggestions on how you can improve your SEO score. I also love the SEO academy to learn all the ins and outs of SEO that I didn’t know before.

Yoast SEO has a free and premium version. I have the premium version, because I just don’t have time to try to remember all the rules of SEO. Yoast SEO has my back. It even creates an XML site map for Google and Rich pins for Pinterest.

14. Moz

Moz is an SEO tool that has a variety of free features. My favorite is the MozBar Chrome Extension. If you have taken Mike Futia’s course, Stupid Simple Blogging, you know how valuable the MozBar tool is! When you search for a topic on Google that you are interested in writing a blog post about, MozBar tells you the domain authority (DA) of the sites that rank highest in the search results. This lets you know if you have a chance to rank for that topic (because if all the search results on the first page of Google have a high DA and you don’t you probably have a low chance of ranking for that keyword).

Moz also has a keyword explorer, backlink explorer and does competitor research, all for free.

➡ Graphic Design Program

15. Canva

Canva is a drag-and-drop graphic design platform that you can use to make graphics for your blog, like infographics, social media graphics and more. Since I am someone with no graphic design experience, I found Canva to be so easy for a beginner to learn how to use.

Now that I am more established in my blog, I do use the premium version of Canva (which is still only $10 a month!), simply because I loved the app so much and I didn’t want to be restricted with how I could use it. But if you are wanting to save your money, the free version still works great.

I also use Canva to create digital products that I sell, like digital planners, and for the lead magnets that I give away for free on my website, like the digital planner below. Enter in your name and email and I’ll have this digital planner sent to your inbox in a jiffy!

➡ Social Media Management

16. Tailwind

Tailwind is a Pinterest scheduling tool that auto-posts pins for you. It allows you to you are consistently post, without having to sit at your computer all day to do it. This tool recommends best times to post, so you don’t even have to worry about figuring out when your audience is most active. The free version only allows 5 posts per month though.

➡ Analytics

17. Google Analytics

Google Analytics can give you insight into what posts performed well and what didn’t, so you can keeping making more of what your audience wants to read. You can also learn information on customer acquisition, behaviors and conversions.

➡ Online Marketplace

18. Creative Market

Creative Market is my favorite place to get digital products for my business. The quality of products offered on this platform really stands out above the rest. I get several of my templates from actual graphic designers.

Yes, sometimes I make my own digital products, but I will buy from here if I am short on time, or have an idea in my head that I just can’t make look the way I want it to.

➡ Content & Keyword Research

19. AnswerThePublic

AnswerThePublic is a visual tool that you can use for keyword research and content ideas. It analyzes search behavior to reveal the questions, prepositions, and comparisons people are making online about a specific topic, which helps you understand what your audience is looking for. With the free version, you get up to three daily searches.

The results are then displayed in this visual wheel, which you can filter by your audience’s frequently asked questions and keywords they are searching for.

➡ File Management

20. Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest is my favorite free keyword research tool. It generates lists of popular keywords, and ranks them by search volume and/or keyword difficulty. It also gives SEO suggestions, gives content ideas, and analyze backlinks for you and your competitors. There is also a chrome extension available for Ubersuggest, if you find that way easier to use. I also like that if you decide to dabble in some premium features of Ubersuggest (like more search results or advanced SEO tools), you can buy them al la carte, at only $5/month. But frankly, I find the free version works for me just fine.

21. Google Workspace (Drive, Sheets, Docs, Forms)

Google Sheets is my best blogging friend. It’s like Microsoft Excel, but it’s free and you can access it from any computer, because it is stored online on your Google Drive. I use it to organize my affiliate links, and content ideas. A lot of my blogging friends also use Google Sheets/Docs to create digital templates to use as lead magnets or to sell. Google Docs is like Microsoft Word, and I sometimes use it to write the rough drafts for my blog posts. Google Drive houses all of these documents so you can access them anywhere, anytime. All you need is a free google account to get started.

➡ Backup and Security

22. Jetpack

I have screwed up my website more times than I can count, and I’ve had the “oh shit, I don’t know how to fix this” moment multiple times. Thankfully, I’ve got Jetpack VaultPress Backup, which backs up my complete website everyday and keeps the backups for 30 days. So whenever I royally screw up, I can always revert back to the previous day’s version of my website. This has saved me so many times. Jetpack also links to Akismet Antispam, which is a plugin that I have on my website to prevents spam and bots on my website.

➡ Content Creation

23. Grammarly

Grammarly points out my grammar and spelling mistakes to me, so that I can fix them on the spot. It works across all apps and websites that I use and I even have an extension of Grammarly that I use on text messages that send on my phone. The free version of Grammarly also allows you to use their AI feature for up to 100 monthly prompts to generate text, but I mainly just use it for correcting my grammar and spelling.

➡ Productivity

24. Airtable

Airtable is my favorite free tool for organizing my blog posts ideas, AI prompts, customer personas, and more. You can create a grid, calendar, Kanban or gallery view in Airtable, whatever works the best with your brain.

➡ Designer Fonts

25. Jen Wagner Co.

The headlines and subheadlines in this blog post are a font created by Jen Wagner: Editor’s Note. It is literally my favorite font of all time. Designer fonts can help your blog and website stand out from the competition, because everyone uses the free fonts.

26. The Freebies Vault

I created the resources The Freebies Vault, with YOU and your needs in mind. Check out my Freebies Vault, which includes:

• The Blog Planner: a 40-page blog planner that includes an undated content calendar, checklists, SEO, and content strategy.
• The Pre-Launch Blog Checklist: a 49-point checklist to make sure you start your blog off the right way.
• 85 Blog Post Headlines that Convert: blog ideas for any niche
• Fifty 5-minute Blogging Tasks: fit blogging tasks in the pockets of time you have in your day. Perfect if you are a parent and/or work full-time in addition to running your blog.
• 600 Opt-In Freebie Ideas: Find a lead magnet idea that your audience will love, no matter what your niche is.

Essential Tools for Bloggers – Online Education

➡ Free Blog Education

27. The Service First Framework

This is one of THE BEST freebies I have ever received in my life. The Service First Framework is an ebook written by Eli Natoli. She is a Business Marketing Strategist,and she has a GIFT of understanding your client’s needs on a deeper level. Everypiece of her content that I have consumed has been amazing.

Eli’s business is centered around providing and leading clients with SERVICE first. This book focuses on that principle but also teaches you how to develop your own signature framework around an offer to get more customers. It details a unique 5-part sales funnel to attract and convert your exact target audience.

Read this book. I’m telling you, you’re going to have light bulbs to start going off in your head when you do.

28. The Perfect Blog Plan

The Perfect Blog Plan is a free ecourse created by Suzi Whitford of Start a Mom Blog. It is a step-by-step, 12-month plan that Suzi followed herself to scale her blogging business to making $10k a month! 

The blog plan gives you an exact blueprint of the steps you need to take to grow your blog, your website traffic, your email list, and your profits. It comes with a course workbook to aid you in creating your own profitable blogging plan.

If you are a new blogger (or even experienced), and feel confused about what steps to take next in your blogging business, this guide is for you.

RELATED: How to Write a Nursing Blog

29. Affiliate Marketing Tips for Bloggers

As a beginner blogger, I used to think that I could just slap an affiliate link on a blog post, and the people would come running to buy it. Well, that didn’t happen.

That’s because there is an art and science to affiliate marketing. And Michelle Schroeder-Gardner from Making Sense of Cents has got it figured out!

Michelle earns over $50,000 A MONTH, just from affiliate marketing! She wrote a free 36-page ebook, Affiliate Marketing Tips for Bloggers. In the ebook, she answers how she got started making this much money with affiliate marketing, and how bloggers can get paid using her same methods. The ebook lists out the best affiliate marketing programs for bloggers, and includes 26 affiliate marketing tips. 

30. Done-for-you PLR Content

Some creators use Private Label Rights (PLR) digital products in their business, to save time and increase productivity. Suzanne and Tracy at Piggy Makes Bank, have several done-for-you PLR email script templates, blog posts, and ebooks available for free (there are premium options available as well).

31. Blog Traffic Bonus Guide

Lena at What Mommy Does wrote a free ebook, Blog Traffic Bonus Guide, which explains the foundational strategies of driving traffic to your blog. In the ebook, you will learn how to create content to get more page views, and how to give your readers exactly what they want and need. You will also learn the types of posts you MUST publish to generate traffic.

This ebook is the prequel to another book that I mention in the next section, Traffic Transformation: 21 Strategies I used to go from 17K to 400K page views in 10 months.

32. Legally Blogs

Blogs are required to comply with laws and regulations that oversee online activities. This may include, but is not limited to data protection, privacy laws and disclosure regulations. And if you’re anything like me, you have no idea where to even start with that.

Thank goodness for Lucrezia at Blogging for New Bloggers. She is an international lawyer and a GDPR expert. She has created several legal templates and courses for bloggers, to help them stay compliant. The course that I am specifically referencing is ‘Legally Blogs‘.

Legally Blogs is a free course that teaches about the legal requirements of blogging and the legal pages you need to include on your blog. It also introduces you to protecting your blog content with copyrights. It explains what CCPA and GDPR are(because even though I mentioned it earlier, I have no idea).

This course is a good introduction to the legal documents you need to include on your blog and if you decide you pay for the legal templates, Lucrezia and Marina have you covered there too.

33. 100 Tips to Make Money Blogging

Elna at Twins Mommy made over $68K, just from affiliate marketing, and that was back in 2022! She created a list of 100 proven tips that she uses to make money in her own blogging business.

Get 100 Tips to Make $1000 Blogging, so you can replicate her tactics and scale your blog to generate over $20K a month, like Elna.

RELATED: The Best FREE Tools Every Blogger Should Know About

➡ Premium Blog Education (but COMPLETELY worth every penny)

34. Stupid Simple Blogging

$299 annually (includes 4 months free) OR $39 monthly

Stupid Simple Blogging is an comprehensive online course that reviews SEO, Pinterest, and blogging IN-DEPTH, and in a way you won’t find anywhere else. Mike Futia only opens up this course a few times a year, so if you are interested in the course, you should go ahead and sign up for the waitlist here. ← ← ←

Stupid Simple Blogging will likely be the most expensive course on this list, but the information in this course is worth it. It is a course on increasing organic website traffic and improving Google rankings th5ough Search Engine Optimization (SEO). I thought I understood the basics of SEO before I took Stupid Simple Blogging. I’m here to tell you….

I had NO idea before this course.

Some of the course curriculum topics include:

• Keyword Research
• Competitor Keyword Research
• Domain Authority
• Content formulas and strategies to get your articles to get your articles to rank on page one of Google search 

This list oversimplifies the course curriculum when really Mike takes his students on a DEEP dive into these topics. You won’t find a course like this anywhere else.

35. Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing $197

As I mentioned in the free courses section, Michelle from Making Sense of Cents is my go-to expert on all things affiliate marketing (I mean, she DOES make over $50K a month, just from affiliate marketing!).

Even though Michelle wrote a free ebook on affiliate marketing, I also found the paid course to be helpful in my marketing strategy.

Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing taught me how to frame and present my affiliate products in a way that makes my readers actually want to click on them. It reviews the rules of affiliate marketing that you must follow, how to get accepted to affiliate programs, and long-term strategies to earn money from your affiliate links.

I recommend Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing to new or experienced bloggers, because just slapping an affiliate link on your website, ain’t it.

36. Traffic Transformation $79

Lena at What Mommy Does wrote the ebook Traffic Transformation and it’s good stuff, folks.

She got tired of her blog traffic not matching the amount of work she was putting into it. So, she committed to learning and applying one thing that would increase her blog traffic per day.

The result was she increased her page views from 17K to 400K in 10 months! Traffic Transformation shares 21 actionable steps that Lena took to get these results. Her customers have repeated these steps and had similar results. Traffic Transformation is a no-brainer.

37. Pinteresting Strategies $97

Pinterest can be a HUGE source of traffic to your blog, so I feel like learning the platform (I mean REALLY learning it) is almost essential.

Carly at Mommy on Purpose gets over 100K page views per month to her blog from Pinterest! In her course Pinteresting Strategies 2.0, she teaches her exact strategies for consistently bringing in this amount of traffic 

She has hacked the Pinterest algorithm, and not only shares her secrets in this course, but she updates it when it changes. Pinteresting Strategies teaches optimal pin design practices (and even gives you some Pinterest pin templates!). It also teaches you Pinterest SEO, and how Pinterest can improve your SEO ranking on Google.

Pinteresting Strategies is essential for beginner bloggers, because you need traffic, and Pinterest will deliver if you follow the strategies in this course.

38. The Content Lab $197

Jenna Kutcher is one of my favorite creators, because she is just so dang real. Her course, The Content Lab, helped me understand how to REALLY connect to my audience through my content. She reveals her 5-step system for creating effective content, and how to repurpose it, to extend its shelf.

Repurposing content used to feel like just one more thing on my to-do list, and one more thing I had to figure out how to do. The Content Lab gives you an exact schedule and strategy to repurpose your content, so you barely have to even think about it.

My favorite part of the course is learning how to really connect with your audience like Jenna does.

What did you think of these tools and resources in this blog post? It’s alot, so just give one a try at a time. Have you ever used any of these tools before? Let me know in the comments. And don’t forget to sign up for the free 2026-2027 digital planner. All you need is a free Canva account to access it (after you submit your email address below and it comes straight to your inbox, of course!)