THE ULTIMATE BUDGET-FRIENDLY TOOLS KIT FOR BLOGOPRENEURS
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INTRODUCTION:
If you’re newbie blogger looking for a list of the “best blogging tools and resources” to help grow your blog like a weed, I bet you’re at the right spot.
During this 3+ years of blogging, I’ve come up with a list of amazing, budget-friendly blogging tools which saved me up to 40 hours a week. They also helped me save & make more money blogging every month.
I created this resource page to list out the recommendations that I believe are truly valuable based on my own experience. This way you can quickly find great products and services all in one place.
I work on a budget and believe that a ‘penny saved is a penny made’. Hence, I prefer not to suggest something weird or expensive just to fill my pockets from your hard-earned money.
The list contains tools, recommended services, products, and companies that are trustworthy that are mostly FREE. While a few need a little investment but are affordable and within one’s budget. I bet, you can easily save thousands of dollars and run a successful blog, if you can follow my recommendations on this page!
Don’t wait any further, just grab these tools and get going with your startup blog at a minimal cost!
DOMAIN NAME
The single most important decision would be to choose an appropriate domain name. When i comes to domain purchase, Namecheap is the best of all!
Their services have grown in popularity recently owing to low pricing and good customer service. If you wish to register a domain for just 0.88$/yr at NameCheap then use this link. Pretty amazing isn’t it!
Blogging software
If you’re serious about what you’re doing, then you definitely need to choose a blog software that offers UNLIMITED functionality, flexibility and high-end customization. WordPress is one of the most widely preferred platforms because of its flexibility and ease of use for either personal or commercial purposes. Above all, a self-hosted WordPress is an ideal choice as it makes blogging easier and at the same time renders a professional look to the blog.
HOSTING
If domain name is your address, web host is the actual house on the web where your blog lives.
SITEGROUND 60% 0ff!
Get Siteground Hosting for $3.95 (Reg $7.99)
Siteground would be my #1 recommendation!
Hearmefolks was hosted on both Bluehost and Siteground for a year each. And, I found them both to be pretty decent for a newbie blog. While, bluehost is great in terms of affordability/price, Siteground provides an amazing customer support (24/7 live chat).
If you’re scared to migrate your blog from a different host. Trust me, it’s damn easy. Be‘coz Siteground even offers one free transfers/migrations service. Hop on to their Live Chat and they’ll advise you on what you should do to initiate the migration. Sign up via this link to avail a 60% off – $3.95 (instead of $7.99)!
Bluehost 60% 0ff!
HEARMEFOLKS’ READERS SPECIAL: Get Bluehost Discount $2.95 (Reg $7.99)
If you’re on a tight budget, and want something reliable and affordable at the same time. Then, I would definitely recommend Bluehost. You can get started with them for <$3/mon. And, there’s no catch. Suprisingly, true! Their price is unbeatable.
Bluehost is the most recommended web host in the blogging community. Their starter plan (worth 3.95$/month) includes technical support, unlimited bandwidth, and dedicated server upgrades.
When you signup through my link, you can get started for just 2.95$/mon, instead of the regular price of $7.99/month. That’s about 60% off regular price. Additionally, you’ll also get a FREE domain (worth $15) for one year, WordPress Hosting(free 1-click WordPress install), free email, free SSL, 30-day money-back guarantee, and more. That’s a lot of great incentives for just 2.95/month.
Proofreading tool
GRAMMARLY – FREE Spell Checker!
Use proper grammar or your credibility is shot :-X
Even if your content is the best, you will still be judged based on your writing skills. A grammatical error can make your readers’ lose respect for you.
If you’re not comfortable with your writing or aren’t familiar with basic rules of grammar then you need to turn to a dependable source to avoid potential problems. One such best source is GRAMMARLY!
It’s a powerful grammar checking algorithm that makes sure everything you type is easy to read, effective, and mistake-free. It can Instantly fix over 250 types of errors, most of which Microsoft Word can’t find.
Grammarly helps craft mistake-free posts on Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, WordPress and everywhere else on the web – Add to chrome, it’s free!
BLOG DESIGN TOOL KIT
Make your blog pop out of the rest with an awesome logo and a stunning blog template.
LOGO DESIGN
Want a professional looking logo designed for your blog? Then, Fiverr is an amazing market place, with over a million of highly talented designers, for you to help with a ton of services like website/graphic design, header image, or anything else related to your website. The best part is you can get it done for as low as $5 within just 24hrs!
THEME/TEMPLATE
If you’re looking for themes that are free/affordable, responsive, professional looking, SEO optimized, Adsense optimized and built for speed, readability and clarity, choose one of these!
Studiopress is an elite WordPress themes Club, powered by Genesis Framework & serving the community since 2010. If you want to capture attention in the digital space, you have to market yourself. Genesis-powered WordPress websites will help you do just that. Genesis provides the secure and search-engine-optimized foundation for your digital business. It delivers Responsive Turnkey Designs with start of the art theme customization, security, unlimited support, and speed.
This website was once built on Genesis Framework + Market Child Theme. Now I use elementor.
HERE’S THE LIST OF BEST STUDIOPRESS THEMES for 2019:
- Foodie Pro
- Mai Lifestyle Pro
- Business Pro
- Magazine Pro
- Parallax Pro
- Infinity Pro
- Refined Pro
- Altitude Pro
- Daily Dish Pro
- Agent Press Pro
If you’re struggling to choose between Divi and Studiopress, then this might help you decide. Divi Vs Genesis Studiopress – the most comprehensive detailed review (pros and cons of both the platforms).
Looking for beautiful, responsive Feminine WordPress themes?
Restored themes is the place to go. It is an ultimate source of Premium WordPress Themes for Female Entrepreneurs. These themes are stunning and have an elegant look available for $75. You can use them forever, on an unlimited number of sites, and you’ll always have access to support and updates.
FREE & PREMIUM STOCK PHOTOS
I love photos! I personally feel that images are a great way to convey the essence of my post. Moreover placing photos and graphics is incredibly easy with today’s photo sharing websites. Here is a list of few royalty free stock photos I use for my blog.
- Pixabay
- Pexels
- Death to the stock Photo
- PicJumbo
- StockPhotosFor Free
- Gratiography
- Unsplash
- Wiht.co– almost 100 free and freemium sources of stock photos.
Graphics designing tool
Want to add text and graphics to your images and make them appealing, then you need to resort to the most popular photo editing tools that have both free and premium services. I use both Picmonkey and Canva for editing my images.
These tools have proactively influenced my social sharing count on Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook making my images eye-catchy.
seo tools
SEO is the heart of blogging. A blog properly optimized can drive in loads of organic traffic from search engines. A proper SEO tool will bump up your rankings and your income.
KEYWORD RESEARCH
20% DISCOUNT
coupon code : KSDISC
Whenever I come up with a topic, I immediately jump into keyword research to check for competition, average CPC, and keyword word count. I use Keysearch to look up for keywords that I want to rank for.
Keysearch, is an easy to use keyword research tool with in-depth competition analysis, keyword difficulty checker, keywords uggestions, including search volume, CPC & PPC. The free plan is limited to just 3 searches per day, while the basic plan starts at $17/mon. Want to try Keysearch.? Don’t forget to avail a 20% DISCOUNT, with my link & this coupon code ‘KSDISC’.
Jaaxy is another popular keyword research tool by Wealthy Affiliate, that I prefer to find profitable long tail keywords with low SEO competition. The starter plan worth $20/month, is amazing. However, the free trial lets you avail 30 free searches. Sign up here (no credit card needed) and check it out for yourself.
I would definitely suggest a paid plan of either of these tools: Keysearch or Jaaxy to find those profitable golden keywords and start ranking asap!
BACKLINK RESEARCH
I use Ahrefs for my SEO analysis and I believe that it is a must-have for serious digital marketers like you.
Ahrefs – is an ultimate backlink checker and the best of all SEO tools and the #1 tool recommended by pro bloggers. It helps you to learn why your competitors are ranking so high and what you need to do to outrank them. They also have the content explorer, keyword explorer, competitor research, position explorer tracker & more. In simple its a complete toolset for SEO and marketing.
Take a 7-Day Trial of Ahrefs for just $7!
Another gold mine I use is Google Search Console & Google Analytics
These two free SEO tools when used in conjunction can turn a blog from zero to hero. Google analytics if used properly can provide you with tons of actionable data which you need to monitor regularly. Google search console will give a complete overview of a site from an SEO perspective and will notify of crawling errors. You can even analyze traffic metrics and backlinks to your blog using this awesome free tool.
EMAIL MARKETING
is a must if you want to survive in this highly competitive marketing world. Build your list and passive income with the right choice of tools to succeed. A good email marketing service can grow your list just by customizing and sharing built-in signup forms.
I use Mailerlite, It is easy to use, free (upto 1000 subscribers) and requires no credit card. The starter plan allows to send unlimited emails per month. Another free alternative to Mailerlite is Mailchimp.
Mailchimp is free forever (upto 2000 subscribers) and requires no credit card. The starter plan allows to send 12,000 automated emails per month to 2,000 subscribers. But, it isn’t robust like Mailerlite. The signup forms aren’t customizable too. Between Mailerlite and Mailchimp, I’d prefer Mailerlite.
For both, you have to upgrade your free account to 10$/month to grow your list further above, send more emails per month, and take advantage of powerful features.
I use Convert Plus, an all-in one email list building plugin, which you can integrate to either Mailchimp or Mailerlite. You can create and freely design any type of opt-in forms, pop up forms, discount coupons, hello bar and grow your list faster than ever before.
If you want to build a profitable mailing list then Convert Plus can be your choice, available for a one time payment of just $23.
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Social Warfare is an awesome wordPress plugin that adds beautiful, lightning-fast social share buttons to your website or blog. But that’s only the beginning.
It gives your site super powers that finally makes your post share worthy. It display social share counts prominently (even Twitter tweet counts). “After installing Socil Warfare I straight away saw an increase in social shares and traffic.
This is a powerful psychological tool to encourage more shares and BY FAR the best looking social sharing plugin I have seen till date available for just 29$! Try it out for 45 days and if you don’t love it, avail your money-back with no questions asked.
TAILWIND
I can’t conclude this page without mentioning this amazing app, that made marketing easier and skyrocketed my blog traffic with minimal work. If you’re using either Pinterest or Instagram.
Nowadays it hard to network and promote on multiple platforms. Tailwind is a Social Media Scheduling & Marketing Tool that stole my heart. It’s a must and extremely affordable app for Small Businesses & Bloggers. Why? Because, this SMART budget-friendly app, SAVES hours of work and makes my posts viral within a week of publishing them on Pinterest. (More traffic, More eye balls, hence More money!).
I use the tailwind unlimited plan to schedule my posts both on Pinterest and Instagram. The free plan allows up to 100 free pins per account. While, the annual plan offers unlimited pinning for just $9.99/mon (this includes, Instagram scheduling too!). Isn’t it amazing for an amazing price?
For the money I make (on Pinterest), scheduling is extremely important (to maintain consistency) and Tailwind investment is worth every penny to achieve that with ease. Above all, the returns are amplified. As I said, Tailwind helps me from burning out myself due to repetitive manual pinning in order to maintain consistency on Pinterest & Instagram. Its kind of a ‘Set it and forget It’ model!
Try it out yourself for FREE, its a game changer!
Here are the most promising features of tailwind app:
It allows you to do bulk image upload, multi-board pinning and scheduling both on Pinterest and Instagram with TRENDING hashtag recommendations. Maximizes you reach by scheduling at the best times – when your audience is most engaged. Tailwind browser extension lets you easily create multiple posts from any site with one click – even repins on Pinterest and regrams on Instagram!
The best part is Tailwind tribes which widely enhances the visibility and share-ability of pins. Tailwind offers deep analytics and insights to measure success to find out what’s working and what’s not. You’ll reach more of the right people by having the best Instagram hashtags automatically suggested by their Hashtag Finder.
Besides that, Tailwind also offers high-end analytics and pinning slots with ‘best times’ for scheduling right at the best times to either group boards or even your own boards and in intervals.
So, what else can you expect? Tailwind offers everything you need to grow your traffic and amplify your reach. Start Scheduling like a Pro, right at the best times!
CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR FIRST 100 PINS ON TAILWIND FOR FREE!
Phew! That’s it guys..I’m done for now.
Will come up with more worthy stuff. In the meantime, get started with your blogging journey.
There is a lot involved in turning your blog into a profitable business.
Want more? Keep looking for latest updates to this page.
Which of these tools do you use for your business? What’s are your personal recommendations?
