Blogging can seem a bit overwhelming, especially when you are trying to make it into a business. There is the Social Media you need to worry about, creating amazing content on a weekly basis, coming up with wonderful newsletters for your subscribers, reaching out to people to collaborate with and so much more…it can get hectic and rather than being fun, it becomes exhausting.
Thankfully, we live in a time where we have apps and programs that can help us with all of these things. There are many programs that can be quite expensive, but there are also good ones for free.
As someone who uses a lot of these programs and apps, here are some of my favorites that help me with my blog and social media.
Free Social Media Tools
1) Crowdfire
Crowdfire has become one of my favorite apps. This amazing app helps me promote my blog on Twitter, without spending too much time on Twitter. The best part is that I can schedule a whole bunch of posts without any charges. This app is absolutely free (unless you upgrade to one of their plans) and it has helped me go from 200 followers to now 500+ followers. You can also use Crowdfire for other social media platforms, but I mostly just use it for my Twitter. It is easy to use and sends a daily report card to show you how you are doing.
2) Tailwind
If you just don’t have time for Pinterest, then this is the program to use. Tailwind allows you to schedule your pins for a few weeks, so once you schedule the pins you don’t have to worry about Pinterest for a while. Tailwind also offers suggestions based on what you usually pin. They also have a section where you can optimize your content, which is an amazing feature that will help you figure out what pins are working and what days to post.
Tailwind offers everything one needs to be successful on Pinterest and has helped me gain some followers. There is also a tribe section, which is wonderful! You share your pins with your tribe and your tribe will repin your pin, which increases the view of your post. They do offer a free month trial, but they mostly have paid plans for those interested in getting all the features Tailwind offers.
If you use my referral link, you will receive one free month of the Tailwind Plus, which is $119/year or $15 a month.
3) Plann
Plann is an Instagram planning app, that helps plan your Instagram posts in advance. If you’ve noticed that a few Instagrammers have a pattern going on with their theme, then they most likely plan it out. I use this app every single day to plan my posts in advance and to also check on my performance by checking out the analytics.
4) Planoly
Planoly is almost the same as Plann, except that Planoly will automatically post your Instagram posts, once you schedule them. Instead of having to approve your Instagram post like you would have to with Plann, Planoly will post it at the time you choose. I also use this one because of this one feature, but I also like looking at the calendar, which shows me what I schedule and when it will be posted.
5) Focalmark
Hashtags are an important part of Instagram, which is why I use Focalmark. Focalmark gathers hashtags based on human research and a ranking algorithm. You can find all sorts of hashtags for different categories as well as hashtags based on location and camera. This has made my life easier when it comes to looking for hashtags.
6) Buffer
There’s plenty of scheduling tools out there, but I like to use Buffer to schedule Facebook posts. Not only do I find Buffer simple to use, but I like that Buffer allows me to put many of my social media profiles under my account. This allows me to have easy access to them, when scheduling posts. Buffer like Planoly will also post your posts automatically without having to go through an approval process. So once you schedule your post, you won’t have to worry about it later. You can also add team members to your account and Buffer can also post on Instagram.
Free Blogging Tools
7) Mail Chimp – If you are wanting a free service and you don’t have many subscribers, than this is the perfect email service to start out with. I use Mail Chimp and love how manageable it is. As a free user, you have a lot of choices and it doesn’t seem like there are many limits. I also like the analytics I get from this service and the layout options as well.
8) Canva – If you’re looking for an easy way to design your blog post images, then you should try Canva. Canva has thousands of templates, photos, graphics and elements you can use free of charge. The best part is that it is so simple to use and even has tutorials on how to design. it’s such a great tool to use and only takes a few minutes.
9) Yoast SEO – People have asked me time and time again about SEO. I’m no expert with SEO, but what has helped me alot has been the plugin I use on WordPress called – Yoast SEO. Yoast makes SEO easy for me by teaching me what I need to do to make my post SEO friendly. This plugin has helped me tremendously with SEO and it is also a plugin that was recommended to me by an SEO pro. There are other plugins I use as well to improve my blog, but I will be talking about those in a separate post.
10) Creative Market – If you need layouts, fonts etc…Creative Market has thousands to choose from. They have some great designs that will really give your blog a personal touch. They also have a section, where they offer free goods every week! I’ve gotten plenty of their free goods – from resume templates to handmade fonts. If you’d like to checkout their free section, see below for what they have available this week.
Powered by Creative Market
There’s plenty of tools out there for bloggers, but these are the ones I like to use the most. These have all helped me to grow more and have really improved my time management as well. So if you ever feel that you don’t have enough time to blog or post, try using one of these tools and watch how much more time you will have on your hands.
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Disclaimer: There are a few affiliate links on this post, but as always all opinions are my own.
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