A detailed list of the best resources and tools for bloggers. Everything you need to create, manage and promote your lifestyle, fashion or travel blog.
I often get asked about the best resources and tools for bloggers. I know how important this is because having a comprehensive list of top blogging tools would have been a tremendous resource for me when I started blogging a few years ago.
I put together a detailed list of all my highly recommended tools, apps, plugins and platforms—all the resources you need to help you manage your lifestyle, fashion or beauty blog—to make blogging easier and more productive for you.
I only recommend products and services that I use and love because I know that having the right blogging tools can make or break your efforts. If you’re just getting started as a blogger or online content creator, use the list of publishing resources below to help get started on your journey.
The Best Resources and Tools for Bloggers
Website and Hosting
Bluehost is what I use to host my website, this blog and as the registrar for all my domain names. It’s reliable and they have good customer service.
You won’t regret hosting your site here. They have some of the lowest prices ($3.95/mo) and you can easily get your WordPress site + blog up and running in minutes. Sign up to get started with your Bluehost by using my affiliate link. It’s one of the best resources and tools for bloggers.
WordPress.org is the gold standard in content management systems (CMS). It’s used by more than 74 million sites that publish new posts every second. This widely used CMS has become a favorite among businesses because of how powerful of a tool it is. WordPress is free, secure and SEO-friendly.
Squarespace is another great platform to create and host an amazing online presence. Whether you need simple pages, striking galleries, a professional blog or an online store, it’s all included. Best of all, everything is mobile-ready right from the start. They also have great customer services and helpful tips.
Themes
Creative Market is my go-to source for website themes, blog themes, templates, fonts, patterns and overall great ideas for designing and branding online content. Creative Market is one of the best resources and tools for bloggers.
Bluchic creates cost-effective feminine WordPress Themes for websites and blogs; with design-to-match business card, social media, newsletter templates and pre-made logos. If you’re an event planner, life coach, pastry baker, photographer or fashion blogger, you’ll be able to find a gorgeous theme that will perfectly suit your brand.
ThemeForest is one of the biggest collections of premium themes out there. They have everything from blogs to business themes. Plus once you purchase a website theme on Themeforest, you get free updates.
SEO/Analytics
WordPress SEO by Yoast is an all-in-one SEO solution for your WordPress blog. Its features include SEO titles, meta descriptions, XML sitemaps, breadcrumbs and much more. In addition to improving my blog’s rankings, Yoast also helps me write more SEO-friendly content. Yoast is comprehensive, user-friendly and free!
Google Analytics for WordPress makes it simple to add Google Analytics with extra search engines and automatic click-out and download tracking to your WordPress blog.
Social Media Marketing
Hootsuite is a social media scheduling service. Easily organize, manage and schedule your content across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Google Plus.
Later helps you manage content and schedule for your Instagram accounts. You can upload images from your computer, collaborate on your posts, manage one or multiple Instagram accounts and manage accounts with your team.
A free plan provides you with 30 posts per month (the number of created posts), two social profiles and one user.
Tailwind is a newer company that I just started using, but love it. If you’re looking to quickly grow your blog traffic, then this one is must! Tailwind allows you to schedule your Pinterest pins and look at the analytics related to that so that you can see what is working and what is not.
It will save you a ton of time, because you don’t have to manually pin everything. You can grow your blog with minimal work. Click here to start your free trial!
Email Marketing
Mailchimp is the world’s leading email marketing platform. Mailchimp allows you to send marketing emails, automated messages, and send targeted campaigns. Plus detailed reports help you keep improving over time.
Mailerlite is another good option for email marketing. It’s perfect for bloggers because it gives you access to all features for free for your first 1,000 subscribers.
SumoMe is a free plugin makes it easy for you to gain email subscribers and get new customers. It also syncs with email providers like Mailchimp and Constant Contact.
Images and Graphics
Canva makes designing everything from blog graphics to social media banners to presentations a snap.
The design service has a wide variety of beautiful templates to choose from and you can also upload your own images to transform or pick from Canva’s library. It’s definitely one of the best resources and tools for bloggers.
Pixlr is the image editor that is as close as you can get to Photoshop for free. Access Pixlr right through your browser and gain access to many of the tools you find in Photoshop such as the clone stamp, blur tool, magic wand and more.
Pic Monkey makes creative tools for photo editing and graphic design. This online platform has everything you need to make your ideas come to life — photo editing, collage making, graphic design.
Pablo helps you create beautiful images for social media sharing on every major network, with ideal sizes for Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook.
Sumopaint has a Photoshop‐like interface but without all the bells and whistles of the original. You can access this editor online via your browser and it can also be downloaded as an app.
Stock Images
PhotoPin is a free tool that helps bloggers and designers find beautiful photos with Creative Commons licensing. Download the photos and get attribution links already embedded.
Pixabay is the holy grail of free stock photo sites with over 270,000 images uploaded from different users. It is basically Shutterstock without having to pay. Licenses vary depending on the photographer.
WOCinTech is a Flicker photo album with free, high-resolution photos of women of colour in technical backgrounds, spaces, and work environments.
Monetize
Awin is one of my favorite affiliate programs. Their interface is very easy to use, and they work with a variety of brands worldwide including Etsy and Hyatt. They ask for a $5 deposit to sign up, but you receive that back in its entirety with your first payment!
Shareasale is a great affiliate program for bloggers, and influencers. They have a huge base of well-known brands for bloggers in every niche. Click here to sign up for Shareasale If you’re trying to monetize your blog, this is one of the best resources and tools for bloggers.
Linqia is an influencer network that offers sponsored opportunities. Linqia does require you to fill out an application. It is perfect for beginner bloggers because all you need to have is 2,500+ blog visitors or followers on Facebook or Twitter.
Linqia chooses campaigns that they believe will be right for you based off your blog and social media following. You can then either accept or decline based on the details of the campaign. Click here to sign up.
Productivity
Evernote can help you keep all of your content ideas, topics, research, lists, and notes organized. You can keep unique notebooks for all of your projects and collect notes, images, and reminders within that notebook. Plus it syncs from desktop to laptop to phone.
Dropbox keeps all your files safe, synced and easy to share. Bring your photos, docs, and videos anywhere and never lose a file again.
Hubspot’s Blog Topic Generator is a great tool to use whenever you are stuck on topics to blog about. Fill in the fields with terms (preferably nouns) that you’d like to write about, and they’ll come up with a week’s worth of relevant blog post titles.
Content Calendar is a super-simple excel doc that will help you create, organize and manage your blog content.
Alethea this is an excellent list of resources here. Amazing how we have all tools at our disposal to succeed with blogging.