I believe that a blog is a fundamental component of a successful social media marketing strategy. It’s a property where you control the content and it serves as the ultimate destination for inbound traffic and leads. A blog can also help build trust and authority and is a professional, yet personal way to connect with your target audience. So to support your blogging endeavors and your social media marketing strategy I wanted to create a page with plenty of tools, resources and links for blogging success.
This page will be a work in progress that I plan to add to as I create more content to support your blogging success. As I find new tools and resources that may be helpful and will save you time, I will update this post with new information and links. Whether you have been thinking about starting a blog, or have an established blog and readership, I hope that this post will serve as a hub of helpful tools that you will bookmark and return to when you need a bit of inspiration or support.
Here are some quick links to helpful tools that I use to make my blogging experience easier:
Google Keyword Planner
Choosing the right keywords for a blog post is like laying the foundations. This tool will quickly help you identify keyword ideas. You’ll need to be logged into Google or Gmail to use it.
HubSpot’s Blog Topic Generator
Once you have chosen your keywords you may need some ideas to get your next post started (that can be half the battle sometimes). Try this fun tool to get the ball rolling.
Emotional Marketing Value Headline Analyzer
The title or headline of a blog post can determine whether people read it or not. Once you have your topic and some keyword ideas this tool helps to make your headline magnetic.
Lessons in story telling for top results
Storytelling is a great way to communicate your message and keep your readers attention. Here are five important components of a great story.
Add Social Sharing Buttons
As soon as your blog post has been published it is important to share it and make it easy for others to share it too. All the big social media platforms provide tools to add sharing buttons to your website. Here are the links to the most popular ones.
I have also written several blog posts with even more links and resources to help you start and keep blogging:
Do you want to know why you need a business blog?
Here are links to help you start a blog on Tumblr, Blogger & WordPress (or all three), along with three helpful eBooks about blogging.
Want to know how to create a blog and attract new prospects?
I wrote this post to help you find inspiration, ideas, images and content for your blog. I have also included links to some really comprehensive guides to help you get started.
How do you add value to your blog posts?
This is another quick go-to source for creative commons-licensed images, plus more keyword and headline tools to help add value to your blog posts.
Your blog needs these three things
Many of your readers will be accessing your blog on their mobile device. So it is important to make sure your blog is mobile friendly. You also want to give your blog the best possible chance of being found on Google and shared on social media.
Just keep on blogging
Consistency is essential to the success of your blog. Whether you blog everyday, once a week, or even just on the same day each month, it is important to commit to a reliable schedule for your readers and followers. Here is a quick post to inspire you to just keep on blogging.
Additional blogging tools & resources
Evernote - This is how I collect content ideas, images and research articles for my blog posts
WordPress Plugins - More WordPress blog plugins than you can poke a stick at
Blogging Printables - A great Pinterest board with lost of blogging resources
Disqus - This is the platform for my blog comments. It’s widely used and very professional
Akismet - Possibly the best way in the world to protect your blog from web spam
MailChimp - An easy way to create a list of subscribers to your blog
Google Analytics – This is an absolute essential measurement tool for any website
Triberr - A supportive and helpful blogging community share and distribute great blog posts
What now?
I plan to continually update this page. I hope that the information here is helpful and that you will use these blog tools, resources and links for blogging success. Please feel free to leave a comment below if there are any other tools that you use, or if you have any questions. If you would like any help at all with your blog or your social media marketing strategy I’d like to invite you to CLICK HERE to contact me. I’m here to help. Please consider sharing this page to help bloggers everywhere improve their blogging experience and benefit from these tools, links and resources. Thank you for reading and sharing.
If you found value in this post you might also like:
5 Google Chrome extensions to help improve social media productivity
3 SEO Secrets to Improve Results in Social and in Search [Part II]
How responsive design adds value to your social media marketing
Image credit [Jim Pennucci, Social Strategies]
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