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When I first started my blog I remember going through a course and thinking, “This is so overwhelming. Do I really need all of these tools?” Because I was completely new to blogging and hadn’t even done any research on the art of blogging itself (I kind’ve fell into blogging and I am so glad that I did! :)), I simply got each of the recommended tools and thought the blogger in the corse knew best.

Please learn from my mistakes- don’t simply go with all of the blogging tools suggested from one blogger (And yes, that does include me too!) 

Do your research on each blogging tool and get feedback from several different people.  Everyone seems to have an opinion and each tool is different. One thing I know for sure- each person probably has a different opinion than the other. Thats OK. What I recommend may not work for everyone and what someone else recommends might not work for me. Find out the pros and cons of each blogging tool by seeing what different bloggers are saying. You never know, one blogger may say, “It works really well” and another blogger might say, “It works really well only if you are technically advanced.” And if you are anything like me- that would be a total turn off!

Finding the proper blogging tools can have a huge impact on how you run your blog and how quickly you build a following. Finding the proper blogging tool can be just as important as finding the right logo.

If you haven’t built your blog yet then head over to my post, “How to Build Your Dream Blog!” then come back to find out what blogging tools are essential to helping you grow your blog!

Essential Blogging Tool #1: Aweber

The first blogging tool that I highly recommend is Aweber. Aweber is a email marketing platform and every blogger needs one of these. Even if it is not from Aweber, YOU NEED A EMAIL MARKETING PLATFORM! I had originally shyed away from Aweber because it was a paid program. With that being said, I started my email marketing campaign on MailChimp (because it was free for a certain number of subscribers) and I did not feel that it was easy to use at all. This is what drove me to try Aweber. Aweber was easy to use and much easier to maneuver than MailChimp.

I would like to remind you that if you dislike your marketing tool but use it anyways because it is free (for a certain number of subscribers or for a certain period of time) then keep in mind that at some point (because you will build a following ;)) you are more than likely going to have to start paying for a email marketing platform and it is easier to find one that you like from the beginning then have to transfer everything and learn a new program.

The first 30 days on Aweber are free so you have a chance to try it and get a feel for if it works for you. Here is a link to Aweber if you would like to check it out.

Essential Blogging Tool #2: Tailwind

As a blogger, Pinterest is absolutely essential to building your following. Majority of my blog traffic is thanks to Pinterest and as you grow as a blogger, majority of your traffic will also be from Pinterest. Pinterest is essentially a search engine that people use to find something they are interested in. If you are new to Pinterest and would like to know how to grow your Pinterest following check out my post “4 Tips to Improving Your Pinterest Game!”.

One tip that I don’t mention in that blog post is Tailwind. Tailwind is an incredible blogging tool that schedules your pins for you at optimal times and also tracks all of your Pinterest statistics. Not only does tool schedule pins for you, but Tailwind is a approved tool by Pinterest; meaning that Pinterest does not hold it against you that you are using a third party scheduler. Yay! Working smarter, not harder 😉

As you get into the gist of Pinterest you know that you should pin 60+ times per week but not all at the same time. I don’t know about anyone else but I do NOT have time to take 15 minutes to find a quality pin on Pinterest every 15 minutes. That is crazy talk. Tailwind does this all for you and finds the optimal pinning times based on your following and when they are using Pinterest. Tailwind is worth the money simply for this tool. Trust me.

If you want to find out more about Tailwind head over to here. Tailwind offers your first 100 pins free before it becomes a paid blogging tool. I knew from my first scheduled pin on, that I was hooked. You will be too ;).

Essential Blogging Tool #3: Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a crazy awesome tracking tool for your website. What Google Analytics does is tracks all of your activity on your website and gives you all of the statistical information in a easy to read and digest format. It is so important that we keep track of our statistics as bloggers. A lot of blogging is trial and error, trying to find out what your readers like and don’t like. Google Analytics will give you all the information that you need to determine what is working with your viewers and what isn’t.

Plus: Google Analytics can also be tied to your Pinterest account to track all of your Pinterest Pins that are taking viewers to your website.

Google Analytics is FREE! Yup, FREE!. You can find out what it is all about here.

Essential Blogging Tool #4: Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO is a plug-in that can be installed on WordPress. SEO is very important in the world of Search Engines. Every blogger works and deals with SEOs on a daily basis and they can be incredibly frustrating. Yoast SEO is a plugin that tells you how your readability is and how you SEO is.

When looking at your readability, Yoast SEO will tell you if it is OK, Insufficient or Good. This is the same with your SEO throughout your article. This is awesome because you have the ability to see how your SEO and readability is lining up before you even publish your article. And you may be wondering, yes, readability is VERY important to Google. Google loves when a article has good readability. It tells Google that people are more likely to stay on your site and finish reading your article.

With that being said, there are occasions where the Yoast SEO won’t update if I updated my blog post. For instance, I tried to enter all of my SEO information before I had done much with it in my article. This gave me a insufficient rating from Yoast SEO but even when I fixed it, the rating would not change. In this case, I learned my lesson and I have all of my SEO completed before I try to enter it into Yoast SEO.

A HUGE bonus with Yoast is that it not only tells you your ratings but it also tells you ways you can IMPROVE the rating. It gives you the information to fix everything in your blog post to get a better rating. That is one thing I absolutely love about this blogging tool!

And guess what? Yoast SEO is COMPLETELY FREE! Get more information here.

Essential Blogging Tool #5: Canva

Having any sort of graphic design program for a blogger is absolutely essential. As bloggers we are constantly creating new images for Pinterest, for our blog posts and so much more! The graphic design tool that I use is Canva. It has everything I need to create cool graphic images for my website and blog post. Not only that, but it also has a Pinterest graphic that you can edit for all of your Pinterest Pins.

Canva saves all of your images so you don’t have to worry about losing them if you lose your computer. It also has a bunch of different fonts, colors and cool free images you can choose from.

I have been using Canva for free for a very long time and love it! The free version is awesome and it can get you very far in your graphic design world! To check out some examples you can go to each blog post and look at Pins that I created through Canva, or you can look at my logo and blog title graphics. Almost everything on my site was made from Canva ( and 100% of the graphic images that I have created are from Canva). Take a look around to see some awesome examples!

I hope you enjoyed this awesome list of essential blogging tools. Like I said in the being of this post- just because some of these tools work for me, doesn’t necessarily mean they will work for you. We are all unique and like different things and have a different set of skills. I strongly urge you to check out reviews on each of these products if you are interested in any of them. Or try the free trials to see if they are a fit for you.

Please let me know if you have any questions at all. You can email me at brooke@babblingwithbrooke.com or head over to my contact me page to get in touch with me.

What are some blogging tools that everyone else loves?

Happy Blogging! 

Please Share Your Thoughts!