(Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on a link and buy a product, I get a small commission. There is no change to the price you are charged.)
Let’s face it, blogging regularly can be work.
Creating great content takes some time and creativity.
Then if you’re serious about getting your posts read, there’s all the SEO and social media stuff to take care of.
Kind of takes you away from the joys of creating and writing, doesn’t it?
Most writers don’t consider themselves marketers. And most of us don’t enjoy the steep learning curve involved.
Then I found out about some tools that really help make life a bit easier.
Answer the Public
This is one cool site! Just enter a keyword, and you’ll get a graphic with questions about that keyword. If you’re ever stuck on what to write about, give this free tool a try.
KW Finder
This handy keyword research tool not only delivers alternative keyword suggestions, but it presents them in an easy to understand, color coded chart. The difficulty scores marked in green are the easiest to rank for.
If you highlight any of the suggested keywords, SERP data appears on the right side of the screen. (SERP stands for Search Engine Results Pages.)
This data gives you the URLs of actual pages that ranked the highest for your keyword. This way you can go and look at them to figure out the intent of the people using that keyword.
For example, if you are trying to attract people who like science fiction and fantasy books to your website, you want to make sure the keywords you use aren’t ones used by people who are into a whole different kind of fantasy. You know, the adult kind.
The keyword data also help you write your title and headers to rank for keywords with good search volumes.
KWFinder does come with a free trial, but after using it, I was more than willing to pay for it.
CoSchedule Headline Analyzer
After you’ve figured out your keywords, then it’s time for a headline. Research has shown that 80% of your traffic will only read the headline, so it needs to be good.
The CoSchedule Headline Analyzer will start by analyzing the overall structure of your headline.
Then it will assess the length, keywords, and sentiment.
Pretty cool for a completely free tool.
DrumUp
DrumUp claims to cut Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn management time by 90%. I believe them.
This little app lets you create and publish social media posts and even schedule them. This way you can promote your blog posts without being chained to your computer.
DrumUp also lets you add hashtags, emojis and other features. The tracking and analytics tool allows you to measure how effective your social media campaign is.
What’s most amazing to me, is that it’s free.
Viral Content Bee
Viral Content Bee acts like crowdsourcing for traffic. You share others’ content, they’ll share yours. If you want to get even more exposure than you are getting via the free method, you can buy credits.
Majestic Alerts
It would be great to know which of your posts are the most often linked, right?
You can know this with Majestic Alerts. They’ll email you every time someone links to your posts.
There are free and paid plans.
Whatagraph
Whatagraph is the answer to not being able to decipher Google Analytics data.
Just authenticate your Analytics account and you’ll be set.
Then you’ll get emails that present graphical reports that show you the recent stats from your site. You’ll learn which pages are getting more traffic, which are getting less. You’ll even learn which ones have the highest bounce rate and exit count.
What are some of your favorite blogging tools?
Let me know in the comments below!