23 Best Blogging Tools for the Intentional Blogger

If you’re a blogger, whether you’re a beginner or not, you’ve found the right blog post.

You’re about to find out the 23 best blogging tools and other resources that’ll help you maintain a successful blog.

This collection is intended for my personal reference, but I’m sharing it with you because I think it will help you is some ways.

This year is the most expensive year so far for my family due to multiple overseas travels. So I want to make sure that I’m still being mindful with business and personal expenses. Having a list of the tools I’m spending money on is a good strategy to maintain intentional spending.

I’m including a solid collection of Blogging Resources like the Free Blogging Foundation Course, Setting up a blog in WordPress without Fear and all the good stuff about blogging, so just keep reading. 

DISCLOSURE: This post contains Affiliate Links, which means I receive commission, at no extra cost to you, when you make purchase using those affiliate links. As an Amazon Affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Here’s my full Disclaimer.

Just a quick note.

I won’t be teaching you how to blog. But if you want to learn how to blog, This Free Blogging Foundation Course (better value than any paid blogging courses out there).

Passion project turned side gig

This blog started as a passion project. 

Bit by bit, it has turned into a business not just a hobby. 

But the intention never changed. 

It has been the same as it was when it started. 

And that’s to live an intentional life by focusing on money mindfulness, intentional productivity, and living life on purpose. 

Note: This is giant collection so please utilise the Table of Contents below in order to avoid feeling overwhelmed by too much information. And you know the drill, keep what’s helpful and ignore the rest.

So, why I am talking about blogging now?

Intentional living is about making time for people, things, moments, and activities that bring joy and fulfilment. And for me, blogging is a significant source of joy.

It’s now my official side gig. It’s my creative outlet and a medium for documenting my intentional living journey. 

While blogging demands time, energy, and money, it’s also a lot of things.

It’s more than just publishing blog posts and creating digital products. It can be a profitable side gig or a meaningful passion project (that gives extra money). It helped me improve my life, productivity, and self-awareness.

When I earned my first blog money ($10.07), after almost 9 months, It got me excited. 

And then I’ve committed to running the blog around my life, not the other way around. It means that my blog doesn’t dictate or control my life, instead, I am in control. 

By being deliberate, I’m able to use the blog as a tool to improve my life. 

It became an important part of my daily life and one of the meaningful elements that complement the lifestyle choice I never thought I would have. 

Teaching how to blog isn’t included in my “want-to-do list” at least at present, but since blogging is my choice for a side gig, I thought it makes sense to include blogging topics as well. 

But the real reason why I’m writing about blogging tools is also for me to have a centralised location for the tools I use, for personal reference and for sharing purposes. 

The Absolute Essentials 

When I say the absolute essentials, I really mean them as essentials. As in if you want to be a successful blogger, you need to have these before you do anything else. 

The absolute essentials are:

1. Domain and Hosting
2. Themes and Plugins
3. Legal Statements – I highly recommend Contract Club

Domain and Hosting

When choosing a domain, opt for a domain name that is easy to remember and reflective of your blog’s content. Consider popular extensions like .com, .net, or .org for a professional touch. 

For web hosting, think about reliability, customer support, and affordability. Look for providers with a reputation for reliability uptime, and excellent customer support, so any issues can be addressed promptly. In terms of affordability. A live chat is one of the essential features that elevates the customer service of a hosting provider so look for those that have it. 

Balance the cost with features as you may take the cheapest hosting you can get but if every now and then you have technical or hosting issues, it’s not worth it. 

My first hosting provider was cheap but the amount of time I wasted and the frustrations I had with issues wasn’t worth it. 

I’m glad I found Lyrical Host and at the time of writing this blog post, I don’t see any reason for me to move to another hosting provider. I’ve been with them since 2021 and I’ve always been happy with their service. The tech support is top notch, I often feel I’m not paying them enough for the service I get from them. 

Themes and Plugins

I’m not a “techy” person which can be a disadvantage when you’re a blogger managing your own blog. But I like to look at it as an advantage. 

Being not techy, influenced my choices in themes and plug-ins. It meant I had to be intentional when choosing plugins, to make sure I was only choosing the best, based on what I needed. I always choose user-friendly or more on a minimal side. 

Here’s the list of useful plugins: 

1. Salient Theme
2. Wordfence
3. Stackable
4. Akismet Anti-Spam or Antispam Bee ( I used Akismet first then I switched to Antispam Bee) 
5. Pretty Links 
6. Link Whisper 
7. Yoast SEO Plugin ( you can also check Rankmath
8. Shortpixel (Other options are: Smuch, Tinypng, and optimizilla)
9. Search and exclude

Note: After each plugin, you’ll see (free) which means I am using a free plan or free version. The (paid) after the plug-in means I’m using the paid plan or the paid version. I always recommend using the free plan or free version first. You can always upgrade or change to a premium or paid version of the plugin at a later date. 

1. Wordfence (Free)

Wordfence is the most popular WordPress firewall and security scanner. It is a comprehensive security plugin that helps protect your website from malware, hacking attempts, and other security threats.

2. Akismet Anti-Spam or Antispam Bee (Free)

For anti-spam plug-ins, you can choose between Akismet anti-spam or Antispam Bee. 

Akismet is a spam filtering service that safeguards your website by preventing unwanted comments and contact form submissions. Alternatively, Antispam Bee efficiently blocks spam comments and trackbacks without the need for captchas, and it ensures GDPR compliance without sending personal information to third-party services. 

3. SALIENT (Paid)

This is my current theme and I’m happy with this. While there are a lot of free themes, I chose to pay for Salient, I like it and have been using it since 2020. It’s easy to customize. It’s a drag-and-drop style and mobile-friendly too. I got it for a one-time payment so I’m saving money in the long run. Since I haven’t used any other WordPress theme, I can’t make any suggestions for other themes but I strongly recommend 3 helpful resources.

Here’s the top 3 most helpful and highly recommended Blogging Resources.

• Blogging Foundation (Course)
• Learning WordPress without Fear (Course)
• WordPress Bloggers Guide (Membership)

4. Stackable (paid) 

Stackable Ultimate Gutenberg Blocks is a WordPress plugin that gives you custom WordPress blocks, designs, templates, and advanced features like dynamic content. I recently got this because I’m planning to completely remove Elementor from my website. I haven’t explored this much but I’ve used the blocks and designs with blog posts and recent website pages. So far I really like it.

5. Pretty Links (Free) 

Pretty Links shrink, track, and share any URL using your website and brand.

6. Link Whisper

Link Whisper I love this plug-in because it saves so much time when I need to interlink blog posts. It also has in-depth internal link reporting. 

7. Updraft Plus 

Updraftplus is a reliable backup plug-in that simplifies the process of backing up your WordPress site and restoring it if needed. 

8. Contact Form by WPForms 

Contact Form by WPForms allows you to create beautiful contact forms, feedback forms, subscription forms, payment forms, and other types of forms for your site in minutes. Note: I stopped using any form on my website, I just put my actual email address on the contact page. 

9. Shortpixel 

Shortpixel improves website performance by reducing image size. Other alternatives are Smush or Smush Pro, Optimizilla, and Tinypng. 

10. Search and Exclude 

Search and Exclude With this plugin you can exclude any page, post, or whatever from the WordPress search results by checking off the corresponding checkbox on the post/page edit page. 

Legal Statements for your Website

Please note that I am not a lawyer and I am not in a position to give advice about legal requirements on the website. Please conduct your own research on what you need to fully protect your blog or your website. 

As for me, I am happy with what I have at the moment, and having the following gives me peace of mind, knowing I’m compliant to the best of my ability. 

My favourite resources for all things contract and essential legal statements are the Contract Club and Legal Bundles for Bloggers.

Legal Statements on your website are non-negotiable in my humble opinion. They protect you and your business. Legal statements aren’t just a legal formality; they serve as critical tools for aligning your website with legal requirements, protecting you from potential legal issues, and building trust with your ideal audience. 

There are 3 reasons why you need Legal Statements

1. Data protection and Privacy compliance 
2. Liability Protection
3. Transparency and trust-building

Privacy Policy

With an increasing focus on data privacy legal statements such as Privacy Policy, are crucial for informing your target audience and general website users about how their data is collected, used, and protected on your website. In many jurisdictions, having a clear Privacy Policy is a legal requirement. Failing to comply with data Protection Laws can result in severe penalties. Here’s my website’s Privacy Policy. 

Disclaimers

Legal statements particularly Disclaimers help clarify the limits of your liability. They can protect you from legal action arising from the use of information on your site or the interpretation of advice you provide. In an online environment, users may interpret information differently, leading to potential legal disputes. And a well-crafted Disclaimer can mitigate these risks. Here’s my website’s Disclaimer. 

Terms and Conditions

Including Terms of Use and Conditions contribute to transparency. They set expectations for users regarding the nature of content, any affiliations, and the terms under which they are engaging with your site. Here are my website’s Terms and Conditions. 

Website Accessibility Statement

I used to not have this on my website but I included this because I care for people with disabilities and I would love for them to have access on my website like others. I am not a lawyer so I can’t advise if this is required for you but you can always speak to a lawyer to get proper advice. Here’s my website’s Accessibility Statement.

Affiliate Terms and Conditions

I have an ieSHOP where I sell Digital Products that support intentional living. And because sharing is caring, I have created a simple Affiliate Program. I treat this blogging side gig as a real business, so I also have an Affiliate Programs Term and Conditions. 

Content Management and Organization

High-quality content is the backbone of your blog as a business. To ensure success, it’s essential to have the right tools for content creation, management, and organization. My top pick is Notion.

You need to have the right tools like Notion for creating content and tools to manage them. 

Don’t worry about investing in premium plans right away. Take advantage of the numerous free blogging tools available. Start with free plans and switch to a paid plan when you’re ready.

When I talk about content, I don’t just mean having a content calendar. I like to break it down into three parts: creation, management, and organization. All of these can be done in Notion.

Content Creation

You need the right tools in order to be efficient and effective with your content creation, from writing long or short form content like email or blog posts to creating images or graphics. To monetise your blog, 

make sure that you’re not only writing blog posts for humans but for search engines too. So, you need keyword research tools for your post to be visible in search results. 

I don’t use social media for getting traffic, so I use SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). I’m proud to tell you that I qualified for She Media ads within 9 months of focusing on SEO only, as the main source of traffic. I owe it to the Navigating SEO Course of Lyrical Host. 

I tried Pinterest before but for some reason I lost steam, but I’ll definitely go back to it later on. 

Content Management System (CMS)

A good CMS like WordPress or Squarespace can simplify the process of creating and managing your content. It provides a user-friendly interface, customizable themes, and plugins to enhance functionality. I have no experience with Squarespace, I am using WordPress and I am happy about it. WordPress allows me to monetize my blog by having ads. 

Writing Content Tools

I’m sure that you’ve heard in one way or another about the use of artificial intelligence when creating content. It’s a popular choice as part of content strategy because using an AI writer is a great option to speed up writing. As long as it’s done in the right way – AI can be a useful tool to help you with writing content. Just remember that your own writing skills are necessary to make sure that you’re still producing high-value online content. 

Here are my favourites. Just a note: I’ve used all the tools from the list but eventually stuck to one- The Marketing Magic which uses open-ai. I’ve had this for a while but honestly haven’t used all the built-in features. 

• Marketing Magic – check the 5-minute demo here or create your trial account here
• First Draft AI for Bloggers 
• Right Blogger
• Nichess
• Wordhero
• Ulysses
• Grammarly
• Hemingway Editor

Grammar and Editing Tools

Proofreading is crucial for maintaining professional-quality content. Tools like Grammarly or Hemingway Editor can assist in catching grammatical errors, improving readability, and enhancing the overall quality of your writing.

Graphic Design Software

Tools like Canva or PowerPoint can help you create visually appealing graphics for your blog posts and social media if you’re using it

Keyword Research Tools

To optimize your content for search engines, tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush can help you identify relevant keywords with high search volumes. This way, you can tailor your content to attract more organic traffic. I don’t use either of them because I prefer Keysearch and RankIQ (more info in the monetization strategy section) 

Analytics Tools

Understanding how well your content performs is essential for making data-driven decisions. Google Analytics provides valuable insights into website traffic, user behavior, conversion rates, and other metrics to measure success.

Content Management

11. WordPress

Your blog content needs to be placed on a platform of your choice. The best blogging platform for me is WordPress, which is why this is the only platform I’ve used since day one.

Squarespace is also one of the popular blogging platforms but I’m not sure if this is as good as WordPress. Since we’re talking about content management, you might as well consider content syndication to reach a wider audience and increase visibility.

Examples of other platforms are Medium and Newsbreak. I haven’t personally done this due to capacity but I plan to at some point. But if you’re up to it, here EFT is syndication. 

If you like to learn WordPress without fear, check out this WordPress Course. Use Code: INTENTIONALWP and you’ll get 35%off. 

Content Organisation

It’s important to have a system and the right tools for content organization too. This will help you save time and reduce stress because you know where things are when you need it.

12. Notion

Explore this setup guide if you’re new to Notion.

Notion is my preferred Platform for everything: organisation, management and maintenance. I’ve used it for so long even before I started blogging. It helps me seamlessly manage my life and business.

For an introduction to Notion’s benefits, read the Free Notion Weekly Planner Template for the intentional.

Notion has versatile features like databases and collaborative tools, allowing easy organization and collaboration on projects. The platform’s integration with popular tools enhances productivity by syncing tasks and notifications across various platforms. With its user-friendly drag-and-drop functionality, Notion ensures effortless content rearrangement.

If you’re new to Notion, here is a guide on how to set it up. And if you haven’t download my Notion Weekly Planner you can click the image below

13. Google Drive

I use Google Drive for storing files that I need to share with other people and for the first backup. In Notion, I do almost everything from ideation, writing, revising, and editing. Then the completed files are backed up in Google Drive and then backed up the second time around in an external hard drive. 

Other Tools for Content Organization

Below is the list for Productivity Platforms/Apps. I’ve only tried Asana and Trello and One Note, but I kept going back to Notion. Try some of them and see what will work for you.

• Notion
• Trello
• Evernote
• Obsidian
• One Note
• Asana
• Click up

Special mention: Sunsama. Sunsama isn’t an organisational tool but a daily productivity tool that can perfectly match any of the above tools.

Monetization Strategy

There are so many ways how you can monetize your blog but I personally prefer three strategies. 

1. Focusing on SEO for traffic and visibility for website ads and for gaining more email subscribers. I also have this magical tool that’s not only helping with SEO but it helps me grow my whole business.
2. Doing Affiliate Marketing via Emails and publishing Blog Posts with affiliate links. Here is a $9 Email Marketing Membership that helped me a lot. Go on and try these Free Email Swipes.
3. Creating digital products such as Printables like this, or The Sunshine Weekly Planner, Notion Template like this and soon I’ll be creating Google Spreadsheet Templates.

At the moment, I’m getting blog money from ads, affiliate partners, and digital products. Speaking of earning money from affiliates, here is a free resource on how to add value to your emails. You serve your people and you earn from affiliate commissions. Win win.

If you want to start Blogging the right way so you can monetise your blog through ads or even email marketing, I suggest getting the Free Blogging Foundation Course.

Blog Money from the Blog (Traffic)

I’m not using social media (at least for now) to grow traffic so my focus has always been on SEO (Search Engine Optimization). I’ve used Pinterest in the early months of my blogging journey but I just lost steam and forgot all about it. I bough the Pinteresting Strategy so I’ll be coming back to trying Pinterest at some point later on.

Here are the tools I’m currently using to grow traffic using SEO.

Here’s a handy checklist to help you with SEO: Free Blog Post SEO Checklist

14. Rankiq

RankIQ is a tool that I can’t live without. It is an SEO tool designed for bloggers, offering comprehensive insights to optimize website rankings on search engine results pages.

I love this for keyword tracking, content optimization, It also provides suggestions for title and blog post keywords, ultimately enhancing website visibility and boosting organic traffic.

Additionally, it offers a curated library of low-competition, high-traffic keywords tailored to various blog niches.

15. Keysearch

Keysearch  This and Rank Iq are the ultimate SEO duo in my humble opinion. Having them both really levelled up my SEO strategy. Keysearch is a robust keyword research tool that helps you get the high-volume keywords with low competition.

It enables improved search engine rankings, attracting more organic traffic. Keysearch provides valuable insights into keyword trends, search volume, competition analysis, backlink data, and more to optimize your content effectively.

I like Keysearch because I can also use it to search for long-tail keywords for the blog and for Etsy. It also provides related keywords for Pinterest, Amazon, eBay, and even competitor keywords if you want to do competitor analysis. The best thing is it has a Content Assistant that helps with writing headlines. 

16. First Draftai

Firstdraftai another AI-driven tool that I’ve been trying lately. It’s a writing assistant assistant that effortlessly enhances content creation.

Utilizing advanced machine learning algorithms, it offers real-time suggestions, grammar corrections, and style improvements.

With instant access to Google’s search results and the ability to customise prompts for each outline section, creating high-quality, SEO-friendly articles is simplified with just “one-click.”

Blog Money from Affiliate Marketing (Affiliate Products)

Email marketing is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with your audience, build relationships, and promote your products or services.

17. Email Marketing Tools – Birdsend is my top 1

You need Email Marketing Platform. Here are some of the popular options.

• Birdsend
• Mailchimp
• Convertkit
• Mailerlite

I’ve used Convertkit and Mailerlite before but when i discovered Birdsend, I never looked back. I’ve been with them for more than 2 years and I’m still a happy customer.

I love the Birdsend platform as as well as the awesome customer service. They are quick to answer any queries. Check out Birdsend’s Top 7 Email Mistakes they unconsciously make and how to fix them or get the Free Email Marketing Guide here.

Paid Email Marketing Resources

• Bundle Newsletter to fill your email list with enthusiastic subscribers
• Email Marketing Membership
• Email Marketing Fairy 3.0
• Index to Inbox Academy

Free Email Marketing Resources

• 2 years worth of email newsletter topics
• Freebies that Sell and Serve (mini course)
• Free Email Swipes (Newsletter and Subject Lines)
• How to Add Value to your Emails

Blog Money from Digital Products (Products)

Creating a digital product is another form of sharing knowledge which is super fun and fulfilling. You get to play around with ideas, colour, and style. And you don’t need to be a professional designer.

The finished digital products can then be sold to your own website, Etsy or Shopify.

Here are my favourite tools and Resources

• Heartbeat
• Powerpoint
• Canva
• Switchy
• PLR (Private Label Rights) Products

Grab this giant list of Digital Product Ideas you can sell.

Tools and Resources for Product Creation

Please note that I have not experience creating physical products to sell so all the tools and resources are only related to Digital Products.

18. Powerpoint

PowerPoint is a presentation software developed by Microsoft, commonly used for creating slideshows with text, images, and multimedia elements. It enables users to communicate information visually in a structured and engaging format.

19. Canva

Canva is a user-friendly online graphic design tool ideal for creating stunning visual content. It simplifies the design process, allowing you to express your creativity effortlessly and the best part is: that you don’t need to be a professional designer to use it. 

One of the great resources for mastering Canva is a Canva Clubhouse. If you’re not yet ready for a paid membership, then at least get the Free Canva Toolkit Brand Assets so you can wow your audience with your brand images.

20. Switchy

I use Switcchy not only for my digital products but I also use this for collecting and organising affiliate links. It shortens, customise and track links with the ability to A/B test.

21. Heartbeat

Since I don’t have official social media for my blog business, I will be using Heartbeat to hold a space for the ieblog community.

This is going to be a space for connections and support among the lovely people who paid for any of ieSHOP’s products.

It’s not yet ready to welcome new guests at the moment but if you’re in my email list, I will surely let you know when it’s ready. You can join my email list here.

22. PLR (Private Label Rights) Products)

PLRs or private label rights products, are digital content with permission for users to rebrand and resell. They offer a time-saving solution for content creation and allow entrepreneurs to establish their brand with ready-made products.

My favourite PLR Stores are: The Happy Journals PLR Club and Createful Journals.

The Top 3 Memberships you need to be in

Here are the top 3 Memberships I would love for you to check out. When I got it, I never wanted to leave them for so many reasons.

Each of them has a unique impact in my business and I would have never achieved my blogging goals had I not been in these memberships.

• Passive Income Membership by Sadie Smiley
• Six Figure System by Cindy Bidar
• Email Marketing Membership

If this is your first time hearing about these memberships, try these freebies and see if you’ll like what they offer.

• Free Email Swipes and Subject Lines
• Free Blogging Foundation Course
• H0w to grow your Idea Garden

Wrapping it Up

I’ve given you a lot of tools and resources but don’t feel that you need to use all of them. 

That said I would love you to do one thing, if you can only take away one thing from this blog post.

If you don’t have SOPs and Workflows 101 101 or Digital File Naming 101 n set up in place yet, please, please, please grab them. It’s cheaper than a fancy lunch. And yes, I’m shamelessly begging for you to get them, not because I’ll earn commission, but because I know it’ll help you immensely.

To make the most of these blogging tools, I won’t even ask you to pick any yet. Instead, I’d like you to check where you’re at right now in your blogging journey, and then you can identify what you need. Only then you’ll know what you truly need. Also, remember that the best tool is what works for you. 

I hope this list has provided you with valuable insights and inspiration. Whether you’re a seasoned blogger or just starting out on this exciting path, know that you have the power to shape your own success. Stay committed, stay intentional, and watch as your blogging dreams become reality.

Don’t forget your Free Notion Weekly Planner Template.