TOP BLOG TOOLS FOR BUILDING A PROFITABLE BLOG
Kevin Balcker
Founder, Residual Income Secrets
Throughout my learning curve, I realized that the correct decision regarding tools is a key factor in any business success. It will make the difference between you and your competition, so that’s why I created this “Top Blog Tools For Building a Profitable Blog” section.
All the tools I will list here, have been tested by myself, so I can give a real experience with all of them.
After testing a wide range of tools, I prepare this short guide with the top ones I prefer and use. You will find Hosting services, Keyword research for SEO, WordPress plugins, WordPress Themes, etc.
Hope it helps develop your business! and let me know if you have any doubt with any of them,.
IMPORTANT: Some of the tools I recommend here contain affiliate links. This means that if you purchase any of these through my affiliate link, I will earn a commission at no additional cost to you. So, thanks very much if you do it because you will be helping to keep this website live.
Be sure that everything that I recommend here has been tested by me and it works 100%.
#1 HOSTING SERVICE
$3.45/ Month
Bluehost is where I host almost all mi niche websites. It’s the #1 Hosting recommended by WordPress and top internet marketers, such as Pat Flynn.
With your Bluehost account you will be able to host multiple websites for the price of one, so you don’t need to pay extra fees!
They provide a 24/7 Live Support and it’s recognized as one of the fastest hosting services, which, as you may know, has a huge impact in SEO nowadays.
You can start building your first blog just at $3.45/ month as an exclusive offer of ResidualIncomeSecrest.com Today!
EMAIL MARKETING
AWEBER
This is the tool I use for my email marketing campaigns. It’s simple, easy to use and you can create visual appealing things to send to your subscribers.
They offer an excellent 24/7 support and a 30 day Trial of their service, which is cool.
Aweber gets an A+ overall!
KEYWORD RESEARCH
LONG TAIL PRO
I normally use between 2 or 3 Keyword tools when I do my research. This is one of those.
Long Tail Pro is consider to be one of the most complete Keyword Research tools in the market. You can retrieve a huge amount of keywords and analyze your competition completely.
Plans start from $25/mo and it includes a Free access to the Long Tail University where you will learn all about Keyword research from scratch.
Moz is another great tool I use for competition analysis. It’s an expensive tool ($99/mo) due that is has some more features than other tools.
There is also a Free tool they offer which is the so-called “Moz ToolBar”. It’s a Chrome/Firefox extension where you can gather information of Page Rank, Domain Authority, Backlinks, etc of all the websites you want to analyze.
JAAXY
Nice and Simple tool. You can gather thousands of seed keywords in seconds, that’s why I use it (and it’s pretty much affordable to anyone compared to the most advanced tools).
Plans start from $19/mo, but you can get a free account to test it for about 35 searched. It also includes a rank checker and keyword suggestions related to the term you are looking after.
INTERNET MARKETING TRAINING
WEALTHY AFFILIATE
Wealthy Affiliate is an online learning platform that teaches you step-by-step how to build a profitable business website from scratch.
There is a Free membership (lifetime) or a Premium one at $47/mo which includes: Free hosting, 2 websites, unlimited training, 24/7 technical support, Domain name registration, active community of internet marketers, Weekly Webinars, etc. It’s worth to check it out.
Everything I learned about Internet marketing is thanks to WA, so it’s my #1 Recommendation.
UPDATE: Do not confuse “Wealthy Affiliate” with “Wealthy Affiliates”. The Plural form of the domain leads to another totally different platform!! Go through this link for the real deal.
THEMES
THRIVE THEMES
Undoubtedly, the best service is provided by Thrive themes. Here you will find beautiful well design themes & plugins.
They have (what in my opinion) is the best content builder I ever met: the Thrive Content Builder.
You can either buy single themes/plugins or the full membership which costs $288/Year.
** UPDATE 2021: Thrive Themes is now a part of Thrive Suite.
STUDIO PRESS
There are lots of places where to get Premium WP Themes but I have my top 3 selection. Studio Press is one of those.
All Studio Press themes are powered by the Genesis Framework, which is one of the most valuable WP frameworks on the market. There are more than 195K websites using Studio Press Themes.
You can get individual themes starting at $59 or ALL Studio Press Themes at $500 (60 themes).
ELEGANT THEMES
Another excellent alternative to Studio Press is Elegant Themes. They have created a website builder which enables you to create incredible well-looking pages and posts in few seconds.
You might have heard of Divi (top theme on the market) if not you should take a look to it.
They have one of the most affordable plans on the market: 87 themes + all their plugins at $69/year (Yes! per Year) or $249 one time payment.
DOMAIN NAMES
NAMECHEAP
NameCheap is my #1 Domain registration service as they offer the lowest prices on the market. Their platform is very easy to use too.
There are others, such as GoDaddy which are good but can’t compete with NameCheap prices. For $10-$13, you can get a Domain name.
WRITING SERVICES
When your business starts to run smoothly and you start seeing profits, outsourcing your content marketing is one of the best decisions.
For this purpose, iWriter provides a great writing service. Depending on your budget, you can hire non-english or native English writers at very decent prices.
HIREWRITERS
HireWriters is a pretty decent alternative to iWriter. Good quality writers at a very decent price.
As well as on iWriter, you can choose the quality writing you need and the pricing will depend on it. You can get a 800-1000 high quality article for $20.
OUTSOURCING
FIVERR
Fiverr is a great place to outsource anything you need of your website. You can outsource SEO, content, video creation, logo design, translations, and many more, which I recommend to take a deep look.
I use Fiverr to outsource my SEO or Logo designs and the best thing is that you pay if you are ok with the work done.
UP WORK
Another great alternative to Fiverr is Up Work (formerly known as Odesk).
Here you will find a lot more services but a little more expensive than Fivver. For sure you must give it a try too.
PLUGINS
If you already have a website, you might know that there are 2 Top SEO plugins: Yoast and All-in-One.
Well, Yoast is my #1 recommended plugin for your SEO. It’s the most intuitive and easy to use plugin (I use it in all my websites)
The best part is that it is a Free plugin. Of course, you can upgrade to the paid version but there is no need unless you already are a seasoned marketer.
SUMO ME
SumoMe is an excellent all-in-one plugin. Some of the services provided are: Opt-in Forms, traffic generation, website analytics (visitors, clicks, etc.), list builder, heat maps, contact form, social share buttons, among others.
The plugin is Free but it also has a paid version. (I currently use the free version and it works perfect)
THRIVE LEADS
One of the most profitable ways of building a list with high-converting forms is called Thrive Leads.
This plugin lets you create beautifull opt-in forms, sticky ribbons, in-line forms, Opt-in widgets and many other. With their A/B split testing and analytics you will be able to increase your conversion rate exponentially.
** UPDATE 2021: Thrive Leads is now a part of Thrive Suite.
Any Question With these Top Blog Tools For Building a Profitable Blog?
Leave a comment below and I would gladly help you out!
Coming soon… more tools! I’m always testing new tools to improve my blog. So, I will keep sharing with you all my knowledge with them.
All the best!