These are my recommended best tools for bloggers
Here I go through all the tools I use in my business to produce a lot of content efficiently that ranks on Google.
I know what it’s like, there are a million tools out there and I have spent countless hours trying different ones, often jumping from on to another and not actually getting anything done to drive my business forward.
My best piece of advice is just to go with a tool that is good enough, don;t try and find the perfect tool, it doesn’t exist.
Then, learn how to actually use it so that it can help you and your goals, don’t do what I did and waste your time on looking for the next shiney object to try.
Here is my exact tool stack I use to rank on Google…
Ideation & Keyword Research
Mindmeister
Ideation & topical cluster planning
I use it for brainstorming and keeping all my ideas in one place. I use it to plan out my topical clusters and make sure my topical mapping structure will make sense in google’s eyes.
I’ve used Mindmeister since 2013 and it’s brilliant. Over the years they have also create Meister Task and Meister Note so the whole ecosystem all links up and is extremely powerful. Now you can brainstorm, then turn them into tasks and keep detailed notes along the way.
SEMRush
Keyword Research
There are tons and I mean tons of keyword research tools out there. I have spent many many hours switching between ones, finding cheaper ones and so on.
At the end of the day Keyword research is the backbone of everything you need to do to rank on Google so I have learnt its worth the monthly cost and SEMRush is the easiest to use in my opinion, has a great database and you can actually do proper deep dives into keywords without burning through your monthly credits.
Creating Content
Jasper
Writing Content
After I have planned out my topical clusters and target keywords I need to actually write the content. I do use AI writing tools to achieve this. It is very important to note that no AI copywriting tool can actually write a full blog post for you – if you just used that it would be a pile of crap but AI tools can help you write blog posts quicker.
I have learnt through man many hours of trial and error that must treat your AI writing tool as just that – a very efficient tool.
Each blog post is made up of tens of different sections and each section has taken multiple prompts to create it. I would then add as much of my personal, real-life experience of the subject as I can and make sure what I write provide genuine value to the reader.
I have tried a lot of AI writers and Jasper is in my opinion the best, easiest to use and they are always evolving and creating new, more efficient workflows in the product. Their chrome extension is a game-changer – literally anything I write now whilst on the computer I can easily get assistance from Jasper – from emails to tweets.
Content @ Scale
Writing a lot of Content
Now, this a fairly new addition to my tool stack and one that really helped me to scale my content. I use Jasper for individual blog posts and basically all my writing on the computer now but Content at Scale gives me the ability to, as their name suggests, ramp up my content output through the roof.
It basically cuts out the two steps of 1) creating the outline of the blog post and 2) writing the first draft. With Content at Scale, once you have decided your target keyword you can input this into their software and within 5 – 30 mins your first draft is ready. From there you need to still do your review and editing, making sure you are adding in your actual experience and providing value.
Now, this is an expensive option and might not be right for some at this stage but when you want to really scale up your website and gain traction with Google quickly then this is the way to go. Compared to hiring freelance writers this is a lot cheaper and quicker too.
Grammarly
Grammar Checker
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Canva
Creating Images
Canva is absolutely brilliant, for a small monthly cost I have everything I need to create my brand images for my blog. I also use it for creating custom elements on my website and also for email signatures etc. Basically anywhere you want to have continuity for anything visual you can do it surprisingly quickly in Canva.
In my content also, it’s great for creating things like custom infographics and heading banner sections etc.
Link Building
GMASS
For Email Outreach
Gmass is great, I found out about it from another fellow blogger and once you learn how to use it (maybe 30 – 45 mins via their instructional videos) you will love what it can do.
It is basically an email autoresponder but its low cost and you can link it to google spreadsheets. So what I do is find the contacts for websites I want to reach out to and then plug that into my spreadsheet. Each column in the spreadsheet you can call up in the email templates so I can create custom emails that are personalised to the specific person I am contacting and also their website.
The best bit is the follow ups that can be set automatically with customer follow up emails and custom times of the day so you don’t even need to show up in person to do this outreach..
Rocket Reach
For Finding Email Contacts
I use Rocket Reach for finding contact details for a particular website that I want to reach out to. It doesn’t’t;t have details for all sites, especially smaller sites but it is the best contact finding software that I have used.
It saves me so much time manually hunting through websites to find details. They have a chrome extension that you can use on LinkedIN which is really good – when I am viewing a company the extension will automatically try to find contact details for the company or person.
Productivity Tools
Notion
For my workflows, task management & my second brain
If you haven’t heard of Notion then it’s basically a way to create almost anything you can think of in terms of organising your life with no code.
It does take a while to get used to it but it is worth the effort trust me. Every part of your Notion has a specific reference, called a block so you can literally reference anything or view anything you want in all manner of custom ways.
I use it to track every part of my blogging business – from content creation, to link building to general admin tasks. I have set up my own workflows that keep me organised. Think Trello but on steroids.
I came across the ‘building a second brain’ concept a few years ago and Notion is the perfect place to do it – basically it stores everything so my brain can be clear to blog!
Motion
Calendar Management & Timeblocking
I use motion as my daily assistant to actually get sh^% done. It’s an AI powered smart calendar app where I can set my appointments in there and my priority tasks for the day.
I know it sounds a big nuts but the AI will determine the best time to do these tasks and the absolutely best bit is that when sh%$ comes up and i get off track I can click a button and the AI will reorganise my day.
My Website
Namecheap
Domain Registration
There are loads of domain registrars out there so not much to compare against really. These guys are good.
WPX
Website Hosting
These guys are by far the best hosting company I have ever used and that doesn’t even do them justice. They have been consistently ranked as one of the fastest host, which helps with google rankings.
Their support team, for me is what makes them stand out. I can literally at any time of the day use their chat function and someone who actually knows what they are doing can sort the problem out. I so far haven;t had an issue that they haven’t been able to fix in under 30 mins, it’s actually ridiculous. My past experience is that it takes days to get a response and its via a support ticket and not normally helpful.
I was with bluehost when i started and WPX literally did everything for my site to migrate over. My page speed insights when through the roof after migration. I’m not bashing bluehost, its a great start package but after the introductory first year rates go away its expensive for what it is. WPX is still more per month but highly worth it in my opinion.
Hardware
Logitech MX Keys Mouse & Keyboard
Wireless Mouse & Keyboard
Now I know it might be a bit strange to recommend a mouse and keyword but these guys are so good. If you had told me 2 years ago I would be ranting to people about a mouse I would have thought you were crazy.
Lets start with the mouse – the magnetic scroll is a dream – i can scroll through pages and reports like butter. It has a side scroll so i don;t need to find the scrollbar everytime. The best bit is the forward and back buttons ont eh side so whenever i want to go back for example on websites or in my folders i do it by moving my thumb a few millimetres. I know these sound simple but try it and then you’ss get it.
The keyboard, and I am going to sound even more ridiculous now, but the buttons are so nice to press, it lights up when you need it in the dark and its a sturdy mother Fuc^%$.
The best bit though is that both the mouse and keyboard come with 3 profiles so I can set one to my personal laptop and one to my work laptop and switch between the two quickly – great for when you are in a boring work meeting and you want to do some keyword research.
For something I use all day every day I cannot recommend enough investing in a decent mouse and keyboard.
