I often get asked, “What are the best blogging tools for beginners and beyond?” What blogging tools do I use on my blog. You’ll get all my answers here, so hang on till the end!
If you want to start blogging, you can imagine some blogging tools essential for a new blogger or affiliate marketer in 2024 and beyond?
Yes! I believe Blogging is an amazing way to help people and at the same time earn a good passive income.
But using blogging tools is an indispensable part of the blogging business. Because you can do more and more tasks rather than a person.
In this article, I’ve introduced the 17 best blogging tools that I personally use to run this blog…
If you really wanna grow and monetize your blog to the next level, read this article to the end…
Let’s go for it!
17 Best Blogging Tools for Beginners (in 2024)
As a beginner blogger, some of these blogging tools are paid tools, but I have tried to provide a free option wherever it’s possible! I listed the blogging tools that I’ve used or currently using for Passive Blogger.
1. WordPress
A website is the very first thing you need to build a successful Blogging business. Because it is your online identity that connects all your audience into one place.
Although there are so many content management systems available on the market, we recommend WordPress (Self Hosted).
Because WordPress is the most popular CMS on the web from hobby blogs to the biggest news sites online.
It is incredibly easy to use no matter what your tech skill, that’s why 43% of the web uses WordPress.
If you’re new to creating a WordPress website, it also has tons of online tutorials available you can use to get started.
Most importantly, it is free to use and building costs are remarkably low. The cost can only be a custom domain name and web hosting.
For more functionality, you have to use themes and plugins. In WordPress, there are 55,000 plugins and 8,804 themes free to use.
With this tool, you can add an online store, galleries, mailing lists, forums, analytics, and more.
By far WordPress is the best blogging platform and a great tool for blogging, affiliate marketing, or running an eCommerce store.
Pricing: WordPress.or is free to use!
2. Bluehost (for Beginners)
Web Hosting is one of the essential tools for bloggers & affiliate marketers if you want to build a blog website. Web hosting is the major cost to start a blog.
If you want to build a website with WordPress, Bluehost (read my Review) is the name to go with. It is the most user-friendly web hosting for any type of WordPress website.
Bluehost has hosted over 2 million websites since 2003 and has become one of the world’s largest web hosting providers. It is for everyone from beginning bloggers to large e-commerce sites, established sites, and more.
It is reliable and affordable web hosting with unlimited website features. I highly recommend trying Bluehost, even, though Bluehost #1 recommended hosting solution by WordPress.org.
Bluehost comes with custom-built servers and 24/7 WordPress expert support. It has delivered a breakthrough performance that helps you to grow your blogging business.
It also comes with other features like:
- Free SSL
- Free Domain
- Auto Updates
- FTP Site Transfer
- Free CDN Enabled
- Free Website Caching
- Cpanel/SSH Access
- Site Analytic DashBoard
- Spam Protection Included
- Website Staging Environment
- Unlimited Parked/Subdomain
- Access Bluehost App Marketplace
However, Bluehost offers a great entry-level shared hosting plan for as little as $2.95 a month.
All in all, Bluehost is a reliable hosting service provider that gives you the best value for your money. You can check out BlueHost hosting plans here.
Pricing: Bluehost paid tools (paid) $2.95/month!
3. Nexcess (for Midrange or Advanced)
Nexcess is WordPress focus managed hosting provider for any WordPress and woo-commerce users.
This is another web hosting company that I currently use to run my niche blog. But I only recommend it for intermediate to advanced bloggers who gain good traffic.
But if you need high-quality hosting to run a blog then managed hosting is worth it.
It’s a bit more expensive than Bluehost, and you just don’t need it as a Newbie or even an intermediate user.
Again, I waited one and a half years to upgrade to Nexcess. I only did it because I needed to host another blog and had money to invest in my blogging business.
I only recommend Nexcess Hosting IF…
- Your blog outgrows your current hosting plan.
- You have plenty of money to invest in your blog
- Spending money for managed hosting or a better hosting plan.
If you already have a blog or are looking for a better hosting provider it would be the best. You can try out Nexcess for 14 days for free! Get Nexcess for free!
Pricing: Nexcess paid tools (paid) $15/month!
4. Kadence WP
Since 2019 I’ve used 4 different WordPress themes Kadence, Avada, Neve, and GeneratePress. All of them come with great functionality and flexibility.
However, as a beginner blogger, the two most important factors in choosing a good WordPress blog theme include:
- User-friendliness — It ensures you learn the theme functionality quickly. It allows you to make the smallest of changes in a short time.
- Customizability — It allows you to design your blog to look the way you want it to.
However, Kadence WP is the #1 theme on the market for beginner bloggers when it comes to both user-friendliness and customizability.
Kadence WP is a freemium theme, which means it has both free and paid versions. But if you purchase Kadence, you will get access to the entire functionality.
If you decide that you don’t want to use Kadence, try Avada, Genesis, or Neve. They come with almost the same functionality. Or click here to check the Kadence premium version.
Pricing: Kadence paid tools (paid) $59/year!
5. Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is the most-used WordPress SEO plugin that has helped over five million-plus people use it on their websites.
If you want to rank highly in search engines like Google, you need to beat your competition. In order to do that you need a better, faster, stronger website than the people who sell or do the same kinds of things as you.
Basically, it allows you to set your posts like’ keywords, meta description, URL slug, or related key-phrase.
It also helps you analyze your content’s readability score, checks the keyword density, and structure of the content, and tells you what you need improvement on.
Overall, Yoast SEO helps you optimize your website and make your site as search-engine-friendly as possible.
Pricing: Yoast freemium tools & (paid) $99/year!
6. Google Analytics
Technically Google Analytics is probably the best and most free blogging tools for beginners and beyond. As if you run a blog and you should be using this tool from day one.
Key Things Google Analytics does:
- Your most popular articles
- Your most popular visiting country
- Best performing traffic days
- The best converting sign-up page
- Where your traffic is coming from (Google? Facebook? Etc.)
- Whether your visitors are on desktops, mobiles, or tablets
If you want to know your audience, no matter what niche you are in, whether it is a website or blog you badly need Google Analytics.
For a blogger or affiliate marketer, it is the most comprehensive analytics tool available today. With this cool tool, you can even understand the demographic data of your visitors.
You also found your audience’s interests. Once you start there is no end and it will quickly become invaluable as you grow your blog.
Furthermore, you can split tests, track links, and conversions, check various habits, etc.
By far, you will gain real insights into how users engage with your blog or shop.
However, Almost all site owners need to use it in order to check the effectiveness of their website SEO activities and targets.
Pricing: Google Analytics is free to use!
7. Sendpulse
When you’re just starting with blogging, getting people to follow your content is super important. That’s where SendPulse comes in handy.
It’s a helpful tool for bloggers, and its lead-generation capabilities are especially great for connecting with your audience without a hassle.
If you’re not a tech whiz, adding a subscription form or a smart pop-up to your blog might sound a bit scary. But with SendPulse, it’s easy.
The platform is designed so that even beginners can create and personalize forms without needing to know any fancy code. You can make forms that match your blog’s look effortlessly.
Making your subscription forms look appealing is crucial. SendPulse gets that and gives you lots of templates to choose from.
Whether you like simple designs or more colorful ones, you can make pop-ups and subscription forms that match your blog. This flexibility means your forms will grab attention and make visitors more likely to subscribe.
Key things SendPulse does:
- Lead generation tools (subscription form, pop-ups, chatbots)
- Email marketing (welcome emails, drip campaigns)
- Online course builder (create, promote, and sell online courses)
What’s even cooler about SendPulse is the fact that it’s also a multichannel marketing powerhouse and a platform where you can create your own online course and monetize your knowledge.
With SendPulse you can create an online course, promote it on your blog, or with the help of online marketing features that are also available on the SendPulse platform.
Pricing: Sendpulse freemium tools & (paid) $5.20/month!
8. OptinMonster
Building an email list is essential for any business and lead generation is the best way to do email marketing.
So, what is lead generation? Basically, it is the process of attracting prospects and converting them into your fans. I mean it is someone who has an interest in your products and services.
In order to do that OptinMonster is by far the most powerful lead generation solution in the world.
Key Things Optinmonster Does:
- Exit-intent Technology
- Onsite Retargeting
- Onsite Followup Campaigns
- Cookie retargeting
Why is it best! Basically, it comes with amazing pre-built templates that convert your visitors into leads. and customers. You can even choose the perfect campaign type that easily grabs your visitors’ attention.
For example; it does like a lightbox popup, floating bar, full-screen welcome mat, and more.
With this blogging tool, you can show your personalized messages to every visitor on your site. And it is based on their geographic location, referral source, and more.
Overall, it seamlessly integrates with all major email marketing services like Aweber, Mailchimp, and more.
If you’re a blogger or website owner it is the best lead generation plugin you can use for your purpose.
Pricing: OptinMonster paid tools $9/month!
9. WP Rocket
The fast page load of a website is critical to every business. And a caching solution is the most effective way to speed up a website.
WP Rocket is a premium caching plugin that aids in speeding up the loading time of your WordPress website.
Key Things Rocket Does:
- Website caching
- Image compression
- Gzip compression
- Database cleanup
- Support WordPress Multisite
- Enhance user-end browser caching
- Lazy loading to boost loading times
- Integrate caching solution with a CDN
- HTML, CSS, and JavaScript minification
The best thing I love about this plugin is that it launches upon activation, so you don’t have to struggle with complex configurations.
Wp Rocket also comes with an image optimization tool called Imagify to compress images that literally improve page speed.
However, it integrates all the latest features for boosting performance, including lazy loading, minification of CSS, HTML, and JavaScript files, etc.
I highly recommend this plugin and it is a must-have WordPress plugin for anyone who wants to speed up a website.
Pricing: WP Rocket Paid tools $49/year!
10. Solid Backup
Backups and security are essential for any website owner. According to ithemes.com, An average of 30,000 sites are hacked every day.
Can you imagine, that if your site gets hacked, all data will vanish within seconds? go hand-in-hand. You can’t have one without the other.
Finding a quality backup solution is among the perennial requirements for all website owners.
Solid Backup is the world-leading WordPress backup plugin. It has been protecting 1 million websites since 2010.
Key Things Solid Backup does:
- Backs up & restores WordPress sites with one click
- Easily Clone & Migrate WordPress Site
- Backs up to a remote location
- Perform complete, manual, or scheduled backups
- Backs up non-WordPress files and databases
- Extensive remote storage option
Solid Backup is a great blogging tools for beginners and beyond. I even use it for Passive Blogger because it offers great backup solutions.
One of the things I like most, it also offers scheduled automated backup solutions. You can even set up your remote storage for a broad range of storage options including Google Drive, Dropbox, and more.
Also, you can restore your backups without logging into the BackupBuddy dashboard because you can do it from your WordPress dashboard.
So I recommend that you should always have a backup plan because you never know when one part of your business may go down or be lost.
Pricing: Solid Backup paid tools $80/year!
11. Thirsty Affiliate
Basically, Affiliate links are messy, long, and unsightly. For example; I’m using an affiliate network, ShareASale.
One of my affiliate links seems like this; https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=224327&u=2486066&m=26748&urllink=&afftrack=
Can you imagine how unhealthy it looks like, after using Thirsty Affiliates it is pretty much like this;https://aioshortcodes.com/go/grammarly/
To some leads, this may also make your users seem untrustworthy. But not to worry, This is a WordPress plugin you can use to shorten and brand your affiliate links:
It enables you to take long, bulky URLs and turn them into short, concise, and memorable ones. Some people called this process “cloaking“.
With this plugin, you can also manage server-side redirects and track link activity. It is being Downloaded 443,521+ times by WordPress Sites Worldwide
It is more than just a run-of-the-mill affiliate link Cloaker – it’s basically designed for bloggers to make money. That’s why so many blog owners like me are using it to manage their affiliate links.
Pricing: Thirsty Affiliate freemium tools & (paid) $49/year!
12. Aweber
According to Hubspot, 59% of consumers state email marketing either positively or negatively influences their purchasing decisions.
It means building an email list is one of the best ways to make money via blogging & affiliate marketing in 2024.
For Email marketing, Aweber is an all-in-one platform you can use to collect and build out an email list.
Aweber allows you to free up to 500 subscribers and create amazing leads-driven newsletters. This platform allows you to create customizable optimized templates for any device.
You can use these tools for product promotions to free giveaways such as ebook downloads more easily.
It also allows you to segment your mailing list. so that you can launch more tailored campaigns to increase conversions.
By far, Aweber is a comprehensive email marketing tool for affiliate marketing. It can also be a powerful tool for all types of businesses and marketers.
Pricing: Aweber freemium tools & (paid) $19.99/month!
13. Semrush
In affiliate marketing, it’s important to learn about your competitors, SEMrush can help you with that.
SEMRush is an all-in-one Search Engine Marketing platform for every online entrepreneur. It is our go-to tool for competitor analysis, keyword research, and fixing SEO errors.
This tool is one of the must-have tools for marketers who are looking to understand what is going on in the market.
This tool has lots of things you can do such as:
- SEO metrics
- Competitor analysis
- Keyword research
- Lead generation
- Backlink auditing
- And more
This tool gives you an overall insight into what other people do online such as other companies’ paid advertising campaigns.
Semrush allows you to uncover relevant trends and patterns in your industry to fine-tune your own promotions. It also generates ideas for creating effective content for Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Although this service needs a paid account, the price is worth the information that you can get from it.
However, with this tool, you will get in-depth insights that help you to grow affiliate marketing to the next level.
Pricing: Semrush tools & (paid) $119.95/month!
14. Grammarly
Grammarly is another amazing grammar checker tool for bloggers & affiliate marketers who publish content on a daily basis. It would be your best writing assistant to check your spelling and grammar.
Not only does it check grammar points or spelling errors but it also checks plagiarism. It also offers vocabulary or alternate word suggestions that are usually good for blog writing.
Most Importantly it provides real-time alerts if any error occurs, a free-to-use content writing tool, and all you need to add to your browser extension and start using it.
Grammarly is an excellent tool for quickly checking new posts and creating changes such as correctness, clarity, engagement, and more.
Pricing: Grammarly freemium tools & (paid) $12/month!
15. Tailwind
Tailwind is one of my favorite blogging tools. It is a great tool that can help you schedule Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook posts in the future.
It is a social media management tool that allows you to prepare and schedule your content. Tailwind also analyzes results and increases engagement with your audience.
Tailwind makes it easier for bloggers, affiliate marketers, and social media marketers to collaborate and publish posts.
It is a lifesaver, you don’t have to worry about creating posts multiple times per day, which clears your mind for other important tasks!
Tailwind is a great tool that comes with a nice interface and simplicity. And even the setup process is super easy which allows the user to connect to Pinterest and Instagram accounts almost instantly.
They offer a lifetime free account, which is always appreciated, and it allows you to connect to three social media accounts.
This means that the free account is viable and allows you to schedule up to 20 posts every month. So if you’re not using Tailwind, try it for free now!
Pricing: Tailwind freemium tools & (paid) $9.99/month!
16. Canva
Canva is probably the best blogging tools that I’ve been using since 2018. It is a great design tool for creating custom images that you can use either on blog posts or social media.
If you run your blog for a while you already know that visual blog posts get more engagement and hold readers for a while on your blog post.
Just think about the featured images and in-content images that literally make your blog visually more appealing.
What I like most about Canva is the quality of templates that they offer even in free accounts.
Another great thing about Canva is creating custom banners for your blog posts. These could come in the form of your featured images, section headings, or images to explain a key point.
You know what, one of the most important things to succeeding with blogging is having great images that please people’s eyes.
If you are tired of hiring a designer to create sleek images for your blog, Try Canva free for 30 days. Canva is so easy to use, that I can even design a good-looking image with their software.
Pricing: Canva freemium tools & (paid) $9.99/month!
17. NordVPN
Having access to a VPN is essential for any serious blogger and affiliate marketer.
Using a VPN not only keeps your information private in public spaces, such as traveling or while on the move but also checks your blog on how it appears to people in various global locations.
There are tons of VPN providers on the market. I use Nord VPN which offers fantastic services at a reasonable price.
Nord VPN provides lots of servers in 62 countries and apps for all operating systems and devices.
It has established itself as one of the most secure and reliable services you can buy. Its plans start from just $3.29/month! and allow you to secure up to 6 devices at the same time.
I have been using it for one and a half years, and I really love its services.
Overall, using Nord VPN gives me the ultimate benefit of security, freedom, and privacy. So Try Nord VPN and secure your privacy.
Pricing: Nord Vpn (paid) $3.29/month!
18. Duplichecker
Key features:
- No ads
- Lightning-fast results
- Multilingual support
- Easier to use the plagiarism checker
- Check up to 1000 words in the free plan
- Check plagiarism via webpage URL
If you are a blogger or affiliate marketer, chances are you have a team of blog writers. These writers might help you create data-driven, engaging SEO content so that you can focus on other marketing activities.
But, you should always check their works because content can be copied from other sites. Duplichecker might help you to make sure they have not given you copied content.
Having duplicate content on your site can be harmful or the worst user experience, and as a result, search engines may penalize you.
Manually checking each piece of content is time-consuming and can take you long hours, or even days. Can you imagine how much time it will take If you have hundreds of articles?
That’s why using plagiarism checker tools like DupliChecker comes in handy and soft. It is also a free tool and can detect copied content in seconds.
All you need to do is just copy and paste your text, hit the “Check Plagiarism” button, and let DupliChecker do the rest.
It’s really a lifesaver because an accidental case of plagiarism could result in serious legal issues.
Pricing: DupliChecker is free to use!
Wrapping it Up
This ends our list of the 17+ best tools for blogging and affiliate marketing in 2024.
We hope our comprehensive list might help you to get the right tools for your affiliate marketing. As you can imagine, having the right tools makes things much easier and saves time.
Do you have any questions regarding blogging tools? Which blogging tools you’re currently using, Let me know in the comments section below!
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