Successful Blogging

The Ultimate List of 85+ Free (or Low Cost) Blogging Tools

The Ultimate List of 85+ Free (or Low Cost) Blogging Tools

233 Comments

I get this question daily, “Sue, how do you…” (fill in the blank with the latest problem that has been causing you to tear your hair out)

So I decided to create a list of the best free (or low cost) blogging tools that answer that very question.

And, yes, I use 67 of these tools.

My newest addiction?

MemberVault.

A membership site that you can put in a course for FREE – yes, membership software that’s forever free for unlimited courses (up to 50 students). So take it for a spin without spending a dime.

Check out my MemberVault site here and sign up for the absolutely free course, Blog In A Box.

And I have a deal for you if you already offer courses and have more than 50 students. Erin at MemberVault has a special code just for my readers. Use the code Insider100 for a free month of either the pro/base monthly or $100 off the first year of pro/base annual)

So, let’s get started!

Free Images For Your Blog and Social Media Posts

Free Plug-Ins for your WordPress Site:

Name Your Blog Or Product

Create a Blog Headline

Find Keywords for SEO

Be a Better Writer

  • Hemingway: Have bold and clear wording for your blog posts (free)
  • Grammarly:  Find and correct mistakes in your posts (small charge)
  • Editorial Calendar: Drag and drop scheduling tool for blog posts (free)
  • Cool Timer: Clock with alarm app to keep you on track while writing (free)
MY PERSONAL RECOMMENDATION FOR YOU  How to Use an Apprentice to Grow Your Blog

Be More Productive

  • Wri.it:  Distraction-free writing tool with a spell checker and text formatting (free)
  • Evernote  An all-in-one tool that acts as your dedicated assistant (free)
  • NewOldStamp: have a great signature for your regular email address
  • Trello: Keep track of all of your tasks (free)
  • Noisli: Improve focus and boost productivity (free)
  • FocusAtWill: Music optimized to boost your focus (free 30-day trial)
  • WiseStamp: A free signature for your email that links to your blog and social profiles
  • Coffitivity: Ambient sounds of a cafe (free)
  • Kill Newsfeed: A Chrome plug-in that makes your Facebook feed vanish
  • Bookafy: Free online booking service for meetings, demos, and appointments.
  • Clockify: ?Completely free time tracking and time management app that lets you keep track of time spent on various tasks and projects, calculate billable hours, export reports, and so on.
  • Easy PDF: Totally free online PDF converter.

Get More Subscribers

  • LeadPages: I use LeadPages every day for landing pages, opt-in pages, sales pages, etc. (starts at $25/month)
  • Sumo: Use a heat map, scroll bar, hello bar, pop up for your blog. (get one tool for free)
  • Create an eBook: The Complete Guide: Create a lead magnet or ebook to sell
  • Peek User Testing: See a 5-minute video of someone on your website navigating around
  • Instapage: creates landing pages and wonderful sales pages (easy to use, also!)
  • Pushmaze:  to send mobile and push notifications.

Keep Track Of Your Numbers

Is Your Site Fast Enough?

Capture Email Addresses

Connect With Other Bloggers For Blogger Outreach

  • Feedly: Keep track of your blogger outreach bloggers’ new posts. (free)
  • Klout: Social media influence score (free)
  • NinjaOutreach: Efficiently search and keep track of your interactions with other bloggers.

Easiest Ways To Do Social Media

  • Buffer: Share all your content on social media, timed out for prime interaction. (free)
  • Social Warfare: Share the correct sized image on every social media channel from your blog post ($29)
  • Triberr: Join tribes where other tribe members share your blog posts on social media. (free)
  • WriteRack: Divide your blog post into tweets (free)
  • Bit.ly: Create and track shortened links (free)
  • Click To Tweet: CoSchedule’s tool to get more shares (free)
  • AddThis: Social sharing buttons (free)
  • Digg Digg: All in one social share buttons (free)
  • Lumen5: Make free videos for social media

Inexpensive Shopping Carts & Affiliate Programs

  • e-Junkie:  Shopping cart and affiliate program (free to start, then just $5/month)
  • SendOwl: Shopping cart that uses PayPal with the ability to offer your own affiliate program (starts at $9/month_

Create a Membership Site or Set Up Your First Course For Free

Help! I need something techie done

  • Fiverr: You can get anything you want for your blog – graphic artists, virtual assistants, anything for $6 (yes, they now charge a service fee – should they change their domain to sevener.com?)

What’s your favorite blogging tool? What have I missed that you love?

Related Posts:

I’ll Send You the Free 5 Step Action Plan So You Can Make Your First $1K

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Hi

    Sue,

    I really appreciate the efforts you put in this post. You have picked out best blogging tools for particular purposes and here great to know about these tools. The ways you have categorized these blogging tools is awesome. I have used some of the blogging tools from the list like canva, stockup, thrive leads, buzzsumo, grammarly, evernote and buffer. I have bookmarked this post for future use. Really, these types of blogging tools help in increasing productivity and save lots of time.

    Thanks for sharing this post with us.

    Best wishes,

    Praveen Verma

    Reply

    • I am really impressed by the way you detailed out everything. It’s very informative and you are obviously very knowledgeable.

      Reply

  7. Wow, what a great list, Sue. I'am especially appreciate the free stock photos. Actually, I'am a photographer and travel blogger, so I use my own pics. But I come often in situations where I need a very specific pic. In this case, I'am using those free stock photos. Pexels was the only database I was familiar with.

    Thank to your list, I have now much more resources.

    Reply

  13. Thanks for this list. I always trying to find royalty free photos for my posts. Beyond Pixabay and Pexel I didn't have much else. I never knew there were so many other free stock photos. I will be sure to check out some of the other tools as well.

    Thank you so much,

    Maria

    Reply

  19. Awesome post, Sue!

    We've used a bunch of free pictures from Pixels, PixaBay, and others. It's incredible how talented these photographers are, and even more incredible that they're allowing these photos to be free.

    Reply

  23. Hi ! Impressive content. People are still not sure what particular steps to take. Now, I think your initiative is well understood to target those to learn the basics. Thanks sharing.

    Reply

  27. I really appreciate the efforts you put in this post. You have picked out best blogging tools for particular purposes and here great to know about these tools. The ways you have categorized these blogging tools is awesome. I have used some of the blogging tools from the list like canva, stockup, thrive leads, buzzsumo, grammarly, evernote and buffer. I have bookmarked this post for future use. Really, these types of blogging tools help in increasing productivity and save lots of time.

    Thanks for sharing this post with us

    Reply

  30. This is the first time I have visited here. I found a lot of interesting information in your blog. From the volume of comments on your articles, I guess I am not the only one!
    keep up the great work.

    Reply

  31. Thanks for sharing the list of blogging tools, Sue,
    I love most of the collection of blogging tools that you mentioned here.
    Especially I love the SEMrush which is the most powerful SEO tool on the web.

    Thanks again for the wonderful information.

    Reply

  35. Hello Sue

    Wow, what an article. I can see it’s filled with lots and lots of value. You are surely grabbing all the attention, lol.

    I have been using 7 tools from images section, 2 from headlines, Grammarly and Hemingway of course from writer’s section (a new suggestion-Reverse Dictionary), and 2 from productivity. I’m surely going to use a lot more now, as I’ve bookmarked your post. This is seriously going to be very helpful.

    The keyword for SEO section is a little less, I see. You can have a go at my blog post where I’ve recently added free keyword research tools and their usabilities. Keeping newbies, fresh blogging enthusiasts, startups, or anyone who wants to perform keyword research without spending a single dollar.

    Feel free to have a look as it can help you in updating this post.

    Regards.

    Reply

  36. I’ve been a digital marketer for at least a decade, I’m going to go ahead and say that relevancy is probably the most important ranking factor. This is exactly why keyword stuffing doesn’t work anymore. Hemingway just doesn’t include insight into how relevant your content is. I’ve been working with a new tool called INK, it has built-in SEO features. Another good tool for the content creation tool box, wanted to share it with my fellow editors: http://bit.ly/2ZIT8ht

    Reply

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