Level up your blog: Essential online tools for every blogger

Starting a blog can be exciting, but it also comes with a steep learning curve. Mastering content creation is just the first step. To truly thrive in the blogging world, you need a toolkit of online resources that streamlines your workflow, enhances your content and helps you connect with your audience.

Whether you’re a seasoned blogger or just starting out, these essential online tools (many of which are free to use or offer a free trial) will become your best friends:

1. Content creation & editing

Grammarly: No more embarrassing typos or grammatical errors! Grammarly is a lifesaver for ensuring your blog posts are polished and professional. It checks for grammar, spelling, punctuation and even clarity and tone.
Canva: Design visually appealing graphics for your blog posts, social media and promotional materials. Canva offers a vast library of templates, fonts and stock photos, making it easy for anyone to create stunning visuals.
Hemingway Editor: This free online tool helps you write concise and impactful content. It highlights complex sentences, adverbs and passive voice, making your writing clearer and more engaging.

2. SEO & analytics

Google Search Console: Gain insights into how your blog performs in search results. Track keywords, identify errors and understand user behaviour on your site.
Google Analytics: Track website traffic, user demographics and content performance. Gain valuable insights into what’s working and what needs improvement on your blog.
Yoast SEO: Optimise your blog posts for search engines like Google and Bing. This plugin helps you improve readability, optimise meta descriptions and ensures your content is SEO-friendly.

3. Social media management

Buffer: Schedule and manage your social media posts across multiple platforms. Save time and ensure consistent content delivery to your audience.
Hootsuite: Similar to Buffer, Hootsuite allows you to schedule posts, track mentions and analyse social media performance.
Later: Ideal for visual platforms like Instagram and Pinterest, Later helps you plan and visually organise your social media content with a calendar and preview feature.

4. Image optimisation & stock photos

Smush & TinyPNG: Optimise your images for faster loading times and improved SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). Several free online tools allow you to reduce file size without compromising quality.
Unsplash & Pexels: Access free high-quality stock photos for your blog posts. These websites offer stunning images from talented photographers, allowing you to elevate your content visually.

5. Email marketing:

Mailchimp: Build an email list and send newsletters to engage your audience. This popular tool allows you to create beautiful email campaigns and track subscriber interactions.
ConvertKit: A powerful email marketing platform designed for creators and bloggers. It offers automation features, landing page creation and helps you grow your email list effectively.

Beyond the tools: The human element

While these tools can significantly enhance your blogging journey, remember that the core of successful blogging lies in human connection.

Engage with your audience and your niche: Respond to comments, ask questions and create a sense of community around your blog. In addition, leave relevant and engaging comments on posts on other blogs in your niche.
Focus on valuable content: Provide insightful information, helpful tips and engaging stories that your readers will relate to and appreciate.
Be consistent: Regularly publish high-quality content to keep your audience coming back for more.

By investing time in learning and mastering these essential online tools, you can transform your blog from a hobby into a thriving platform that reaches and resonates with your target audience. So, grab your digital toolkit and start building your blogging empire!

The best WordPress plugins to improve your food blog

WordPress is the most famous and popular blogging platform. The platform is so popular that it’s believed that out of 1.3 billion websites on the web, WordPress powers more than 455 million sites, a fact that’s astonishing.

Users love WordPress because it’s a powerful platform that is reliable and offers endless customisation options. WordPress is an excellent platform for your blog if you’re a food blogger. Not only because it’s the best blogging platform but also because it offers countless plugins that will transform your ordinary food blog into perfection. The best part is that WordPress’s CMS is super user-friendly, so it will be super simple to manage your food blog and make it successful.

WordPress offers more than 58,000 free plugins for bloggers. It also offers thousands of plugins that cost additional money, but we guarantee you’ll find a useful plugin among the 58,000 you can use free of any charge. Before you start your food blogging journey, it’s important to remember that you first need to find a reliable web host. There are many web hosting companies on the internet, so research before you decide on one. Since you’ll be working with WordPress, the best thing you can do is choose a web host that offers WordPress hosting. To choose the best web host for your food blog, read as many reviews as possible on the Internet. For instance, HostAdvice offers countless valuable reviews, where you can find excellent information about web hosting companies that offer WordPress hosting, such as the Kinsta review; feel free to learn more about the web hosting companies that offer excellent WordPress hosting plans.

The best plugins for food blogs

As we already mentioned above, WordPress offers more than 58,000 free plugins. WordPress is the best platform to start your food blog, so make sure you get the most out of the platform by using some of the best plugins. Let’s see what the best WordPress plugins that will help you improve and transform your food blog are.

WordPress recipe plugins

There’s nothing better than adding food recipes in an instant. WordPress offers excellent recipe plugins that will make the job easy for you. The plugins will help you create recipes faster and easier, optimise your recipes for better SEO and improve the overall user experience thanks to the design and formatting.
Two of the best WordPress recipe plugins include:

Delicious Recipes for WordPress: a plugin that enables you to collect recipes from people visiting your blog. To increase your blog’s revenue, you can add an affiliate link directly to the recipe. The plugin also has an analytic dashboard that will help you track the progress of the recipes and discover which recipes are popular among your visitors.
WordPress Recipe Maker: this plugin is the most popular among food bloggers. There is a free version, but you need to pay for the premium plugin you can buy. The premium version will enable you to insert Amazon links, access the nutrition database, etc.

Yoast SEO

Whether you have a food blog, an eCommerce store, or a small business website, SEO is important. Yoast SEO is something you must download right now to make your food blog successful and attract more traffic. The plugin will give you anything you might need for SEO optimisation. Yoast SEO has incredible features, including on-page SEO analytics, readability analysis, built-in sitemap generator, snippet preview and editor. The plugin integrates with your WordPress editor and will maximise the SEO of your content as you work.

Social Snap

Social media can be crucial for success, so you must start using SocialSnap. The plugin will enable you to embed social sharing buttons on more than 30 social networks, and the best part is that it is super user-friendly. The SocialSnap includes an image sharer, creative display options, advanced customisation options, share counters, social meta tags etc.

ShortPixel Image Optimizer

ShortPixel is one of the most popular WordPress plugins among bloggers. This plugin is popular because it reduces the size of the images in a post and boosts site speed. The best part is that the image quality doesn’t get compromised. ShortPixel has recommended settings during the installation, but you can also configure the images to properly meet your needs.

Akismet

As your food blog grows and attracts more visitors, the number of spammers will also increase. To filter out spam, you will need Akismet, the plugin that monitors comment submissions. To start using the plugin, you first need to download it, create an account and then paste the API key generated for you. You also have the option to choose Akismet’s level of strictness when handling spam: keep the spam in a spam folder or get the spam deleted immediately. Akismet is popular because it has excellent features such as account spam statistics and the option to display privacy notices. The plugin is free, but a Plus or Enterprise plugin also has extra features.

Conclusion

Starting a food blog and making it successful is not easy. The reality is that the competition is tough, and you need to work extra hard to make your blog stand out from the crowd. Luckily, the WordPress plugins can help impact the food world and create a unique food blog that people will love coming back to.

[disclosure*]

Get their look: Pink House bathroom

_credit

Whilst looking for a room to feature in this week’s ‘Get their look‘ feature, I came across this bathroom. One word… WOW! It belongs to lifestyle blogger and journo, Emily Murray. Her award-winning blog, The Pink House, is full of really inspired and inspiring interiors.

The first thing that caught my eye in this photo was that super wallpaper – exotic, opulent and just so beautiful. The colour-matched brass taps, towel warmer and light give the room a sumptuous feel – Cleopatra herself would be delighted at taking her ass’ milk bath in here!

On further inspection, you’ll see how well she has designed and fitted a really, really awkward space. The bathroom is located in the eaves of the house; while all the interesting sharp angles look attractive, it meant that she had to install a ‘kneeling’ shower in the compact space. Storing the ablutionary accoutrements of a family of four hidden away in the custom-built under-sink unit keeps the surfaces clutter-free. The Pantone pink espresso mug of flowers gives a knowing nod to The Pink House.

Pop on over Emily’s blog to see all the before & after photos and read about this successful bathroom redesign. You’ll really love her writing style and turn of phrase.

Friday Folks – Pilgrim Lee

In this Friday Folks post we introduce Pilgrim Lee (aka Draw! Pilgrim). We’ve admired Pilgrim’s work for a long while – she shares our love of bold, bright colours and design from the 60s & 70s. She’s a very busy lady – blogger, designer, maker, seller, traveller, mother… where does she find the time?!

Who are you & what do you do?
I’m Pilgrim Lee, owner of Draw! Pilgrim and I’m a graphic designer and illustrator from Melbourne, Australia.

How did you get into the business?
While I was in high school I worked for my mum’s graphic design business. Following high school and a couple of years abroad I studied visual communication and shortly after, I started Draw! Pilgrim as a home-based business while I cared for my baby son.

Who or what inspires you?
All kinds of things inspire me, but most of those things are colorful, wild design from the 60s and 70s: Verner Panton, Hans Edelman, Milton Glaser etc.

What has been your greatest success?
I’m very proud of how my business has grown over the last couple of years, and I would never have believed some of the great publicity I’ve received in that time: inclusion in the Print & Pattern 2 book, magazine and newspaper features, and coverage on some really huge blogs!

Have you got any advice for someone wanting to break into the business?
Be well prepared. Consider your various strategies and policies. Move at a pace you are comfortable with – even if it’s slower than you think it should be. Being comfortable to take each next step is a guarantee of your work being good quality. Be confident! You can do it!

H is for Home Harbinger

Tag: blogger