My 5 favorite free blogging tools

The other day I realized I’ve been doing this blogging thing for almost 10 years. Sadly, it’s only over the past few years that I’ve found some tools that have helped take my blog to the next level.

Ok, some (most) of these tools weren’t around 10 years ago and I was in it more for the writing.  I had no idea what SEO was and adding a photo to a post was something I rarely did.

1. Picmonkey – Speaking of photos, I love this site. Seriously, you almost always need to have an image in a post these days and I sort of suck at remembering to take photos. Picmonkey lets me make up graphics even though I don’t have any fancy tools. There is a free version and a paid version. I highly suggest using the paid version. It’s not that expensive and if you’re like me, you’ll get addicted to it anyway. The paid version has a collage with dimensions perfect for Pinterest. See the above image…made with Picmonkey!
2. Statcounter – I’ll admit, Google Analytics confuses me sometimes (mostly).  This was one of the first free tools I found. It’s fairly easy to install on your blog.  I did it on my old Blogger.com blog. It shows you pretty graphs and tells you how people found your site.
3. Triberr – If you want more people to see your blog, this is a great way to increase your reach.  You join a tribe and promote other people’s posts.  They return the favor for you. They also have a paid version (which I’ve not used yet).  I think it lets you auto post other people’s posts.  Also, they have campaigns available for you to get paid. I’ve not used that service yet…or been selected more likely.
4. Shareaholic – This is a free plugin for your site.  It can add those fun little social sharing buttons as well as include other posts your readers might like. I have no idea how it decides which posts to show them, but they all seem fairly random.
5. EverNote – I’ve heard people rave about this iPhone app for years and now I understand why. It’s a great way to organize thoughts, to do lists, and notes about post ideas. I like how it can use your calendar to help you take notes.  There’s a web version and desktop version and an Android version.  If you create an account, they all sync up.