I've been a year since I started my own personal development blog. During this time, I've come to use some really cool resources to enhance my blogging activities.
So I've made this list with some of the tools which I use most with my blogging activities. I know I am not reinventing the wheel, but here's a part of what I've been using. Hopefully it will be useful to someone.
Enjoy!
Amazing Images (CC0, most are from public domain)
(most images are part of the public domain and can be used both personally and commercially, but I do suggest you check the license before using them in any form of content, some pics might need just a simple attribution)SEO and Content
- Soovle - it will help you find keywords related to your search
- CopyScape - Find out who copied your content
- Post Title Generator - try this out when you run out of title ideas
- SEOCentro - a collection of tools to help out with search engine optimization (like SEO Analyzer, meta tag analyzer, keyword density, keyword suggestions
- Internet Marketing Ninjas - another huge collection of SEO tools, on-page optimization, page speed, header checker and... the list goes on
- Facebook's Debug Tool - Check if your articles are ready for sharing to Facebook. This tool was also useful when Facebook wasn't picking up updates to the original article. A manual scrape always did the trick.
Miscellaneous
Compressor.IO - I just love this tool! It will shrink the physical size of your images, but preserving their quality as much as possible.Canva - Anytime you need a tool to create quotes or nice pics to share on social media, Canva is the place to go. Use in tandem with public domain images found in the previous list. Accesible from the browser.
Be Funky - When you need to create a funky collage. Accesible from the browser.
Online Chart - Good looking charts.
Gif Maker - Upload your images and create a gif out of them
Word Clouds - You will be creating word clouds with this one.
Typography Editor - Another tool to edit and create images, quotes.
ColorWheel - When you need to make sure two or more colors go well together. Thank you, Adobe.
Alt-Codes - Special ASCII characters, like ☺♫☼♥😍
Kawaii Faces - some one-line ASCII art like ☆(❁‿❁)☆
TextFac.es - some more one-line ASCII art like ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Gif Maker - Upload your images and create a gif out of them
Gimp - One of the best open source tools to edit your images. Has a lot of functions similar to Photoshop, but it's easier to use. Also free. Needs to be downloaded and installed locally.
Audacity - The best open source audio editor. I was amazed to discover that this little tool was able to open up an 8-hour long mp3 file with no problems, whilst Adobe Audition kept crashing on the same file. I was impressed with it then, and I am now. To process mp3 files, you will need to download a separate plugin (3 clicks away). Needs download and local install.
Automation
MailChimp - the perfect beginner's solution to build a list of subscribers list, free for the first 2000 subscribers.Hootsuite - helps with scheduling your social media activity. It allows you to schedule up to 3 popular social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, and so on).
MailMunch - Provides subscriber forms that can be integrated in any blog or site.
Very helpful!!! thanks a ton.
you're most welcome
Thank you very much. I think it's very helpful.
@munteanu I just joined #SteemIt a few days ago are there any resources you can point me to, like cheat sheets for creating beautiful blog posts here?
When I post images for example and I want it centered how do I accomplish this?
Or I have seen some posts that have fancy paragraph dividers or even when starting a new paragraph how do I get the indentation?
Any help on this would be highly appreciated!
My handle is @bit-trader I also gave ya a follow!😁
Thank you I do think that this is a great list, and I have been looking for better ways to blog, since I was not into social media before SteemIt.
Cool, happy it helps!
Looks like it will.
A ton of content, blogging tools and inspiration - this is a huge help, for new Steemit member's!
Thanks for all the tools 😉
You're welcome @qiobi
to enhance our blogging activities, we can use these tools. Specially SEO and Site/Blog Maintenance is the most important tools for our blog or website. I think, It will be very helpful for me and everyone.
Excellent, very helpful list.
Thanks, @franks
Thanks for this. This is really useful.
you're welcome, @trevor.george
this is a really good list....thanks for doing all the legwork!
you're welcome.
I wish there was a way I could index this post for quick reference at a later time.
bookmark it in the browser
I hadn't thought of that, thanks.
this is a treasure trove of useful tools - I don't think you realize how significant compiling this list really is. I think if you used all the tags available ( you have 5 you can use) this post would have generated a larger response. You're a blogger, but you're also a writer, so that tag and writing are naturals to use. Good work. I'm re-steeming and following you, muntenau
thanks john! it was my first article, so I missed some tags here and here. small correction, it's "munteanu" :) Romanian name.
OH, so sorry, I left out an a munteanu - got it!
no worries
I used your topic generator and gave you credit today on https://steemit.com/til/@smysullivan/how-not-knowing-blogging-makes-you-a-rookie Thank you again for the helpful tools.
hehe awesome
Thank you
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Useful links!
awesome!
Thank you for sharing these tools. I would like to mention how useful Grammarly can be to correct your small mistakes. It attaches itself to various places where you type. I wouldn't be without it, expecially when Im in a hurry to get my comments or posts out there.
Perfect to start a new journey for me as a newbie. Godbless
Thanks for sharing this excellent and helpful list
my pleasure
Nice compilation @munteanu, this is a a treasure chest.
awesome, glad you're getting value
I'm new to Steemit and blogging in general and found this very helpful! You never know when someone might enter the game and find what you might consider 'old news' to be useful :)
cool! use them wisely, my friend.
Very good guide!!!
so much gold in this article!, you have my upvote!
thanks. just know that your upvote on this article does nothing.. the article is too old (over 8 months). you have to upvote in the first 7 days.
Yes very good and exactly what I was looking for, I currently use Pexels but needed the names of the other free image libraries. Thank you have taken notes
you're welcome!
You are talking about "some value" but It has great value for me as a blogger. Thanks. Do it again and again.
I am happy it helped you!
Very helpful info thanks alot...
You're most welcome!
@munteanu, thank you so much for the tips! i couldn't have ask for more in one page then here :) great work! keep it up dude.
GREAT INVENTORY. REALLY GENEROUS OF YOU
Thank you for putting it all together. Excellent work!
should add list of easy to use image hosting sites for use on steemit
great list, thanks for sharing it. Would like to resteem it, but somehow still don't know why some posts show me the resteem button, and some others (like this one) don't :/
So useful! Thank you! I think I can use this indeed!
This is excellent! Thank you for sharing.
I'm new to Steemit, just 2 days in, and I can see how these links will be great to have. Thanks for your work.
You're welcome
Thank you for this information. It very helpful reference.
Excellent list. I'm just starting out blogging and you have provided a comprehensive list of quality tools for bloggers. Thanks.
Awesome post. A lot of useful informations for beginners.
Golden! Lots of useful resources to keep as a reference when needed. Thank you very much! :D
thank a lot bro.. its really helpfull on me ..
alright, enjoy
Thank you for your high-value article, @munteanu!
You're most welcome, @amico
Think you it's very useful.
I am happy it helped you!
njoy
ofw; this is a good help
Enjoy
cool
Thanks so much for this. I have some of these resources, but the others will certainly make my life easier. Wonderful way to give back to this community.
The great resource for content creator.
Thanks steemit for this one masterpiece .
use it ;)
I give a big applause for this article still useful more than a year :-)
You are most welcome, @walcoln, thank you for the words of praise ;)
A MILLION THANKS!
Well then, you got me into trouble. Now I have to write a million you're welcome back at you
Awww. Don't sweat it. One will do. LOL
Wow! this is detailed, more than i imagined. thank you very much Munteanu.
Great post!
A great resource, thanks for putting it together. I'm a newbie and saving it in a folder, cheers.
very good post,thank you so much
Very useful, is there any special video program you recommend to use in tandem with Audacity?
Nice post, thanks for sharing. 👍
Wow, this is good. Let me start exploring already, i always use ms word only.
Nice piece
Thank you very much
I have to say what you have here is an encyclopedia of information for successful blogging. This post is very resourceful to the community. Thanks!