{"id":3151,"date":"2018-04-12T02:02:22","date_gmt":"2018-04-12T02:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/getstencil.com\/blog\/?p=3151"},"modified":"2018-04-17T19:18:11","modified_gmt":"2018-04-17T19:18:11","slug":"how-to-be-a-better-blogger-with-tools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/getstencil.com\/blog\/how-to-be-a-better-blogger-with-tools\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Be a Better Blogger with Tools"},"content":{"rendered":"
Many entrepreneurs and small business owners don’t realize the huge commitment writing a blog can be until they start one. You finally establish your domain name and hosting. You’ve got a business to run and you’ve got ideas for your blog.\u00a0Overwhelm takes over! A blogger needs to be productive and efficient with creating their content. What’s the blog secret? Tools! Lots of magical tools that can help any blogger become a better blogger. Let’s get to them!<\/div>\n
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Every blogger has a process and tools to help make that process go smoothly. These tools are the best tools to get your blog started and\/or help a veteran blogger be even more awesome.<\/div>\n

The Starting Process – The Blog Plan<\/span><\/h1>\n
Content Management
\n<\/strong>Ideas! You’ve got so many ideas to write about but a spreadsheet is not going to work. I mean it could and sure you can gather ideas there and fiddle with columns… blah! There is an easier way to have your ideas shown in a clear concise way that you can let others see, comment, and work on collaboratively.<\/div>\n
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\"Trello\"<\/a><\/div>\n
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Trello<\/a> is pretty amazing! It’s simple for project management and can be used as an editorial calendar<\/a>. It’s almost like having notecards placed in columns with the ability to add links, photos, and tag people on your team. If you have a team, you can have boards listed with your blog process. For example, the first list can be for ideas, the second\u00a0list is for approval, the third\u00a0list is for completed blog posts. Under each list, you’d add a card for an idea or simply drag cards to each list as you progress through the blogging process. Trello users all have their own way to make it work for them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Blog Content<\/strong><\/div>\n
You’ve got the blog post topic but you’re still not sure how to present it and you’ll want to make sure that it’s going to hit your target audience. SEO and blog content<\/a> go hand-in-hand. You’ve got to make sure you’re searching for the best keywords for your industry.<\/div>\n
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Buzzsumo\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0is a popular database that allows you to do content research by filtering keywords for articles. You can see what blog posts or articles have the most shares with your blog topic. This will help you get a better idea if your blog post idea is a sought-after topic. You can also find influencers related to that particular topic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Google Keyword Planner<\/a>\u00a0is a definite place to check for keywords and to save them directly to your analytics. Can’t go wrong with Google tools!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

SEMRush<\/a> is an incredible tool! You can do topic research all within the platform where it provides a multitude of resources and linked articles. There’s a keyword magic tool and analytics.<\/div>\n
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\"SEMrush\"<\/a><\/div>\n
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Headline Creator<\/strong><\/div>\n
The headline of the blog matters! You’ll want to make sure it’s sprinkled with your keywords but it has to be catchy and emotional<\/a>. People have to feel some sort of emotion about your blog headline in order to click over and read the post. There are a couple of headline creators that help generate ideas for the blog post title. It may not be a perfect headline but will get the ideas flowing.<\/div>\n
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BlogAbout<\/a>\u00a0is super easy to use just type in the topic idea and it starts popping up headlines.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

HubSpot Blog Idea Generator<\/a>\u00a0is similar but you can work with 3 separate keywords and it’ll generate several headlines to choose from.<\/div>\n
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Headline analyzer<\/strong><\/div>\n
Once you have a headline, you can test it out and have it analyzed with this amazing tool which breaks headlines into a three-step system: the best type of headline to convert, word balance (common, uncommon, and emotional), and character length.<\/div>\n
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CoSchedule<\/a> is amazing to guide bloggers with creating the perfect headline.<\/div>\n
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\"CoSchedule\"<\/a><\/div>\n

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Down to the Nitty-Gritty of Writing the Blog Post<\/h2>\n
Writing the Blog Post<\/b><\/div>\n
The most important part of blogging is the writing part<\/a>. If you don’t write then the blog post doesn’t exist. Some business owners get a bit skeptical if they can actually write a blog post because they have bad grammar and their spelling skills are not the best.<\/div>\n
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In comes Grammarly<\/a> to the rescue! Grammarly is a writing assistant app that you can either use directly on their site by copying and pasting or uploading your blog post into the desktop app. Even better is their browser extension! Everywhere you go on the web your grammar is checked. You can have it enabled to check your emails as well. It’s a must-have for blog writing.<\/div>\n
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\"Grammarly\"<\/a><\/div>\n
Keeping distracted-free is key when writing. If you need to block annoying notifications, it’s best to go into your browser notification settings and edit the website you’d like to block or remove from being notified. Turn your phone off too!<\/div>\n
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Let’s get to the tools on the blog with WordPress.<\/p>\n

Blog Post Essentials<\/span><\/h3>\n
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WordPress Plugins
\n<\/strong> Around 19,500,000 websites on the entire web use WordPress<\/a>, there are 50,000+ plugins that can be used to improve a blog. However, you only need a few to get you started to become a better blogger.<\/p>\n

Social Warfare<\/a>\u00a0is an incredible tool for sharing blog posts and a super fast way to share images with your posts.<\/p>\n

Sumo<\/a>\u00a0is an awesome tool to build an email list with list builder pop-ups, welcome mats, and a smart bar, which are options to customize your blog to attract and invite readers to sign up to your email list. Sumo also has social sharing capabilities.<\/p>\n

Yoast SEO<\/a> is amazing to keep visuals in order for featured blog images and ensuring what images you’d like to show up on social shows correctly. It also keeps SEO in line with each blog post so you have a checklist of SEO tasks that need improvement to work on. When you get the green light you know you’re all set for SEO. It also checks readability to make sure your writing is on track and flows for reader experience. It’s a powerful tool.<\/p>\n

Let’s get to our favorite part of the blog… visuals! \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Visuals
\n<\/strong> Loom<\/a> is fantastic to show off quick screen share tutorials. They can be embedded on a website, linked, and shared on social media. Super fast and easy with the browser extension.
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Stencil<\/a>… we humbly have to include this amazingly super fast social media graphics tool to the list. Bloggers love to create blog post images and social media images in the most efficient way. Stencil is designed to be fast and easy.<\/p>\n

Here’s a list of awesome features:<\/p>\n