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Larry Ludwig

Entrepreneur, Financial Expert, Tech & Marketing Guru

The 39 Best Blogging Tools – Software To Grow Your Business

Disclosure: I may be compensated via the links clicked in this article. The opinions expressed are my own and stand by my recommendations. Please read my disclaimer for more info.

Here are the tools that made me successful with my online businesses. These are all highly recommended and have all been used by me at some point during my career. By signing up to one of the services/tools listed below I may receive compensation but you’ll help support me by creating more useful content.

I break down the recommended services into these categories. To jump to the section, click on one of the links.

Web Hosting/Email Services

Your choice in a web hosting provider is the cornerstone of your business. It’s important to pick wisely as saving a few dollars in web hosting can be pennywise but pound foolish.

Bluehost

My Rating
8.0/10

Larry's Take

If you're just starting out and looking for a low-cost, no-frills web hosting provider, Bluehost is your best option. They give you a free domain name for the first year and have a one-click WordPress install. You'll be up and running with your blog in no time.
Promotion: Get A Free Domain Name

WP Engine

My Rating
9.0/10

Larry's Take

WP Engine is my go-to web hosting company when I create a WordPress blog. Unlike many other providers, WP Engine specializes only in WordPress hosting. But that means you'll have to look elsewhere if you want a host for your email as well. WP Engine has many features specific to WordPress, such as caching. Plus, a content delivery network (CDN) is automatically included. If you're looking for a reliable and fast hosting provider for your WordPress blog, WP Engine is your choice.
Promotion: Get 2 Months Free

Linode

My Rating
9.0/10

Larry's Take

Linode is the perfect cloud provider for the DIYer with advanced hosting needs. I've used Linode for more than eight years and currently host most of my content with the service. I've experienced very little downtime. Linode offers basic virtual private servers (VPSs, load balancers, and block storage. Plus, with their premade images, you can be up and running very quickly with a new VPS. Check Linode out.

Namecheap

My Rating
6.0/10

Larry's Take

Namecheap is an ICANN-accredited domain name registrar. It lets you do exactly what its name suggests: buy a domain name cheap. You can buy a ".com" address for as little as $8.88 per year. Namecheap has great 24/7 customer service that can help you get set up at any time of day or night. The company also offers hosting services, but you might want to check out some of my other picks instead.

Google G Suite

My Rating
9.5/10

Larry's Take

I prefer Google's G Suite over Microsoft 365 (although I use that too). As a blogger, I'm always online. I like Google Docs and Google Sheets, and Gmail is second to none. Google's anti-spam filtering works really well, and there are now many third-party plugins and options for extending G Suite.

It is best to manage your affiliate links in one central location than to manually insert each affiliate link on your website. Affiliate links can change often and outdated links can cost you thousands of dollars in lost revenue.

Also using an affiliate link manager allows you to cloak links so they are cleaner plus allow for conversion tracking. It’s highly recommended you start off using one of these services today before placing any affiliate link on your website.

ClickMeter

My Rating
8.0/10

Larry's Take

In my opinion, ClickMeter is the best link-shortening service available. That's not to say it's perfect, because its functionality could stand some improvement. Still, ClickMeter is a reliable and easy-to-use service. If you're looking to track conversions and integrate with your blog, ClickMeter is your best option.

Pretty Links

My Rating
6.5/10

Larry's Take

While not as advanced as ClickMeter, Pretty Links is a cheap and easy-to-use affiliate tracking system for someone just starting out. You can use it for as little as $49 per year.

PixelMe

My Rating
8.5/10

Larry's Take

A link shortener that’s simpler than Clickmeter and cheaper as well. It should be used primarily for link sharing and not affiliate tracking/conversions. If you need to track social media links, PixelMe is a great alternative to Bitly.
Promotion: 7-day Free Trial

Mailing List/Email Marketing

Even though email isn’t as popular today as it has been previously, it is still one of the best ways to stay engaged with your audience. I recommend creating a mailing list immediately.

Check out my head-to-head comparison of ConvertKit vs. ActiveCampaign to see which is better.

ActiveCampaign

My Rating
9.5/10

Larry's Take

My mailing list provider of choice, ActiveCampaign has everything you want, from starter email marketing to advanced automation. My biggest complaint about this service is that you can get many features only by purchasing a higher-tier plan. I would prefer some a la cart options. And I do wish that, instead of a newsletter-style format, the email editor allowed you to send emails that looked like you personally sent them. However, if you want to automate anything, you can do it in ActiveCampaign.

MailChimp

My Rating
0.0/10

Larry's Take

A great mailing list service who wants automated email sequences, but can be costly.

Lead Gen/Landing Page

With any web site, you need to build your audience of visitors to your mailing list and promotions.

OptinMonster

My Rating
9.5/10

Larry's Take

If you are looking for a great service that not only works with WordPress but SaaS apps, then OptinMonster is your choice. It has many templates to use and allows you to easily create your own customized form so it matches your brand. OptinMonster supports 6 different types of campaign types that can not only be used for Email forms but can be used in conjunction with your own products.

For more info, check out my review of OptinMonster.

OptimizePress

My Rating
9.0/10

Larry's Take

If you are looking for a WordPress landing page, this is the one I recommend. It has many integration options, and many premade professional-looking landing page designs. It is a much cheaper option than using a service like ClickFunnels.

VWO Engage

My Rating
7.5/10

Larry's Take

VWO Engage (previously called PushCrew) when it first came out was a great push notification service. Though as the years have gone by I now recommending OneSignal. Not only because of the pricing but the feature set as well.

Deadline Funnel

My Rating
9.5/10

Larry's Take

Deadline Funnel is a unique service that I recommend adding to any sales funnel. It allows you to create true limited-time offers that are hard to circumvent. You can entice your audience with promotions to engage now. Deadline Funnel supports web page and email countdown timers unique to the visitor. It integrates with many popular email services and is a must-have tool. The only downside is the monthly cost.
Promotion: Try It For Free For 14 Days

For more info, check out my review of Deadline Funnel.

Analytics

You cannot improve what you do not measure. These tools help track the source of your traffic and how visitors use your website.

Crazy Egg

Creates heatmaps better than Hotjar and I actually use both for more insight into the user experience. Use promo code “twenty” to get 20% off your order.

Crazy Egg

Woopra

My Rating
9.5/10

Larry's Take

Woopra is the analytics tool I recommend to all of my clients. It integrates with many services out of the box but has a robust API to add unsupported integrations. It allows you to track visitors via reporting tools at the aggregate level but also allows you to drill down to each individual session. The biggest issue is their $1,000 for many businesses and the lack of pre-made reporting templates.

MonsterInsights

Easy to use plugin to track your visitors and affiliate links in Google Analytics.

MonsterInsights

Hotjar

Create heatmaps of visitors and video record tracking experience through your website.

Hotjar

WordPress Plugins and Themes

Why reinvent the wheel with your WordPress based site, when you can download an existing plugin to make your website more useful. Keep in mind not all plugins are created equal. Unfortunately many free plugins are designed poorly (they are ahem free you know..).
I’m a big fan of paying for commercial WordPress plugins. While there are many great free plugins some of the best plugins available are commercial. Don’t be afraid to pay for a plugin. In most cases, the amount spent will save you time and/or generate more revenue in the long run.

AAWP

My Rating
9.0/10

Larry's Take

If you are looking to monetize via the Amazon Associates program then AAWP is the WordPress plugin you must use. It has the ability to not only create links to Amazon products but has the ability to create summary boxes that automatically update with description, images, and pricing. You can create product comparison pages easily as well.

Genesis Theme

An SEO friendly theme with many out-of-the-box designs available use.

Studiopress Genesis Theme

WP Rocket

With SEO and users, page load time is important. Speed up your website by minifying your files and using a CDN with this plugin.

WP Rocket

Social Warfare

The must-have plugin for social media links on your website.

Social Warfare

BlogVault

Don’t rely on your web hosting provider to make backups of your site! Make sure you are in control and have off-server backups.

BlogVault

PixelYourSite

While I’m more a fan of Google’s Tag Manager, PixelYourSite is an easy to use plugin to adding tracking for your site. Perfect for tracking conversion and remarketing campaigns.

BlogVault

WP Mail SMTP

A MUST have plugin if you are sending out any emails for your membership site. Avoid your important emails from going into the spam folder.

WP Mail SMTP

MemberMouse

A powerful membership plugin that I use for my membership area and integrates with ThriveCart.

MemberMouse

SEO Tools

If a tree falls in the woods does it make a sound? One of the primary ways people will find your information is via search engines like Google. SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a way to research, monitor and improve the ranking of the content you create.

SEOPress

An up and coming SEO WordPress plugin. It is much more lightlweight and has more features than competing Yoast SEO plugin and recommend it over Yoast.

SEOPress

Ahrefs

My go-to SEO research tool. I use this tool daily and highly recommended. There are too many features to count.

Ahrefs

Shopping Cart/Checkout

If you are selling services or products online you must have an online shopping cart of some sort. These shopping cart systems are flexible to handle either digital products or physical products.

Use ThriveCart or SamCart if you are selling digital products like courses, ebooks, or software. Use WooCommerce if you are selling physical products, though it can also handle digital goods.

ThriveCart

My Rating
9.0/10

Larry's Take

ThriveCart is a great shopping cart service for selling digital products. With bump offers, upsells, and down sells, ThriveCart has plenty of methods to increase your sales. It has a powerful affiliate program built-in so no need to purchase additional software. The biggest advantage over competing products is their one-time fee.
Promotion: Get Lifetime License For Only $495

For more info, check out my review of ThriveCart.

SamCart

My Rating
8.0/10

Larry's Take

If you are looking to sell digital products, then SamCart should be on your shortlist. While I do like their service, I don't like the possible high monthly fee. In addition, I'm not a fan of their affiliate system. For those reasons, I decided to choose ThriveCart over SamCart for my personal shopping cart. Though, more or less they are very similar. Your own needs may determine SamCart is a better fit for your business.
Promotion: Try FREE for 14 Days

For more info, check out my review of SamCart.

WooCommerce

A very popular E-Commerce WordPress plugin that has many additional plugins. Can be used for digital and physical products.

WooCommerce

Social Proof

One of the more powerful tips mentioned in the book “Influence” by Robert Cialdini is the use of social proof. Showing what others have done, shows to new visitors how valuable is your service.

Proof

Alerts visitors of recent purchases by other visitors. Great social proof and FOMO from your visitors.

Proof

Shopper Approved

Create an easy to use method to instill social proof with your visitors. It helps with not only with visitors but displays in SERP with Google Ads.

Shopper Approved

Miscellaneous

I’ve always been about constant small the 1% improvements. Over time a 1% improvement every week, can yield huge gains after one year. Constantly improve your website and use some of the tools below.

LiteSpeed

If you are hosting your own web site you want the fastest possible web server. LiteSpeed is the best performing web server.

LiteSpeed

Ecamm Live

If you are doing Facebook Live or YouTube Live broadcasts this software is perfect for any video presentation.

Ecamm

Slack

A great tool to help keep in contact with your team members.

Slack

Microsoft Advertising

The often-overlooked alternative to Google Ads. From my experience can do just as well if not sometimes better in ROI.

Microsoft Advertising

Vimeo

Much better than hosting on YouTube. Great for membership sites and with the latest features great for VSLs (Video Sales Letters). Protect your content from others stealing it using their service.

Vimeo
The 39 Best Blogging Tools - Software To Grow Your Business
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