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paid blogging tools

Last week, I covered 6 FREE blogging tools that I love and use every single day. Today I am going to talk about some paid tools that I also use every day. I have paid for other tools and simply don’t need to use them daily, or they have not worked out. The 3 tools below are ones that I really do use every day.

First up, PicMonkey I know I included this in the free tools section as well. I use the paid version, but a more limited (and still extremely useful) version is available for free. With the paid option, you get access to more fonts, more overlays, more effects, more everything! And it’s like $3 per month. To see what you get for the premium options, simply go to PicMonkey and look at the features/overlays/fonts/etc, whatever has a little crown next to it is a premium option that you get for paying.

I use Aweber every day because I have subscribe boxes on my site collecting email addresses. I don’t send an email every day, but I still consider myself a daily Aweber user. I have several posts on why I love Aweber and how I use it. This one and this one are my 2 most comprehensive. Basically, Aweber allows me to easily create emails and send them to my entire list whenever I want. I am also given very complete statistics such as open rates and how successful each subscribe box on my site is. You can try Aweber for a month for just $1 too! Just be sure you have time to play around with it and make that $1 month worth it!

I use Long Tail Pro just about every single day. I have said before that if you are not doing keyword research, you are missing out on huge traffic potential. You also run the risk of writing a fantastic blog post that will never show up on the first page or two of Google. Can you do keyword research manually? Of course, but Long Tail Pro can do about 2 hours of keyword research in closer to 3 minutes. If anything, I highly recommend you at least give it a shot with the 10-day free trial. As above, make sure you have cleared some time in that 10-day span to really explore this tool and see if it’s right for you.
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As you can see, I don’t spend a ton of money on paid blogging tools. I still like to find the free options out there.

So what makes me pay for an item?
Well, for me it’s all about time. If I can pay for a service that will save me a ton of time, I probably will. With Long Tail Pro, I literally save 1-2 hours every day by being able to do quick keyword research at the drop of a hat. I hope he doesn’t read this, but the creator could charge double the amount he currently does and he’d still have me paying. PicMonkey is just so cheap, it’s a no brainer for me to pay the money. You just have to weigh your options and decide whether or not it is worth it for you. The nice thing is that many companies nowadays are offering free trials. Take advantage of those!

What blogging tools do you pay for?

6 Free Blogging Tools That I Use Every Day

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6 free blogging tools that i use every day

Today I want to talk about some free blogging tools. Now, I am a firm believer in the fact that it takes money to make money. (i.e. – you have to invest in your business at some point) However, there are still a plethora of free tools out there that are very helpful to bloggers.

My favorite tools are below.

First up, PicMonkey. There is a free and paid option, but you can get a TON of use out of the free option. PicMonkey provides basic photo editing, collage creating and graphic design tools that are easy to use and very helpful. Need to add some text to a photo? Need to brighten a photo or create a nice-looking border for it? PicMonkey can help you with all of this and more. The graphic at the top of this post was created using PicMonkey in about 3 minutes.

Hootsuite also has a free and paid option. With the free option, you can add social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and Google+ and post to each account with one click. You can also schedule status updates through Hootsuite. The features of the free option are very complete. It’s definitely worth checking out! I can schedule a day’s worth of Tweets and Facebook updates in less than 5 minutes with HootSuite. I happily use the free option every day and it does what I need.

Google Analytics is the most powerful free tool bloggers can get their hands on. GA provides complete tracking of pageviews, visitor activity and other very important metrics such as how long people stay on your site, which page they land on and which site referred them to you. If you’re blogging without Analytics, you are missing out on a ton of useful information about your traffic. For some tips on using Google Analytics, see my posts here and here.

LastPass is a huge time saver for me. With LastPass, you’ll never have to fill out those “forgot password” forms again. LastPass securely stores all of your passwords (it’ll even create ones for you) and can automatically enter your login credentials when you arrive at a website that you have stored. Let me give you an example: you’ve signed up for 2 separate Yahoo Mail accounts. If you have stored both sets of login credentials with LastPass, when you go to login to Yahoo Mail, you can click the login box and both of your login names will pop up. Click whichever one you want and the login and password will be automatically entered and you’ll be logged in! It sounds simple, but you’ll be amazed at how much you love it once you get it set up. I mean, think about how many logins you have! If you take advantage of the tools in this post, you’ll have a few more just like that. You need to try LastPass!

Dropbox is a great free cloud storage tool. What I love is that you can sync it up to your cell phone and any computer. With the free Dropbox app, I can take a picture with my phone and quickly shoot over to my Dropbox. From there, on my computer, I can edit the photo using tools like PicMonkey very quickly and send it over to Instagram looking much better than the original. I also work at home with my wife. When doing projects together, Dropbox is so great. I can send her a few photos to edit via Dropbox and she can shoot them right back when she’s done.

IFFT, or If This Then That, is an automating tool that can save you a ton of time. Above, I mentioned the process of sending an image to Dropbox once taken. Well, with If This Then That, you can automate many tasks like that. Basically, with IFTTT, you are setting up processes that basically say “if this happens, then do that“. Some examples of IFTTT scenarios that you can set up are: Instagram to Facebook Album, Tweet Facebook Status Updates, Update Facebook Page After New WordPress Post, Post YouTube Upload to Facebook Page and much more!
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So there you have it! 6 free tools that can help you and your blogging venture!
What are some free tools that you use?

Weekly Blog Planner Printable

Google Reader is Shutting Down ~ What’s the Best Alternative?

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Updating this post (originally posted 3/14/13) since we’re less than 2 weeks away from the official shutdown. You might want to read below to see how you can transfer your Google Reader info to Bloglovin. You probably also want to make one final push for people to follow you on Bloglovin so you don’t lose readers.
google reader going away
On March 14th, 2013, Google announced that they would be shutting down their Google Reader service on July 1st of this year.
Here’s the official announcement.
This is bad news for many bloggers who use Google Reader every single day. ~~There is already a Change.org petition set up to save Google Reader and many many people are taking their displeasure with this decision to social media.~~ Apparently that stuff didn’t work.

I have to say right away that it does not look like GFC is going anywhere, so your followers are safe. For now. This is the full list of services that Google has decided to shut down this year and GFC is nowhere on that list. I recommend building followers on Twitter, Pinterest, Bloglovin and through email since diversification is wonderful in times like this.

Now, what do you do about this whole Google Reader disappearing thing? What happens to your info?

Bloglovin has made it even easy to switch from Google Reader to Bloglovin. When you select “import” in your Bloglovin settings menu, you are greeted with this screen:
import blog to bloglovin
So now, if you are logged in with your Google account that is associated with you Google Reader, you can just click the “Google reader” button and follow the easy instructions and you’ll be good to go!

So once you’ve done that you should get familiar with Bloglovin as another way of reading blogs.

Blog Conference Checklist

3 PAID Blogging Tools that I Use Every Day — I Wouldn’t Blog Without #3!

6 Free Blogging Tools That I Use Every Day

Weekly Blog Planner Printable

Google Reader is Shutting Down ~ What’s the Best Alternative?

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