7 Tools You Need For A Successful Blog Post

If you’re a new blogger, all you want is to create an amazing and successful blog post. Maybe you’re unsure of where to start or what a good post needs.

Don’t worry, I got your back. I’ve got multiple years of blogging under my belt now and let me tell you, I’ve learned a whole lot in that timeframe. But we’re going to keep this specific blog post simple and sweet. To start, let me tell you the 7 tools you need that have helped me personally.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase anything through my links, I’ll receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting this blog!

An Idea Journal

Before you can write a blog post, you need to have a solid idea of what it’s going to be about. Before even writing my very first blog post, I bought an “idea journal” which is exactly what it sounds like. A journal for all of your blog post ideas!

One thing that I learned is that if an idea pops up in your head, write it down immediately or you might forget about it later. This might be in your idea journal or in your phone notes. Sometimes I have the best idea when walking around in the grocery store. You never know when a good idea will come around!

My original goal was to add as many ideas to my journal as possible every day so I would always have something to write about. The truth is, that’s pretty unrealistic, tiring, and really hard. Writing a few down a week is more realistic. If I don’t have any ideas or I run out, I will look at other blogs that have a similar niche as me for inspiration.

A Planner

If you want to stay consistent with your blog and not get off track with your tasks, you need a planner. Although I personally use a couple of different planners for my blog right now so I’m going to go over each one and you can decide which one will work best for you.

Paper Planner

The very first planner I got for my blog was an Erin Condren planner. The layout is amazing to write down all of your blog post tasks that week and of course, any other things you got going on in your life. (Work, appointments, activities, etc)

Related Post: The Erin Condren Planner: Why You Should Have One

Although, when I started doing more content creation with my YouTube channel, I found it hard to keep all of my tasks in that one planner.

So keep in mind, if you’re just working on a blog, this will be perfect for you. If you’re doing lots of content creation and have a busy lifestyle, let me tell you about the digital planner that will change your life.

Digital Planner

Today, I’m a full-time blogger, YouTuber, and content creator. There are many tasks and many deadlines. With all of the tasks that I needed to complete, I went through a period where I was stuck because it got so overwhelming.

Then I discovered Trello, a digital planner! You can use this planner in so many ways. I created a card for each day of the week and then below, the different categories of work I needed to do that day. (Blog, YouTube, Instagram, etc)

The cool thing about this is you can move things around. Suddenly need to switch your blog post publishing date to two days from now? That’s a simple click-and-drag!

Pictures

Every blog post needs pictures. People are very visual creatures and even if they read every word on your blog post, the pictures will keep them entertained for longer. So let’s talk about how you can get professional-looking photos on your blog!

Do you need to buy a camera?

The simple answer is no. You don’t need to buy a camera for your blog posts. Honestly, you already have one on your phone that will work just fine. If you want to take your own photos, my advice would be to practice taking high-quality photos.

Flat-lay photos are also very visually appealing if you’re taking product shots. For example, if you’re writing a blog post about new skincare items you’re trying, create a flat-lay photo like the photo above. The background is a board that I bought in the arts & craft aisle in Walmart. That’s it, so simple!

Stock Photos

Don’t feel like taking your own photos? I totally understand! The good news is you don’t need to. If you’re short on time or you’re not comfortable with your photography skills yet, you can use stock photos.

Stock photos are professional-looking and ready-to-go photos for you to use! The amazing thing is that there are thousands out there. My advice is to refrain from saving and using a photo from the photo section in google though. You don’t technically have rights to those.

Instead, let me tell you about my favorite stock photo site, Styled Stock Society. This is a paid membership but it’s completely worth it.

With this membership, you can have access to over 3,500+ stock photos and countless collections that fits your brand. But my favorite part is that Styled Stock Society also has over 500+ Canva customizable templates — you can make workbooks, Insta Story graphics, blog headers, you name it… all in just a few seconds with these templates.

Pinterest & Tailwind

Not only is Pinterest a great source for getting some inspiration for future blog posts but it can actually be used to drive traffic to your own blog! And a lot of it. In fact, Pinterest is one of the biggest traffic drivers to my blog right now.

Related blog post: The Pinterest Course That Helped Me Monetize My Blog

Pinterest is actually a visual search engine with over 450 million active users a month. That’s a lot of potential eyes on your blog! So while it does take a while for Google to index your blog posts which is what lands them on Google, you still have lots of potential in getting your post seen and even make some money.

Now let’s talk about Tailwind. Pinterest’s powerful assistant. With Tailwind, my monthly views on Pinterest right now are at 60k views! How? Well, let’s go over some things that Tailwind helps with.

• Create Pinterest pins
• Schedule Pinterest pins
• Set up a scheduling plan
• Collaborate with others in communities
• Access to detailed analytics

Want to try Tailwind Plus? Here’s a free month!

My two favorite features included are the scheduling task and communities. My pins get scheduled and pushed out continuously with little effort on my end! Also, communities are filled with people who are sharing their pins and your pins. That’s even more exposure!

Canva

Canva is an amazing tool for creating graphics of all kinds. It’s honestly a tool I use almost every day. I use it for creating Pinterest graphics, blog headers, and even Instagram stories!

As I mentioned above, you can use free stock photos if you don’t feel like taking your own pictures for a blog post. Luckily, Canva has a wide range of free stock photos you can use! Whatever the subject you’re writing about, chances are that you will find a perfect stock photo to use on Canva.

Although, the biggest downside is that thousands of bloggers are using the same photos. I’ve read countless blogs with the same stock photo that I’ve used. That is why I recently switched to Styled Stock Society.

Grammarly

Somebody once told me that there’s no such thing as a perfect writer. And although I pride myself on my writing skills, I know that even I make mistakes. It’s inevitable, really.

When you are writing your blog post, it’s easy to be so focused on what you’re trying to convey that you misspell a word or forget a comma. We need to be honest, if somebody sees a ton of grammar errors throughout your blog post, it might be hard for them to take your blog seriously and they’ll just leave.

Related blog post: 10 Tools You Need To Help Grow Your Blog

No worries though! Grammarly is a writing assistant that automatically catches any and all errors that you make. It makes blogging so much easier knowing you’re publishing a post that’s error-free. The best part is you can download the Grammarly extension on your computer and it’ll always pop up wherever you’re typing.

Google Trends

Google Trends is actually something new that I’ve used for my blog. You simply put in a keyword that you’re thinking about blogging about or adding it as a tag, and it will tell you how popular that word or phrase is being searched in other states!

For example, the phrase “How To Blog” has a high search interest right now of 100 in the District of Columbia and 83 in Washington! This is a great tool to have if you want to see how popular the topic you’re blogging about is and what states have a higher search rate!

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Ready To Create An Awesome Blog Post?

Do you feel more confident about creating blog posts now? I hope so!

Remember that blogging takes practice and to be patient with yourself in this process. There’s a lot to learn constantly but with the right tools, you’re one step closer!

Lastly, I’m currently creating a blogging for beginners ebook! If you want to be one of the first ones notified, subscribe to my blog. Everybody in my email list gets first access to all of my future projects!