101 BLOG AND BIZ

TOOLS
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THE LEGAL STUFF

All text, images, logos, and content contained in this document are © 2018 Blog & Biz.
Blog & Biz is operated by Becca Klein.
No part of this document may be reproduced or redistributed in any way, either online or
in print, without prior written consent.
This guide contains affiliate links, which means that if you click a link and make a pur-
chase, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.
 Introduction
Hey there!

So you’re blogging. Or at least thinking about blogging.

That’s awesome! But you definitely need to know the right
tools to do it.

The internet is filled with all kinds of blogging, business, and

social media tools. Some great, some not so much.

Lucky for you, you’ve got this guide. These are 101 blog,
business, and social media tools that will help you run your
blog and biz.

Good luck!

xo,
Becca
 Platform & Host
Before you do anything else, you’ve got to have the right blog-
ging platform. There are lots of platforms out there, but not all
of them give you a full range of customizability and monetiza-
tion possibilities. That’s why I only recommend these two.

WORDPRESS (DOT ORG) - WordPress (dot org, not dot com)

is the most customizable platform out there. There’s a bit of
a learning curve, but there’s a ton to do with the platform.

SQUARESPACE - Squarespace isn’t quite as customizable as

WordPress, but the drag and drop builder is so easy to use,
and every feature is built in, meaning that you never need
third party themes or plugins.

SITEGROUND - If you’re using WordPress, you need a host,

and Siteground has the best customer service around.

© Copyright 2018 Blog & Biz 4

 WordPress Themes
If you’re on WordPress, you need a great theme. Your theme
controls how your site looks, functions, and feels. You want a
theme that is easy to use, but can still be highly customized.
These are the theme shops that I recommend.

BLUCHIC - Bluchic has great feminine Wordpress themes. I

use one myself.

A PRETTIER WEB - A Prettier web has feminine Wordpress

themes specifically made for infopreneurs.

HELLO YOU DESIGNS - Hello You Designs has feminine

themes made using the Genesis framework.

STUDIOPRESS - StudioPress is a great source for themes

made with the Genesis framework.

STATION SEVEN - Station Seven has gorgeous minimalist

Wordpress theme and Squarespace templates.

RESTORED 316 - Restored 316 has great feminine Word-

press themes.

SUPERFLY - Superfly makes great child themes for the Divi

theme.

CREATIVE MARKET - Creative Market has a huge variety of

themes (among other things).

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 WordPress Page Builders
Sometimes on WordPress, you don’t want a standard theme.
You want to build your own page from a blank slate. That’s
where page builders come in. These page builders allow you to
have total customization and control over your page.

ELEMENTOR - Elementor is a great drag and drop page

builder for Wordpress. It’s endlessly customizable and it’s
easy to use.

DIVI - Divi is another drag and drop page builder. Also cus-
tomizablele, also easy to use.

VISUAL COMPOSER - Visual Composer is a popular page

builder that can be used in conjunction with lots of themes.

OPTIMIZEPRESS - OptimizePress is a great page builder for

building sales pages. I use it for course sales pages.

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 WordPress Plugins
If you’re on WordPress, you’ll need some plugins. Plugins are
little pieces of software that add features to your blog. Some
add features on the backend, like SEO optimization or backups.
Some add features to the front end, like social sharing buttons
or giveaways. These are my recommendations for the best
plugins.

SOCIAL WARFARE - Social Warfare is a fantastic social shar-

ing plugin that allows you to put share buttons in multiple
places on your blog. It also allows you to set the pin and the
pin description that will go on Pinterest when someone hits
the pin button.

ESSENTIAL GRID - Essential Grid is a grid plugin that allows

you to create gorgeous photo grids. You can use it for a lot
of different things, but I use it to create my Resource Li-
brary.

ENVIRA GALLERY - Envira Gallery is a great gallery plugin

for displaying your images.

YOAST - Yoast is the best SEO plugin. It does stuff on the

backend, and shows you how to fix your posts as you’re
writing them to improve SEO.

BACKUP - Backup does what it sounds like. It backs up your

blog. Not exciting, but you don’t want to be caught without
it.

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AKISMET - Akismet is an anti-spam plugin that blocks those
spammy comments from coming through.

CONTACT FORM 7 - Contact Form 7 creates a nice form for

your contact page.

EWWW IMAGE OPTIMIZER - EWWW compresses your imag-

es to make your blog run faster.

MAX BUTTONS PRO - Max Buttons Pro gives you awesome

buttons to put anywhere you’d like on your blog.

SHORTCODES ULTIMATE - Shortcodes Ultimate adds a ton

of great shortcodes that you can use in your posts.

SUPREME SHORTCODES - Supreme Shortcodes adds even

more great shortcodes for your posts.

GOOGLE XML SITEMAPS - Google XML Sitemamps submits

sitemaps to Google automatically, which helps your SEO.

GOOGLE ANALYTICS BY MONSTER INSIGHTS - Google An-

alytics by Monster Insights hooks Google Analytics up with
your blog so that GA can track what’s going on.

PRETTY LINKS - Pretty Links organizes your affiliate links

and turns them into branded short links. So my Pretty Links
affiliate links isn’t long and unwieldy anymore, it’s just blogs-
bybecca.com/pretty-links.

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REDIRECTION - Redirection allows you to redirect pages,
which can be helpful if you’re changing URLs for whatever
reason.

BROKEN LINK CHECKER - Broken Link Checker checks your

blog for any broken link and allows you to fix them.

THIRSTY AFFILIATES - Thirsty Affiliates is another affiliate

link plugin.

WP INSERT CODE - WP Insert Code allows you to easily in-

sert code in the header or footer of your blog.

CSS HERO - CSS Hero let’s you change CSS without really
knowing all that much about CSS. You can click on the el-
ement that you want to change, and you’ll get a ton of op-
tions.

INSTAGRAM WP - Instagram WP is an Instagram widget so

that you can show your feed on your blog.

PINTEREST WIDGET - Pinterest Widget will display your Pin-

terest feed on your blog.

JETPACK - Jetpack adds a set of features to your blog like

photo optimization, related posts, and more.

SIMPLE SOCIAL ICONS - Simple Social Icons adds follow

buttons to your sidebar or footer.

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IMAGE WIDGET - Image Widget is what it sounds like. It al-
lows you to add an image in your sidebar or footer or any
other widget area.

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 Email Service Providers
As a blogger, one of your most important assets is your email
list. You own it, you control it, and there’s no algorithm prevent-
ing your emails from being seen (*cough* Facebook).

You want to make sure that you have the right email provid-
er from day one. You need one that’s easy to use, but also one
that provides a full range of services and automation. These are
the ones I recommend.

CONVERTKIT - ConvertKit is a fantastic email tool for pro-

fessional bloggers. It makes sequences for things like email
courses or funnels extremely easy, and its automations are
fabulous.

MAILCHIMP - If you want a free alternative, MailChimp is a

popular option.

MAILERLITE - MailerLite is another free alternative for your

email needs.

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 Opt-ins
Your email list is important, and you need a way for people to
get on it. That’s where opt-ins come in. You’ll want to have a few
different ways for people to get on your list because not every-
thing will work the first time. These are my favorite opt-in tools.

LEADPAGES - Leadpages is a fantastic landing page and

pop-up builder. It has tons of templates that are conver-
sion-tested to create landing pages. And it allows you to de-
liver content upgrades via buttons inserted into your blog
posts that produce pop-ups when clicked. I love it.

HELLO BAR - Hello Bar is a notification bar at the top of

your screen. You can customize it, and it looks great.

MILO TREE - Milo Tree gives you a popup in the righthand

corner that asks people to follow you on Pinterest or Insta-
gram, or to sign up for your email list.

OPTINMONSTER - OptinMonster provides lots of customiz-

able opt-in options. It’s got welcome mats, notification bars,
sidebar opt-ins, pop-ups, and more.

CONVERT PLUG - Convert Plug is another opt-in provider

with lots of customizable options.

INTERACT QUIZ BUILDER - Interact Quiz Builder allows you

to create a quiz for your audience. They’ll give their email
address in order to get the results of the quiz.

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 Graphic Design Tools
The more you blog, the more you’ll realize how much graphic
design is needed. You’ve got Instagram images, content up-
grades, webinar slides, Pinterest graphics. The list goes on. If
you’ve got a design background you might want to use the Ado-
be products, but if not, these are my recommendations.

CANVA - Canva is my favorite graphic design tool. It’s free

and easy to use. I make most of my graphics with it.

PICMONKEY - PicMonkey is another graphic design tool

with some more options that Canva doesn’t have.

SNAPPA - Snappa is another graphic design tool with tem-

plates that are easy to use.

STENCIL - Stencil is another graphic design tool with tem-

plates that are easy to use.

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 Photo Editing Apps
Whether you’re posting photos on Instagram or on your blog,
they’ve got to look great. The App Store is full of photo editing
apps, but not all are created equal. These are my favorites.

A COLOR STORY - A Color Story is a photo editing app with

tons of amazing filters.

VSCO - VSCO has lots of tools and amazing filters.

AFTERLIGHT - Afterlight has more tools and filters.

OVER - graphics with text overlays

WORD SWAG - graphics with text overlays

FACETUNE 2 - Facetune 2 is great for editing photos with

faces.

SNAPSEED - Snapseed is great for very detailed photo edit-

ing.

LAYOUT - Layout is a collage maker for Instagram.

BOOMERANG - Boomerang makes 4 second GIFs for Insta-

gram.

STOREO - Storeo will break up your videos into 15 second

blocks for Instagram Stories.

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Social Media Scheduling & Analytics
If you’re using social media for your blog, it’s a good idea to use
a social media scheduler. That way your content is getting out
there every day, without you having to be tied to your comput-
er. These are my recommendations for schedulers and analyt-
ics.

PLANOLY - Planoly is an Instagram planning and scheduling

tool. It allows you to see your photos in a grid before you
post them, so you can plan out a cohesive grid.

BOARDBOOSTER - BoardBooster is a Pinterest scheduling

tool so you can automate your account.

TAILWIND - Tailwind is another Pinterest scheduling tool to

automate your account.

ICONOSQUARE - Iconosquare is an Instagram analytics

app. It gives you numbers on all kinds of things like engage-
ment and followers.

MEET EDGAR - Edgar is a scheduling tool for Facebook and

Twitter. It recycles your old content on a loop, so you never
run out of tweets.

COSCHEDULE - Coschedule is another scheduling tool for

Facebook and Twitter.

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SMARTERQUEUE - SmarterQueue is another scheduling
tool for Facebook and Twitter.

BUFFER - Buffer is a free social media automation tool.

HASHTAGGER - Hashtagger is an app that allows you to find

new hashtags for Instagram.

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 Webinars
Webinars can be a great way to grow your audience and your
blog. But if you’re not using the right tools they can turn bad
quickly. You need reliable tools so that you don’t have a tech
meltdown while you’re live. These are my favorite tools.

WEBINAR JAM - Webinar Jam is a webinar platform with tons

of features.

EVERWEBINAR - Ever Webinar allows you to set up automat-

ed webinars that are available on demand.

ZOOM - Zoom is a webinar tool that can also be used for calls.

CHATANGO - Chatango is a chat box that can be embedded

into a webinar page.

ATR 2100 MICROPHONE - The ATR 2100 is a great micro-

phone for recording your videos.

BLUE YETI MICROPHONE - The Blue Yeti is another great mi-

crophone.

LOGITECH C920 WEBCAM - The Logitech C920 is a great web-

cam.

E CAMM LIVE - E Camm Live allows you to do Facebook lives

from your laptop, and has cool features like screensharing.

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 Online Course Creation
If you’re creating an online course, you know how much work
goes into it. You need to have the right tools so that everything
goes smoothly and you can focus on the content, not the tech.
These are my recommendations for great online course tools.

TEACHABLE - Teachable is an all-in-one course creation tool

that includes sales and checkout pages, along with hosting
for all your course materials.

THINKIFIC - Thinkific is another all-in-one course creation

tool.

KAJABI - Kajabi is another course creation tool.

SAMCART - Samcart allows you create custom checkout

pages for your digital products.

DEADLINE FUNNEL - Deadline Funnel has countdown tim-

ers for sales pages and emails. You can also use it to create
evergreen funnels.

MOTION MAIL - Motion Mail has free countdown timers for

email.

APPLE PAGES - Apple Pages is a great tool for creating

workbooks and resources for your course. This guide is
made with Apple Pages.

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KEYNOTE - Keynote is a great tool to create slides for your
course or webinar.

SCREENFLOW - Screenflow is a screen recording software.

PROOF - Proof pops up with messages saying that “Joe

bought this course one hour ago.” It prompts people view-
ing your sales page to buy.

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 Business Tools
When you’re running a service business, you need some tools to
get things done. You want everything to look and function great
for your client, so you need the right tools. These are my recom-
mendations.

LASTPASS - LastPass allows you to securely share pass-

words with your VA or other contractor.

DUBSADO - Dubsado is a client system that allows you

to send invoices, receive payments, set up contracts, and
more.

17 HATS - 17 Hats is another option similar to Dubsado.

ACUITY - Acuity allows you to schedule client meetings.

GRAMMARLY - Grammarly is a spellcheck/typo-corrector. It

has a Chrome extension so it can correct all of your online
writing.

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 Organizational Tools
There are a lot of moving pieces involved in a blog, and it’s best
to keep them organized. Whether organization comes naturally
to you or not, you need the right tools to get it done. These are
my favorites.

GOOGLE DRIVE - Google Drive is the perfect tool for storing

your document online.

ASANA - Asana is great for task management. Create task

lists or boards. It’s awesome.

TRELLO - Trello lets you create boards to organize your

projects.

POWERSHEETS - Powersheets are a goal-setting planner

and it’s great for getting your goals out on paper in an orga-
nized fashion.

EPIC BLOG PLANNER - The Epic Blog Planner is great for

planning out your content.

CONQUER YOUR YEAR PLANNER - Conquer Your Year is a

business planner perfect for an online business.

G SUITE - G Suite allows you to have email address at your

domain.

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