I have accumulated my fair share of blogging tools over the past few years, and today I want to share my top must-have blogging essentials to start a blog.
Starting a blog is an overwhelming yet exciting experience. When I started Coffee with Steph, I had no clue what to do. I had no experience in web design or marketing, and I hadn’t even known what SEO was.
It was definitely a learn-as-you-go adventure. That being said, don’t wait until you feel ready to start your blog. You will figure it out along the way ♥.
Without further ado, here is my comprehensive list of blogging tools you need.
This post might contain affiliate links i.e. I will get a small commission if you purchase an item through them. Your support means the world to me ♥.
Blogging Tools To Start A Blog
The Foundation
First and foremost, you need to focus on your foundation, i.e., the groundwork of your blog. You cannot create a blog without blogging tools.
HOSTING
You start by choosing a hosting provider, aka where your blog lives. Think of it like a coffee shop. The hosting provider is the space you rent to make your shop exist. I highly recommend Bluehost.
The Pros Of Bluehost
- Beginner friendly
- Incredibly affordable
- 1 Year free domain
- Free SSL – keeps visitor data safe
- Free CDN – speeds up your site globally
- All-in-one feeling – includes domain (the unique name of your blog) + hosting + WordPress
- Officially recommended by WordPress
- 24/7 amazing support
The Cons Of Bluehost
- Renewal prices are higher
- Storage space increases with better plans (honestly, I’ve been blogging for almost 4 years, and I still haven’t exceeded the starter tier’s 10GB)
- Started plan promises optimal performance and speed at around 40k visits per month. After that, an upgrade is recommended
All in all, Bluehost is the way to go. I’ve never encountered any problems with them, and affordability is a significant driver of my ongoing support.
WORDPRESS
A CMS (Content Management System) like WordPress is the platform you use to design your blog, write posts, upload images, and everything behind the scenes.
Basically, if hosting is the space you are renting, then WordPress is everything inside, i.e., the menu, decor, furniture, etc.
WordPress.org vs WordPress.com
This is where people get confused, because there are two versions of WordPress. However, the difference is quite simple.
WordPress.com:
- Limited control
- You don’t fully own the site
- Monetization nearly impossible
- Good for hobby blogs, not an income
WordPress.org:
- Full control
- You own everything
- Can use ads, affiliates, etc
- Good for serious bloggers who want to make money
THEME
The theme of your website essentially reflects the style of your coffee shop.
There are many free themes available, and I recommend starting with those. However, if you’re looking for a long-term solution, investing in a paid theme will improve the professionalism and aesthetics of your site.
You can find themes on Etsy or by going to Appearance > Themes on your WordPress dashboard.
I personally use the paid version of Astra and have no plans to change themes. It costs $69 per year (as of 2026), so it’s not the cheapest option. However, it is beginner-friendly and allows you to create a website with zero experience.
Astra also offers a free plan if you want to test it out first.
The Backrooms
These are essential blogging tools you need to run it smoothly in the background. We’ll look into two things: backup and speed.
BACKUP
Backups allow your website to automatically or manually save previous versions in case you need to restore them. So when you decide to mess around with it, you can always revert to a previous version without losing anything.
Trust me, you’ll want to create a backup before trying new features. I learned the hard way, lol.
I use the free version of UpdraftPlus. Right now, it automatically backs up my site every week and retains 10 backups at a time. These backups live on my Google Drive, and I can restore them with one click on my WordPress dashboard.
SPEED
If your site takes too long to load, you have a big problem. Your readers will close the page before even seeing your content. That’s when the following blogging tools become crucial.
How Do I Check My Blog Speed
There are two options here:
- Use Bluehost for a simple rundown: Login to Bluehost > Hosting > Websites > Manage > Performance > Run Test with Google Page Speed Insights (Desktop and Mobile)
- Use PageSpeed Insights for a detailed breakdown
Plug-Ins To Improve My Speed
I have used these two plugins from the start of my blogging career.
- EWWW Image Optimizer – Automatically compress images of any size to make your site faster and lower your bounce rate.
- Jetpack & Jetpack Boost – Boost also shows your website speed, but offers the following options to improve performance (I do all of these weekly):
- Optimizing Critical CSS Loading – do this after making changes to HTML structures.
- Optimize LCP images – a measurement of how long it takes for your main content to load.
- Clear Cache – Store and serve preloaded content to reduce loading time.
Content Creation
Now, let’s get into the actual creative side of things you need when starting a blog.
GOOGLE DOCS
I write all my blog posts in Google Docs first. This is not something you have to do, but it will make your life so much easier.
After writing and editing my posts on Google Docs, I move into my WordPress dashboard and click ‘new post’. Then I copy and paste block-by-block into Elementor (or you might use WordPress Editor).
Let me just give you a quick rundown on what I mean block-by-block. Elementor uses a drag-and-drop function. The elements include headings, text editor, images, shortcodes, and more. Each of these blocks has fine-tuning settings once dropped, like changing a heading to an H3 tag or fiddling with typography, etc.
Why block-by-block? It allows me to add sections like an ad or Instagram previews, and more, between blocks, like above a heading. For instance, I placed the ad below this paragraph by adding a new block. Otherwise, your post will just be one fluent, messy moosh.
GRAMMARLY
Grammarly is a software/extension that checks your spelling and grammar. It saves significant time when editing your drafts.
English is my second language, so this is easily a non-negotiable for me. Just add it as an extension, and it will check your writing automatically.
You can get the pro version; however, I find the free version sufficient.
CANVA
Canva is a crucial blogging essential for your career. You can use it to create pins, lead magnets, social media posts, digital products, and more.
I have Canva Pro and highly recommend it if you’ve got money to throw around. While I’ve only been using Pro for two years now, you could definitely make it work on the free plan.
The Pro version allows access to more elements, fonts, images, and more. My major reasons for upgrading were:
- More variety of images for my pins
- Generating template links for my digital products – essential for my Etsy store
Canva is definitely an affordable and beneficial upgrade. Right now, I’m not sure of the pricing (dollars) since I pay in South African Rands, but I’m sure it comes down to the same thing – affordable.
CAPCUT
This is a nice-to-have, but not necessarily a must. CapCut is a video editing software you can consider if you want to promote your blogs on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
It is an easy app to navigate and provides a tremendous amount of templates. You can have multiple videos ready in no time.
I use CapCut Pro, but the free version is, once again, sufficient. My main reason for upgrading is the relight feature for talking videos. It takes your video to a higher level. You will also get access to more editing features and templates.
However, CapCut Pro is more expensive than Canva over a year. So I’d rather invest in Canva if I had to choose.
Traffic
Money-making blogs rely heavily on traffic. The more traffic, the more money. There are three blogging tools I lean on when I check my traffic performance.
GOOGLE ANALYTICS
Google Analytics gives you an in-depth breakdown of your traffic. I mean, this is a gold mine! Here are a couple of things I check frequently:
- Sessions – the number of people to visit your site in the given period
- Views – the specific count of times pages are loaded or reloaded
- Bounce Rate – the percentage of visitors who leave the site after viewing only one page
- Average duration – the average time a visitor spends on your site.
- Pages And Screens – shows the most visited pages on your site for the given time
- Traffic Acquisition – where your traffic comes from
Then for fun:
- Countries – where your readers are based
- Real-Time Stats – how many people are on your blog in real time
GOOGLE ADSENSE
Once you get approved for Google AdSense, you can find helpful reports regarding ad monetization. Some helpful reports include,
- Current and daily income
- Best performing pages
- Best performing ad units
GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE
One of my blogging mistakes is not knowing about Google Search Console earlier. Somewhere and somehow, this information went straight over my head.
Google Search Console (GSC) is a free platform that tracks your performance on Google, i.e., how you rank in Google search, whereas Google Analytics shows traffic from everywhere. It shows:
- Best performing pages
- Average ranking position
- Total clicks and views
- Best performing keyword queries
I am not gonna pretend to be an expert, but here is what I know. Your posts won’t automatically show on Google. They need to be indexed and crawled. To do that, you need to upload sitemaps of your website to GSC. After that, your pages will be crawled and checked whether or not they are eligible to show up on a Google search.
How do I upload a site map? Girl, I can’t remember how I did it, lol. But there are many helpful articles and videos out there that will show you step-by-step.
SEO & Keywords
SEO and keywords are one of the non-negotiable blogging tools. You cannot get any traffic to your blog if you’re not on your SEO game. SEO stands for search engine optimization. It is a fancy way of saying how cleverly you used keywords people search for.
For instance, my keyword for this post is primarily ‘blogging tools’, but I also use ‘blogging tools to start a blog’, ‘start a blog’, and ‘blogging essentials’.
Now, if I use those keywords correctly, I can outrank the competition on Google. Google will know exactly what my post is about and who it is catered towards.
How do I use keywords correctly? This is a topic on its own, and I plan to write a post solely on keywords. I’ll link it when it’s live. But in a nutshell:
- Use the keywords naturally throughout your post
- Add keywords to alt attributes
- Include keywords in the meta description
- Try to place keywords at the start of your title (if possible)
- Add keywords to headings (I usually don’t follow this rule; it feels spammy and unnatural).
There are a bunch of other factors that go into SEO, but those are the primary rules for keyword placement.
SEO TOOLS
Again, this is another topic on its own, but I’ll rapid-fire through it.
Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is by far the most used and loved SEO plugin. It is always my last step before publishing a post.
Yoast checks your post for factors that improve your chances of ranking, including the keyword rules above and other elements such as internal links.
Semrush
It is a platform for keyword research to determine the keyword difficulty.
Keyword difficulty (KD) is calculated based on search volume and competition. When KD is high, you will have a much harder time ranking for your keyword.
- Searches are high & competition is low,
- Best-case scenario
- Keyword difficulty is low
- Easy to rank
- High traffic potential
- Searches are high & competition is high
- Overly saturated
- Keyword difficulty is high
- Lower ranking & traffic potential
- Searches are low & competition is low
- Low demand (untapped topic)
- Easy to rank
- Not much traffic
- Keyword difficulty is low
- Searches are low & competition is high
- Worst-case scenario
- Not many people are searching
- Hard to rank
- Low traffic
- Keyword difficulty is high
With Semrush, you enter your chosen keyword, and it shows the volume (total times searched), keyword difficulty, and keyword variations.
Google Keyword Planner
Google also has a free keyword search tool. It shows you the average monthly searches and competition for your keyword and similar keywords.
I don’t use this often, but it is a nice way to double-check your keywords if you are unsure.
Growth & Promoting
You cannot solely rely on SEO. Promoting your content and growing your audience are essential to starting a successful blog. These are the main blogging tools I focus on.
EMAIL MARKETING
This is where the blogger meets the reader. Newsletters are a brilliant way to grow an engaging, recurring audience.
Where do I start?
Choose an email marketing provider.
I recommend MailerLite – it is free for up to 500 subscribers, which is ideal for beginners. Unfortunately, when you go over 500 subs, you’ll need to pay to keep your emails running.
What do I need?
Once you have created an account with your chosen provider, there are a few things you need to set up:
- Welcome Email Automation – An email that automatically sends out when someone subscribes.
- Site Pop Up – A sign-up form that will pop up when someone opens a page on your site. You can adjust when and how it pops up.
- Landing Page – A standalone web page that is designed specifically for people to subscribe. It usually includes what subscribers can expect, a bit about the writer, and a sign-up form. You can check out Coffee with Steph’s landing page here.
- Lead Magnet – You can’t expect someone to sign up for a newsletter without adding value. That is a lead magnet. For instance, my subscribers get access to my free resource library, a 15% discount on my Etsy store, weekly check-ins, and exclusive offers.
- MailerLite Plugin – Install this plugin on your WordPress and use the shortcode to insert a sign-up form anywhere on your site, like the one at the bottom of this post.
I cannot stress enough how crucial Pinterest is to your marketing strategy. Pinterest is the MAIN traffic-driving platform. Girl, you gotta invest time into this.
Also, Pinterest is not social media; it is a visual search engine, i.e, Google with pictures. So you need to treat it as such, so say hello to keywords again.
I have gone into my Pinterest strategy before, and will link the posts here:
- My Ultimate Pinterest Strategy For Bloggers To Increase Traffic
- 8 Pinterest Pin Design Tips That Actually Get Clicks
The basic things you need to understand about Pinterest to optimize it as a blogging tool:
- Use a business account
- Optimize your username, bio, and board names
- Your pin graphic matters
- Focus on your title, description, tags, and alt text
- You need to post multiple fresh pins a day
- Repost other bloggers’ pins as well as your old pins
Posts You Might Like:
SOCIAL MEDIA
Do I really need social media? In my opinion, no. But it won’t hurt to have. At the end of the day, it comes down to exposure.
I do not rely on traffic from Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube, but I use them to build an audience and create a more personal relationship with readers.
I spend little energy on my socials and do not prioritize them, but it is a nice add-on to my existing brand. And you’ll never know if a reel could go viral. It is a safe gamble.
CONTACT FORM
You know those little ‘contact me’ or ‘work with me’ pages bloggers have on their websites? That is where the contact form lives. It is a space where someone could contact you without leaving the site.
I use the Contact Form 7 plugin.
Planning Tools
Planning your content makes your life so much easier down the line. I tend to plan out my blog posts for the next month. This way, I never have to wonder what to write about when the time comes.
To mention a few:
- Physical planner – I usually start with a weekly physical planner page to scribble down ideas.
- Google Calendar – my preferred planning tool. I find Google Calendar to be less distracting. Whenever I dive into other planning tools, I get distracted by making them pretty and lose valuable time.
- Notion & Trello – said planning tools that distract me, lol. That being said, I love Notion, and I do recommend it if you’re not gonna procrastinate to make it cute. However, I use Notion to plan my novel (yup, I’m writing a contemporary romance atm) since it is already a creative outlet.
Scheduling Tools
These are absolute time savers! Scheduling pins and/or social media posts could free up time to work on more content.
Let’s look at the most popular options:
- Tailwind – it is a pin scheduler that integrates fantastically with Pinterest. It works on a smart scheduler, meaning it posts your pins when your followers are most likely online. That being said, I do not use Tailwind. The free version offers very limited value, and I am doing fine without it.
- Pinterest Scheduler – Pinterest has a built-in native scheduler. AND it is free. You can imagine this is the one I prefer. I schedule two weeks’ worth of pins in one go and call it a day.
As for scheduling social media posts, Instagram has that option, but I don’t use it. I mostly edit my videos and write descriptions in one sitting, then they are ready to post in minutes.
Stock Images
Stock photos are one of the most forgotten blogging tools. Copyright is something you need to keep in mind. You can’t use any aesthetic Pinterest photo commercially. That is why there are stock photo sites. These photos are available to use anywhere.
The stock photo sites I use:
- Pexels
- Unsplash
Final Thoughts
That’s a wrap on the blogging tools you need to start a blog. I hope this helps you on your blogging journey, and pin it for later! Let me know what you’re struggling with in the comments below.
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Have a great day wherever you are in the world!
Love, Steph ♥
