The Best Free Blogging Tools for Lifestyle Bloggers
Are you a blogger looking for the best free blogging tools for lifestyle bloggers? Well, you are in the right place! I know when I first started my blog I really struggled to find all of the free tools for bloggers. It can be so hard to understand how people are making these beautiful graphics or sending out these perfect subscription emails.
It took me months to compile this information and pull my site together. I am still constantly updating things to pull together a specific brand. I want my blog to have a cohesive look, which is what most bloggers are trying to achieve. Especially if you are using your blog as a means of income.
So, I have done a lot of the work for you and giving up some of the secrets of the big bloggers! This post has compiled all of the free tools that I use on a daily basis to work on my blog and make an income.
The Best Free Blogging Tools
WordPress Plugins
WordPress offers hundreds of plugins that you can use on your blog. These plugins are pretty easy to install and activate. They can range from anything like showing your social profiles on your blog to installing a slider of images on your homepage. I use multiple plugins on my blog. They are extremely helpful!
Canva
Ok, I love love love me some Canva. This is the program I use to make all of my graphics my blog! I made my header, my e-book, and all of my Pinterest graphics! I use the completely free program and it allows me to create anything I need without having to pay a fee, which I absolutely love! I totally recommend Canva for creating all of your graphics. They even provide hundreds of templates for free as well.
PicMonkey
This is another great graphic creating program. Most bloggers use one or the other between Canva and Picmonkey. I just personally prefer Canva, but you should check out PicMonkey as well just to see what you prefer and which software is easier to use for you!
Mailchimp
Mailchimp is my email subscriber service I currently use. I like Mailchimp because its user interface is super easy to navigate. I set up a pop-up form on my blog, gained subscribers, and learned how to send out designed emails to my subscribers all within a few hours! Mailchimp is also free until you reach 2000 subscribers. I recommend it 100% so far.
IvoryMix
Ivory Mix is a wonderful source for stock photography for your blog! I used many of the free stock photos on her site before invested in paid stock photography. It is a fabulous way to save some money when you are just starting out. Make sure you subscribe to her emails, that will get you access to her free stock photos!
Unsplash
This is another great source for stock photography for free! I have used Unsplash a lot during my beginning stages of blogging.
WordPress Themes
WordPress offers many different free themes that you can start out with. I think starting with a free theme is a very good financial decision. That way, you aren’t investing a ton of money into your blog right off the jump if you are not sure if this is something you truly want to do. Now, if you are 100% sure and ready to invest some cash into your blog then I would recommend a paid theme for sure. But, the WordPress free themes work just as well to get your content out there.
Google Adsense
Google Adsense is an Ad service by Google. They pay you to display ads on your blog that your audience will see. Some people wait to use ads until they have a steady stream of traffic coming into their blogs while others use ads right away to start earning. I can tell you that you will not make much with Google Adsense if you are just starting out. You will make pennies a day with low blog traffic. It’s up to you if you think having ads on your new blog is worth it.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a great program to keep up with the analytics on your blog! It helps you see how well your blog is doing and gives you access to all of the statistics. I love using Google Analytics to see how much traffic I have had for a certain period of time.
Issu
This is a great program to upload any PDF files you need such as e-books or guides you have made. I have used Issu myself for a few months and enjoy it. You can use it for free, but they do also have a paid version.
Facebook Groups
Okay, this is a major one! Different blogging Facebook groups have really really helped me! You can learn so much free information from these groups. Many of them have bloggers that have been doing this for years and earning a very respectable income. They also offer sharing threads where you can share your blog posts, which in turn gives you more exposure, grows your audience, and grows your traffic. I recommend joining at least one great Facebook group that pertains to blogging! You won’t regret it!
Pinterest is like the holy grail for new bloggers if you are looking for tons of blog traffic and fast. Your website probably won’t show up in Google search for a while, at least a few months. Pinterest allows you to advertise to an audience extremely quickly. As long as you make great-looking pins with eye-catching titles then you should gain some really great traffic from Pinterest!
Instagram is a great way to share your content. If you have an Instagram account with a large number of followers you can really gain a huge audience for your new blog.
Tailwind
Tailwind is a scheduler for Pinterest. It is amazing! You can get started with a 30 day trial for free (no credit card required!) and you can see how amazing it is for yourself! I use Tailwind every day. It has done so much for my blog in terms of Pinterest. I have gained tons of traffic from Pinterest thanks to my consistent scheduling and Tailwind Tribes!
DaFont
This is a great website for free fonts! I use these in Pinterest pins and a lot of my graphics I make myself.
PixiStock
This is another great option for stock photos! Pixistock offers a membership, but they also offer free stock photography if you sign up for their email list. I have used many of their pictures and they are great!
Grammarly
Grammarly is a program that automatically corrects your spelling and punctuation and grammar within your blog posts. I use this for all of my writing. It helps so much, especially when I want to write and not focus on the grammar part. It is totally free, but there is a paid version if you want to upgrade. I am still using the free version and loving it!
I hope this list of the best free blogging tools for lifestyle bloggers has helped you! I use all of these tools almost daily. It really helps me run my blog smoothly, and the best part is that all of these are free tools!
Many of these programs have subscription costs later on, which I would recommend if you plan on blogging full-time and earning an income. But, if you are just starting out I understand not wanting to spend a dime more than you have too because you aren’t really earning much if anything at all the first few months!
If you are still on the fence about starting your own blog, check out How to Start a Profitable Blog on a Budget
I hope these tools have helped you and you found what you were looking for. Let me know if you have personally used any of these tools and which ones you have never used, but plan to!
Thanks for reading,
