15 Best Blogging Tools for Beginners in 2024: Fast-Track Guide

Are you a beginner blogger just dipping your toes in the blogging world?

From personal experience, I understand the importance of finding the right tools for beginners — ones that are simple and economical yet effective.

Remembering my own early days, I’ve curated a list of 15 Best Blogging Tools for Beginners. From free blogging tools to affordable alternatives, these various tools will help you set up your blog quickly and efficiently without breaking the bank or compromising the quality.

Let’s get started!

TL;DR

Discover the ultimate toolkit for beginners looking to make their mark in the blogosphere.

Based on my blogger experience, I handpicked a selection of the best blogging tools for beginners, covering everything from web development and hosting to content creation, SEO optimization, editing, linkbuilding and guest post outreach, and image creation. 

Arm yourself with these powerful tools and embrace a mindset of experimentation and continuous learning. Get started now, and you’ll be well on your way to building a successful blog.

Build Your Blog

Like many beginners without any HTML or CSS (and other scary tech acronyms) knowledge, I was initially intimidated by the thought of building a blog.

So, let me make it clear from the start – creating a blog doesn’t require web development skills or coding experience.

In this section, I will share beginner-friendly tools so that even the most programming-averse of you can get your blog off the ground with ease.

1. Web Development and CMS: WordPress

WordPress is an open-source content management system (CMS) and web development software. It’s a popular tool for individuals without coding experience who want to build websites and blogs. 

Why WordPress?

• Beginner-friendly: Doesn’t require any coding experience. A low initial learning curve means you can get started with it almost instantly. 
• Free: anyone can install, use, and modify it for free.
• SEO-friendly by default: At its core, WordPress is built with search engine optimization (SEO) in mind. This means most WordPress sites are more likely to be indexed and, as a result, rank higher on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Plugins like Yoast SEO help you enhance the visibility of your pages and blog posts and drive organic traffic, too.
• Large user community:  I can’t emphasize the importance of that one more. More than 835 million sites use WordPress, and with over 2 million downloads every year, WordPress usage continues to rise steadily. Why is it important? As a beginner, you’ll be hitting roadblocks and eventually turning to Google for answers. With such an enormous user base, there are answers to literally every question you might have. And trust me, when you start knowing nothing, that’s considerable support.
• Highly Modular: You can add extra functionality to your site with plugins to do almost anything, from analytics and image compression to creating paid memberships and building an online store.
• Total control: WordPress gives you complete control over every tiny detail of your blog and website. While you might not see the need immediately as you and your blog mature and change, you might require extended functionality, turning your blogging platform into a full-fledged e-commerce site.

2. Web Hosting: WPX or Bluehost

Web hosting is simply a service that makes your website accessible on the World Wide Web. Companies providing web hosting services are sometimes called web hosts. I recommend going with either Bluehost or WPX.

Bluehost is one of the most well-known and established web hosts. It’s recommended by WordPress.org. WPX Hosting is one of the most innovative WordPress web hosts that emphasizes faster website performance, a better hosting interface, and very responsive customer support.

Choose WPX if:

• You want a faster-performing website.
• You want very responsive customer support.
• You want a better user dashboard.
• You want better WordPress features.

Choose Bluehost if:

• You’re on a budget
• You’re a complete beginner.
• You want to use a website builder.
• You’re new to WordPress.

Below are some of the advantages that each hosting offers. These go into a little bit more detail explaining the differences and reasons behind my suggestions above, picking either WPX or Bluehost.

Advantages of choosing WPX Hosting:

• Site Speed Optimization
• Ultra Responsive Customer Support. Their Live Chat Response Time is, on average, under 30 seconds 
• Custom Built High-Speed Content Delivery Network (CDN) resulting in higher webpage loading, especially for data-heavy applications
• Own their Servers and Content Delivery Network. Again, this means faster website loading times and better site speed performance
• Unlimited Free Site Migrations are available should you ever need to change platform, domain name, etc. And that’s regardless of the number or size of your websites, plus support from the WPX team.

Advantages of choosing Bluehost:

• Much much cheaper compared to WPX
• Automatic Installation of WordPress
• User-Friendly Guided WordPress Site Creation
• Customized WordPress Dashboard Interface
• Automatic WordPress Plugin and Theme Updates
• Responsive Customer Support via Phone, Email, and Live Chat
• Fast Website Provisioning

Choosing between WPX and Bluehost depends on your blogging journey’s specific needs and where you’re at financially and experientially.

For those on a tighter budget seeking a guided experience, Bluehost is an excellent alternative. 

As a new blogger with some financial flexibility, I chose WPX hosting. Website speed is vital for a successful blog, but optimizing it yourself can be difficult. I chose WPX for performance-focused hosting, which gave me a fast, reliable website.

Sometimes, it’s hard to know which tool is better for you until you try it. The good news is — don’t feel trapped — you can always migrate hosts as your blog progresses.

Blogging Tools for Content Ideas

Struggling to find new blog topic ideas to continue growing your blog?

Explore tools that will help you to keep your blog content fresh and engaging.

3. Google Trends

Looking to optimize your blog’s SEO and rank for targeted keywords? Google Trends is one of the best tools for ideation and creating topic clusters to cover and dominate your niche thoroughly.

This free tool helps you find trending topics and ideas for new posts, giving you a competitive edge in your niche. One of the best things about Google Trends is its ability to spot emerging trends and popular topics.

Use Google Trends to:

• Spot early trends and established interests within your niche
• Tailor your topic search by location and time to hone in on your target audience
• Compare and benchmark different topics’ search levels against each other
• Examine how search volume has evolved over time or varies during specific time frames

4. Quora

Certain tools, like Quora, might not immediately be associated with blogging tools. Still, they offer a wealth of inspiration and ideas about topics your audience genuinely cares about.

Quora is a knowledge-sharing platform where users ask and answer questions on a wide variety of topics. 

For bloggers, it serves as a tool that can help them tap into the pulse of their audience’s curiosities and concerns. By exploring the questions people ask, you gain direct access to a treasure trove of blog topic ideas that are both relevant and engaging.

Here’s how to leverage Quora:

• Search for questions related to your niche and create blog content that addresses them
• Analyze popular questions to identify trends and hot topics in your industry
• Connect with your target audience to gain insights into their challenges and preferences
• Demonstrate your expertise by providing helpful answers to questions in your niche

Keyword Research Tools

Anyone starting their blogging journey will sooner or later hear about Ahrefs.

Ahrefs is considered the gold standard for SEO and analytics tools. It offers extensive features for link building, keyword research, competitor analysis, rank tracking, site audits, and more.

All this is good until you learn its hefty price tag of $79 A MONTH! Yeah, I know, ouch! This price is just out of reach when you’ve just started a blog.

Fortunately for newcomers, there are FREE alternatives that can help your blog succeed without sacrificing the quality of your blog.

5. Ahrefs Keyword Difficulty Checker

Despite Ahrefs’ steep price, their FREE (albeit limited) Keyword Difficulty Checker is an absolute gem.

I rely on it heavily to quickly evaluate the difficulty of ranking for a specific keyword. It helps me estimate the challenge of landing in the top 10 organic search results on a scale of 100.

Key Highlights:

• Keyword Difficulty Score. Get an estimate of the effort required to rank in the top 10 for a specific keyword.
• Location. Choose your desired country for more targeted insights.
• Competition. Examine the top 10 competitors and the Domain Ratings (DR) of the first 4.
• Backlinks. See the estimate of the number of backlinks needed to secure a top-10 ranking.

Limitations:

Traffic Volume. The biggest drawback is the absence of potential traffic data. While you can gauge ranking difficulty, estimating traffic (another crucial metric) is limited to analyzing the top 4 websites’ performance.

And that’s why I recommend pairing it with yet another Ahrefs free tool for beginners.

6. Ahrefs Free Keyword Generator

Yes, it’s great for topic ideation to generate thousands of relevant keyword ideas in seconds.

But I get the most value by combining it with the Free Keyword Difficulty Checker to retrieve the vital keyword traffic data and get that missing piece of info.

Key Highlights:

• Traffic Volume. Reveal an estimation of the average monthly number of searches for a keyword over the latest known 12 months of data. 
• Phrase Match. Explore a list of phrases containing your target keyword and the total number of such matches.
• Questions. Discover a variety of questions related to your keyword and the volume of these queries.
• Keyword Difficulty Score. Estimate the competition level for a chosen keyword.
• Location. Tailor your search to a specific country for more targeted results.
• Last Updated: Notes the most recent date of search engine results page analysis for the keyword.

Content Writing Tools

Quality content is the cornerstone for driving more traffic, climbing Google rankings, and marketing your blog successfully.

Discover the list of tools to help you create content that draws readers in and keeps them coming back for more.

7. ChatGPT

ChatGPT is an excellent tool for novice bloggers. While it won’t replace your writing skills, it’ll definitely help you write all sorts of things, from titles and outlines to whole blog posts section by section. It really helps to build that writing muscle.

Here is why it’s great for beginners:

• It offers a very capable free version, and the paid one, at $20/month, isn’t going to break the bank!
• It’s by far one of the most versatile content-creation tools. Once you get hold of it, you can prompt it to help you write almost anything— meta descriptions, titles, blog posts! I often use it to help me find the right words. Sometimes, I start the sentence and let the tool finish it for me.
• It’s easy to start, and the learning curve is very low. The tool’s conversation-like nature makes it really simple for anyone to start using it right away.
• It has a huge user community. Just look at the graph below, which showcases an explosive search spike for ChatGPT. To put that into perspective, it completely outperformed search terms such as Metaverse and Bitcoin.

Now, what does this mean for you as a beginner? Thousands of people are playing around with ChatGPT, creating different prompts and walkthrough guides on how to use it for content creation. The information is there – find it, try it, and use it to benefit your blog writing skills.

8. Anthropic’s Claude

Claude, developed by Anthropic, is a formidable rival to ChatGPT, offering impressive language processing and generation capabilities. Like ChatGPT, Claude is free and easy to use, with a Pro version available at the same price of $20.

Claude’s Edge Over ChatGPT

• More natural writing: Many bloggers, including myself, notice Claude’s ability to generate content that feels more natural, avoiding the [annoying] repetitive patterns often seen in ChatGPT outputs.
• Superior performance: Anthropic’s most advanced model, Claude 3 Opus, has even surpassed OpenAI’s GPT-4 on the LMSYS Chatbot Arena leaderboard, a platform AI researchers use to compare language models.

GPT-4 models have consistently topped the Chatbot Arena charts since the leaderboard’s launch in May 2023.

Where Claude Lags Behind

• Internet Accessibility: Unlike ChatGPT, Claude lacks the ability to access, analyze, and summarize real-time data from the Internet using provided links.
• Visual Content Creation: Claude does not offer image creation capabilities, which ChatGPT provides.
• Usage restrictions: While still permitting extensive use, Claude has usage limits, even with the Pro plan and its most advanced model, Opus. In contrast, I have never encountered usage limits with either ChatGPT’s free 3.5 model or paid GPT-4

SEO Optimization Tools

Imagine the thrill of seeing your blog ranked #1 on Google or any other search engine for a specific keyword, outranking even high-authority sites like Forbes. 

That top-tier ranking is within reach when you optimize your content using effective SEO tools.

9. NeuronWriter

Okay, so a bunch of blog posts are like, “Hey beginners, you gotta use Clearscope, MarketMuse, or SurferSEO – they’re the perfect tools for you!” I’m not here to dispute how well these tools optimize for SEO.

But can we talk about those price tags for a sec?! The cheapest plans start at $199/month for Clearscope, $149/month for MarketMuse, and $89 for SurferSEO. Honestly, who in their right mind would recommend these to someone just starting out with their blog?

So, what do I recommend instead?

NeuronWriter is a beginner-friendly, AI-powered content writing tool designed to help you optimize your blog and dominate the SEO landscape. This great tool is perfect for creating SEO-optimized web pages that rank high in search results.

Top Reasons NeuronWriter Rocks for Newbies

Affordable: At just $19/month, NeuronWriter is a total steal compared to other SEO tools.

Feature-packed: NeuronWriter offers all the features you need to help you make your blog rank higher, including competitor analysis, AI-assisted writing, stock images, YouTube ideas, and more.

Trust me, when it comes to giving your blog that competitive edge, NeuronWriter delivers. It has all you need to help you make it to the top 10 in search results.

Editing your Blog Content

You know that cringe moment from a typo in a blog post? Face-palm city, right?

At the very least, it’s super embarrassing to have your name attached to content that’s riddled with mistakes. At worst, it makes you look like a total amateur who doesn’t give a damn about their writing or their audience.

But hey, don’t panic! There are tons of free and paid tools that you can use to catch those sneaky grammar goofs, typos, and overly complex writing styles before they sabotage your reputation.

10. Grammarly

Grammarly is a multi-faceted tool for bloggers and writers across different domains (business, academic, and more) looking to polish and perfect their writing. For bloggers, this powerful AI-powered assistant allows you to refine your text quickly and easily, ensuring that your content is clear, concise, and error-free.

Running my posts through Grammarly has become an indispensable part of my blogging routine. It catches sneaky mistakes I might miss and encourages me to improve the readability and clarity of my content. This improves my writing and also enhances the experience for my readers.

Why is it great for beginner bloggers?

• User-friendly: Grammarly is one of the most intuitive editing tools available, making it perfect for beginners. 
• On-the-Go Corrections: Grammarly seamlessly integrates as an extension on Google and Safari, making it your writing sidekick in Google Docs and beyond. Catch those sneaky errors and polish your prose wherever you’re typing.
• Thorough checks: It identifies typos, grammar, and punctuation errors, helping you maintain a professional image.
• Vocabulary enrichment: Grammarly offers synonym suggestions, enabling you to diversify your writing and engage your audience.
• Writing enhancement: It provides readability, clarity, and engagement scores, guiding you to refine your writing style.
• Originality protection: The integrated plagiarism checker ensures your content is unique, safeguarding your reputation.

11. Hemingway app

The Hemingway app is an AI-powered writing assistant to help you craft clear, bold, and articulate blog posts. 

Unlike tools focused solely on grammar, Hemingway emphasizes readability, offering suggestions to simplify complex sentences and avoid passive voice.

I was first introduced to the Hemingway app by an editor of a reputable high-DR site when I did a guest post for them. It quickly became one of my favorite go-to blogging tools. The hours I’ve spent writing and refining with Hemingway have paid off—I’m rephrasing sentences less frequently, my writing is bolder and clearer, and my overall readability score has consistently improved.

What makes it great for beginners?

• Free to use: The Hemingway app offers a completely free web interface that is accessible to all bloggers.
• Instant Feedback: Color-coded highlights provide immediate suggestions for improving sentences, making it easier to help you improve your writing on the spot.
• No installation required: The online version of the app doesn’t require any installation or login, making it convenient for beginners to start using it right away.
• Focus on Readability: Hemingway encourages writing in an active voice and suggests simpler alternatives for complex words, ensuring your posts are engaging and easy to understand.
• Enhances Writing Style: By highlighting adverbs and passive voice, Hemingway trains you to write more directly and effectively, which is crucial for capturing and retaining reader interest.

Guest Posting Tools

Building links through guest posting is the second pillar of blogging success. Link building and exchange enable you to drive traffic to your website and promote your blog up the SERP rankings.

Let’s look into tools that will help you secure guest posting opportunities.

12. LinkedIn + ContactOut

As an amateur blogger without many achievements just yet, you can still secure guest post opportunities. There are three things that beginners get beginners to land guest posts. Having quality content to show is obviously the first one. Finding the right people to reach out to is the second one. 

LinkedIn plus ContactOut is my power combo for stalking, just kidding, for finding contacts content managers’ contacts for guest post outreach.

Why are LinkedIn and ContactOut the best options for beginner bloggers who want to jumpstart guest post outreach?

• These are free
• Very easy and convenient to use
• Get the job done

How to use them to build a guest post outreach emailing list?

• Find the right people: I use LinkedIn to find people responsible for companies’ website content management. If you don’t have a LinkedIn account already, register one. There is no need to upgrade your account to a paid Premium. All the information you’ll need is available there for free.
• Install the ContactOut extension for Google Chrome so you can use it directly in LinkedIn. Copy emails on the go and build the outreach contact list of all the content managers you want to reach out to.

13. Outreach Email Generator

The third success factor when reaching out for a guest post as a beginner hinges on your ability to write a highly personalized email.

Many blogging tools can help you craft highly customized emails. I suggest using the ones designed by bloggers who understand guest posting in and out. 

After spending time again and again writing personalized emails, I started to think about how I could simplify and automate this process. So, I created my own email generator specifically for crafting highly personalized guest post outreach emails.

Why to leverage my guest post outreach email generator?

• It’s free. Yay! You really have nothing to lose, so give it a try!
• A simple guide to email outreach. Crafting your first few outreach emails can be very, very hard. So many questions – what do I include? Where do I start? I know, I’ve been there. My email generator tells you exactly what info you need to input and then takes care of the rest. 
• It saves you time. Again, I created it out of a personal need to streamline the process. Use my email generator to craft highly personalized emails with just one click!
• Speed without compromising the quality. My email generator adheres to best practices, ensuring every email is highly tailored and resonates with a recipient. 

How to use it effectively?

Blogging tools help you optimize and speed up the process, but you still have to do your bit of work.

Here are a few important things you’ll need to prepare to make the most of my guest post outreach generator:

• Find a website for which you want to write a guest post. Quick tip: Make sure they accept guest posts. Check if there are any on that site already.
• Find and keep close by the name and email of the person responsible for website content management. (See previous section for useful tools).
• Pick a post (ideally written by that content manager, if not ) and copy its URL.
• Pick your written masterpiece to share and showcase your writing and knowledge of a relevant topic.
• You’re ready to create a highly personalized email outreach in just a few seconds!

Create captivating images without compromising website speed

Clear, self-explanatory images help readers grasp your content at a glance, making it more expressive and meaningful. Put simply, images are vital to enhancing your blog, ensuring it stands out and creates a lasting impact.

To help you craft visually appealing posts that load quickly, I’ve curated a list of the best blogging tools for beginners. These tools allow you to create stunning images without sacrificing website performance.

14. Canva

Canva is a user-friendly, web-based graphic design tool that empowers newbie bloggers to create stunning visual content without extensive design skills. 

With its intuitive drag-and-drop interface and a vast library of templates, graphics, fonts, and images, Canva simplifies the process of crafting professional-looking blog banners, social media graphics, infographics, and more. 

From personal experience, I can attest that Canva has been instrumental in my daily blogging routine. About 99% of the images on my website are created with it. It’s not only one of the best blogging and marketing tools available, but it’s also incredibly fun to use!

What makes it great for beginners?

• User-Friendly Interface: its drag-and-drop functionality makes designing professional-looking images a breeze, even for those without prior design experience.
• No Cost to Start: The free version offers a wealth of resources, making it accessible for bloggers at the beginning of their journey.
• Vast Resource Library: With access to a plethora of free stock images, templates, and design elements, creating visually appealing content is easier than ever.
• Versatility: Canva is not just one of the best blogging tools; it’s also a powerful marketing tool, enabling you to create your blog graphics, social media posts, and other marketing materials in one place.
• Continuously Updated Content: Canva regularly updates its library, ensuring you have the latest graphics, imagery, and videos at your fingertips.

15. ShortPixel Image Compression

ShortPixel is a powerful image optimization and compression tool that helps bloggers enhance their website’s performance and speed. This user-friendly tool automates the process of reducing image and PDF file sizes while maintaining visual quality, ensuring your blog loads faster and provides a better user experience. 

As a blogger, I can attest to ShortPixel’s simplicity and effectiveness. I installed it, and it works. I forgot about it — it’s that easy!

What makes it great for beginners?

• Automatic optimization: ShortPixel optimizes new images and PDFs as you upload them, saving you time and effort.
• Improved website speed: ShortPixel helps reduce your website’s overall size by compressing images, leading to faster loading times.
• Enhanced SEO: Faster site speed is a ranking factor for search engines, making your blog more visible to potential readers.
• Reduced storage and bandwidth: Reduces your site’s bandwidth usage and website storage on the hosting server, potentially saving costs. 
• Quality retention: Despite reducing file sizes, ShortPixel maintains the visual quality of your images, ensuring your blog looks professional.
• Ease of use: With plugins for popular platforms like WordPress, beginners can start using ShortPixel right away. No technical knowledge is required.

Kickstart Your Blogging Journey with the Right Tools

I know firsthand how challenging it is to start a blog from scratch without any experience, but it doesn’t have to be.

As someone who has walked the same path, I’ve carefully selected these blogging tools to help you get your blog off the ground fast, even if you’re on a tight budget. 

However, remember that the effectiveness of these tools hinges on your commitment to apply them diligently and improve your craft.

Equip yourself with the best tools for blogging, start experimenting, and never stop learning.

Happy Blogging!