GtMetrix: Check your desktop & mobile site’s loading speed. It also suggests how to improve loading time.
Speechpad: Offers transcription services for audio or video.
Google apps: Create a domain-specific email. Powered by Google & you will get access to all Google products. Also helps in getting AdSense approval fast.
PushEngage: Enables web-push notifications for your blog. A new and innovative way to let users subscribe to your blog updates.
BuzzStream: For bloggers’ outreach. Not a free tool, but this is an absolutely amazing tool for serious bloggers & marketers.
Wisestamp: Add visually appealing signatures after your email. Use Wisestamp RSS addon and show your latest blog post in every email. A clever technique to market your latest post. I use it to gain subscribers to my social-channels. This is an add-on for browsers.
MakeWebvideo: Use whiteboard style videos for your blog intro or for any topic.
Flipboard: Create your own magazines and curate articles from the web or from your own site. Your creation combined with Flipboard can drive targeted traffic. You can use their bookmarklet to add content to your magazine or use their mobile app.
FileZilla: Desktop FTP tool which is available for every desktop OS.
Cloudways: Want to host your WordPress site in the Cloud (Amazon or Digital Ocean)? Look no further than Cloudways. Makes it easier for non-technical users to host their website in the cloud.
Bluehost: Recommended as the #1 hosting service by the official WordPress.org hosting resource page. Cheap and affordable shared hosting with one free domain name.
LeadPages: One of the most trusted landing page tools for WordPress or any other blogging platform.
Aweber: Another popular tool among bloggers & internet marketers. Offers Webinars support & 30 days free trial without the credit card.
ConvertKit: Best email marketing software for bloggers offering email automation, personalization and pre-built templates for sending beautiful email newsletters.
Commission Junction: One of the oldest & reliable affiliate marketplace to find great affiliate offers.
Impact Radius: Gaining traction lately as many popular companies like MaxCDN and Media Temple use IR to run their affiliate programs.
ShareASale: Another popular affiliate marketplace with tons of affiliate programs from which to choose.
VigLink: Perfect for bloggers who use commerce-related words in their articles. Search engine friendly, and lets you earn money from an outbound link.
Properllerads: A good alternative to Google AdSense with a lower minimum payout.
Media.net: An ad network by Yahoo and Bing. High-quality ads just like AdSense.
Google AdSense: The best contextual advertising network. It’s easy to manage and pays on time.
Vid to gif: .gif images increase CTR, and sites like Facebook, Twitter support .gif images. Use this tool to create a .gif from any online video.
Pablo: This free web app is by Buffer. Lets you add text over images and share it on social media sites with a single click.
QuotesCover: Create visually appealing quote images.
Pictochart: Infographics are the most shared content type on social media, and Pictochart is the best free Infographic tool available right now.
PicMonkey: Online photo editing and photo design tool. Also lets you create photo collages.
Canva: The most talked-about social media image tool. Offers images of various sizes based on specific social media platforms.
Stencil: Create beautiful images and download or share them directly to your social media channels. Easy to use and requires zero experience.
ClickToTweet: Create a single link to the tweet. You can use it within your blog post to increase your number of tweets.
Tailwind: Perfect for Instagram and Pinterest scheduling.
AgoraPulse: One of the best social media management tools in 2020. Do try their mobile app and you will thank me later.
BufferApp: This will never let your social media profile run out of content. Also offers a mobile app called “Daily”, which lets you add high-quality content to your social media profiles.
SocialPilot: New kid on the block of social media tools, but I love it as they offer an iOS app (and an Android app too).
KWfinder: I discovered this tool while doing research for this post. Guess what? I have fallen in love with it. I will share a detailed review soon, but for now, you should bookmark and try it. The free plan lets you make 5 searches in 24 hours, which is pretty neat.
SiteBulb: Another great desktop-based site crawling and auditing tool. I have discovered this recently and loving it.
ScreamingFrog: The Desktop SEO tool which lets you check your blog from the web-spiders point of view. Available for Windows, Ubuntu, and Mac OS.
Bing Webmaster Tool: Similar to Google Webmaster Tool, but for Bing search engine.
Google Search console: Free tool from Google which shows various data such as links to your website, duplicate content, and keyword ranking.
LongTailPro: Desktop-based (Windows & Mac) keyword research tool. Perfect for those who have little experience with keyword research.
SEMRUSH: Atypical keyword tool that allows you to find keywords that a given website is ranking for. Use it to find long-tail keywords that are easy to rank for.
Google Keyword Planner: A Free and easy-to-use keyword research tool.
Selfcontrol: App for Mac which lets you block access to certain sites. Try blocking Facebook, and notice how your productivity increases!
Rescuetime: Sends you weekly stats (configurable) of which site you spent the most time on during the previous week. A good idea to start taking note of your counter-productive activity and save your precious time. Install, configure and it runs in the background.
Trello: A card-based task management tool. I have used it in the past, but have now shifted to Wunderlist. Still, Trello serves a different purpose and is very popular.
ToDoist: Manage your to-do list with To-Doits. Available on all platforms, and stores data in the cloud.
Headspace: Tired of blogging constantly? Use Headspace and meditate for 5 minutes. You will thank me later!
99designs: Crowd-sourcing websites for your web design needs. Cheap, but high quality.
Freelancer: Great place to hire virtual assistants or freelancers to get a job done.
Fiverr: Outsource things like YouTube video intros or buy social media likes & much more for only $5.
Jetpack plugin: Offers a module called “WordPress.com stats”, which allows you to see traffic details from your WordPress dashboard.
Google Analytics: The best solution for viewing advanced details about your blog traffic. Also shows the live traffic status of your blog.
TubeBuddy: If you are a Youtube publisher or video blogger, you should get Tubebuddy. This one tool can double your Youtube channel traffic & make it easier to manage your Youtube channel.
Audacity: A sound recorder tool for every major desktop OS. Useful for podcasters, as you can record and then edit your recordings.
MPEG Streamclip: A powerful desktop video converter software for Windows and Mac. You can use it to convert, cut, trim, and join videos. I usually use it to convert my video format to reduce the size of the video.
Image Optim: Mac Image compressor tool which optimizes your images for the web.
Snag it: Image capturing and editing tool for Mac and Windows OS. One of the best, and highly recommended for bloggers.
Loom: A brand new tool which also offers desktop recording. You can use it to record screencast with your face in a bubble.
Camtasia: Available for both Windows and Mac OS, and let you record screencasts. Offers a one-month free trial.
Pocket: A “read it later” app which is also a productive app. Integrated into all the reading apps mentioned previously and lets you save articles for later reading.
Feedly: Subscribe to any blog feeds or search for your interested topic to discover new blogs to subscribe to.
Pixabay: Another great site where you can download high-quality images. You don’t have to give credit links.
Flickr Advanced search: Use the Flickr Advance search to find images with a creative commons license.
Google image search: Use images with an appropriate license that you can use on your blog.
Hemingway App: Free web-based tool to improve your writing. I’m sure you will end up bookmarking this one.
ProWriting Aid: Another popular grammar and spell checker tool. Supports multiple platforms.
Grammarly: Saviour for a non-native English speaker like me. Helps with proof-reading, suggests words, is a great companion.
UpWorthy title generator: The only viral topic generator you need.
Potent idea generator: Call it a content idea generator or a title generator – it functions as both.
TweakBiz title generator: A comprehensive title generator by TweakBiz.
Headline Analyzer: This is the best tool in this lot. Regardless of what you know or don’t know about blogging, you will be churning out the best titles for your blog posts.
EMV tool: Checks the emotional marketing value of a title. The higher the EMV score is, the better it will perform on social media channels.
Google Trends: Check the currently trending topics or find the search trend for any keyword of your choice.
Blog topic generator: Enter your keyword and it will give you post ideas.
Quora: Search for your keywords in a search box of Quora, and you will get unlimited ideas for your blog content.
BuzzSumo: Enter a website or a topic to find the most shared and engaging content.
Evernote: I use this to take quick notes on my iPhone, and it’s available via cloud syncing.
Frase: A web-based writing tool that integrated with WordPress, medium, and a few other platforms. It uses AI technology to help you improve your content.
Hemingway Editor: A great desktop writing tool that will enhance your writing. Get an instant reading level grade and word count. Available for Windows and Mac.