7 Tools That Make it Easy to Organize and Simplify Your Blogging Life

43 Comments / Blogging Tutorials, Guest Posts / By /

Let’s face it, blogging is a ton of work.

You've got to keep up with your social media profiles, create and organize tons of content (both in written and video form), and you’ve got to market like crazy just to stay relevant.

And this is on top of our other duties.Simplify Your Blogging Life

Some of you have children to take care of, day jobs to go to, relationships to maintain, and so on.

It’s definitely a crazy blogging world we live in, but there’s a way to tone down the craziness just a little bit.

Blogging, the 24/7 job

We all know how hectic a bloggers schedule is. Realistically there’s always something you can do for your blog. But with so much to tackle (potentially all at once), it’s hard to keep track of it all.

This makes organization a top priority for us.

You might be thinking that you’re already pretty organized (and maybe you are), but it’d be a mistake to think you can’t benefit from new ways to organize and simplify things.

The tools to make your life easier

So what should you do? Check out these great tools that’ll make your life 10x easier. They’re all free so what have you got to lose? At the very least you’ll have learned about some interesting ways to use these awesome tools, so why not give them a shot?

1. Evernote

Evernote is an extremely popular tool used by bloggers everywhere. And why not? When you think about how Evernote works, it’s really a no-brainer that it’s a blogger’s dream tool.

Probably the best part of Evernote is it lets you save ALL your ideas in one place – so headlines, blog post templates, copies of all your posts (including guest posts), can be saved in one easy to use location.

And just like your blogs, you can use tags to make idea hunting even easier. I keep a journal on my Evernote which I’m constantly updating with ideas for blog articles. I just make sure I tag it appropriately and I can come back to it whenever I need an writing ideas.

So if you feel like your current method of idea organization is lacking, make sure and give Evernote a try. It’s a fantastic (and free) solution.

2. Compfight images

Every blog post should have an image. They really add that extra “oomph” to your articles, elevating the authority of them.

Compfight is great because it makes finding free images quicker AND easier. Just add the plugin and you can find an image right from your WordPress editor page. It automatically links to the source, so everything is handled for you.

Give this plugin a try if you need a quick free photo to use every once in awhile.

3. WordPress SEO Yoast

When I was first learning about seo, SEO Yoast is what helped make it “click.”

It gives you an seo checklist to follow, so all you need to do is make sure you meet the criteria and then (like magic) you’ve done your seo. It’s really that simple. This makes it an invaluable tool for those of you who hate the idea of doing seo, just follow the simple instructions and you’re good to go.

(You still need to do your own keyword research though).

Give this plugin a shot if you want to automate your seo process and make it easier.

4. WordPress editorial calendar plugin 

Keeping track of when we need to write and upload our posts is crucial for bloggers. That’s why tools like this one are so valuable to us, it helps keeps us consistent and on track.

Just plug in when you plan on doing the drafts and publishing them, then you’re good to go. Many professional bloggers will have months of posts planned in advance, we don’t all need to do this but it’s something to keep in mind when planning your own blog posts.

Having a calendar as a WordPress plugin is also beneficial because it makes you take your blog posts more seriously. They’re going to go live, and you better make sure they’re finished by then.

It’s kind of like an accountability booster since you don’t want to put out an unfinished product.

Check out this plugin if you feel like you could benefit from a little organization and motivation.

5. Tweet old post

Anything that automates something for you is a good thing. That’s what makes this plugin so useful, it helps ease the “Tweet” load you deal with everyday.

You can set what posts get shared, the interval time between tweets, and even use hashtags. This keeps people engaged with your Twitter account, even when you’re not tweeting yourself.

If simplifying your twitter process sounds good to you, don’t skip out on this plugin.

[shadowbox]BONUS TIP FROM MS. ILEANE: Be sure to check out Triberr to syndicate your blog post promotions learn more here.[/shadowbox]

6. LastPass

I'm sure most of us have multiple accounts we have to deal with online, wouldn't it be nice if we didn't have to remember them all?

That's where LastPass comes in.

It does all of the remembering for you so you don't need to bust out the password paper you keep hidden, or search for your password file every time you need it.

It supports both Firefox and Google Chrome (among others), so most should be able to enjoy the benefits of not memorizing their passwords and usernames.

7. Strip the blog

“Strip the Blog” is a brand new tool made to make blog research super easy. All you need to do is go to the link and put in the name of any blog. After that you pick the length of time you want included in the results (up to two months) and click “strip it.”

Then the magic happens.

You’ll get a list of the top articles based on the amount of shares it gets (eventually it’ll include comments as well), with the most shared posts at the top and descending with the lesser shared ones.

The applications for successful guest blog pitches is huge. Just see what topics have been doing the best there and pitch a variation of those topics.

(You can take it one step further and read the comments of those posts for more ideas).

Don’t skip this one over if you want an easy way to research what topics are hot at other blogs.

Over to you

What tools make your blogging life easier? Can you recommend a few I might like? Please leave a comment and let me know because I’d love it if my life was a bit more easy as well 🙂

Recommended Reading:

43 thoughts on “7 Tools That Make it Easy to Organize and Simplify Your Blogging Life”

  1. Trent

    Some really good tools there Ericson. I use Hootsuite a lot for content sharing which for post scheduling across multiple platforms & social accounts is fantastic.

    For curating & reading other blogs/content I wouldn’t be without Feedly.

    1. Ericson Ay Mires

      Feedly is great! Ever since losing Google reader it’s been my replacement (though I miss it very much). Definitely a great tool.

      Thanks for the comment Trent!

  2. Lisa

    Ericson, you got me really excited about 2 tools, Comflight as I always look for more ways to find free copywright free images and tweet last post, I’ve heard of it but haven’t used it yet. My only concern of course is adding too many plugins that may slow down my blog. I can always test them out. I love strip the blog. Last Pass is on my to do list for 2014 which is growing by heaps and bounds. Thanks for these great tips and have a good day!

    1. Ericson Ay Mires

      Adding too many plugins is always a potential issue. All you can do is check after adding plugins to make sure there hasn’t been much effect on your site speed. And Last Pass, yeah, it’s made my onlife MUCH easier. It’s fantastic 🙂

  3. Sagar Rai

    Hi Ericson,thank you for this resourceful list.

    Blogging has indeed come a long way. It’s developed into certain thing serious and life altering for many. No marvel we have such amazing devices to make the blogging know-how even more fruitful.

    I believe that the key to making the most out of any tool is to not glimpse it as a mere device, but a way to enhance what you’re currently good at.

    1. Ericson Ay Mires

      Seeing tools in the big picture is definitely the best way to look at them. If you can’t think of any way to use them to improve your blog life, then it should be avoided. If you can, then use it. Simple as that.

      Thanks for saying Sagar.

  4. Shalu Sharma

    Thanks for sharing these cool tools for blogging purposes. So far I have not used the Tweet Old Post Plugin but now that you have mentioned it, I might try it this time. Just tried Strip The Blog tool and its quite handy, might have to register to get popular posts for more than 2 weeks. Handy if you are spying on other sites.

    1. Ericson Ay Mires

      The “strip to blog” tool is really useful, it helped me make this guest post after all 🙂 I definitely recommend registering though so you can get the max effect from using it. Thanks for the comment Shalu!

  5. olayinka

    Thanks for the great share. Am using “Strip the Blog” in recent days now and i really love it.

  7. Arbaz K

    Interesting list.
    I didn’t know about the Tweet old post tool. That might come in handy to get traffic to the older posts on our blog.
    Have been using Evernote and this little app saves a lot of time.
    Thanks for the list 🙂

    1. Ericson Ay Mires

      Sometimes old posts don’t get the attention they deserve, a tool like like Tweet old post helps with that. And I definitely agree with what you say about Evernote, it saves A LOT of time 🙂

  9. Peter

    Thanks for the list. This is really helpful!
    For myself, the most helpful one will be ‘LastPass’ because I always stuck on some account where I use to forget my password. I don’t save them and try to remember them, but sometimes really forget them.
    Really helpful post. Thanks for writing this.
    Regards,
    Peter

    1. Ericson Ay Mires

      I used to use variations of the same password before, and even then I’d forget them! In my opinion, anybody who uses the internet extensively should consider using Lastpass (or some form of it).

      Thanks for the comment Peter!

  10. metz

    Great!

    Seven great tools that will be useful and

    helpful to make organizing easy and making your

    blogging life simple! 🙂

    Nice that Evernote was shared in the first

    number. I actually wanted to put it forward, it

    is a good application. You can use it on the go

    since you can download an app on your Android

    Phone.

    1. Ericson Ay Mires

      I love that Evernote practically works everywhere you go. Ideas can come out of nowhere, and as long as you have a smartphone you can write them down in a place you can’t lose it.

      Thanks for commenting Metz 🙂

  11. Ans

    Evernote and Strip the blog are wonderful, thank you for sharing the great tools. I will bookmark this post and use it for my blog 🙂

  12. chamal

    Thanks Ericson for this helpful list. I use “Lastpass” for two years and it have been saved my time a lot. I will try outs others. Also “Strip The Blog” is very helpful for bloggers in many cases like gaining blogging ideas etc.

    1. Ericson Ay Mires

      Lastpass is definitely a life saver, right? And Strip the blog is great (as you said) for getting great ideas about what’s popular for blogs. Thanks for the comment Chamal.

  13. Marc Norris

    I would have to say that Roboform is an important one to me to keep track of all the passwords I use. Also, Windows Live Writer is still my favorite blogging tool.

    1. Ericson Ay Mires

      Roboform seems just as good as Lastpass, so it’d probably come down to preference between the two. I actually use Evernote for my articles, but the formatting is always messed up when I transfer it over to WordPress. I’ll check out some other offline blogging tools since I use Mac, Live Writer seems pretty cool.

      Thanks for the recommendations Marc.

  14. Susan Velez

    Hi Ericson,

    I agree with you about using tools to make our lives easier. I am always looking for new tools that I can use to help me get more done online without spending more time online.

    I currently use Evernote and it is a must for staying organized. I also use Compfight for images, it seems to be an easy place to find great images.

    I’ve never heard of Strip That Blog. I will have to check that out later today. Thanks for sharing these resources with us and I hope you have a great day.

    Susan

    1. Ericson Ay Mires

      Hey Susan, definitely agree about using tools to make things more efficient. Strip the blog makes blog research much more efficient as well, so I don’t think you’ll be disappointed when you try it out 🙂

  15. James

    Ericson, great article – and great tools! A contributor to Hubspot wrote an article (I think about a month ago) which had been completely dictated by Evernote. They were saying 1000 words in about a half hour (with editing). Pretty hard to believe. Have you tested the dictation tool at all? Thanks!

    1. Ericson Ay Mires

      I checked out the article you were referring to and it seems interesting. I think it would be especially great for writing up a rough draft on the go since it’s done on your phone. I might give it a shot, and if it works out pretty well I’ll try and make full article with it.

      Thanks for the interesting tool recommendation James 🙂

  16. Justin

    thanks for sharing, my blog is pretty new but since I started using the Yoast plugin it really helped me with making sure I used my keywords in all the necessary places.

      1. Justin

        I like it because unlike SEO-All-In-One it doesn’t require keyword stuffing and lets you know whether you or not you are used your focused keyword in the Title, Meta Description, H1 H2, Alt Tag and Body Content. My traffic has increased by 20% since I started using it. Any other plugins that has helped you with your blog that others can benefit from?

  17. Vicky

    Amazing list of great tool, and to be honest with your I haven’t used few of the mentioned tools. The first one will be Evernote which is really cool which I’ve just tried..

    Thanks

    1. Ericson Ay Mires

      If I had to pick just one tool, it’d be Evernote. It’s definitely the most flexible tool here. If Evernote ever went down, I’m pretty sure I’d be screwed, haha.

  18. Jarrod Galm

    I’m a fan of Photopin.com for finding free images to use in my blog posts. I’m going to try the compfight images plugin though!

  20. Denis

    Nice list, I personally like Evernote, and WordPress SEO Yoast. i suggest one more name, its windows live writer.

  21. Adham Shafik

    Instead of everNote, why don’t we use the more famous service : Google docs ? does evernote has more features?
    The good thing about Google docs is as you know, one account for many services : YouTube, Gmail,Google+,Google Docs and calenders too.

    As well as Google image search is really useful too, the main feature is that moreover it has a massive amount of images indexed, it also enables you to search for an image by uploading a similar image, it makes image recognition and can tell you what you are searching about ( its name ), so if you want to search for an alternative to an image that you can’t describe well, Google images can help alot.

    Thanks for your post, and accept me as a loyal reader,

  22. Lynne

    Wonderful tools for us bloggers. I’m quite new at this and have only started on evernote. Thanks for the tools which I am quite excited to start using.

  23. Hamza

    these are really good tools and after reading this post i installed compfight.It is very easy to use.Before using this plugin i used to go to flickr and do all the thing manually but now its very easy.
    I am using seo by yoast and it is giving good results.
    These are indeed good tools but unfortunately they cannot be used in blogger.

  24. Ravi Shankar

    I have been using the WordPress SEO By Yoast, Tweet Old Posts and Evernote for making my blogging experience better since a nice long time but this list fascinates me and urges me to add compfight images to it, that would really save time for me. As for last pass i don’t need it because i remember all my passwords, even i wonder how 😛

Comments are closed.