10 Tools To Use To Grow Your Blog For Free

Raise your hand if you are looking to grow your blog but don’t quite have a ton of money to do so? I am all about staying within a budget to pay off any current debt so I totally get it, yo.

Trust me, I know how it can get in the business world and how hard it can be to get ahead without spending a ton of money. 

When I first started out I was so clueless on how to grow my blog effectively because it was so many things that I needed such as an email provider, web hosting, stock photos, and more. Let’s not forget about the other tools such as evergreen timers and course creation platforms which are normally needed to take a sale funnel to the next level. 

When I put my current funnel in place I was surprised when I learned about ALL of the tools I needed to create a successful sale funnel and how much it all cost monthly. Talk about shocked!

The great thing is that there are a ton of different affordable platforms, sites, and apps that can help you take your blog to the next level without breaking your pockets.

In this post, I will share over 10 different sites and tools that can help you grow your blog on a budget.

Let’s dive in!

Use A Free Email Provider

If you are just starting out or have been blogging for years, I always suggest starting an email list to build your loyal tribe if you haven’t already.  Having an email list is one of the best ways to grow a blog and you can start out with a free provider to help you build one. My favorite free email provider is by far Mailerlite. With Mailerlite you can use the platform for FREE for up to 1000 subscribers. Additional features on the free plan are landing pages, automation, and 24/7 customer service. Whatttttt-! So, if you are looking for a great email provider to help boost your email marketing experience check out Mailerlite. Another blogger favorite is Convert kit! While Convert Kit isn’t the least expensive email provider, I have heard only amazing things about the platform and a lot of my blogger + biz owner friends use it.

Create Your Graphics on Canva

Canva is seriously my BFF when it comes to designing! I design almost everything for my site on Canva and to top it all off the site is FREE to use.   Canva’s free version is amazing and lets you create logos, book covers, Pinterest pins, and more. This site is a gem if you are looking to save money on graphic designs Check out Canva by clicking here.

Use Fiverr

If you are looking for someone professional to help you design a logo, handle your social media accounts, edit your photos, and more, you can check out Fiverr. Fiverr is the world’s largest freelance service marketplace for bloggers, entrepreneurs, and more. This platform’s main focus is to help bloggers and biz owners create a successful business at an affordable cost. You can literally purchase some gigs on the site for 5 bucks! Yes, $5 bucks! For example, below is a Fiverr gig that starts at $5 for a basic logo design.

It’s also super easy to get to sign up for a Fiverr gig too! Once you find a gig that you like and have looked at their ratings you can get started with the gig worker. I also recommend checking out each gig’s ratings which will be located on the right side of the gig right under their profile picture. You will be able to see with other Fiverr users rate the worker and the quality of the gig.  It’s one of my “go-to” sites when I need someone to edit a blog post really quickly or when I need someone to help with social media management. You can check out Fiverr here!

RELATED POSTS

8 Things To Do Before You Publish Your Blog Post To Maximize Exposure

6 Ways to Grow Your Email List This Month

Use Social Media

One of the best ways to promote your blog is through social media! Social media is a goldmine when growing and promoting your blog. If you are looking to maximize your exposure using social media check out my FREE email video course which covers how I use Pinterest to grow my traffic, how I use Facebook groups to tripled the engagement on my blog posts, and how I use Instagram to build a solid connection with my audience. Sign up here for FREE!

Let’s break down why the different platforms are super important to grow your blog + biz!

• Facebook Groups: I absolutely love connecting with other bloggers in Facebook groups. Not only can you connect with other bloggers + biz owners but you can rapidly grow your engagement by being a part of the Facebook group’s promo threads. This means your awesome content has the chance to get showcased to a ton of people!
• Twitter:  I don’t show Twitter enough love buttttt it’s an awesome platform! When you have a new blog post or have something new going on make sure to tweet about it multiple times per day on Twitter.  You can also use Twitter chats to connect with other bloggers + biz owners and to promote your latest content. Wanna see a list of the top Twitter chats for Creatives? Check out this post by clicking here!

• Instagram: A lot of people aren’t aware of how to use Instagram to grow their blog but you can totally utilize this platform to grow your blog + biz.  You can put up a post about a new blog post or put up a post about your upcoming webinar right on your Instagram feed. You can also use the new video story feature to connect with your audience and let them know about your new blog posts and more!
• Pinterest: My good ol’ friend Pinterest! If you aren’t on Pinterest, get on it quick. Quick as in Daenerys flying to Jon snow rescue quick, ha! :)

But, Pinterest is seriously one of the leading factors to my site traffic rapidly growing within’ the last 6 months! If you are looking for some tips on how to have Pinterest success and grow your blog from this platform check out this post.

Use Grammarly

If you are looking for an AWESOME editing tool that can help you with grammatical errors on your blog posts, Grammarly is for you. This site is free and instantly eliminates grammatical errors and enhances your writing. I absolutely love Grammarly and it has helped me save so much time with my different blog posts.  I know how easy it can be to overlook misspelled words and other grammatical errors so I started using Grammarly which has helped me check for errors in my posts. Check out Grammarly here! 🙂

Use QuickBooks’ Free Invoice Template

If you are looking for a free invoice template this one by Quickbooks is amazing. Every blogger and online biz owners should have an invoice template to stay ahead of the game and to stay super organized. This one by Quickbook fits the bill! Check it out here! 

Use Hootsuite To Schedule Your Posts

If you are looking for a social media scheduler to help you get ahead with posting for FREE, check out hootsuite! Hootsuite definitely gets the job done and it’s very easy to use. On the free account, you can sign up 3 of your different social media platforms and plan your whole social media posting schedule days, weeks and even months in advance. Another awesome free schedule tool is Buffer. I have also used Buffer to schedule some of my posts and never had a problem. 

Use Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a great tool that will help you find out your daily page views, which posts are performing the best and more! I check google analytics at least once a week to see which posts are performing the best on Pinterest and other platforms.  If you want to find out which posts are performing the best on your site I share how to find them on Google Analytics in another post. You can check it out by clicking here! It will be located at the bottom of the post.

Use Yoast SEO For SEO

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is super important! With the RIGHT SEO, your blog has the opportunity to drive massive traffic to it on a daily basis from different search engines such as Google.  To help with SEO, I use the FREE WordPress plugin, Yoast SEO! This plugin helps with all my SEO needs for each of my blog posts and is simply amazing if you need help with SEO on your blog. Check out  Yoast SEO by clicking here.

Use Free Stock Photos

Have you ever thought about where online you can find high-quality stock photos? I think most bloggers have at some point because having professional photos for your blog is A MUST. I did a post-round-up post of all the places online to find high-quality FREE stock photos. You can check out the post by clicking here.  

Use Ontrapages To Create Landing pages

Looking for a place to create FREE landing pages for your latest webinar or product? If so, check out Ontrapages! This site is simply amazing and I recently made my webinar landing page on the site or FREE.com! Check out this site here!

Use Co-Schedule Headline Analyzer To Find The Best Headlines

If you are Looking for the best headline titles for your blog posts check out CoSchedule headline analyzer! It’s a free tool you can use to help develop strong blog post titles. It also gives you a score to help analyze your titles and strengthen them. Check out the app here! You can also check out this helpful article on how to write strong titles by clicking here!

Use Buzz Sumo to Find Out What’s Popular in Your Niche

If you aren’t sure what’s popular in your niche and what to find out? Check out BuzzSumo!! With this site, you can enter relevant niche keywords and it will show you the top shared articles in your niche! Pretty cool, right?!

I recently searched the keywords “Side Hustles” and some of my posts came up on the most shared articles page. Pretty cool, huh?

So, there you have it! Over 10 different tools, sites & apps that you can use for FREE to help grow your blog this week! 🙂 What free tools do you currently use to stay on a budget to grow your awesome blog + biz?

Free WordPress Theme

If you are just starting out or looking for new FREE WordPress themes you are in the perfect place!  I recently discovered an amazing post that lists a ton of them with images right in the post. Woohoo!. Picking the right theme is super important and definitely a huge decision for any blogger. Your heme can make someone stay on your blog longer or leave as soon as they get there. So, as a result,  you don’t want to pick “any” theme and be done with it. Instead, bloggers should take some time and really see which theme would fit in with their brand/ business the best.  Ultimately, you want a theme that you are audience truly adores!

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