4 Tools Every Blogger Should Use

Creating fresh content for your blog is hard work – but keeping a consistent flow of new and interesting material is essential to building a successful blog. No matter what your blogging goals are, regularly producing quality content is going to help you achieve those goals. If you’re blogging for SEO purposes, then creating fresh content is sending vital signals to the search engines about your website – it is active, relevant, and (hopefully) popular. If you’re blogging to grow your online following, then nothing is worse than falling silent – you’ll lose readers interest and they will move on to more active sites.
But keeping up a consistent blogging schedule is a difficult task. You must come up with topics and content – even on days you’re feeling off or get busy with other tasks. Here are four tools to help you keep up a consistent flow of fresh content ideas:

1. Keyword Research – There are a whole host of keyword tools out there (Moz Keyword Explorer, Google Keyword Planner, and SEMRush are some of my favorites). These tools are great for a wide range of purposes – but for blogging, they are a huge help in crafting new content around targeted keywords. By entering a popular keyword into these tools, you can get a massive list of related words, search statistics, and suggestions. Pulling data from these tools allows you to see familiar topics in a new light and get an idea of what people are asking for. Keyword research should be a go-to tool for every blog writer out there.
2. Blog Title Tools – There are a few of these available out there, but far and away my favorite is Hubspot’s Blog Topic Generator. With this handle tool, you input up to three nouns and it spits out five blog title suggestions. The results range from basic to wacky – and some just won’t make sense (it is just an algorithm, after all), but it is great tool for getting started on a topic when you’re facing writer’s block. Often, I will start with a blog post from the topic generator and before I know it, the content has shifted and I’m writing something totally different – but it always gets me writing and that’s the hardest step.
3. Google Trends – Google Trends is an invaluable resource for bloggers; allowing you to track what is popular and trending by geographic region and category. By following what is trending, writers can tap into popular themes, stories, and controversies and produce content around them. I often use the overall trending topics when looking to write an off-topic post, or I will drill down into a specific category to find out what in trending in industry specific niches.
4. Editorial Calendar – I plan out my blog posts a month in advance. I’ve found this method to have to main advantages – the first is that it prevents me from writing about the same thing too much and the second is that it gives me an immediate direction each morning as I begin to write. I’d be lost without my editorial calendar. Again, there are countless tools for this – I’ve tried many of the fancier ones but always end up back with a custom calendar I created on Evernote – it is simple, I have access across all my devices, and I link it directly with blog ideas and snippets I’ve already collected on Evernote. In the end, just find a calendar that works for you and stick to it!

Blogging consistently isn’t always easy – but with the right combination of tools, resources, and motivation it can be an achievable goal. And regular blogging is one of the main elements of SEO work and building a strong online following. By getting organized and setting a schedule, blogging can become a powerful tool rather than a daunting burden.
If you’ve tried the above tools, and are still struggling with regular content creation, Fusion Group USA can help. Whether that means just helping you get started, occasionally supplementing your content, or a full content creation and marketing strategy; we can help you harness the power of blogging for your brand. Contact us today if you’re interested in any of our services: graphic design, web development, marketing, content creation, and more!