Last Updated on by Michael Brockbank
Setting up a blog doesn’t require a massive investment. In fact, you can do quite a bit with free blogging tools and incredible web hosting. And you won’t need a lot of experience to get the most of setting up your website.
Today, I’ll show you some of the best tools to use that won’t cost you a single dime. Well, outside of proper web hosting, anyway.
Why Not Use Free Hosting Platforms?
Using free platforms like WordPress.com or Blogger is OK, as long as you don’t want to monetize the site or need root access to your files. Free systems are often very limited in what you can do and will restrict what is accessible.
Building a blog on your own web host gives you total control over what you can do and how you can monetize your posts. After all, you want to make a bit of money from a blog, right?
Let’s go from start to finish when creating content for your blog.
WordPress Content Management System
WordPress is one of the most potent content management systems on the Internet. In fact, as of April of 2020, the platform manages almost 36% of all websites on the Internet.
Best of all, it’s completely free to use.
As most web hosts have automated systems to install WordPress specifically, it takes very little effort to get the site up and running within minutes. And even if there isn’t an automated install, doing so manually is easy enough.
WordPress was built for blogging, and no other system compares to its versatility and flexibility for customization. Because it is so popular, finding tutorials online is quite easy for just about anything you want to do.
You can go so far as to add eCommerce to your blog in mere minutes.
Keyphrase Planning Options
After setting up your blog, you’ll need some free tools to help you find keywords and phrases. After all, that’s the purpose of a blog – to get the attention of people using search engines.
The hardest part is finding tools that perfectly fit your needs. The Internet is full of keyword tools both paid and free. So, which are going to be the best to get you started?
- Answer the Public
Answer the Public is a great platform for discovering what people are searching for right now. - Google Keyword Planner
The Google Keyword Planner is the bread and butter for Google Ads. But, it can also help you find great keywords for content. - WordStream
WordStream is similar to Keyword Planner, and has potential for helping you come up with content ideas. - Keywords Everywhere
If you want to add an extension to Chrome or Firefox, Keywords Everywhere can give you a lot of ideas as you search online. - Keyword Surfer
Keyword Surfer is similar to Keywords Everywhere, only it doesn’t work on other systems like YouTube. But, it has a lot of potential when your searching in Google.
And these are just a few free blogging tools for keyword research. There are plenty available, so pick one that fits your needs perfectly.
Content Writing Tools
Once you find the right keyphrases, it’s time to put your words together. This is when you start focusing on search intent and trying to engage your audience.
It’s one thing to appease the Google algorithm, but you also need to offer something of value to a human searcher.
When it comes to working on your typing speed, TypingTest.com can do wonders. It’s a free platform that gives you a variety of ways to test your typing prowess and will help you improve.
After cranking out an article, it’s always good to verify its readability. Personally, I use Yoast SEO in WordPress, which I’ll tell you about in a moment. However, you can also use the Readability Test Tool at WebFX.
Using Yoast SEO and Why
If you’ve decided to use WordPress, one of the greatest content development plugins you can install is Yoast SEO. Not only will it help you with things like the sitemap, structured data, and social integration, but the readability feature is one of the best around.
And it does all of this for free. Although you can pay for the premium plugin, its free counterpart is more than enough for any beginner blogger.
Yoast will analyze the structure of your content to ensure you’re creating readable material that is perfect for the average visitor. It also analyzes the content structure for search engine optimization.
This means you’ll perform better in search results and gain more traffic.
Since WordPress makes it incredibly easy to add plugins, you can start benefiting from Yoast almost immediately. It’s perhaps one of the most popular free blogging tools available in WordPress.
Adding Royalty-Free Images from Pixabay
While creating your content, you don’t want to underestimate the value of images. In reality, posts with images get 94% more views and far more shares on social media.
Unfortunately, a lot of stock image sites can be quite expensive, especially if you want to use a lot of images. That’s when something like Pixabay comes into play.
And if you have your own web hosting, you don’t have to worry about space requirements. In fact, a lot of hosts give you unlimited storage capacity for your image files.
With Pixabay, you get access to royalty-free images without requiring attribution. This means you’re free to use them on your blog without citing where it came from or linking back to the creator.
The downside to free image sites like Pixabay, though, is that you’ll use the same images as many others. And this takes a bit away from creating a unique site.
Image Editing Tools for the Blog
Perhaps one of the most popular image editing apps in the world is Photoshop. However, you’ll need a paid license as it’s not free. But what if there was a good and free alternative?
A free image editor is available on the web in the form of Photopea. Not only is this web-based app free to use, but it works just like Photoshop in a myriad of ways. In fact, you can open PSD files and edit those images complete with their own layers.
But what about sharing on social media? If you want a free image app for other projects, look no further than Canva. It has a wide scope of free templates to use for the social engagement of your blog.
Using Your Social Media Accounts
And lastly, let’s not forget the impact of social media accounts. Once you write a blog post, you can pique the interest of thousands by sharing its URL in a Facebook post or Tweet.
Facebook lets you create pages for blogs for free, which gives your website a home on the platform complete with its own followers. And creating a Twitter handle specifically for your blog separates your own personal views from that of your site.
After all, your blog should have its own identity on social media. And there are few marketing methods that are as free as using social media to your advantage.
Don’t forget to use YouTube. Vlogging can easily help drive traffic to your website. And it’s free as well.
Good Web Hosting Can Go a Long Way
With a stable web provider, you can easily build the rest of the blog for free and create an incredible masterpiece on the Internet. As long as you’re creating rich content people want to read, you can create a great deal of success for yourself.
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