7 Awesome Tools for Becoming a Better Blogger
Whether you’re about to begin your first foray into the blogosphere or you’ve been blogging for years, there are numerous free online tools for helping you become a better blogger. Some of these tools help you avoid writer’s block and others help you become a well rounded blogger.
If you have any tools you’d recommend, leave a comment telling us about your favorites!
1. Linkbait Generator—A simple-to-use online tool that’s designed to make it super easy for you to create linkbait ideas for your blog. Here’s how it works: Just enter your subject into the box, click “submit” and watch what pops up. Just keep clicking the “generate” button and more and more post ideas will be delivered.
2. Plinky—As a writer, it’s easy to get stuck in a rut…a rut where you never grow as a writer and never refine your style. Every day, the website publishes a simple prompt that you have a chance to answer. The writing prompts will force you out of your comfort zone and put your creative muscles to the test. It’s a totally different style of writing, but it’s one that can help you be a better blogger.
3. Google Trends—Finding new ideas to blog about is essential to keeping your blog relevant and fresh. Google Trends shows you what the hottest search trends are right now, allowing you to see what people are most interested in. In addition to seeing which search terms are most popular right now, you can also enter keywords to see their historical search frequency. This can be useful for identifying key phrases that are hot at certain times of the year, so you can capitalize on it at the right time.
4. SpringNote—I’ve found that the best way to avoid writer’s block is to keep a running list of blog ideas. Ideas can come at you at any time. Spring note is a free online notebook that makes it easy for you to record your ideas, collaborate with your friends, and prepare documents. There’s also a SpringNote iPhone app so you can easily take down these ideas on the go.
5. Writing Room—This website is more than just a huge network of writers. It’s also an enormous resource containing how to articles, writing activities, and tools for getting your work rated and commented on. If you’re serious about becoming a better writer, sign up and take a look around.
6. Big Huge Thesaurus Blog Idea Generator—While not as precise as Linkbait Generator, the Big Huge Thesaurus idea generator has hundreds of blog post prompts and ideas. This tool isn’t so much about finding a headline idea to use as a starting point, but rather it’s about discovering a concept for your post. For example, one blog post idea is “An ‘Ah ha!’ moment.” This is something that could be applied in any niche.
7. Blogging Idea Generator—This is a really basic, but effective, homemade blogging tool. It’s just a spreadsheet that you enter search terms into, and it generates a word cloud you can use to formulate article ideas for your blog. Simple. Effective.
Are there any online writing tools you’d add to this list? Share your favorites by leaving a comment.
August 10th, 2010 at 8:03 am
I really like link bait generator. some of the stuff it comes up with is really hilarious also.
Plinky sounds cool. I was not aware of that one. I'm going to check it out.
August 25th, 2010 at 3:08 pm
Where does the link baiting tactic draw the line to black hat seo practices?
Seems everywhere you read about black hat seo, link baiting is one of the top no-no's. Or is this being used in a different context? Thanks.
September 16th, 2010 at 10:20 pm
Dragons were the days! Does he not? Soon zhuo also awake, LongTianHe XiaoYue also called the call can be father and mother zhuo but the claim. Dragon days to endure, also may LiFu and li mother woke up after the dragon is truly good recognition for the dragon in the world is comfortable, the parents that afternoon when everyone woke up, the decision on all agreed to end all under the new house, dragon days is to stay home with his teacher rain the father so not together.
November 3rd, 2010 at 4:16 pm
This information is great. I just found LinkGenerator yesterday. I like the idea of an online notebook but unfortunately my best ideas come and go when I'm no where near a pen and paper and certainly not near my computer. So sad.