Blogging Essentials to Streamline the Process

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When I started my first blog over a decade ago, I had just gone through a terrible divorce and didn’t have two nickels to rub together. I charged a hosting platform and got to work. 

Now, my business pays for itself.

These blogging essentials listed here don’t cost much, and some are free.

Here is the truth about running a successful business: You must initially invest a little capital in it.

When you start making six figures, more capital is needed to keep growing and run it smoothly.

Using the tools below streamlines the blogging process; I’m about increasing productivity when working, so I have more time to play!

When I sit down at my computer, I want to get things done efficiently so I can spend time doing the things I love, like traveling and spending time with friends and family; these tools help me do just that. 

Blogging Essentials That Every Successful Blogger Needs

• Start Your Blog
• Write to Get Results
• Grow Traffic
• Grow Your E-mail List (money is in the list; start this as soon as you can)

Social media is to grow your audience; email is to profit.

— Lazy girl

Start Your Blog

To start a blog, the number one blogging essential is a hosting platform. 

A hosting platform is like a piece of virtual land on the internet where your website’s content lives. 

Just as you need physical space to build a house, you need digital space to build a website.

A hosting platform provides that space, so when people want to visit your website, they know where to find it, just like how they’d find your house by the address.

For beginners, such as those testing the blogging waters or who know this venture is just for fun, I recommend Lyrical. For a full Lyrical Host review, go here ⍈. For those who want to go big or go home and know they are in this blogging business for the long haul, I recommend BigScoots.

• Lyrical—I’ve used many of the big-name hosts, and the problem with most of them is that they don’t use enough servers, so they jam-pack as many blogs onto the few they have, slowing down your site. Traffic is affected by having a slow-loading site because people bounce. We don’t want people to bounce off our blogs! Lyrical Host is different. Not only will your blog be fast to load, they have the fastest customer service I have ever experienced! Disclosure: Like most businesses, you can’t talk to someone in customer service on the actual telephone. With Lyrical, you submit a ticket and correspond via the platform. It didn’t take me long to get used to this. Their response time is so fast (usually under an hour); I enjoy communicating with them this way. I migrated two blogs to Lyrical Host, and the process was smooth and fast.
• BigScoots — BigScoots is excellent as well. Full Disclosure: While I don’t have any of my blogs on BigScoots, it is the only platform I would use other than Lyrical. Like Lyrical, they deliver super site speed and excellent customer service.

Write to Get 1,000 True Fans

If you have 1,000 true fans — I would argue that you only need 100 true fans — you can make six figures from blogging. Find your audience and write to them. And they will stick around.

To do this, you need to write well.

Here are some tools that will help you write better. 

• Grammarly — I use Grammarly daily for blogging, writing texts, email, and writing blubs for social media channels. It’s a great spelling and grammar checker. While you should always read what you write aloud (the ear catches more mistakes and awkward sentences than the eye, especially when editing your own work), running it through Grammarly first will save you a lot of time.
• Capitalizemytitle—As a writer, it bothers me that so many bloggers do not write title case correctly. If you don’t know how to write title case (title case is not capitalizing every word in a title; almost 100% of bloggers do this), use this website to learn how to write title cases correctly. 

Grow Traffic

• Read Lazy Girl’s Guide to SEO and Blogging

Grow Your Email List

When is the best time to start growing your list? Yesterday! But today is a great day to start, too.

A healthy email list is where monetary potential resides in blogging.

When readers hand over their email address, they are giving your content a vote of confidence—they like you! People still open emails. Your list is a direct connection to your fans. This is where you can sell them products, affiliate links, and your latest content.

• Convertkit—I use Convertkit, but it’s not cheap. You must pay for an email marketing service if you have over 1,000 subscribers (like I do for another blog. I just paid Convertkit a whopping $408 per year). I’m currently using Convertkit. However, I may switch to the next email service on this list because I’ve heard it’s cheaper than Convertkit and is a powerful email marketing system.
• ActiveCampaign—ActiveCampaign excels at providing a user-friendly platform that combines advanced email marketing, automation, and CRM tools. Its extensive customization options and insightful analytics are particularly beneficial for crafting personalized campaigns and optimizing marketing strategies.
• MailerLite — This is a great service for newbie bloggers because it’s free and can be used for up to 1,000 subscribers. Once you’ve hit 1,000, you’ll have to move to the two options mentioned above.
• Interact—Creating quizzes with Interact for my blogs increased my email list from barely anything to over 1,000 monthly for just one of my blogs. They are also a ton of fun to create.

Blogging Essentials Summary

While these are not the only tools I use to blog — we haven’t even touched on things like a desk, chair, and computer — these are my absolute blogging essentials that I can’t blog without. 

You need a fast host to start a blog and an email service provider, and you are all set. The former costs a bit of an investment; the latter is free. 

Now, you have no excuse. Start blogging your way to a six-figure income. 

However, the rest of the tools on this list will up your blogging game.