Your blog can do amazing things for your branding efforts. However, if you want to continue to grow your audience, and get the engagement that you need for success, you have to continually up your blogging game. This means ensuring that your posts meet the highest quality standards, and that you are doing just as good if not better than your competitors when it comes to creating the kinds of posts that have the potential to go viral.
How to Improve Quality of Your Blog Content (Tools)
CoSchedule Headline Analyzer Tool
A great headline is more powerful than many people realize. After all, what makes people stop in the checkout lane and throw a copy of People magazine onto the conveyor belt? What makes you click a particular link when you are scrolling through search results? The answer is, a great headline. The headline analyzer tool will look at any headline you give it and let you know exactly how effective it will be.
[mks_button size=”small” title=”CoSchedule Headline Analyzer Tool” style=”squared” url=”http://coschedule.com/headline-analyzer” target=”_blank” bg_color=”#1e73be” txt_color=”#FFFFFF” icon=”fa-hand-o-right” icon_type=”fa” nofollow=”1″]
AllTop
AllTop is an aggregator that brings you all of the trending stories in the world of sports, entertainment, business, technology, and more. Once you know what is buzzing in and around your industry, you can plan blog posts that cover these important topics.
Publications featured on the AllTop website include the New York Times, Mashable, BuzzFeed, Fast Company, INC., and much more. If you can find a trending topic that will interest your audience, you’ll be able to create something that is truly shared worthy.
[mks_button size=”small” title=”AllTop” style=”squared” url=”http://alltop.com/” target=”_blank” bg_color=”#1e73be” txt_color=”#FFFFFF” icon=”fa-hand-o-right” icon_type=”fa” nofollow=”1″]
Read-Able
You may be writing content that is too complex for your audience!
No, that isn’t a slam at their intelligence. It’s just that as a general rule, the most effective web content isn’t all that advanced. In fact, unless you have a compelling reason to do otherwise, you want to aim for a reading level around seventh grade.
This is where Readable is exceptionally useful. It will analyze your posts, and return information about its readability. This includes grade level and a bunch of other information. Not only will you learn how readable your content is, you’ll also learn why.
[mks_button size=”small” title=”Read-Able” style=”squared” url=”http://www.webpagefx.com/tools/read-able/” target=”_blank” bg_color=”#1e73be” txt_color=”#FFFFFF” icon=”fa-hand-o-right” icon_type=”fa” nofollow=”1″]
Jotform Survey Maker
Creating a survey is one of the most essential things you can do after you have written your blog. Collecting feedback from your audience can be a breeze with Jotform Survey Maker. Use Jotform‘s reliable drag-and-drop interface to create your survey with conditional logic, then share it with just a link or embed it on your website.
Use templates to make your surveys stand out and increase engagement. Integrate them with your most-used tools to analyze data and reveal important insights on your users. See your submissions on well-crafted spreadsheets to keep track of your data. All of its features are completely free to try so try to get the most out of them.
BuzzSumo
Simply doing your own thing just doesn’t work when it comes to creating great blog content. You have to know what your competitors are doing, and then do the same thing, only better. BuzzSumo will clue you into your competitor’s’ content, and which posts are performing best for them. You can also enter keywords into BuzzSumo to find top performing posts.
[mks_button size=”small” title=”BuzzSumo” style=”squared” url=”http://buzzsumo.com/” target=”_blank” bg_color=”#1e73be” txt_color=”#FFFFFF” icon=”fa-hand-o-right” icon_type=”fa” nofollow=”1″]
Grammarly
Nobody needs to be told the importance of ensuring that blog posts are free from grammar and spelling errors before they are published. Embarrassing mistakes can make your content ineffective as your audience focuses on your gaffe instead of your message.
Not only can you avoid this by using Grammarly to check your posts, you can use the time that you would have spent manually editing your posts to find your writing voice. Most people will agree that this is a much more valuable use of a writer’s time and efforts.
[mks_button size=”small” title=”Grammarly” style=”squared” url=”https://www.grammarly.com/” target=”_blank” bg_color=”#1e73be” txt_color=”#FFFFFF” icon=”fa-hand-o-right” icon_type=”fa” nofollow=”1″]
HubSpot Blog Topic Generator
This tool works quite simply. You feed it three keywords, preferably nouns, and it generates a list of blog topic ideas. If you don’t like those ideas, hit try again and it will quickly generate a new list of ideas. Not everything the topic generator comes up with will be a hit. However, since it is so prolific and works so quickly, it’s fairly easy to find something relevant in short order.
[mks_button size=”small” title=”HubSpot Blog Topic Generator” style=”squared” url=”https://www.hubspot.com/blog-topic-generator” target=”_blank” bg_color=”#1e73be” txt_color=”#FFFFFF” icon=”fa-hand-o-right” icon_type=”fa” nofollow=”1″]
Disqus Comment Management Tool
If you manage to write blog posts that get lots of commentary and engagement, this is a good thing. You are clearly writing things that garner lots of interest. What you need to have now is a great tool to help you manage those comments.
Disqus allows your followers to upvote and downvote comments. You can use the tool to determine who your most engaged followers are, to moderate inappropriate comments, and track the which comments are getting the most reactions. You can even set up filters to send comments with certain words or phrases to moderation. This can help you create an environment where people feel safe engaging in conversation.
[mks_button size=”small” title=”Disqus Comment Management Tool” style=”squared” url=”https://help.disqus.com/customer/portal/articles/466238-moderating-your-community” target=”_blank” bg_color=”#1e73be” txt_color=”#FFFFFF” icon=”fa-hand-o-right” icon_type=”fa” nofollow=”1″]
Hemingway App
Have you ever read something that was insipid and mealy-mouthed, or that was excruciatingly boring? Of course, you have, but you may not have been able to identify what it was that made the writing so difficult to take. Well, Hemingway knows.
Ernest Hemingway was known for his ability to write compelling stories and get his point across strongly and quickly. His writing was certainly never insipid. The Hemingway App is inspired by the man himself. A copy of your blog content and the tool will turn up ineffective adverbs, long sentences, and other issues.
[mks_button size=”small” title=”Hemingway App” style=”squared” url=”http://www.hemingwayapp.com/” target=”_blank” bg_color=”#1e73be” txt_color=”#FFFFFF” icon=”fa-hand-o-right” icon_type=”fa” nofollow=”1″]
Survey Monkey
It’s always a good idea to flip the script every once in awhile and ask your audience to tell you what they think. Survey Monkey is a tool that you can use to easily create surveys and quizzes. This is a great way to get feedback on a variety of topics.
Use Surveymonkey to learn what your audience thinks of your products and services, what topics they want you to cover, even the things you can do to encourage them to like and share your content more often. The best news about Surveymonkey is that the learning curve is virtually non-existent.
[mks_button size=”small” title=”Survey Monkey” style=”squared” url=”https://www.surveymonkey.com/” target=”_blank” bg_color=”#1e73be” txt_color=”#FFFFFF” icon=”fa-hand-o-right” icon_type=”fa” nofollow=”1″]
Canva
If you want to add the kind of visual elements to your posts that you know will increase quality and engagement, but don’t have a graphic design background, take a look at Canva. This is a simple and intuitive graphic design package that gives you access to layouts, photo editing and filtering, amazing fonts, beautiful images, and more.
You can use Canva to create magazine style layouts, collages, infographics, and add a variety of effects to your photographs. When it comes to using this tool to make your blog posts even better, the only limit is your imagination.
[mks_button size=”small” title=”Canva” style=”squared” url=”https://www.canva.com/” target=”_blank” bg_color=”#1e73be” txt_color=”#FFFFFF” icon=”fa-hand-o-right” icon_type=”fa” nofollow=”1″]
Focuswriter
Standard word processing apps are not always the best option when it comes to writing great blog posts. Sometimes these tools can add a layer of distractibility that can really stymie your ability to create great posts.
The makers of Focuswriter have dumped all of the bells and whistles. Instead, they have created a distraction free writing environment that you can use when you need to simply write.
[mks_button size=”small” title=”Focuswriter” style=”squared” url=”https://focuswriter.en.softonic.com/” target=”_blank” bg_color=”#1e73be” txt_color=”#FFFFFF” icon=”fa-hand-o-right” icon_type=”fa” nofollow=”1″]
WordCounter
Word Count doesn’t simply let you know how many words you have written. It actually keeps track of the number of each word that you have written. The result is that you can begin to see words that you tend to use over and over again. This is a great way to identify words that you may be wearing out with overuse. You can then look for new words to add variety to your writing.
[mks_button size=”small” title=”WordCounter” style=”squared” url=”https://wordcounter.net/” target=”_blank” bg_color=”#1e73be” txt_color=”#FFFFFF” icon=”fa-hand-o-right” icon_type=”fa” nofollow=”1″]
OneLook Reverse Dictionary
What do you call the little droplets of water and fog that appear on the outside of your glass of iced tea? If you guessed condensation, you are correct. But, what happens when you can’t guess the right answer?
You could awkwardly try and use the partial definition that you have, or you can use the reverse dictionary to work backward from definition or description to the word or phrase that you are seeking. You simply enter in a description of the concept or idea you have in mind and the tool returns a list of suggested words and phrases that fit.
[mks_button size=”small” title=”OneLook Reverse Dictionary” style=”squared” url=”http://www.onelook.com/reverse-dictionary.shtml” target=”_blank” bg_color=”#1e73be” txt_color=”#FFFFFF” icon=”fa-hand-o-right” icon_type=”fa” nofollow=”1″]
Google Alerts
Google alerts is a simple news alert system. You simply sign up and ask Google to send you a notification if news breaks about any particular topic. This can include news about your industry, your competitors, the town in which your company is located, trending current events, or even entertainment news.
When something interesting goes down, you will be one of the first to know. Then, you will have the opportunity to give your audience the scoop in your blog.
[mks_button size=”small” title=”Google Alerts” style=”squared” url=”https://www.google.com/alerts” target=”_blank” bg_color=”#1e73be” txt_color=”#FFFFFF” icon=”fa-hand-o-right” icon_type=”fa” nofollow=”1″]
Idea Flip
Not all bloggers fly solo. Some have the benefit of working in a collaborative environment. This is great, but it can be difficult to collaborate without a sandbox to share. This is where many people find Idea Flip to be a perfect solution. It allows you to work with your teams to create shared boards where you can work together on the ideas that will make your blog great. Once team members have formulated their ideas, they can export them to PDF to share with your content team.
[mks_button size=”small” title=”Idea Flip” style=”squared” url=”https://ideaflip.com/” target=”_blank” bg_color=”#1e73be” txt_color=”#FFFFFF” icon=”fa-hand-o-right” icon_type=”fa” nofollow=”1″]
Conclusion
Amazing blogs need to be well-written, timely, visually engaging and take a unique and original perspective on the topics that they cover. The fifteen tools on this list will provide you with everything you need to increase the quality of your blog posts, boost engagement, and help you increase trust and build great relationships with your audience.
Once you accomplish these things, you will see an increase in blog traffic, and you will notice that your audience is much more willing to answer your calls to action.
2 Comments
This is a fantastic list of tools, I’m a big fan of Hemingway.
I actually wanted to show you another writing tool, which swaps US English to International English in one click. It’s at fixspell(dot)com
Hope you (and your readers) find it useful.
Thank you for the 15 tool that will improve the quality of our blog contents. The article is really informative and helpful. It’s definitely going to help many of the readers. Keep sharing such posts.