60+ Best Blog Tools and Resources in 2025

Table of Contents

Hey, Nina here. I get so many questions about my favourite tools and resources that I wanted to create a hub where y’all can find my favourite items.

Now some people use these resource pages to list everything that exists. This isn’t that. This is a list of everything I actually use and recommend. I’m not including anything I haven’t used personally for at least 3 months and that didn’t give me results. These are my top picks only.

I do not accept any paid placements or promotions for this page. You cannot buy your way onto this list. Everything on this list has given me proven results.

I’m a budget bitch, so most of these tools are incredibly affordable, and wherever possible I’ve included free options for y’all.

You do not need everything on this list. I’m including a couple alternatives as one thing isn’t right for everyone.

Don’t forget to check out all my freebies and courses here!

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Domain Provider

NameSilo – Most affordable domain name provider. Get $1 off with code “NINA”. I migrated all my domains here after my 2 other domain providers kept trying to triple the cost every renewal.

Blog Host

Lyrical Host – Lyrical Host is my #1 for blog hosting. It’s affordable, speedy, comes with tons of great freebies, and has the best support I’ve ever had with a blog host. Get 10% off with code “SHEKNOWSSEO”. Read my full review here.
Iridium Hosting – I tried Iridium Hosting for my travel blog and had a good experience. It’s a small business, which can mean slower responses for tech issues. But it’s very speedy and they are proactive at finding tech issues on your site and fixing them. But it doesn’t come with an email host, so you’ll need to factor in that extra cost.

Best Theme

Kadence – Kadence is my go-to blog theme. I have the Pro version but 99% of bloggers only need the free one and the free one is plenty to get started. The theme is speedy and very customizable.
GeneratePress – GeneratePress is my 2nd favourite theme. It’s a bit faster than Kadence, but there’s way less opportunity for customization on the free plan. You need to get the paid plan to basically have any ability to customize a site which I don’t love. Even with the paid plan, there’s still less flexibility than Kadence. However, it does create crisp, speedy sites. So if you don’t care about graphic design, this might be best for you.
Astra – My 3rd favourite theme is Astra. It’s speedy and customizable, but I didn’t find it as intuitive to use as Kadence. It’s not quite as fast loading as Kadence or Generate Press, but it’s only off by 0.15s so not a large margin. I use this on my sister’s website.

Best Plugins

WP Rocket – I use WP Rocket even with Lyrical Host, although they include a cache. It didn’t make a huge difference to my own perception of the speed on my site, but I did notice that my Pagespeed Insights and Webpagetest scores were higher with it. This didn’t impact rankings, as I first put it on during the Helpful Content Update. If your host doesn’t have a cache though, you 100% need this. I first had it when I used a budget host beforehand who I don’t recommend and it was the only way my site would load in under 10 seconds.
Query Hunter – I use Query Hunter to find keyword opportunities I missed on my existing post, and their built in AI helps me add these in seamlessly. Their 2.0 version comes with a Chrome Extension, so if your host isn’t very speedy, you can use it without slowing down the backend of your site. There’s also a free version with no AI component but it has to be used as a plugin. This was one of the tools I used that helped me do a content audit to get into Mediavine in 6 months.
Link Whisper – My favourite internal linking plugin, which I also use for some affiliate link conversions, is a must have once you have more than 20 posts on your site. Link Whisper helps you find opportunities to connect posts in and outside of categories to show Google how they relate. I’ve been using it since 2021. Read my full review here. (Psst.. if you use code “PODCAST” you’ll get $15 off)
Easy Table of Contents – If, like me, you forget to add the Kadence Table of Contents block, this is a great way to auto insert a table of contents into your posts. (Free)
Login Lockdown – This plugin helps prevent spammers from logging into your WordPress site. (Free)
Rankmath – The only SEO plugin you need to track your keywords. It also connects you to G4 and GSC, so you won’t need a secondary plugin for that. It has the ability to do redirections as well. (Free)
ShortPixel – Compress your images with ShortPixel to save space on your database and to make your site load faster. This is especially helpful for travel bloggers. I recommend buying credit packs rather than the subscription.
TinyPNG – A free alternative to Short Pixel, but you’ll have to go to their site to compress the images rather than it automatically happening on the backend of your site. (Free)
Pretty Links – A link cloaker that takes an ugly affiliate link and turns it into something like sheknowsseo.co/recommends/keysearch. This is much easier for sharing on social media. I only use this for social media sharing, not for links inside of my posts. Be careful to check terms as some affiliates, like Amazon, don’t allow this type of link cloaking. (Free)
Hubbub Lite – My social sharing plugin of choice. (Free)
WP Recipe Maker – When I had a recipe blog, this was my favourite plugin for recipe cards. (Free)
Ad Inserter – A free alternative to Kadence hooks to add your affiliate disclaimer to all posts. (Free)
WP Code – How to add code to your header and footer for your blog. (Free)

SEO Tools

Keysearch – My go to keyword research tool that got me into Mediavine in 6 months. Get 30% off with code “sheknowsseo”. It can help you find low volume keywords, mine competitors, find zero volume keywords, optimize posts, and more! Read my full review here.
Ahrefs – A very expensive keyword research tool that is really only needed for agency owners or people with a portfolio of more than 10 sites. I like Ahrefs but their pricing is way too high for average bloggers. You can also use two elements for free: Chrome extension and Webmaster Tools.
Search Response – A great place to find FAQ keywords and long tail question keywords to include in posts or to use for their own posts. (Free)
Answer the Public – Find related queries from your seed keyword. (Free)
Answer Socrates – Find related questions from your seed keyword. (Free)
Broken Link Check – Find broken links on your site to fix. (Free)
Moz – Get your DA score for free. I only use their Chrome browser extension to check DAs, nothing else.
Neuronwriter – Beyond Keysearch, this is the most cost effective content optimizer on the market. I have the LTD from Appsumo and never max it out monthly, all for the price of 2 months of RankIQ.
RankIQ – The leading name in content optimizers. It includes content optimizers and a keyword library – which I don’t recommend relying on for travel. It works better for other niches, but the travel keywords aren’t great – that can help you fix up your content. Read my full review here.

Other Great Tools

Appsumo – A marketplace for new tools that come with lifetime deal prices or low prices. Not all of them are amazing, because they are new tools often being tested out. But you’ll often stumble upon gems.
Make – I’ve used Zapier and Make, but I started with Make and continue to prefer it. It’s great to connect your different apps and tools, especially to filter them through ChatGPT. They also have the highest free plan I’ve found which is great for beginners starting out with connections like this one.
TidyCal – A one time payment for a calendar that will allow you to book client calls, accept payments, and schedule meetings.

AI Writers

ChatGPT – Tied for my favourite AI, ChatGPT is a chatbot style AI writer that allows you to write, code and draw images. I use ChatGPT for informational blog posts, coding and formatting, and creating images for my posts. I recommend the paid plan, otherwise it has a pretty terrible memory. Check out how it compares to Jasper here.
Koala Writer – I’m not a big fan of one-click AI writers, but this is the best one I’ve tried. Koala can do very well for non-travel articles, but you’ll still need to do a lot of updating. I would use it more for Pinterest or Facebook posts that I would no-index. I always give it an outline though before it starts writing.
Reword – Reword is a writer trained on your style and your site. I love that it can find and suggest sources/stats for your blog posts. The interface is very different than other AI writers so it takes some getting used to. But this is by far the best AI for researching your blog post as you write.

Link Building / PR

Linkifi – Linkifi is the only paid link building service I’ve used that is worth any of the money I’ve spent. It took a while for the links to be delivered and to kick in, but it ultimately did more for my site than any other link building service I’ve tried. I typically recommend guest posting to grow your backlink profile, but mixing in Linkifi is a good idea to get some branded links from big news organizations. Use code “NINA10” for 10% off packages. Check out my full comparisons between HARO and guest post links here.
100 Travel Blogs That Accept Guest Posts -I curated a list of 100 travel bloggers who accept guest posts. (Free)

Raptive – A premium ad network for blog with 100k+ pageviews. It includes a content optimizer with 40 reports each month. You can also get new sites in at 30k pageviews. Read my full review after switching from Mediavine here.
Mediavine – Mediavine is the most talked about premium ad network for bloggers that requires 50k sessions to join. You can get new blogs into Mediavine at 25k sessions only if you are in their Pro program – which requires even more traffic. I joined them in 2022 after growing my blog to 50k sessions in 6 months. They’re a great network, but I ultimately prefer Raptive after testing both.

Email Marketing

Mailerlite – My favourite email marketing platform. Free to your first 500 subscribers. I find it easy to use and reliable. The only annoying thing is if you hit your subscriber cap, they’ll turn it off but won’t let you know that you hit the cap. So keep an eye on your limits.
Convertkit – A more expensive version of Mailerlite. They have some nice bells and whistles, like their Creator Network where creators can refer each other (in 2 months, I’ve had 26 referrals only) and their paid Sparkloop connection (doesn’t generate quality leads from what I’ve been told). I found the advanced automations good, but overall it’s too expensive for most bloggers. Unless you have 5+ courses with custom automations, I don’t think you need this. Stick with Mailerlite. But if you do, like me, this might be worth it as Mailerlite’s automations are about 5% less customizable.
Try Interact – Looking to grow your email list? Quizzes are the best way! Try Interact generates quiz lead magnets that collect email subscribers and get results. I’ve grown my travel blog list by 1,300-1,500 subscribers per month with a quiz I made in early 2022 and haven’t touched since! I’ve tried free tools, coding my own quiz (it’s very complex and costly to connect it to your email provider. Ultimately it was only like $5 cheaper than Try Interact), and even other paid tools. Nothing compares to Try Interact.

Affiliates

TravelPayouts – TravelPayouts is a great affiliate network for travel bloggers. I recommend going direct where possible, but if you’re only going to recommend a service once or twice, this is perfect. And it’s great for beginners to get approval for big networks quickly. I’ve had very good results with their conversions and when I tested them versus going direct with GYG or Viator, my conversion % was the same. Read my full review here.

Digital Product / Course Creation

Convertbox – A great plugin for creating custom pop ups. I use them for my freebie pop ups, exit intent affiliate pop ups, and banners for sales on my sites. It’s an LTD so you can buy it and use it as many times on as many sites as you’d like.
Thrivecart – My favourite course hosting platform. It’s a one-time payment that will allow you to host as many courses as you’d like for as many students. I don’t recommend buying it unless you plan to sell a video course, a course that costs over $400 or you’ve already sold over $600 in digital products/courses. That way you know for sure you’ve covered the cost of it.
Gumroad – If you only plan to sell ebooks or you want to test the waters, I recommend Gumroad. It’s free to use but they take a percentage of your sales off the top to cover their fees. It lets you host your products externally to your site and has a built in affiliate network you can integrate.
Canva – The best place to create graphics for your site and your products. I have the paid plan and highly recommend it.
Creative Market – Where I buy my templates for graphics for my ebooks and my Pinterest pins.
Loom – Record your video course with Loom. It’s cost effective, but the quality isn’t perfect. Decent video editing capabilities. I recommend recording via the Desktop app for slightly better quality. I had some issues with files not rendering or the system shutting down halfway through recordings at random.
Descript – A more advanced video recording software. You can edit via the transcript which is incredibly easy. Has great editing capabilities and even an AI that will make it look like you’re looking at the camera when you’re reading notes. I’ve had a couple times where the files won’t render when I finish recording something but it won’t tell you until you’re finished the whole recording. It’s happened with Loom too, so I suspect it might be an issue with my computer.

Courses

These are the courses that I’ve taken and recommend. Of course I recommend my SEO and AI courses primarily. You can find them here.

Complete Website Legal Templates Bundle – Protect your business with Liz Stapleton’s complete legal templates bundle for bloggers. It includes Privacy Policy, Terms and Conditions, Disclosures and Disclaimers, and Affiliate Terms Disclaimer templates you can use on your blog. You’ll even get templates for freelance contractors! I use her templates for basically everything legal-blog related.
Liz Wilcox’s Email Marketing Masterclass – The email marketing course that helped me fall in love with newsletter writing. You get a weekly Mad Libs-style template that you can adjust to fit your needs. I’ve used it for my travel blog, my pet site, and She Knows SEO’s first emails. It’s a great way to get comfortable structuring emails. If you get the yearly pass when it’s open, you also get Liz’s sales templates and welcome sequence guide which were a game changer for me.
Automating Team Communication with Zapier – A course on automating Google Sheets, emails, and team connections with Zapier. It helped save me so much time managing my team!
Click Up Templates for Online Business Owners – My VA made these great templates to keep your business organized the way she keeps mine running smoothly!