The Top 3 Blogging Tools You Need To Run A Successful Blog

Back in December 2017, I wrote a post about the things I learned about investing and that includes blogging. After writing that post, a number of people responded and asked me about how I built my blog from scratch.

Well, this is the day... My first blogging-related post in a value investing blog.

Anyway, the common question I always got asked is if I did hire someone to build all of this. The answer is NO. I did all of the writing and design myself with the exception of some guest posts.

At first glance, it seems complicated and advanced but with the help of these blogging tools I'm gonna share in this post, creating a conversion-focused blog like mine is just easy as counting 1, 2, 3! 

Are you a blogger that's struggling to get views and regular visitors? Are you struggling to get e-mail leads? Do you feel that you're wasting so much money on tools that don't give you the results that you're looking for? Or are you an aspiring blogger who's looking for the best blogging tools to use?

If you think you're one of the above I mentioned, then this post is definitely for you.

Besides content creation, blogger's face the challenge of having a creating a good structure. A poorly designed blog will have low conversions. Thus, if you're monetizing your blog with Google Adsense or affiliate links, your blog will not convert well.

I encountered these challenges too. I bought and used themes but ended up in the trash bin after just a few months. I also bought plugins that I no longer use today. What a waste of resources.

You don't need to face this problem. You just need to use these tools I'll share below.

I'm a number one fan of Shane Melaugh's Thrive Tools and Themes. All that you see in this blog is built from their products. I suggest that you buy all of their products and use them in your blog. But if you're just starting out with a limited budget, I recommend these 3 must-have tools to get you started.

Building an e-mail list should be your topmost priority and the way to do that with style is by using Thrive Leads. One of the reasons why this blog became a success is because of its ability to capture e-mail leads. I use Getresponse as my autoresponder but the default e-mail capture forms suck and doesn't provide the conversion-focused features of Thrive Leads.

Thrive Leads enables you to create stunning pop-ups, lead-capture widgets, ribbons and other types of forms that can capture your reader's e-mail. But of course, this will only be effective if you have a valuable lead magnet (e-book, video tutorial series or short e-mail course) to attract leads.

Building a list is one of the foundations of a successful blog and Thrive Leads does that job very well, at least for me.

Thrive Architect is the upgraded version of Thrive Content Builder. I love this editor because it uses a drag-and-drop function so you can easily design your posts and webpages. I no longer use the default post and page editor of WordPress. All of my posts and pages are written and designed inside the Thrive Architect plugin.

Some of the things you can do with Thrive Architect that are essential to your blog's success include:

​​The buttons, video embeds, post structure and all of the neat and gritty stuff you see in all of my blog posts and pages are all designed using Thrive Architect.

Observe some of the previous posts in this blog and you'll see how I use these features to maximize my reader conversions.

I can't imagine my blog without Thrive Architect in it.

If you'll use Thrive Architect, then might as well use a theme that's fully compatible with it!

'FocusBlog' is the theme I recommend because in my experience, it converts fairly high.

One of the things I like in this theme is the Focus Areas. These areas are good places to put in your links.

The theme has a minimalist design. It's simple to customize and is very appealing to the eye. This blog is  focused on maximizing link conversions so if your goal is to get as many clicks in you ads and affiliate links, then this theme does the job well.

These next set of plugins are not that important. But if you have the budget, then don't hesitate to buy these plugins as these tools will further take your blog to the next level.

When some of my readers started thanking me for the value I give in my posts, I asked them a favor if they can give me a little testimonial. Remember Friendster when everyone is asking their friends to leave those cheesy testimonials in your profile page? Yeah.

When I got a handful, I decided to get Thrive Ovation; a plugin that let's you manage your testimonials. What I love about this plugin is that it let's me collect testimonials without even asking for it.

I use Thrive Clever Widgets to target a specific post so that it will only display relevant widgets on the side. For example, if I post something about Bitcoins, then the post will only show Bitcoin related widgets on the side. It will not show any stock market related widgets.

This is a very effective to minimize distraction on the post. The psychology behind it is simple; if a reader searches for a specific bitcoin topic and lands on your site, that means that he's only interested in Bitcoin-specific offers. And what Clever Widgets do is give you that feature to target specific posts, categories or tags so that your widgets will show on your relevant posts.

You can also choose a widget to not show on a specific post, category or tags. That's what I like about this tool as it targets what your readers really want from your blog.

It also serves as a clutter management tool because once you have lots of widgets beside, it looks unattractive and gives the impression that you only want to show them your ads. That's not a good way to build relationship to your readers.

And there you have it! These are just the basic tools from Thrive Themes that I use in my blog. These tools when combined creates a powerhouse blog that highly converts and gives your readers a reason to come back.

If you're an aspiring blogger, you'll never go wrong with these tools. It will save you from frustrations and unnecessary expenses in the future.

You also get lots of updates from the creators of Thrive and you can see that they really care about their users. Not only that they provide the best tools out there, they also teach you how to become a successful blogger and internet marketer inside their Thrive University.

The lessons they give are nothing compared what you search in the other blogging sites. They teach you what works today and what not works yesterday. The free courses are enough to give you a head start in your blogging journey.

Thrive offers many tools that I haven't used and tested yet. If you want to use them all without purchasing each tool one by one, you can opt to consider Thrive Membership. I only recommend this if you're already making a steady income off your blog. If not, then just use the tools you really need first.

Hopefully, you learned a lot in this post. In the next few days, I'll be writing about some cool and effective ways to maximize these Thrive tools I mentioned. Till then!

Happy blogging!