Have you completed the steps on how to start your own blog? Excellent! You’re now ready for what I would like to call ‘Phase 2’. Phase 2 was when I downloaded all of the best plugins to make my blog successful. These plugins are intended to help you write better articles and monitor and grow your audience. Let’s check them out.
1. Yoast SEO
One of the most important things for the success of your blog is that you have an audience. This seems obvious right? The question is how do we get the audience to come to your blog and read the content you’ve created. Yoast SEO is an amazing plugin that helps with blog post writing. It ensures that what you are writing is written in a way that it will be best recognized by a search engine (SEO = Search Engine Optimization) and it helps with the overall readability of every blog post you create. Better to load this plugin into your blog early rather than having to go through and edit all of your previous blog posts.
2. Monster Insights
Monster Insights is a plugin that connects and interprets your Google Analytics. This plugin allows you to see where your audience is coming from, how many visitors you’re getting and how long their spending on your website. It also allows you to see your most popular posts!
Not sure how to get started with Google Analytics? Check out this awesome tutorial How to Install Google Analytics in WordPress for Beginners.
3. Social Warfare
One of the best ways to get traffic to your site in the early days is through social media. Social Warfare provides a social media bar that allows your readers to quickly and easily share your content on their platform of choice. It also shows you and your readers how many times it’s been shared, which can give you some insight into which posts are performing well. It also provides an awesome popular post widget based on number of shares.
4. MailChimp
One of the most common pieces of advice I saw while doing blog research was to focus on your mailing list as soon as you start your blog. This is one of the most important avenues of website traffic. If someone is signing up for your newsletter, they must enjoy what you have to say and want to keep up with your content. That’s awesome! MailChimp is a free service that allows you to create drag and drop newsletters and set up automated emails easily! I was able to set up my ‘Welcome’ email quickly and without any headache.
Bonus Plugin: MailMunch gives you forms like the one below, which you can drop into posts to increase your subscribers for free. I’ve created two – one for my health/wellness readers and one for people interested in blogging tips.
5. Pinterest PinIt Button
If you’ve done your research you know that Pinterest can drive major traffic to your blog when done correctly. The Pinterest PinIt Button makes it that much easier for your users to pin your content and I’m all about making things easier for my readers!
6. Sumo
Sumo is an excellent plugin to add to your arsenal to assist in growing your mailing list. That neat little bar at the top of my website that asks you to join my Fit and Frugal Mommy family? That’s all Sumo. They have a free version too, which is awesome when you’re just getting started. Sumo also integrates nicely with MailChimp, so you’ll have those ‘Welcome’ emails going out in no time!
7. Ad Inserter
The Ad Inserter plugin will help monetize your blog. It allows you to easily add Google Adsense ads where you want them on your blog and it also allows you to add Amazon Associate’s OneTag code to your blog. I highly recommend this plugin for preparing to monetize your blog.
8. Wordfence
Wordfence is the #1 rated WordPress security plugin. When launching a blog, you want to make sure that it’s secure and can’t be hacked! This plugin is on my non-negotiable plugin list.
Have a plugin you can’t live without? Let me know in the comments below!
Thank you for putting all of this info in one area. I’ve been confused for a while this simplifies it for me
Thanks for this! I’ve always asked myself what plugin could I have for those mailing list almosat all the other websites have. I might try putting #4 in my blog and see the rest of the plugins for myself! Thank you!
I need to look into MailChimp and start growing my email list! I just don’t have any ideas for a newsletter! These are great tips on plugins. thanks for the info!
Yoast and Monster Insights are great! I also get good use out of Elementor. I find it user friendly and much easier to edit pages than with the built in wordpress editor, and it makes some pretty pages!
Thank you for putting this blog together, for people like me who are new to blogging this was super helpful.
I have heard such good things about Yoast.I need to start using that on my website.
Although I haven’t used it yet, I am excited to use the WP Recipe Maker. I have an upcoming post that will include a recipe and the plugin is so easy to use!
im new in the blogging world so this article is really helpful to me! i will surely check each of them to find out which one suits me best!
I have heard a lot about Yoast. It will be the first plugin I add once I upgrade my little blog. Thank you!
I have to get started with Yoast SEO to help me with more audience since it is an amazing plugin that helps with blog post writing.
I love all of these plugins for blogging. I want to get Sumo that is definitely an investment I want to have on my blog.
These are awesome plugins, the two I use from your list are Social Warfare and Yoast SEO. I had Ad Inserter last month before my blog got corrupted but now that I am using the Newspaper theme it comes with similar features as standard so no need for that additional plugin. Thanks for sharing.
I’ll definitely have to keep this post in mind as I get further into my blogging. My goal right now is just create content that I am proud of, but I plan to make it more “public” at the start of the New Year!
I actually use two of these already. I’ll have to check out the others.
I have Yoast and I really need to set up MailChimp! Thanks for sharing your suggestions for plugins. I have some time off after the holidays that I should sit down and look into these.
This is so helpful. I am actually going right now to download the pinterest plugin. Many thanks
Thanks for sharing these plugins. I find Yoast SEO and Mailchimp very helpful for my blogging needs. I also find it important to use a spam protection plug in as well. Thirsty Affiliates is great for people who have a lot of affiliate marketing.
I need to get more active in Pinterest. I will look into these other plugins. Thanks for the info.
Great tips for starting a blog! Two of my favorites are yoast and social warfare. But my all time favorite is google analytics
There are so many plugin options out there that it can feel so overwhelming, I am so glad that you have listed out the ones that you feel have made life a lot easier for you – definitely going to be checking them out.
These are great plugins! I’m familiar most on your list but some are brand new to me. Thanks for the list to keep on my radar this upcoming year.
I have been thinking of switching to wordpress. I def. enjoy reading about the different plug-in options.
I have to take note of this list. Indeed such a great ideas and help especially for those who want to seriously take blogging as a career.
I’ve heard of most of these, but haven’t used them. I’ll definitely have to take a look into them and pass this along to fellow bloggers. Thanks for sharing!