I regularly requested recommendations on different tools, resources, and products used to run our blog.
As a result, I’ve categorized tools that helped me to grow my blog. The tools I’ve either personally used (in most cases) or have been highly recommended to me by people I trust.
I have almost tested every recommendation on this page.
NOTE:- I keep on updating the new product and tools which will be highly rated, recommended, and personally used.
Disclosure: Sportshubnet is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn More
Blogging Platform
The blogging platform which I have been using for my sports blog(Sportshubnet) is WordPress.org. WordPress’s market share is 38% of all websites on the internet. It is also the number one blogging platform for most bloggers today.
Here are the other platforms and their market share of all websites:-
- Joomla – 2.6%
- Drupal – 1.7%
- Squarespace – 1.5%
- Wix – 1.3%
Hosting
There are multiple hosting services available for bloggers. If you’re just starting out and planning to create a niche blog I highly recommend you to check out these hosting providers.
Hostinger – If you’re on a budget, Hostinger needs to be taken into consideration. The one reason I am recommending it is that when I started my sports blog it’s been hosted on Hostinger. My personal experience with Hostinger is great. The benefits of using Hostinger web hosting are:-
- Decent Uptime
- Fast Loading Times
- Money-Back Guarantee
- Live Support
- Free Domain and Website Builder
- The shared plan starts at $0.99/month( Rs 59/month)
Bluehost – If you’re intending to create a website or blog, you must check out Bluehost because it’s one of only three hosting companies recommended by WordPress itself. The benefits of using Bluehost web hosting are:-
- Uptime Guarantee – 99.9%
- Response Time – 491 ms
- Bandwidth – Unlimited
- Storage – 50 GB
- Price – $3.95/month ( Rs 199/month)
Siteground – SiteGround does not need any introduction here. Siteground is one of the most popular and highest-rated hosting providers in the WordPress community. Their main focus is to make your site as fast and secure as possible. They are well known for the best 24/7 support. Sitegound is also one of those hosting providers highly recommended by WordPress.
- Uptime Guarantee – 99.9%
- Response Time – 438 ms
- Bandwidth – Unlimited
- Storage – 10 GB
- Price – $6.99/month
When the traffic grows you should move to the cloud hosting providers. I highly recommend checking out these hosting providers.
Cloudways – My favorite cloud hosting provider is Cloudways. Right now Sportshubnet is hosted on Cloudways. Cloudways Provide five platforms to choose including Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform. The best thing is that it offers pay-as-you-go plans. Another advantage, it does not have any high renewal charges like other hosting providers. Cloudways even allows users to sign up for a trial and use their services for free without any credit card.
You can also use our promo code “SPORTSHUBNET” which will give you 20% off for 2 months.
- Very easy to set up.
- Excellent uptime.
- Supports numerous apps.
- Several flexible account tiers.
- Pay-as-you-go plans.
- Site cloning.
- Price – lowest plan starts at $10/month
Kinsta – Kinsta is a highly-rated managed WordPress hosting. You must go with Kinsta when you started getting a lot of traffic. As I said it is not for entry-level bloggers. If you are just starting, go for a shared hosting plan. The benefits of using Kinsta Managed hosting are:-
- High-Security Network
- Powered by the Google Cloud platform
- Free Site Migration
- Regular Uptime Check
- Hack Fix Guarantee
- Price – The plan starts at $30/month
Domain Registration
As far as domain registration is concerned I always go with Namecheap.
NameCheap is a domain registrar that will help you to register a domain as cheaply as possible.
Namecheap – Namecheap has contributed over 4 million domain names to customers throughout the world. Namecheap prices are affordable and they offer you Privacy Protection for FREE.
- Good service and security features
- ICANN Accreditation
- Domains are simple to transfer
- Minimal upsell tactics
- 24/7 customer support via a help desk
Domian.com – Domain.com is a domain registrar and web hosting company and one of the most highly rated companies when it comes to domain registration.
Email Marketing
Convertkit – Convertkit is an email marketing software built particularly to send targeted content to your audience. We recommend this email service for every entry-level and pro blogger. Convertkit is providing a free plan for up to 1000 subscribers.
Sendinblue – I personally recommend Sendinblue because I have been using this service for a while now. Sendinblue is the best all-rounder tool for Small Businesses, Marketing Automation, Email Campaigns, Transactional Emails, and SMS. Sendinblue provides a free plan providing up to 300 emails per day.
AWeber – Aweber is one of the leading names in email marketing. Users will get access to unlimited email templates, drag & drop builder, pre-stocked images, and much more. Aweber has 24/7 customer support with free migration services, landing page builder, and web push notifications. Aweber service is free for up to 500 subscribers.
Mailer Lite – MailerLite is one of the top names in email marketing service providers. They are well known for excellent customer support and beautiful email designs. MailerLite helps to create beautiful email campaigns and design custom popups and landing pages. Mailer Lite is free for up to 1000 subscribers providing 12000 emails per month.
Keyword Research Tool
The keyword research tool is a basic need for any blog. If you’re looking for the best keyword research tool go for Semrush. I have been using Semrush for a while now and am very satisfied with the tool. Its free plan is more than enough for any entry-level blogger.
Semrush – Semrush pricing starts at $99.95 per month. You can also opt for Semrush free trial.
Google Trends – Google Trends is a website designed by Google that helps to understand the popularity of top search queries in Google Search across various regions and languages. The website uses graphs to compare the search volume of different queries over time.
QuestionDB – QuestionDB is not a keyword tool. It can be incredibly compelling and helpful for writers and marketers trying to grow a blog. It’s my personal favorite tool whenever I need to look for fresh content ideas.
Just choose the right keyword, and it will return you a large set of questions.
Tools for Graphic Design
Canva – Canva is the tool that I personally recommend everyone to use. I do most of the graphic designing work in Canva. Canva is designed for small to large businesses. It helps to design logos, covers for Ebooks, design resumes, social media graphics, render vector images, print business cards, and much more. I mostly prefer Canva monthly subscription as it is enough for my requirements.
PicMonkey – Picmonkey is another tool that I highly recommend for graphic design works. PicMonkey helps to create high-value images to promote personal or business brands. Its photo editing and design tools are great and quite impressive. The tool is also helpful to create watermarks for projects.
99designs – 99designs is one of the leading firms and the best for logo design. If you are serious about high-quality design go for 99designs.
Blog Monetization
Ezoic – Ezoic provides web publishers with automated website intelligence for their ads, content, layouts, and more. I have been using Ezoic to increase my ad revenue. Ezoic other best tool is Site Speed Accelerator which guarantees a mobile PageSpeed score on Google of 80+ with just a click on a button.
Ezoic uses AI to understand website visitor behavior. This adds the ability to collect important data which will help them to automate decisions that improve visitor experiences, SEO, and website earnings.
Genius Link – Genius Link is a great tool for those who are selling physical and digital products to a fragmented audience. Geniuslink has been an instrumental tool to expand affiliate marketing to the international level.
Tools for social media management
Agorapulse – Agorapulse is a social media management tool. It is a very powerful tool for those who want to manage their social media account. It also helps to schedule and publish content, and monitor social channels. Agorapulse currently supports Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
Coschedule – CoSchedule is the one place destination to organize your marketing in one place. CoSchedule has more than 5,000+ customers all over the world. It helps to deliver projects on time.
Sprout Social – Sprout Social helps brands to simplify social monitoring, engagement, and much more. Sprout Social supports Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linked In. Sprout Social provides a free trial try it yourself.
Page Building
A page builder is something that helped the bloggers a lot in building the page. For designing the landing page or modifying the header, footer, and sidebar everything could be done without a hassle with Elementor.
Elementor – Elementor is a go-to website builder for any professional who wants to build amazing, code-free websites. I have been using Elementor since I have started my blog. My personal recommendation is to go for Elementor for any page building. Elementor is a drag & drop builder anyone can design custom-made, beautiful websites.
Price – Elementor pricing starts at $49.00 per year. There is a free version.
Other Blogging Resources and tools
Easy Digital Downloads – Easy Digital Downloads is the best plugin to sell any kind of digital goods on your website. I have been using it on my blog to sell digital products. For digital products, it is the number one plugin in WordPress. Zero transaction fees and a setup process are very seamless. If you are Selling products like eBooks, software, videos, music, and courses Easy Digital Downloads is a trusted solution.
Grammarly – Grammarly is a very useful tool, I have been using this tool for my blog. Grammarly helps you to identify spelling and grammar mistakes while you are writing.
Grammarly Premium will recognize more spelling and grammar issues in your document. It will help you to improve your writing style. I personally go with the premium version because of the extra features it has.
Google Analytics – Google Analytics is the most prominent name in website and mobile app intelligence. It’s completely free to use. Users can check their website’s bounce rate, top pages, traffic sources, and much more.
WP Rocket – When it comes to caching plugins, I highly recommend using WP Rocket. No caching plugin can beat the performance and features of WP rocket. It is a premium caching plugin but it is worth a single penny.
WPForms – When it comes to adding forms to a website, I always use WPforms. It is a go-to form plugin for WordPress. The objective of WPForms is to make adding forms to a WordPress website as easy as possible.
OptinMonster – OptinMonster is my best lead generation plugin for WordPress. When you have this plugin you don’t need anything else to grow your email list, improve your website conversions, and reduce cart abandonment.
Tubebuddy – If you have a youtube channel or planning to start a youtube channel you must have Tubebuddy as your companion. TubeBuddy is the YouTube channel management tool. Their software integrates directly into YouTube’s website and helps your youtube channel to grow with the array of tools they provide.
Envato Market – Envato Elements is one destination for everything. I have recently used their services for premium plugins and themes. My personal experience is awesome. For a one-month subscription, you will get an Unlimited downloads to all of their products.
Envato has a massive collection of Video templates, Stock videos, Music, Sound Effects, images, Graphic templates, Presentation templates, Web templates, and CMS Templates including WordPress themes and plugins. Envato’s pricing structure is awesome. Users will get unlimited commercial licenses to content across the platform.
Adcreative.Ai – Adcreative.ai is an Ai platform that generates hundreds of stunning, high-performing ad creatives in seconds!
AAWP – AAWP is an Amazon affiliate plugin for WordPress designed to help you make money from the Amazon Associates program
Clickfunnels – ClickFunnels is a sales funnel creator to help businesses automate their sales process from A to Z.
Copy.Ai – Copy.ai is an AI-powered copywriter that generates high-quality content for your business.
Kadence Theme – Kadence Theme is a lightweight yet full-featured WordPress theme for creating beautiful fast loading and accessible websites.
Payhip – Payhip is the easiest way to sell digital downloads and courses. No specialized skills are required. Build your own all-in-one digital storefront.
RankTracker – Ranktracker is an all-in-one rank-tracking tool that will allow you to see how your site’s ranking is impacted by the actions that you take.