If you are a blogger or, if you plan to be one some day, Neil Patel is someone who needs no introduction to. He is the founder of Crazyegg and Kissmetrics both multi million dollar SAAS businesses. In this post I am sharing awesome blogging tips and tools (or THE Blogging Weapons) recommended by Neil himself, which I have tried myself or plan to use them very soon.

 

Neil is also a featured blogger at the top publications like TechCrunch and entrepreneur.com. Here is his pic from his personal blog www.neilpatel.com

Neil Patel

He regularly blogs at neilpatel.com and quicksprout.com on everything blogging and digital marketing.

I came across Neil Patel’s posts while researching for my blog eCloudbuddy. This was around early 2015.

I was researching on AdSense Optimization and getting more website visitors. Since then both Quicksprout and NeilPatel.com are a regular visits whenever I am looking for blogging motivation or answers to my questions on digital marketing.

I remember the first post I read was about Knowledge Graph Optimization.

Neil has thoroughly explained about how to build the schema structure of your blog posts, define post types, author details etc. to get your blog even more traffic from Google search through the rich snippets.

 

You can go through the post here:

The Beginner’s Guide to the Google’s Knowledge Graph

There are many things that I have learned from Neil Patel but, I have been able to implement them only in bits and pieces.

I will definitely try the ones I haven’t tried at eCloudbuddy and any digital marketing projects I take in future.

Here is a small list of Neil’s suggested tools and tips, which I can recall.

  1. Canva – Blogging Weapon To Simplify Your Design Efforts

Canva is the one of the recent awesome tools recommended by Neil, which I use to create blog banners and I also used it to create my latest infographic.

It’s very easy to use if you want to create images, banners, infographics or slideshows for your website.

Below are the infographic and banner post links. The best thing about Canva is, it has a simplistic design and an awesome user experience.

Infographic: 7 Essential Things To Do Before Publishing Your Blog Post

Three Critical Email Marketing Matrices Every Blogger Must Monitor

 

  1.   Ahrefs.com – Blogging Intelligence And Actionable Insights

The second tool that i am using quite frequently now is ahrefs.com.

This is very helpful in monitoring backlinks to your website.

You can easily track your website content performance on social media and, Ahrefs also helps you monitor your Domain Ranking and Keywords which bring traffic to your website.

 

I was able to hop on to their free plan, which i think they have discontinued for now. Though they have a 15 days free trial too which can be used to evaluate the product before you make up your mind.

 

Below is a screenshot from Ahrefs.com homepage, which shows a snapshot of all the matrices and data available once your sign-up.

t_homemainscreen.jpg

 

  1. Snipping And Annotation Tools

Neil uses a lot of snipped images and also a lot of annotations in his blog posts. I started using a few myself. Nimbus Screenshot and Screencast (available as a Google chrome extension) and Snip are the tools I use to make my blog posts more visually attractive to my website visitors.

 

  1. Writing Detailed Posts

One thing that separates Neil from most of the bloggers out on the web, is the length and depth of content he creates. All his posts are detailed and backed by credible statistics.

Almost all his posts are 1000 words plus, and are loaded with a lot of valuable insights, and useful information.

The content copy flows beautifully from start till end, Neil is able to craft a copy which keeps his visitor engaged. The marketing elements are placed scientifically at places where they do not interfere with the user experience and also urge the visitor to take the next intended step.

Neil is also able to build a personal bond with his audience by timely replying to his blog comments.

I am also trying to create more useful and detailed posts which can help anyone who stumbles upon my blog.

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  1. Using Content Upgrades

Neil mentioned in one of his posts, why it is important to focus more on the conversion that you get on your website. He also recommends building up your blog subscriber list and nurture it well.

A very important piece to crack the puzzle of building up your blog subscribers is creating content upgrades.

“A content upgrade is simply bonus content that people can get access to in exchange for their email address” – Source: smartpassiveincome.com  

I have started adding content upgrades to my blog posts to build my subscriber list.

I plan to add them on all the relevant places on my blog.  

Here is an example of one on quicksprout.com

content-upgrade-eg.jpg

  1. Blog Posting Frequency

This is one advice which is very critical for any blogger in any niche. Neil recommends maintaining a good frequency while publishing your blog posts.

In one of his posts on website traffic, Neil talks about his journey to 100,000 plus visitors on QuickSprout, KISSmetrices and Crazyegg. Below is a screenshot where he clearly shows how the traffic on these blogs surged when Neil increased the blog posting frequency.

t_blogging-frequency.jpg

But you have to ensure while you are trying to create content at a rapid pace, you never compromise on content quality.

Source: https://www.quicksprout.com/2013/12/02/how-to-grow-your-blog-to-100000-visits-a-month-in-18-months/

I am trying my best to maintain a healthy blogging frequency, while trying to strike a work-life balance but, this is one of the toughest challenges for me as of now.

For any blogger, I would recommend to first of all decide the ultimate goal of his Blog, Is it Money, Fame, Passion,Hobby or something else? Once you are clear about the ultimate goal, you can then go ahead and create a plan targeted to achieve that goal.

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Some personal advice that will be handy on the way

1.Focus On Value Addition

  You should always aim at delivering value for your audience. It’s easy to get distracted and target something else, but, at the core of your business or blog, you should always focus on adding value for your customers, subscribers and blog followers.

  1. Write down the challenges that you might encounter and then research on them.
    I suggest you go through the guides on NeilPatel.com which are detailed and will provide answers to most of your blogging questions.
  1. Automate most of the tasks that you have to repeatedly do and are non productive

A few examples could be coding, designing etc. If you are not comfortable with them,I suggest that you use tools like Canva, use CMS platforms like WordPress etc. to ease this process or hire someone to completely outsource it.

      4.Learn your Craft and  Maintain a discipline

I am sure most of you know about this already, but it is important that you keep learning about your niche and become an expert. You should also ensure that you stay disciplined and focused on your blogging goals. It could be as simple as writing 1 valuable blog post a day.

 There is tons of advice available on Neil’s blogs for anyone who is starting out or someone looking for more in-depth knowledge to sharpen his blogging skills. 

I am a fan of Neil Patel, because of the value he delivers through his blogs, the professional approach that he adopts in building his brands. Neil is still able to maintain a personal bond with people who are seeking his help with their blogs and businesses alike.

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I wish him all the very best and look forward to stay connected while I build up eCloudbuddy. 

Please do let me know about your thoughts on the above blogging tools and tips, if you have tried any of these personally, how was your experience with them? Please post  your comments below.