There’s something about a fresh start to the new year that excites me.  This is especially true when it comes to my blog.  Every new year marks a new chance to improve upon progress.  I love finding things that help make my blogging a little easier.  I love them even more when they are free or cheap!  If you blog, you already know that you have monthly costs that go along with it.  These costs can quickly add up, so finding a less expensive way to blog is always on my radar.  Thankfully, there are other generous bloggers that share their expertise and products to help make this possible.  Here are my personal must-have blogging tools to start the year off right.

Get Yourself a Blog Planner

There are many blog planners to choose from.  Simply do a search for them on Pinterest and you will find a ton of possibilities to fit your personal style.  However, the one I have downloaded to use for the upcoming year is this free printable blog planner from the Harmonized House Project.  I test printed a few sheets today and the colors are fabulous!  It also has everything I was looking for in a blog planner, including social media tracking sheets, post planning sheets, areas to keep up with sponsors and giveaways, and so much more!  This is definitely the most important of the must-have blogging tools you need to stay organized.

Keep Up With Your Finances

If you make money from blogging or plan to in the new year, you definitely need a way to keep track of your income and expenses.  This free blogging income tracker from Northern Belle Diaries is the best way I have found to keep up with this, plus she offers some useful tax tips for bloggers.  Even if you don’t need the income tracker, the tax tips are great.  I use to write all of this down by hand, but I switched to using this spreadsheet this past year and it made my life so much easier.  Tax time will be a breeze this new year because of it.  I recommend keeping an updated copy of this in a cloud file somewhere easy to get to in case your computer ever crashes.

Follow A Checklist

How many times do you write a blog post and then forget to share it on one of your social channels?  There’s just so much to remember, especially if you are a one-woman (or man!) show.  This free printable blogging checklist will help you remember exactly where you need to share your posts to get them out there into the world.

Get Some Inspiration

I love reading books and ebooks from other bloggers on how they’ve made their blog a success.  There’s nothing like a little hope and inspiration to motivate you!  I highly, highly recommend the book How to Blog for Profit Without Selling Your Soul.

Looking to monetize your blog in the new year?  This very reasonably priced Amazon Affiliate Master Class has been extremely helpful in helping me make money outside of just ads and sponsored posts on my blog.

I also listen to podcasts weekly.  I usually do this while I’m doing household chores.  Along with reading about other people’s blogging success, I also love listening to podcasts to get even more great blogging advice.  My favorites are Pro Blogger (who inspired me to get off my duff and finally start a newsletter) and Pat Flynn.  Download a few episodes and give them a try.  I promise you that I walk away with some little kernel of new knowledge every single time I listen to them.

Now that you’ve got your must-having blogging tools to start the new year off right, check out these blogging mistakes you definitely don’t want to make!

I hope these ideas will help you get excited about a fresh start to the blogging new year.  By all means, if you know of another resource I may have missed, please share it with me in the comments.  Here’s to a successful and personally rewarding year of blogging!

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