Thinking about blogging for clients but wondering what blogging VA tools you should be using? Starting your blogging VA business can be overwhelming, especially when deciding what tools you need to get started! After blogging for clients for the last four years at Ava And The Bee, and writing well over 1000 blogs (for over 80 clients!) we have a tried and true process, and only use a few tools!

If you want to dive deeper and learn more about getting started as a Blogging Virtual assistant, click to learn about The Blogging Elective. Inside the course, you will find everything you need to start your Blogging VA business in just 7 days! From how to set up systems, to getting clients, The Blogging Elective has everything you need from start to finish!

Blogstomp

Now called Story Tailor, this is hands down the best tool for you if you work with wedding pros, photographers, or anyone who has a lot of images in their blog post. It creates image collages (aka images next to each other) I highly suggest BlogStomp! This is a paid tool, but trust me, you will LOVE it! Not only does it help make collages 10x easier and quicker, but it can also compress the images for web-based.

One note: I highly suggest NOT using the blogging feature of StoryTailor (same with Narrative). They are desktop apps, meaning only you can edit (so if you delete the app, no more blog post!) That also means a VA or SEO person can’t edit them. Or— if as a VA you create the blog on your laptop, your client won’t ever be able to edit it. If you stop paying for the service, your blogs disappear.

Yoast

If you have WordPress: Make sure you have the Yoast SEO Plugin installed. This is a FREE tool that will walk you through exactly where to put the keywords + tell you if it is doing well!

One of my all-time favorite tools is YoastSEO. This is a plugin for WordPress blogs, and I will have a tutorial on how to use it under the Tools section. But, it has some powerful SEO tools to help walk you through SEO for every single blog post! You enter in the keyphrase, and Yoast will guide you along and tell you if it is good SEO (Green) needs to be updated (Yellow), or is bad (red)

• Keyphrases in subheading – if you have enough or need to add more
• Previously used keyphrase – if you need to come up with a new keyword or phrase
• Outbound links + internal links – if your post has them
• Keyphrase in introduction + density – If you are using it enough times or should add it in more (based on length of copy)
• Keyphrase in the meta description
  

Keep in mind that this is just a guide – you won’t always have 100% green, and that is okay! Use your judgment as you write – sometimes Yoast wants you to add in keywords where you feel like they don’t fit.

Grammarly

When writing a blog post, I recommend writing it in a word document FIRST. Don’t just start typing in WordPress or Squarespace. Outline your blog post in a word document, so you are able to start the proofreading and spell check process before pasting it into your blog.

Get a plugin like Grammarly – This plugin is an awesome place to write your blog post as well. It will show you any grammar mistakes as well as spelling. I always write it in word, copy and paste it into Grammarly, then place it into my blog.

 

Curious if becoming a blogging VA is for you? Check out the blog, Why You Should Be A Blogging Virtual Assistant

Dubsado

The easiest way to gather content is with a form! We use Dubsado. Dubsado is hands down my favorite program. It allows you to not only send invoices, receive money, create proposals, and send contracts, but it also lets you create forms and questionnaires! This is how you can easily gather content from your clients.

Trust me when I tell you that it gets confusing when all of your clients submit content in different ways. In my business, there is one single way: our content form. And that is for a few reasons:

1. We get the exact content we need. No more reminding them to send vendors, or specific details. It is in the content form as an item to fill out.
2. We can see when they have opened it and see when it has been completed
3. It allows us to quickly see what they forgot to send, vs digging through an email
   

The form fields will help your client know exactly what to deliver so they don’t forget anything. Completing a form seems easier and more achievable than writing down copy on a blank page! And with forms, they can add a link to their images (whether it is a GoogleDrive, Dropbox, or photo-sharing software)

Canva

If your client is requesting you to make Pinterest graphics to go along with the blog, you need Canva! Canva is an online graphic design program, that includes hundreds of pre-made templates. The free version allows you to create images in various sizes, while the paid version allows you to also upload custom fonts. If you are just getting started and need a free design software, start with Canva!

 

*This blog post contains affiliate links.