Hillary Clinton's Trillion Dollar Budget Blow Out

Hillary Clinton seems to be in a race with Bernie Sanders to see who can spend and borrow the most taxpayer money. These days that's how you win the Democratic nomination for president.

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Does halal hit us all with a religious tax?

IT HAS been claimed halal certification funds terrorism, inflates prices and imposes sharia law on unsuspecting Aussies. Here’s what is really going on.

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Aldi’s seven must-have brands

THE Tim Tam tantrum between Coles and Arnott’s has proven there are some brands Australians have to have. Aldi has revealed exactly which ones.

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Want a Free Auntie Anne’s Pretzel? If You’re Immune to Embarrassment on Instagram, You May Just Be in Luck

Do you love Auntie Anne’s pretzels?

Even if “love” sounds like too strong of a word, would you totally eat them if they were free?

Yeah, me too.

Lucky for us: Auntie Anne’s is giving away a free treat now through Christmas. There’s just one small catch.

How to Get Free Food From Auntie Anne’s

Take a photo of yourself in a Santa suit and upload it to Twitter, Instagram or Facebook, tagging Auntie Anne’s and using the hashtag #Snack4Santa.

If you’re into the holiday spirit enough to own a Santa suit — and your followers won’t leave en masse when confronted by your Santa selfie — you can score a free pretzel.

Carb up for the cold, white winter ahead, penny hoarders.

Your Turn: Will you upload a Santa selfie to social media to earn a free pretzel from Auntie Anne’s?

Jamie Cattanach is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder and a native Floridian. You can wave hi to @jamiecattanach on Twitter — especially if you’re trying to sell a slightly-used Santa suit. She’s in the market.

The post Want a Free Auntie Anne’s Pretzel? If You’re Immune to Embarrassment on Instagram, You May Just Be in Luck appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Have Twins? These Companies Offer Freebies and Special Deals for Parents of Multiples

Having twins, I can’t tell you how often I’ve been told, “Two for the price of one!” accompanied by a big smile.

If only!

You don’t get all the benefits of hand-me-downs from older children, and you need two cribs, two sets of clothing and a double stroller that costs more than twice that of a single one.

But there are ways to save money.

A Smart Way to Save: Multiple Births Programs

When second-hand stores, Mom2Mom sales and other options aren’t enough, look to multiple births programs.

A few big brands offer discounts and free items for parents of multiples. Policies change quite often, so contact these companies to confirm the programs are still active.

Pampers/Luvs

How to claim: Send in a copy of the birth certificates or hospital discharge papers, as well as a paper stating whether you want a Luvs or Pampers package with your address.

The outcome: I received a letter of congratulations and coupons worth up to $18 off diapers and wipes. These were dollar value coupons, not percentage off, so you don’t have to spend more to get more!

Pampers/Luvs Multiple Birth Program:
Pampers Multiple Birth Offer
The Procter & Gamble Company
P.O. Box 599
Cincinnati, OH 45201

OR

Luvs Multiple Birth Offer
The Procter & Gamble Company
P.O. Box 599
Cincinnati, OH 45201

Huggies

How to claim: Similar to Pampers, send in a copy of birth certificates or hospital discharge papers and include a return address.

The outcome: I received $12 worth of dollar value coupons. These could be used on Viva, Poise, Kotex and other brands in addition to their diapers and wipes!

Huggies Multiple Birth Program:
Kimberly-Clark Corporation Department QMB
P.O. Box 2020 Neenah, WI 54957-2020

OR

Huggies in Canada:
Kimberly-Clark Corporation Department QMB
50 Burnhamthorpe Road West Mississauga, ON L5B 3Y5

The First Years

How to claim: Mail, fax or even e-mail proof of birth. You also have to include your name, address, phone number and e-mail address.

The outcome: The company sent us a congratulatory letter, and two sets of Take and Toss Cups and two Lamaze Teethimals worth a combined $21.

First Years Multiple Birth Contact Info:
TOMY
Attn: Multiples Birth Program
2021 9th St SE
Dyersville, IA 52040

OR

Fax: 563-875-8263

OR

Email: help@thefirstyears.com

Ocean Spray

How to claim: Mail in your children’s birth certificates to receive coupons.

The outcome: We got a free jar bottle of Ocean Spray juice, plus money off our next purchase.

Ocean Spray Cranberries
One Ocean Spray Drive
Lakeville-Middleboro, MA 02349
Attention: Consumer Affairs

BeechNut

How to claim: All I had to do was use the contact form to inquire about their Multiples Discount Program.

The outcome: They sent me $8 in coupons for their baby foods and cereals a short while later.

Other Multiple Births Discounts

Babies R Us

They offer a 10% discount when you buy two of the same items in certain categories, like strollers and carseats. This can save over $30 on some of their really nice items.

Buy Buy Baby

Similar to Babies R Us, you can get a 10% discount when buying two of the same item.

Various Companies

Others offer discounts on a store-by-store basis. Research your local Stride Rite, Osh Kosh or other children’s store to see what they offer.

For instance, my locally owned Stride Rite offered me 50% off one pair of shoes when I bought two of the same kind.

Since my twins are over 1 year old and don’t use formula, we didn’t qualify for all the programs. Many companies do have programs, though, and since formula can cost a fortune, it’s worth contacting them. Enfamil, Similac and Carnation all have programs.

Tuition

Preschools and private grade and high schools typically offer discounts when you have more than one child enrolled. Having twins and other multiples maximizes the offer, as it applies every year.

Since my son is only two years older than my girls, we’ll be able to leverage this one. Right now, we can save $1,900 per year in tuition at our local private school.

And the tuition discounts don’t end with high school — twin college scholarships are also available.

So whether you already have multiples or just got the big news from the ultrasound, start taking advantage of some of these deals!

Your Turn: Have you taken advantage of multiple births programs? Let us know about your best discounts!

Danielle Hetzel is a sometimes-at-home mom of three in the Greater Detroit area. She’s always trying to find ways to pay for all those diapers and cheddar crackers.

The post Have Twins? These Companies Offer Freebies and Special Deals for Parents of Multiples appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Happy National Cookie Day! Here are 10 Places to Get Free Cookies

Hey, you! Yeah, you. Ready for the best news of your day?

Unless someone’s proposing to you tonight, or that meeting with your boss is about you finally getting a raise, here it is:

It’s National Cookie Day 2015

That’s right. Today, Dec. 4, is National Cookie Day.

So — free cookies!

Wanna score your cost-free sugar fix? Here’s where you can get ‘em while they’re hot (or take them home and microwave them):

Great American Cookies

Claim your free regular chocolate chip cookie from Great American Cookies, today only.

Not sure where that might be?

Check their website for the location nearest you.

Insomnia Cookies

College students, rejoice — your favorite late-night indulgence will get you a free chocolate chunk this Friday!

Make any purchase in-store or online — delivery minimums still stand, though. This deal is good through Dec. 5 at 3 a.m.

Whole Foods

It’s not quite free — but what did you expect from this Gucci-level grocer?

Grab a 25-cent chocolate chip cookie when you drop by Whole Foods to grab your quinoa and ground bison through Dec. 8.

Food City

You can celebrate National Cookie Day all week long at this southern grocery chain.

Not only will you get a free cookie today, you’ll get two dozen cookies for $5 Dec. 2-8 with your ValuCard!

Galley Foods — Baltimore Giveaway

Baltimore residents are super lucky — not only will you get free cookies today, you’ll get them delivered!

Just download the Galley iPhone app, sign in and tap the “Request Free Cookie” button.

By the way, can I have this button built into everything I interact with in life?

The Cookie Delivery Team will start delivering free cookies at 1 p.m. to participants, no maximum. How is that much win even possible?

Happy Friday, Charm City.

Hot Box Cookies — Columbia, MO; St. Louis, MO; Lawrence, KS

Hot Box ups the ante by giving away two free chocolate chippers today from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Just follow one of their social channels — not hard, since they have Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and even Snapchat. Look for @hotboxcookies on your stream of choice.

Subway Canada

Chilly up there?

Warm up with a free cookie from Subway sandwich shops across Canada — just ask them to stick it in the oven for a second!

Choose from their three most popular flavors: chocolate chip, double chocolate chunk or white chocolate macadamia nut.

DoubleTree — New York City

If you’re in the Big Apple today to see the iconic tree at Rockefeller Center, you just might get a free sweet bite from this Hilton chain.

The giveaway is going on between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. — follow along on your favorite social media stream with #CookieCare.

Christie Cookies — Nashville

Nashvillians, you’re in luck — Christie Cookie Co is giving away free cookies 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. today.

Not in Tennessee? Not to worry: score 15% off cookies and treats shipped to your home on the company’s website using coupon code COOKIEDAY — today only.

ROCS Local Markets and Subways

If you live near one of these West Virginia-based convenience stores, snag a free cookie all day long today — but only if you prove you’re really in the holiday spirit.

You’ll have to sing a slightly altered version of “Jingle Bells” at the register. Cookies are totally worth the slight embarrassment, though, right?

Your Turn: Which of these free cookies will you be gobbling up today? Are there deals any we missed? Let us know in the comments!

Jamie Cattanach is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder and a native Floridian. She doesn’t always eat cookies, but when she does, she likes to get them for free. You can wave hi to @jamiecattanach on Twitter.

The post Happy National Cookie Day! Here are 10 Places to Get Free Cookies appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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The 5 Most Expensive Medications Medicare Covers

Watch out for the high costs of these recently approved drugs.

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I Made $16,000 Tax-Free Flipping a Condo, Thanks to This IRS Loophole…

My wife and I recently made $16,000 selling our condo, and we won’t be paying taxes on a cent.

Next year we might sell our current home for a profit, and we’ll again pay no capital gains tax. How can we do that?

The IRS allows you to exclude a gain of up to $250,000 ($500,000 if you are married and file jointly) on the sale of your primary residence from taxable income if you’ve lived in it for at least two of the past five years. We lived in the condo for 26 months, so we qualified.

The IRS explains:

“The 24 months of residence can fall anywhere within the 5-year period. It doesn’t even have to be a single block of time. All you need is a total of 24 months (730 days) of residence during the 5-year period.”

It gets more complicated if you rent out the home during that time (you “recapture” any depreciation claimed and pay taxes on that part).

But here’s the short version: If you live in your house for at least two years and sell it, your entire profit is tax-free.

We’ll get back to that in a moment, but first let’s look at an important question…

Is Your Home an Investment?

A home isn’t an investment, because it doesn’t generate income or spendable capital gains, Robert Kiyosaki says in Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

Your house generates expenses, and if you sell it after its value rises, you’ll probably buy another house that costs as much or more. Long term, home values don’t rise faster than inflation.

However, there are some ways to turn a home into an investment. For example, you could rent rooms in your house, which is how I paid off my first mortgage.

Also, there are “make-money investments and save-money investments,” Jennifer Abel points out on Mainstreet.com, A house may not generate income, but if you buy right, you save more money over the years than renting.

So your home can be an investment, and we’re going to add one more way to make it into one…

The Flip Your Home Plan

The home sale capital gains exclusion makes it possible to buy a fixer-upper, live in it while you make repairs and improvements and sell it for a profit without paying a penny in taxes.

Theoretically, you can do this every two years.

Realistically, it takes time to sell a home, and you have to wait two years from the date of sale to claim your next exclusion. Plus, you might not get everyone in the family onboard for the move-every-two-years plan.

But you could at least do this a few times as a way to boost your retirement savings or pay for big vacations.

The key is to understand how to flip a fixer-upper. You have huge advantages when flipping your own home, because there’s no rush.

Since you’re living in your flip, you don’t have holding costs eating into profits, and you would otherwise have to pay housing bills somewhere. But you still have to calculate properly to make your profit.

Making the Calculations

Forget appreciation.

If home prices go up, great, but that still means paying more for the next house you live in, so that’s not really where you make a profit.

Estimate your gain based on the increase in value from the planned repairs and improvements. To calculate that when looking at a potential home, start with the end in mind.

Make a list of what needs to be done and determine what price the house should sell for when you’re finished. Use the “recently sold” tools on websites like Trulia to find nearby homes for comparison. County property appraiser websites often have publicly available information, as well.

If you’re still not sure about values, ask a good real estate agent for help, but make sure he or she has worked in that part of town.

Once you have your projected sale price (based on today’s values), estimate your renovation costs for the property, including holding costs if you can’t move in right away.

Then estimate the buying and selling costs. For the latter, you might just use a figure of 10% of the sale price, which should be enough to cover closing costs and the real estate commission.

Finally, decide what level of profit makes it worthwhile.

Once you have those numbers, you can base your offer on the following formula:

(Projected sale price) – (all costs and profit) = (the most you can pay for the house)

For example, if you want to make $20,000, and you see the renovated house will sell for $160,000, the calculation might look like this:

$160,000 – $20,000 (profit) – $16,000 (transaction costs) – $12,000 (renovation costs) = $112,000

That’s the highest price you can pay, so start with a lower offer. If you get the house, you have at least two years to complete all of the work, which brings us to one more question…

Should You Do the Work Yourself?

I’m not all that mechanically inclined, but in recent years I’ve done everything from painting our homes inside and out to replacing washing machine water lines inside a wall (and repairing the wall afterward).

But there are things I won’t try on my own. For example, I’ll replace electrical outlets, but I won’t put in new electrical lines.

You don’t have to do any of the work yourself. Just be sure your repair and improvement estimates include using contractors.

If the numbers don’t work, walk away. There are other houses to buy.

You’ll probably do best by doing some work yourself and paying professionals for other tasks. I’ve learned that painting is not difficult, so doing it yourself will save you a lot of money.

If the project is something that requires a permit, I like to pay a contractor. Be careful and check out the contractor before signing anything.

Big Tip: Walk through the home with a contractor before buying it.

My wife and I did this with a condo we flipped (we didn’t live in it), and he was able to tell us how to save money doing our own repairs. He also estimated what it would cost for the work he eventually did for us.

Making More Money

Here are two ways to boost profits when flipping homes:

Move More Often

If you want to cash in on tax-free profits, you need to move as close to every two years as you can.

For example, list your home for sale after living in it for about 21 to 22 months. By the time you close the sale, you might be just past the 24-month requirement.

Aim for Higher Appreciation

You don’t normally find a profit in rising prices, since the the price of the next home you buy will also have risen.

But homes in some areas appreciate faster than others.

Use online resources like NeighborhoodScout to identify areas where homes are appreciating the fastest, and buy in one of those neighborhoods.

Your Turn: Would you consider turning your homes into investments by flipping them and moving every few years?

Disclosure: We have a serious Taco Bell addiction around here. The affiliate links in this post help us order off the dollar menu. Thanks for your support!

Steve Gillman is the author of “101 Weird Ways to Make Money” and creator of EveryWayToMakeMoney.com. He’s been a repo-man, walking stick carver, search engine evaluator, house flipper, tram driver, process server, mock juror and roulette croupier, but of more than 100 ways he has made money, writing is his favorite (so far).

The post I Made $16,000 Tax-Free Flipping a Condo, Thanks to This IRS Loophole… appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Say Goodbye to the Social Security 'File-and-Suspend' Strategy

A budget bill is putting the brakes on a lucrative strategy to maximize Social Security benefits. 

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26 Tools to Help You Increase Your Blog’s Performance

Spending hours learning how to implement the smallest improvements on your blog is the biggest source of frustration for most blog owners.

You probably understand how important it is to give your visitors a great reader experience.

And to do that, you need to optimize many areas of your blog:

• colors
• the layout
• navigation
• pop-ups and other opt-in forms
• loading speed

and more…

It’s great if you know a little bit of coding so that you can make small changes yourself.

But for 99% of bloggers out there, it makes no sense to learn how to build a pop-up tool from scratch.

Instead, you can save yourself hundreds of hours of frustration and effort and just use a tool. You can find a free tool for just about any basic function. And even if you want a more complete tool, they typically don’t cost more than $50 a month.

I’ve put together a list of 25 great tools—divided into 4 main categories—that you can immediately use to improve your blog.

Create better blog content with these tools

These tools will help you either create content faster or create content that wasn’t possible before.

1. VideoScribe: No doubt you’ve seen explainer videos before. They look as if someone is drawing images on the screen.

In most cases, they actually aren’t. They use a tool such as VideoScribe instead.

There’s no way I can do this tool justice, so just watch this short video:

That’s one of the coolest tools I’ve seen.

It allows you to create different images and then pick a style of hand and pen.

Then, the tool puts all your images together to form a video. But the useful part is that it draws the images for you.

It loads the background first and then moves the hand around to make it look as if it’s drawing the other lines and pieces as they load.

Your other alternative is to pay a professional artist thousands of dollars to create a real live drawing.

2. BuzzSumo: This tool is a must have in any content marketer’s toolbox. It’s useful for several types of research.

The top content part of the tool, which is the main one that you’ll use, lets you find the most popular content on the web (determined by the number of social shares).

There are two main ways for you to use Buzzsumo.

The first way involves entering the domain of any of your competitors. This will bring up a list of their most shared content. You can also sort by a specific network if you’d like.

The obvious use of this is that you can create content on similar topics that produced popular (possibly viral) content for your competitors.

Chances are these will perform well for you too.

The second common way to use the tool is to enter in keywords you’re interested in targeting.

When writing content around that keyword, you want to see the best your competition has to offer. If you can produce even better content, it should perform even better.

Alternatively, this type of search usually reveals which social network is best to get active on. If you see 90%+ of shares on Facebook, that’s where you should focus your attention.

Finally, when you’re done creating that content, do another search for the keyword. This time, click “view sharers,” which will bring up a list of people who shared those articles on Twitter.

You can Tweet or email those sharers—there is a good chance that they will be interested in your new content.

3. Snappa: Creating attractive custom images isn’t exactly most marketers’ strong suit.

Until recently, you had no choice but to hire a designer or try to hack together something in Photoshop.

However, a recent wave of easy to use design tools has made it easier for you to create your own simple custom images.

Snappa is one of those tools.

It was created specifically for marketers to use, which is why the creators understand the need for simplicity. Oh yeah, and it’s free for most things.

Create an account, and scroll down to the “Blog” section. You can also choose from social media templates, ads, and header images.

Either way, click one of them to get started (or click the “custom size” button at the top).

Once you do, you’ll see a whole bunch of templates.

If you like the looks of one, just click it to load it, and then make whatever edits you need by clicking on the different elements.

If you want to add anything to the template or change something, like the background, just use that top menu to change the left sidebar.

It’s a really intuitive tool, so once you spend 10-20 minutes learning it, you’ll be set.

4. Pablo: Another one of those simple design tools is Pablo.

This one is made by the same people behind Buffer, which is another tool you might be familiar with.

Pablo is extremely simple to use but focuses especially on social media images.

However, there’s no reason why you can’t use these in your blog posts as well. Having images optimized for being shared on social media sites will increase the re-shares and, consequently, the traffic you’ll get.

On the right side menu, you have three sizes of images to choose from. For a blog post, you’ll probably want the “wide” picture or the square one:

Pick the size that corresponds with the image size used within your most important social network. This will change the size of the canvas in the middle.

Next, you’ll want to pick a background from the left side menu:

Finally, you can click the default text and type whatever you’d like.

This is great for a certain type of image but obviously won’t cover all of your needs.

5. Picmonkey: This is another image-based tool but different from the ones we’ve looked at so far. It will allow you to edit any pictures to make them look better for your blog.

Whether it’s someone else’s picture that you’d like to include (with credit, of course) or one that you’ve taken, you can upload it to this tool and change things such as:

• contrast
• direction (rotation)
• sharpness
• brightness
• color

To use the tool, just click those little icons on the far left to bring up different options.

You can also add some pretty neat filters to your pictures to make them look more professional.

For this specific function, click the little flask icon, and then click on any of the filters that come up to try them out:

6. Skitch: So far, we’ve looked at creating basic custom images that are mainly optimized for social sharing.

If you’ve read many Quick Sprout posts, you know I love including annotated screenshots.

When I’m showing readers how to do something, I often include a picture of what it looks like:

The annotations let you point out specific things on the screenshots.

Here’s what it looks like:

You click the “screen snap” button at the top, then click and drag a box over your screen to capture an image.

Next, you use those options on the left side of Skitch (shown above) to draw arrows, shapes, and labels and to add text.

Another option is to install the web clipper—a Chrome extension.

It lets you screencap anything in your browser and offers mostly the same options for annotation as Skitch does (slightly more limited).

7. Giphy: One way to make your content a little bit more exciting is by including gifs.

Giphy is a search engine specifically for gifs (like Google is for web pages).

You can type in any broad term and get many gifs as a result:

If you like one and would like to include it in your post, scroll down to the “share” section, and copy and paste the embed code into your post’s HTML tab:

Don’t go crazy with gifs, but one or two now and then can make your audience smile and enjoy the content a bit more.

8. TweetDis: You should always be trying to make your content more engaging. The more focused the reader is on your content, the more likely that it will provoke them to take action.

To do this, you need to break up your content.

One way to do this is with interactive content, which has the added benefit of getting you more social shares.

TweetDis is a tool that lets you quickly embed an attractive tweet image into your content.

Readers can click it to instantly Tweet that pre-made message (they can edit it first if they’d like).

This tool is a WordPress plugin. To use it in any post, you just click the shortcode icon in the post editor.

That brings up the settings, which let you choose the type of image you’d like to use.

 

The most common one that you’ll probably end up using is a box tweet:

Alternatively, you can create an “inline tweet”, which will highlight your text (turn it into a link) and put a Twitter logo beside it:

You have a complete control over the appearance of these types of tweets. If you go into the plugin settings, you can change things like font size and margins.

9. CoSchedule Headline Analyzer: A good headline can generate up to 500% more traffic than an average one.

This tool aims to help you create better headlines.

It’s simple to use. Just enter your current headline idea into the text box:

It will spit out a detailed analysis that will judge how effective your headline is on a scale from 0-100.

It’s difficult to get close to 100, just like it’s difficult to get close to zero.

Aim for as high as you can, and always try to improve in the future. That’s more important than the score itself.

On top of an overall score, you get some information on why your headline got that score.

Most importantly, it divides the words you use into different categories:

You need common words such as “that,” “the,” and “a,” but they don’t add much value.

Uncommon words are the opposite of those common words. They aren’t used very often, so they should be used sparingly to stand out from other headlines. But use too many, and readers won’t understand what you mean.

Emotional words and power words both cause people to take action, which you want (to click the headline). Aim for as many of them as you can.

Research by CoSchedule shows that the most impressive headlines have at least one power word or phrase in them, if not more.

You should aim for at least one emotional or power word in your headline (combined), but aim for 2 or 3 if possible:

This tool is a good way to learn about writing better headlines, but it also gives you a way to decide between different headline ideas.

10. Hemingway App: This tool was designed to help you write better, which every blogger can benefit from.

To use it, paste your content into the tool. It will automatically highlight common issues (e.g., run on sentences).

Here’s a quick sample passage from the Beginner’s Guide to Online Marketing:

Clearly, I’m not a perfect writer (far from it).

After simplifying those sentences by removing unnecessary words and breaking them down into clearer sentences, I managed to decrease the word count by 18 words:

That means that originally, there were about 10% of unnecessary words (fluff).

The best writers have little fluff, while bad writers have a ton of it.

Use this tool on a regular basis to ensure that you continue to progress as a writer. Content doesn’t need to be perfect—just improve it as much as possible.

Provide a better experience for your readers

If your blog is ugly or hard to use, it doesn’t matter how good your content is, no one will read it.

These tools will help you improve the typical reader experience.

11. Pingdom Website Speed Test: Loading speed is a huge factor in user experience.

The days of dial-up are gone for most people, and they expect pages to load within a few seconds.

Ideally, you want every page of your site to load in under 2 seconds.

To use the tool, enter your URL into the main text box on the homepage:

Once you click the test button, give the tool a minute to conduct its test.

When it’s done, you will see the results below:

 

Most important is the overall load time.

If your load time is good, you’re all set. If not, you’ll need the data below:

The “performance grade” tab will show you your general scores in different categories.

The “waterfall” tab shows you how fast each individual part of your webpage loaded.

Finally, the “page analysis” tab gives you a nice overall summary of your page’s performance:

I recommend testing at least 5-10 pages on your site to make sure that they all load quickly.

12. Quick Sprout Analyzer: I’m incredibly biased, but I think the Quick Sprout Analyzer on the homepage is a useful tool.

It’s also free, so you don’t have much to lose.

You start by entering your URL, and you’ll quickly get back a detailed report:

It focuses on SEO, site speed, and social media performance.

There’s quite a bit to the report, so I’ll leave you to explore it yourself. One particularly interesting part is the competitive analysis:

It will compare your site to those of your top competitors’.

13. Crazy Egg: This is another tool I founded—one of the leading heat map tools.

Once you install it on your website (it’s a simple script that you copy and paste), it’ll track how visitors interact with your content.

While there are a few different features, there are a few main ones that will be most useful here.

First is the scroll map, which shows you how many people scrolled to each section of the page:

This is useful because it shows you if readers are losing interest at any particular point in a post.

You can then figure out why and fix the issue not only in that post but all future ones (or past ones) as well.

The second main feature is the standard click heat map, which shows you where people click on the page:

If you see users paying a lot of attention to an area, you can rearrange the page so that the most important elements go there.

Alternatively, if they’re trying to click on something that can’t be clicked (like certain images), it shows that they are trying to do something. You can add a link to improve their experience.

14. Google’s Pagespeed Insights: Here’s another pagespeed tool, but it’s a bit simpler than Pingdom.

It should be used as a starting point, and then you can dig in further with other tools if need be.

Pagespeed is one of the confirmed ranking factors in Google. They care a lot about user experience, which is why they made this tool in the first place.

Again, enter your URL into the tool. It could be your homepage or a post:

It will quickly give you an overall score, not just for desktop users but for mobile users as well.

If you get 80 and above, you’re doing okay.

It will show the biggest issues (red – bad!; orange – not as bad) that you should address to improve your page loading speed.

It also has a “show how to fix” link under each issue, so you get a little guidance to walk you through the solution.

15. Print Friendly: One useful bonus that you can provide for your users is PDF versions of posts, especially if they’re long.

This tool turns web pages into relatively attractive PDF files.

Enter your post URL, and press “print preview”:

Then, you can click on anything in the preview (like an image or line) to edit that element or remove it if it didn’t show up right.

Finally, click the PDF button at the very top to create the PDF:

16. Broken Link Checker: Nothing disappoints a reader more than reading a post, seeing an interesting link, and then finding out that it’s broken.

Broken links are unavoidable; web pages die all the time.

However, it is a good idea to check for broken links once in awhile and fix them.

To use this tool, enter your URL and the captcha code, and click the shiny yellow button.

It’ll take a minute or two to finish the scan. Any broken links will show up underneath.

Explode your conversion rate(s)

Another sign of a high performing blog is its ability to turn readers into repeat readers.

This usually means growing an email list, which is what these tools will help you do.

17. OptinMonster: Not everyone likes to use pop-ups, but they work. They almost always help you increase your email sign-up rate by a large amount.

So while it’s usually a good idea to at least test out pop-ups, that doesn’t mean they have to be annoying.

A good pop-up won’t have a negative effect on the reader’s experience.

OptinMonster is one of the cheapest options to create simple and attractive pop-ups for your site.

You can set it up to appear only when a reader clicks a specific link (useful for content upgrades).

When creating a new pop-up, you can choose from several different themes, and just edit the text:

It also works with all major email marketing service providers.

18. LeadPages: If you have enough traffic to the point that every extra increase on your conversion rate is a big deal, you may want a more comprehensive tool such as LeadPages.

It’s one of the more expensive options, but it’s also a high quality tool, used by many popular bloggers:

You can make several types of pop-ups, but you also get access to a lot more.

The other important feature of LeadPages is its landing page builder.

If you’re making any kind of page that you’d like to optimize for conversions, you know that landing pages convert the best.

This tool lets you use themes that have already been tested and proven to have the highest conversion rates.

19. Visual Website Optimizer: Once you have all the best practices for conversion in place, you’ll need to start split testing.

One tool that helps you do that is Visual Web Optimizer (VWO).

It will take you a bit of time to learn how to use it, but basically it allows you to change one element on a page (that you think affects conversion) and then test it:

You paste the code the tool generates onto the original page, and it will ensure that each variation is seen by different visitors.

In the reports tab, you’ll be able to see how different variations are converting, and it will tell you when you have a statistically significant sample size:

20. Unbounce: Another popular landing page building tool is Unbounce.

To build a page, you just drag and drop different widgets into the page builder, and then edit your text and/or images.

The most important widget that you’ll want to include on most pages is some type of an opt-in form.

You can customize it to include whichever fields you’d like, and it will work with any email marketing service.

On top of being able to build landing pages, you can also split test landing pages.

Since you turn to landing pages when you have an important offer, your conversion rate on these pages is often the most important to optimize.

To use it, create a copy of one of the landing pages you’ve made, and then change something on that page. The tool will show you the respective conversion rates and the statistical significance:

21. Hello Bar: This is the final tool on this list that I’ve been involved in building, I promise.

Hello Bar is a simple way to display messages along the top of your website:

If you pick a good color, it’ll get a lot of attention while taking up very little of the screen.

You can use it to display messages, collect email addresses, or direct visitors to a landing page (if they click a button on it).

You can get it up and running free—just enter your domain name in the sign-up box:

Next, determine which kind of message you’d like to display in your bar. You can always create a new one in the future.

Most people start with collecting emails or showing announcements.

There are five very simple steps that you go through to configure your bar. You’ll have a chance to change the text and appearance of the bar.

Finally, you’ll get a short piece of code after you save and publish the bar.

There are three simple installation methods for the code; you can choose the most convenient:

22. Content Upgrades PRO: Something that I’ve previously mentioned is content upgrades.

A content upgrade is a post-specific lead magnet. Since they are so relevant to the post’s content, they typically get a fantastic email opt-in rate (upwards of 3%).

The difficult part is keeping track of them and offering all the different content upgrades you create.

This premium WordPress plugin was created to help you do that.

You enter a shortcode from the plugin, and depending on which design you pick, it will show up in your content as one of the following boxes:

A visitors clicks on the box and triggers a pop-up asking for their email address in exchange for the content upgrade.

Get your content seen by more people

This final group of tools is all about getting more people to your blog, which is one of the top goals for any blogger.

23. Buzzstream: Buzzstream is one of the most comprehensive content promotion tools there is.

It helps you find influencers, bloggers, journalists, etc., and finds you a whole bunch of useful contact information:

Once you’ve compiled a list of people to email about a new piece of content, you can use a feature inside of the tool that allows you to send a template-based message to all of them at the same time (customized with their information, of course).

Not only that, but Buzzstream also keeps track of the success rate of each template you build, so you can figure out which ones are the best:

24. Content Marketer: This tool was designed specifically for content marketers. It has a modern design, and it’s pretty intuitive to use.

There are three main functions, which are clearly laid out at the top of each project:

By scanning a post, the tool will compile a list of relevant contacts you could promote it to.

Then, it will find just about anyone’s email address.

Finally, it allows you to send templates to the people on your list:

This tool can save you several hours on a regular basis.

25. Pitchbox: Another tool that helps you reach out to bloggers more efficiently is Pitchbox.

It’s designed more as a general marketing and SEO tool. You can choose from many different campaigns such as:

• Blogger outreach – find bloggers and send them emails
• Get your product reviewed – find product reviewers and contact them
• Link removal – send link removal requests all at once

And just like with all the other tools, you can easily send template-based emails, complete with personalized information of the recipient:

26. Topsy: This final tool is essentially a robust Twitter search engine, which is obviously most useful if you promote your content on Twitter.

You can search any topic, and the tool will return you a list of the most shared content related to that search phrase:

If you click the orange “# more” link on each piece of content, it will show you a list of people who shared it on Twitter:

It also divides people based on their following size.

You can use this to find people who were interested in similar content in the past and then contact them to let them know about your new content.

Conclusion

Making a great blog takes a ton of work, but tools can help you accomplish it faster and easier.

But no one needs all 25 tools on this list.

There might be a point when using more tools might actually make your blog worse.

I recommend you start by trying a handful of these tools at a time until you find the ones you have the most success with.

I realize that there are many other great tools out there. Share them in a comment below if I forgot one that you love.

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