4 tools for that perfect post for a Book Review Blog in 2021 (with 2 Bonus tools)

Through Mru's Books and Reviews I’ve been blogging for a fair amount of time now, consistently. But that was not always the case. Making my first post and some more after that felt like a mammoth task, and it took me forever. After several hours of back-breaking struggle, I managed to get up a post that didn’t precisely look unique or stunning or just perfect in any way. I wasn’t thrilled with the depth of the content either.

That’s when I decided to take matters seriously. I discovered tools that have made this super easy for me, Now, I can concentrate on what mattered (reading books), and hence I could run my book review blog consistently and effectively.

Every blogger/book blogger swears by specific tools that make their life reasonably easy. I am no exception.

For any post to be considered a good post, I think four aspects are absolutely vital. Those are- the informative value of the post, its appeal and attractiveness, the richness of the language and its internal linking and homogeneity with the rest of your blog. These are the four tools I use to achieve these.

1. Semrush for keyword researching my book blog

Book blogging isn’t only about writing book reviews. So if you’re thinking of writing other bookish posts, you need readers who would read them. And for your post to be read, it needs to be searchable, and for it to be searchable, it needs to be keyword researched. Tada!!!

What is keyword research?

Keywords are just the words people/your customers search for when on the Internet. So keyword research is understanding and analyzing what these terms are that your customers use when looking for products in your niche.

For example, Best book 2020, or best scary story or best fiction book, or what should I read next?

Semrush has a 7-day free trial period – check it out now.

Here’s how I research using Semrush. It would help if you tried it too.

Find a seed keyword – see if it has some traffic every month.

Then dig into details like what long-tail keywords can be used from the seed keyword, the search volume for that long-tail keyword. Related questions people ask to that seed keyword and so on. Semrush will help you get all the answers and ideas for your post.

So from best books, I drill down into best fiction books to read that have a search volume of 3.6k search every month, and this search term trends well throughout the year.

In the related keywords, I find a valuable long-tail keyword for the Indian context; I can further drill down to the best Indian fiction novels, which have a good search volume of 250 searches per month in India, and so on. I should target this low volume keyword first in order to start ranking quicker on Google Search. 

If you want to get into all the details of how I create a perfectly-researched post using Semrush, please read my upcoming post on that.

Semrush has a 7-day free trial period – check it out now

2. Grammarly for checking spelling, grammar, and syntax, and plagiarism check on my book review posts.

You can use Grammarly in several ways.

First, I absolutely recommend you Install the Grammarly browser extension (it’s free!). That way you can type right into your WordPress content manager, and it will highlight incorrect words or phrases.

Or, like me, I write my article in Word and then copy-paste/upload my document’s content in Grammarly to check for correctness.

Alternatively, you can also type directly into the Grammarly app on the phone or s desktop. This makes it very easy to click on the suggested correction without interrupting your flow.

Second, your post should not only be grammatically but also syntactically correct. Punctuation, word usage, ease of reading are elements of a post that we don’t have to be an expert of because expert tools like Grammarly help you do just that.

There are so many more interesting, meaningful, and valuable additions to Grammarly that I will be creating a detailed post going into everything I love about Grammarly soon.

3. Canva Free for all shareable images, book lists, book review posts and bookish photos.

All Blogging Gurus quote: Posts with great images always do well.

The Visual Appeal of your post is as important as the textual content. Your post should have a few good-quality images, and they should be self-explanatory and helpful too.

With Canva, you can create Blog Images, Pinable images, Infographics, posters, quotable pics, and so much more with a few easy drag and drops. What’s more, if you have a specific color palette, Canva helps you there too. Bonus- Add your signature on all images you create in Canva.

Canva is the best tool on the web for creating customized images that you can then use either on your Bookstagram or your review posts or bookish blog posts.

What I love about Canva are the numerous templates that they offer. Select one, make some customizations with color, theme, icons, add your signature, and voila, you have a beautiful professional looking image within no time.

What’s more, Canva comes with a Resize feature where you can resize your template to go with any social media-Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, or Blog. These are the ones I usually use; I am sure they cover other media too.

Another detailed post with images I create from Canva is up. Check it out now.

4. Thrive themes as my go-to WordPress theme for my book blog.

Your posts and blog's overall look and how easily you can assemble these consistently beautiful posts are essential in your blogging journey.

It should be a look consistent with all your posts on your blog and your homepage. A functional and elegant-looking Word Press theme goes a long way in getting this job done. And, of course, it also helps you assemble your post quickly. You can also link your other related posts, add in some affiliate links, and you’re good to go.

Although there are quite a few bookish themes available, I personally prefer Thrive Themes. Why?

2 Bonus Tools

1. Gimp

Examples of 5 ideas I created using the tool. The main keyword I added was "Book Blog". I am set for a week of blogposts.

• Book Blog: Expectations vs. Reality
• The Next Big Thing in Book Blog
• 13 Things About Book Blog You May Not Have Known
• What NOT to Do in the Book Blog Industry
• 7 Little Changes That'll Make a Huge Difference With Your Book Blog

Which is your favorite tool of these? Comment below. Or suggest a tool you think is much more useful for a book review blog. All suggestions are welcome.