Welcome to the ultimate guide to the best gifts for bloggers, according to me, a full-time blogger!
Now first, let me give you my credentials: I started this blog in 2012 and have since grown it to about 65,000 pageviews a month and earn a steady $5K in passive income from it.
I’ve since made blogging my (almost) full-time job (I still do freelance writing, too), so I know a thing or two about what bloggers need/want.
The best gifts for bloggers are things that help them grow their blog/business, so that’s what I’ll focus on below. I’ll also throw in a few fun things (because hey, we’re people too!) so you have lots of options to choose from.
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– Best Online Courses for Bloggers –
Online courses are ALL the rage in the blogosphere, and it’s likely your blogger friend hoards tons of them.
One of the best gifts for bloggers is an education. We always want to learn the latest traffic hack or monetization technique to take our blogs to the next level!
Below I’ll list some of the most popular ones that I’ve taken and can recommend.
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing
This course is one of THE most popular blogging courses out there right now. It’s created by rockstar blogger Michelle of MakingSenseofCents.com. She made $52,363.42 in affiliate income from her blog in November 2017 ALONE! ? This girl is crushing it with her blog! I’m in this course and its accompanying Facebook group.
If you’d like to buy it as a gift for someone, it’s really easy! I did this for my dad. (Yep, my dad was so impressed by Michelle’s blog success, he wanted the course so I got it for his birthday last year.) All you have to do is purchase the course and then give the sign-in info to your blogger friend. They can then go in and change the username and password. Make sure you BOTH aren’t sharing the same account, because that’s not fair to the creator of the course! I actually went in and bought my OWN account for the course later, so both my dad and I have separate accounts for Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing.
Click here to join me in Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing!
Pinterest Traffic Avalanche
Okay, this is NOT the most popular Pinterest course (Pinfinite Growth probably is), but I have taken both Pinterest Traffic Avalanche AND Pinfinite Growth (more popular and more expensive), and I truly believe Pinterest Traffic Avalanche is the better course. This course teaches bloggers how to use Pinterest to drive insane amounts of traffic to their blog. The course creators, Alex and Lauren, routinely get like 100,000 visits a MONTH from Pinterest!
Click here to get Pinterest Traffic Avalanche!
Six-Figure BloggerÂ
Created by the SAME makers of Pinterest Traffic Avalanche, Six-Figure Blogger divulges ALL the secrets Alex and Lauren used to earn — a MONTH from their blog. Full disclosure: They gave the course to me for free to test out, and I’m taking it right now. It is REALLY good! They even give you the EXACT templates they use in their email sequences so you literally can just swipe from them.
Click here to check out Six-Figure Blogger!
– Best Books and Planners for Bloggers-
We may live in a digital world, but we still like physical books and planners!
CREATE Content and Editorial PlannerÂ
I tested out a few different blog planners, but this one by Meera Kothand is, in my humble opinion, the BEST planner for bloggers. Why? Well, Meera is kind of a legend in the blogging community. She writes about blog strategy and email marketing and is sharp as a tack. Out of all the blog planners I looked at, hers was the most thorough, allowing you too look at the year as a whole, then break it down by monthly and weekly tasks to tackle in order to reach your goals. If you get your blogger friend the Create Content Planner, they’ll be able to map out their blog’s entire year in terms of content and goals and grow their business. I highly recommend it! It’s the exact planner I’m using to grow my blog in 2018!
Click here to get the Create Content Planner on Amazon!
The Productivity Planner
I cannot recommend this planner ENOUGH! I truly think the Productivity Planner is the best planner for entrepreneurs and bloggers. The power is in its simplicity. It FORCES you to choose ONLY 5 TASKS to complete per day, and even among those 5, it forces you to choose order of importance. You select ONE and only one “Most Important Task” (MIT) of the day, and don’t do anything else until you’ve completed it. It also runs on the Pomodoro Technique, where you block out 25-minute chunks of time to focus intensely on one task, followed by a 5-minute break. It has done wonders for my focus and productivity. Seriously, get this for your blogger friend, and then get one for yourself!
Click here to check the latest price of The Productivity Planner on Amazon
How to Blog for Profit Without Selling Your Soul
Haha. Gotta love that title. I read this book earlier this year and loved it so much that I later bought it as a birthday present for an aspiring blogger friend. Ruth Soukup is another legend in the blogger world, and she gives it to you straight in this easy-to-digest, actionable book. It’s definitely aimed at beginner bloggers, or at least, bloggers who are only starting to monetize their blogs.
Click here to get this blogging book!
– Best Software for Bloggers –
ConvertKit
If you’re in the blogosphere, you know EVERYONE LOVES ConvertKit. And with good reason too. As a long-time MailChimp user, I fought hopping on the ConvertKit bandwagon for the longest time, but I finally tried it out when I got a 2-month trial as a bonus with the Ultimate Bundles Genius Blogger Toolkit—and oh my gosh, it really is way more efficient and intuitive. ConvertKit makes it easier to segment your audiences and place them into appropriate sales funnels. Here’s an added bonus to using ConvertKit: You can use ConvertKit’s mailing address as the FTC-required address on the bottom of your emails. If your blogger friend is a very private person (as I am), this is a HUGE bonus!
Click here to get your blogger friend a ConvertKit subscription!
Grammarly
Grammarly is a great tool for bloggers to run their blog posts through to check for typos and awkward wording. You can get your blogger friend a Grammarly Premium subscription as a gift! I use Grammarly to check my articles before I send them off to my editor.
Click here to get a Grammarly Premium subscription for your blogger friend!
Social Warfare Premium
Social Warfare is the plugin I use to have those share buttons at the top and bottom of my blog posts. If you get the premium version, you can keep your social share counts when you switch your blog to HTTPS.
Click here to get Social Warfare!
Keysearch Keyword Research Tool
This software’s for the truly geeky bloggers who LOVE SEO (AKA, bloggers like me). I’ve tried a couple of other keyword research tools and I used to use Jaaxy, but it’s too expensive for me. Now, I use Keysearch and LOVE it! It’s how I find the best keywords to rank for in Google, and it’s also how I continuously monitor my blog post rankings.
Click here to learn more about Keysearch!
WordPress Support (monthly subscription)
Grayson of iMark Interactive saves me from SO much stress and heartache! I’m on his monthly subscription for WordPress Support, and anytime I have a question about the tech side of my blog, all I have to do is submit a ticket, and he takes care of it within an hour or so! I highly, highly recommend that every blogger get tech support. It frees you up to do the more creative tasks (like write blog posts) AND protects your blog from hackers and tech glitches.
Click here to get a monthly WordPress Support plan!
SiteGround web hosting
I used Bluehost for 4 years before finally switching to SiteGround. And I can say the ONLY web host I recommend for bloggers is SiteGround. Using SiteGround doubled my site speed and ensured my site was never down.
Click here to check out SiteGround’s hosting plans!
– Best Electronics & Accessories for Bloggers –
Clip-On Ring Light for Smartphone and Laptop
I’m almost a little embarrassed that I know EXACTLY why your blogger friend wants this. If she does any sort of Facebook live videos or Instagram stories for her blog, she definitely wants this clip-on ring light. Ring lights are amazing little invention for a very superficial reason: They create an even lighting across your face, ridding it of any unsightly shadows. They also make your eyes look all glow-y.
Click here to see the latest price for this clip-on ring light!
Standalone Ring Light for DSLR Cameras and/or Smartphones
A step up from the clip-on ring light, this full ring light set can be used with DSLR cameras and smartphones and comes with a stand. If your blogger friend shoots YouTube videos, she will LOVE this ring light set!
Click here to check out this Ring Light set!
Blue Snowball Microphone
I own this microphone! I bought it when I was recording voiceovers for clients. It’s a great, affordable microphone if your blogger friend is hosting a podcast or recording audio for her online course.
Click here to check the latest price for the Blue Snowball Mic!
Blue Yeti USB Microphone
If you really want to get one of the best gifts for bloggers, get the Blue Yeti microphone. This is the premium version of the Snowball mic and has even better quality. Lots of YouTubers and singers drool over this microphone!
Click here to see the Blue Yeti USB Microphone on Amazon!
Pop Filter
This pop filter would be the PERFECT add-on to a gift of the Blue Snowball or Yeti microphone. You know how sometimes when you record into a mic, anything with a “P” or “B” sound makes the microphone “pop”? This pop filter reduces any strange sounds that come from the more forceful consonants.
Click here to get this Pop Filter to add onto the mic!
Tabletop studio lightboxÂ
We bloggers are ALWAYS styling some photo shoot for Instagram. ? Every blogger wants a tabletop lightbox of their own so they can take product photos that look chic and professional.
Click here to see the latest prices for this lightbox!
– Other Fun Gifts for Bloggers-
Treadmill Desk
This would be a hilarious gag gift as well as a very practical health-oriented gift. We bloggers do a LOT of sitting in front of our laptops, so why not get a gift that gets your blogger friend moving while in front of her laptop? ?
Click here to check out this treadmill desk on Amazon!
Sunlight-Mimicking Therapy Desk Lamp
Again, kinda funny, but also very practical. These sunlight-mimicking lamps are actually the ones that those who live in places like Alaska (where there’s virtually no sunlight during winter months) use to prevent Seasonal Affective Disorder and fight the effects of depression from lack of sun. Again, we bloggers don’t get out much. I actually developed Vitamin D deficiency while living in San Francisco (and not getting out much), so one of these lamps would have been helpful. Your blogger friend can set this on her desk and feel the effects of almost-like-the-real-thing sunlight.
Click here to check the prices for this sunlight lamp on Amazon!
“Eat Sleep Blog Repeat” T-Shirt
Nothing sums up the blogger life quite like this shirt.
Click here to see this blogger shirt on Amazon!
Some really great ideas in here! Thank you! Will definitely forward this on to some of my clients.
As a blogger, I’m in love with these gifts! Thinking of ordering some of the books as a treat to myself
Cristina x
Omg Yes Please! I Would love all of these. And thank you for those great course recommendations. I am definitely looking into Pinterest Avalanche!
I second the recommendation for a clip-on ring light! It’s perfect for low lighting and definitely takes my selfie game to another level. I’d add the Joby flexible tripod for phones and lightweight cameras. I take a lot of photos while running in the woods and I can wrap the tripod legs around a limb for that perfect photo.
These are such great ideas! I really like the idea of the affiliate marketing course and the lightbox :)