Is Yoast the right fit for me?

Are there better tools or approaches that I could be using?

Needs

I want to make a small blog more popular and also have access to Yoast's premium features that help clean-up my blog (multiple keywords, internal linking, social media preview and some of the editing tools to help out with readability...etc).

Background

I run a small, personal blog about a niche topic (international parental child abduction) where I share reflections, tips and other related thoughts/stories. My blog has a Twitter account that discusses the subject matter with others in the community.

Yoast is something I've paid for because the free version doesn't have the whole suite of editing tools. I like the editing tools because they help me to better my language while also making the site more SEO friendly. In short, I like how it helps me to polish everything and wouldn't think twice about it if the full-featured version was free.

HOWEVER... it isn't. Every year they hit me up for $89 USD (sometimes with a 10-20% discount). I'm in Australia and our exchange rate is currently VERY unfavourable so think of it costing me more like $150 (per year) even after a discount. My salary doesn't get adjusted just because our dollar's sitting unfavourably, so I mean... it's expensive! My blog has no source of revenue and I dunno how many people read it per year but IMO it would be less than 50 people (generous estimate there - I don't wanna think about how few it might actually be).

Currently they're offering a 20% discount. When my renewal comes up they'll offer me 25% and on Black Friday (literally a week after my renewal) they'll offer 30% off (apparently only to 'new' customers... I already tried arguing "It's pretty bad look when you send out multiple 'concerned' e-mails claiming you 'reward loyalty' with your 'best deal' a week or two before you pitch an even better deal to that same person"). Anyhow, it is what it is.

I like the plug-in but end of the day:

• Pretty much nobody reads my blog so I sorta question where my US$89 is going to.
• I don't have a source of revenue (and wouldn't even if I setup ads/patreon...etc so IMO it'd just be tacky for me to try as it'd make it look like I'm trying to make $$$ rather than blog out of a valid personal interest).
• Yoast as a company hasn't been particularly nice to me. The whole Black Friday thing sorta burned as they sent me a really generic e-mail with zero empathy for my situation. Sure they don't have to care but it still gave me a bad impression of what they stand for (when combined with what they'd just done to me).
• I don't wanna close the blog or stop blogging because it's an area of personal interest. Even if literally nobody read my blog, I'd still wanna write about the topic and make my blog as accessible as possible (including for SEO).

submitted by /u/Gambizzle
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