As a Christian blogger focused on fitness and Motherhood, I have grown and learned so much about blogging. I decided to share some of my favorite blogging resources and some that I do not have but would recommend to you. These are tools that have helped me and I believe would be beneficial to your blog.
Disclaimer: Some links I share are affiliate links, they will not cost you anything more, but you can be certain they are only things I love or that come well recommended!
HOSTING: SITEGROUND
Self-hosting is definitely the way to go if you are serious about blogging. You have full control and access to so many plugins. I always recommend WordPress because it’s so flexible compared to others. I recently switched to Siteground and love it so much. I highly recommend them. I am not a technical person, although thanks to blogging I am so much better. But their 24/7 support and live chat is the best thing ever, they walk you through every step. Their servers are super fast and it costs as low as $3.95 a month.
THEME: RESTORED316
I currently use the Restored316 designs themes, specifically the Refined theme. They are run on the Genesis Framework and are very feminine and gorgeous. I searched for a theme that would really represent me and my brand and also be very professional. They have a great support guide to walk you through the entire setup.
You can also get other themes from the following places
Pinterest is my number one traffic referral for my blog and it’s easy to understand why. Pinterest is such an amazing social platform. To be successful with Pinterest, you need to be great at pinning. I usually Manual pin or schedule using Tailwind. Tailwind is really great a helping to simplify the entire scheduling process of your pins. Although I seem to find manual pinning quite refreshing.
If you would love to try Tailwind out, you can use my link for a free $15 which is one month trial. You have nothing to lose!!
There is also Board booster which I have tried and loved as well. It also has a looping feature which I found very useful at the time.
GRAPHICS
For my Pinterest graphics, I use CANVA, it is so amazing! They have so many great templates to choose from.
There is also picmonkey, although I have never really tried it, i hear great things about it.
EMAIL LIST
To build your subscribers, you need a great list builder. I currently use MAILERLITE and love it! It is free for up to 1000 subscribers and then you pay from there on. There is also Mailchimp which I used to use but did not think it was as flexible as Mailerlite. If you use my link, you can get $20 credit when you sign up.
STOCK PHOTOS
Not everyone can take lovely pictures all the time. I have been using stock photos for my social media, blog and Pinterest platforms. I am not a great photographer, so finding sources that can help in that area is key. Currently, I use free ones and also Haute stock photos. They have such beautiful images.
Here is a list of Free and Paid stock photo sites
FREE
PAID
AFFILIATE PLATFORMS
Awin: They have lots of brands you can work with
Amazon affiliates: I love Amazon so definitely this would be one I would recommend.
SOCIAL SCHEDULING
You can use any of these to schedule things like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Buffer: I use this sometimes for my twitter posts
Coschedule: I have heard so many great things about this, I used a 14-day trial and loved it, but it’s a tiny bit pricey so I never enrolled in it.
Later: I currently use this to schedule my twitter posts.
PLUGINS
Akismet: Protect your site from spam comments, trust me, they get annoying!
Jetpack
Click to tweet: Add a tweet to your post and they can click it to share
Simple social icons: Display your various social media icons to your visitors
WP Smush: Automatically optimize and resize every image
Google Analytics: You need this to track your stats for your site.
PRODUCTIVITY
Evernote: I love Evernote, I use it to jot down my ideas or blog post topics, or things to do on my phone.
Grammarly: I love Grammarly so much. It is so useful in checking your work after you are done to make sure you have not misused or misspelled a word or several other things. I use their free plan.
COURSES
I have done a few courses on growing my traffic and also blogging better and there are a few i highly recommend
Pinteresting Strategies by Carly campbell. This book really helped me grow my Pinterest blog traffic tremendously. I will work on a post to talk more about it soon.
Pinterest course By Lauren
Make money blogging by Lauren
INFLUENCER PLATFORMS
Influenster: I love Influenster, they do not pay but they send free products to test out and review
Style collective: Once you sign up, you have access to so many great resources and also tips to connect with brands and lists of brands to work with.
Social native: They connect you with several brands!
SEO
Gosh SEO is such a huge topic in blogging. It is so important if you want to grow your audience and make money from your blog. I currently read several blogs to learn more about SEO and also use plugins and keyword planners here and there.
Yoast Plugin: I really love this, it helps ensure you are working actively on making yous post SEO-tastic. I use the free version.
Google Keyword Planner
MEDIA KITS
You can get those lovely Media kits for brands from these places:
I will keep this list updated as i do more things with my blog or learn about other great things.
PS. I also offer blogging services, so if you need help setting up your blog or any other thing listed here, feel free to reach out.
