40 Blogging Resources – What I Use + My Favorite Blogging Resources

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This is the ultimate resource guide of over 40 blogging resources covering everything I use and love to run my blog! Everything from Hosting and domain to logo and design, social media, and more!

These are the products and services I use to keep my blog running smoothly and am proud to recommend them to you!

Hosting & Domain:

Bluehost

Bluehost.com is what I use to host my website and is the easiest option for getting started.  It is the only hosting service officially recommended by WordPress and has been the number-one recommended hosting service for their platform for almost 10 years.

Wordpress.org

WordPress.org is the self-hosted publishing platform used to actually put your content on to your site. This is what I use in combination with Bluehost to publish all of my content and control the backend of my site.

Namechk.com

Namechk.com is my favorite place to look for new domain names or social handles. You can type in a potential name and it will show you if it is available as a domain in a .com, .net, etc. And what social platforms that name is available at. This website is perfect for making sure your site is available at your desired .com domain and if the username is available on a variety of social media platforms!

GoDaddy

GoDaddy is another place I like to check to see if my domain is available. It will show you if the name is available, what variants of that name are available and how much the domain is. I tend to use this platform after checking the domain’s availability on Namechk.com because GoDaddy tells you how much the available domain is and Namechk.com doesn’t.

Web Logo & Design:

Hello You Designs

Hello You Designs creates beautiful Wordpress Themes built upon the Genesis Framework. Clean, modern designs, easy to customize, superior coding! They have very affordable Wordpress themes that will help you stand out online!

Creative Market

Creative Market is an all in one resource for bloggers that includes site themes, fonts and graphics, stock photos, and more! It is an online marketplace for community-generated design assets. The company sells graphics, WordPress themes, stock photography, and other digital goods for use by web creatives. Plus they have freebies every month!

Canva

I love Canva! Canva is your all-in-one graphic creator and editor for blog images, logos, Pinterest pins, infographics, and more! I use Canva every single day and they have free and paid options!

Etsy

You can also find some amazing web themes on Etsy as well, just search Wordpress themes into the search bar!

Fiverr

Restored 316 Designs

Restored 316 Designs creates feminine Wordpress themes using the Genesis Framework perfect for women business owners and bloggers!

Genesis Framework

The Genesis WordPress Framework is a theme and theme foundation that is used to create amazing website themes and designs. Usually used in combination with a separate theme and child theme.

Blog Images & Editing:

Haute Stock

Haute Stock is my favorite resource for beautifully styled Stock Photography for Women Entrepreneurs, Bloggers, and Creative Professionals. They have a massive collection of photos to choose from at a super affordable price!

Sc Stock Shop

I also really like Sc StockShop for styled stock photography! They have beautiful images but at a much higher price than Haute Stock. Sometimes they just have the perfect image though!

Styled Stock Society

The Styled Stock Society is another amazing resource for beautifully styled stock photos for your blog. They are the most affordable of the three I listed but I feel like Haute Stock is just a bit better.

Creative Market

Creative Market is an all in one resource for bloggers that includes site themes, fonts and graphics, stock photos, and more! It is an online marketplace for community-generated design assets. The company sells graphics, WordPress themes, stock photography, and other digital goods for use by web creatives. Plus they have freebies every month!

Etsy

Etsy is another good option for stock photography if you’re just looking for one photo at a time. Just search for styled stock photos in the search bar!

Adobe Lightroom

Adobe Illustrator is a professional photo editing software and is what I use to edit all of my photos for my blog and social media. They have plans that start at $10 and are worth every penny!

Canva

I love Canva! I literally use Canva every single day! Canva is your all-in-one graphic creator and editor for blog images, logos, Pinterest pins, infographics, and more! I use Canva every single day and they have free and paid options!

Unsplash

Beautiful high-quality free images and photos you can download and use for any project. No attribution required. Unsplash is a site where you can find free to use photos for your blog!

Pexels

Free stock photos you can use everywhere. Free for commercial use, no attribution required. Like Unsplash this site has a bunch of free stock photos you can use on your blog.

Email Marketing & Opt-ins:

Active Campaign

Active Campaign is the new email system that I just migrated to from MailChimp. They’re more advanced than MailChimp and allow tags, automation and more! I’ve only been with them for a little bit but I’m really glad I made the switch!

MailChimp

MailChimp is a great starter email system and is what I recommend for anyone just starting out! They are free up to 2,000 subscribers and have everything you need until your blog really starts to grow! After you reach the 2,000 subscribers mark, I would suggest switching to something a little more advanced like Active Campaign but until then MailChimp is great!

Convertkit

Another great email system is Convertkit, they don’t have a free option but they have a lot of really great automation features. This is definitely one to seriously consider if you’re just starting out!

Sumo

Sumo is a Wordpress plugin by Sumome that offers a suite of free tools that can be used to grow your website’s traffic. The Sumo tools are easy to install and work on any website. I use this plugin to display social share buttons on my blog and collect email subscribers!

Hello Bar

Hello Bar is a site that lets you design messages for your visitors, or collect email subscribers by displaying a small bar at the top of your site. It provides tools and features that ensure correct timing of messages you want your visitors to see.

My E-Cover Maker

This easy to use website allows you to turn your images into 3D books and devices. I use it to create 3D images for email opt-ins, as well as to make mockups for my digital products.

Social Media:

BoardBooster

This is what I use to schedule out all of my pins for Pinterest. BoardBooster is a pin scheduling tool for bloggers that helps manage Pinterest accounts by automatically spreading new pins over ideal pinning hours. It’s only $5 and is worth every penny!

Tailwind

Tailwind like BoardBooster schedules out your pins but they also do Instagram too! They are a bit more expensive at $15 a month but they are very popular among the blogger scene.

Preview App

The Preview App is a free app I use on my phone to plan out my Instagram posts. It allows you to drag and drop images to see what they would look like in your feed. Allowing you to create a consistent curated theme on your Instagram.

Iconosquare

Iconosquare is a system that helps you grow your Instagram and Facebook presence with exclusive insights and best-in-class management tools. They also have automation features so you can post to Instagram and Facebook automatically and schedule out your posts!

Buffer

Money Making Platforms & Ad Networks

Teachable

Teachable is a site that allows you to easily build a beautiful course website, share your knowledge, and be rewarded for it.

Send Owl

Send Owl is an e-commerce platform that allows you to send your product and get paid by the customer without jumping through hoops.

Etsy

Etsy is an e-commerce platform that allows you to sell digital and physical products. They do charge a .20 cent listing fee for every listing but they are easy to manage and set up!

Mediavine

Mediavine is the ad network that I currently work with. They offer full-service ad management including display ad optimization, video monetization, and sponsored influencer marketing. However, they do require you to have at least 25k visitors (not pageviews) a month to be accepted.

Adthrive

Adthrive is an ad network and management system that takes care of your ads on your sites and helps you get the highest dollar amount for each pageview you receive! You must have at least 100k pageviews a month to get accepted though.

Google Adsense

Google Adsense is a great started ad network that you can use to make money off each pageview you receive to your site. They don’t have a set traffic minimum to apply which makes them great for newbies!

Quickbooks

Quickbooks helps you track, organize & manage your blog’s income and expenses and also integrates with Turbo Tax making taxes a breeze!

Extras:

Dropbox

Dropbox is a free online tool that allows you to store and share files online. It also allows you to create direct download links which are great for free printables!

Elite Blog Academy

If I can give you any advice as a blogger it would be to invest in yourself. Elite Blog Academy is the complete online blogging course that holds your hand and takes you step by step through the process of creating and running a blog that makes you money! This is the course I took on blogging and is the reason my blog is so successful! Enrollment only opens once a year but you can get on the waitlist here!

Grammarly

Grammarly is a free or paid software (I use the free version) that detect plagiarism, easily improve any text, eliminate grammar errors.

Survey Monkey

They offer a  free online survey tool to capture the voices and opinions of the people who matter most to you. Surveys are free up to 10 questions.

Google Docs

This is what I use for everything from collecting reader success stories to surveying my audience!

Yoast SEO Plugin

This plugin is the most complete SEO plugin available for WordPress and is what I use to optimize my site for search engine optimization!

 

What do I need as a brand new blogger?

You obviously don’t need all of this if you’re just starting out but the things I would suggest you use is at least:

• Domain and hosting through Bluehost
• Canva (free version) for logo design and to create blog and social images.
• a blog theme Hello You Designs or Creative Market.
• MailChimp to build your email list
• Sumo free plugin for share buttons
• BoardBooster for Pinterest
• Yoast SEO free plugin
• Grammarly to help with grammar and spell check! (it’s free!)

These are all the things I suggest using as a brand new blogger and most of them are free! So once you purchase your hosting and theme, the only thing you’re paying monthly for is BoardBooster which is only $5 a month until you reach that 2,000 subscribers free plan threshold with MailChimp. Which is pretty awesome!

 

I hope this resource guide helped you find the resources that will help you up your blogging game and make life just a  little more simple! And don’t forget to join my blogger community and get my free monthly blog planner by signing up below!