After lots & lots of research, I’ve put together this Blogging Resources page to help bloggers find the resources that they need to grow their blogs. It’s a one stop spot for blogger to come and find the tools and resources they need.
Disclosure: This page contains affiliate links down below. This means I may earn a commission – at no extra cost to you – to keep this blog up and running. Please read our disclaimer for more information.
Web Hosting
What is web hosting? Web hosting, in this case, is where a company will put your blog on their server so that your blog will be accessible on the internet. That’s a super basic explanation of web hosting but essentially it’s something you need to get you blog online.
Bluehost is a very affordable hosting option, starting at $2.95 per month. Their basic plan includes a free domain name too. Bluehost’s basic plan is great for beginners
SiteGround is who I have hosting with. So far I can’t complain. Unlike Bluehost, the domain name isn’t free and the starting plan is $3.95 per month (no matter how long the term).
Themes
If you are looking for a gorgeous feminine theme, Bluchic if where you want to look. They also have Canva social media templates and landing page templates.
Creative Market is an online marketplace for digital good. They have themes, photos, graphics, fonts, templates and more. They have over 7,000 themes to choose from – and they are affordable with most being under $50.
Elegant themes has currently 87 different themes to choose from – not even close to as many as creative market – but it is definitely worth checking out.
Plugins
Plugins will add features to your WordPress website that you are missing. Different plugins will add different features – some are free and some are paid. Here are my must have plugins for ANY WordPress site.
Yoast SEO helps you optimize your site for search engines. My favorite part is Yoast SEO will rate each post on readability, meta descriptions, links, image alt attributes, keyphrases and more! Need help figuring out how to improve your posts, they include tips too! That’s just on the free plugin!
Analytics
Google Analytics is a free program that tracks your visitors and what they are doing on your website. Why do you need this? It lets you know what people are reading and your more popular content – also what isn’t working.
Social Media Management
Tailwind is an automated scheduling program for Pinterest (They also Schedule for Instagram too – however, I don’t feel like the price is worth it.) For Pinterest the price is 100% worth it! I started using it 1 week after launching my blog. I started with 19 monthly views & 0 engagement. Two weeks of using it – I jumped to over 2000 monthly views and 50 engagement. At 3 weeks, I got 3.6k views and 102 engaged – more importantly I am getting traffic from Pinterest!
Hootsuite is great for managing your other social media accounts like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. They even a have a free account to use for when you’re beginning.
Email Marketing
MailChimp is a great email marketing tool for beginners. Their free version is good for 2,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have the tools other paid one have and might take a bit more work, but hey it’s free.
Convertkit is a much easier program to use. It is a paid service but if you are looking for ease it is definitely worth it!
Graphic Design
Canva is really the only graphic design tools any new blogger needs – the free version. Te free version has pretty much everything that a new blogger could need.
Stock Photos
Pixabay is a great source for free stock images – which are free to use (both personal and for commercial use).
Pexels is another free stock photo site. And again they are free for both personal & commercial use.
I know Creative Market is already on this list. But they have SOOO many different things they offer. And they have some amazing stock photos!