Recommended Resources
I created this recommendations sheet to share with you what I feel are the best resources for bloggers. These are the websites and products I use and love!
Disclosure: There are some affiliate links below (because that's how smart biz moms roll), but these are all products I highly recommend. I won’t put anything on this page that I haven’t verified and/or personally used.
WordPress Hosting | ||
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Bluehost | Bluehost is one of the least expensive webhosting options for new bloggers. Hosting with Bluehost comes with a free SSL certificate and a free domain name for your first year. | |
SiteGround | With slightly more support and better site speeds SiteGround is a great choice for most bloggers. SiteGround has amazing customer service and uptime. You can read my full SiteGround tutorial here or get started here for $3.95/mo. | |
Big Scoots | If you have been blogging for a while and have hit over 100,000 monthly pageviews you will need to upgrade to a more robust webhost. Big Scoots is super fast and runs some of the top online sites. | |
WordPress Themes | ||
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Astra | Astra is an awesome free WordPress theme that is lightning quick. I use Astra on this site. It is a very basic theme but can be customized to be super powerful! | |
Elegant Themes | Elegant Themes is most popular for their Divi theme. Divi has a super user-friendly drag and drop editor that is perfect for beginners! | |
If you are looking for a gorgeous feminine theme that looks beautiful right after install these themes are for you. I use the Captivating theme from Restored 316 on my other blog TodayMommy.com | ||
Studio Press Themes | Studio Press sells professional themes and also the famous Genesis Framework. Many themes including the themes from Restored 316 require Genesis to work. | |
Landing Page Builders | ||
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Elementor | Elementor is a great free tool that can help you build gorgeous pages without wanting to tear your hair out. The homepage for this site is built with Elementor. They have a free version or you can upgrade to their pro version for $49 a year. | |
Thrive Architect | I also use Thrive Architect (this page was built with Thrive). Thrive is conversion focused which I love! It is great for landing pages and sales pages. Thrive is a one-time payment of $67. | |
Start An Email List | ||
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Mailerlite | Mailerlite is a great place to start if you are just beginning your blog. | |
ConvertKit | ConvertKit is the email service provider that I use. Their tagging and segmenting features make it so much easier to send targeted emails to your list.
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Graphic Design | ||
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Canva | Canva is a great free online editing tool. I love using their templates to quickly make multiple social media graphics. | |
PicMonkey | PicMonkey Is a great way to edit your photos, add text, overlays ect. Their plans are $7.99/month or 3.99/month if you do their annual plan. This will really help your images pop! | |
Adobe Creative Cloud | If you are looking to do some more advanced graphic design on your blog Adobe Creative Cloud gives you access to all of Adobe's suite, including Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator and more! | |
Creative Market | Creative Market is a collection of pretty much any creative design elements you can think of (fonts, stock photos, mock ups, etc.) They also give away free items every week when you sign up for their email list! | |
Stock Photos | ||
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Free Stock Photos | One thing that make or break your blog is your images! In this blog post (updated 2018) I share resources for hundreds of free feminine stock photos. | |
Styled Stock Society | A lot of the images that I use on my site are from the Styled Stock Society. They have thousands of flat lay graphics and lifestyle images. | |
Deposit Photos | Deposit Photos has photos of literally everything! I use their site for photos multiple times a week! | |
The Best Courses | ||
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Mom Blogging Mentor | Want me to walk you through exactly how to start a profitable blog? | |
Pin To Profits | Hands down Pin to Profits is the most thorough Pinterest education on the market. This bundle includes five premium courses + tons of bonuses. Join over 600 students that have taken the Pin to Profits courses. | |
Making Sense Of Affiliate Marketing (MSAM) | Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing is created by Michelle from Making Sense of Cents who makes over $50k a month via affiliate marketing! This is a great affiliate marketing course for beginners. | |
Stupid Simple SEO | If you are looking for an in-depth guide to SEO look no further. This course is seriously a gold mine for search engine optimization strategy. | |
Create Your Own Course | ||
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Teachable | Teachable is the platform that I use to sell and host my online courses. They handle the sales page, hosting the content, collecting payments, your affiliate program and more! | |
screencast-o-matic | Screencast-o-matic is a super affordable screen recording software. This is what I personally use for all of my videos. | |
Deadline Funnel | One of the challenges of having evergreen products is that they are always available to people don't feel the urgency to buy now. Deadline Funnel lets you set personalized timed funnels with expiring offers to help you capture that urgency and increase your sales. | |