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I understand what it’s like to start down the blogging path and be unsure what to use, who to trust, and what will work. I created this resource page so you can come back again and again to find the resouƒrces you need to grow your passive income stream. As I find new resources that I like, I’ll add them here. Come back often and see what’s new!
Disclosure: Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you decide to make a purchase. Please understand that I have experience with all of these companies, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions I make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend any money on these products unless you feel you need them or that they will help you achieve your personal or business goals.
Table of Contents
Blogging Resources For The Newbie Blogger
Hosting
There is a multitude of hosting companies out there, and some of them are awful. I would stay away from a few folks like Go Daddy and Site 5. I had Site 5 when I first started blogging, and they were horrible. Anytime I had a problem their solution was a more costly upgrade. When I finally had no choice but to leave them because of terrible customer service and repeated crashing of my site, they refused to refund my remaining balance. They kept $500 of my money.
Here’s the hosting company I do recommend:
Blue Host – I’ve been using Blue Host for some time now, and I have to say they have great customer service. They are very responsive to anything and with the exception of one time, my site has never been down.
When you choose a program with them, and if you go with the WordPress hosting package, don’t opt in for the free Site Lock CDN. I had problems with them, and I wouldn’t recommend it. Instead, chose Cloud Flare as your CDN.
You’re going to read lots of different things about Blue Host. Many people recommend them but did so encouraging bloggers to pay for the $ 3.95-month plan. Guess what happened? The plan was the wrong choice and didn’t give the new blogger enough bandwidth to prevent major problems. You get what you pay for and I don’t recommend those plans at all. Talk with their customer service rep before choosing a plan on your own so you can make sure it will meet your needs.
Blog Set Up and Design
- How To Set Up A Self Hosted Website Blog on WordPress
- Laura, Pixel Me Designs
Plug-Ins
When it comes to plugins, there’re as many opinions as there are plugins to choose from. These are my particular favorites, but you might find others you like better. Here’s the list of my favorites.
Askimet – The best free spam filtering plugin out there. There’s no perfect spam blocker, Akismet does a pretty good job of keeping spam comments from being published to your blog. Every so often it goes through some underperforming as spam bots find new ways of getting through Akismet’s security. They typically come out with an update shortly after, and then performs as usual.
EWWW Image Optimizer – If you have a ton of images on your site you’ll want to make sure they are optimized and don’t slow down your site.
Broken Link Checker – Once a week activate this plugin and make sure you don’t have any broken links. Don’t leave this activated at all times as it will slow your site down.
Yoast SEO – The best tool for helping you master SEO. Not only are you learning SEO as you go but it even gives you an SEO rating for each post. One of the features of this plugin that it allows you to insert a custom image, and text/title for Facebook. These will then be pulled anytime someone shares your post to Facebook, which can significantly improve the reach of your post. Learn how to use the Facebook features with Yoast here.
Limit Login Attempts – If your site has ever been the victim of hackers you’ll know just how important this little plugin can be. It allows you to set how many times anyone can attempt to log into WordPress without becoming locked out for an extended period. We’ve all faced some pretty malicious hackers in our years of blogging, and this one has helped quite a bit!
Social Warfare – The best social sharing platform out there. Get more social media shares which can lead to more website traffic with the best sharing plugin for WordPress! Built by a group of social media marketing experts and world class developers who are obsessed with performance.
Books and Training
I’m a firm believer in getting as much education and training you need to keep up with current trends and keep your business moving forward. If I could list all the books and courses I’ve taken in my life, we’d run out of space. But from time to time, I hit the nail on the head with a course, book or training that’s so fantastic I have to include it here. Check back often because I’m always taking courses and learning new stuff.
This was the first blog course I ever took, and it did nothing short of amazing things for my blog. This is the training I recommend for the newbie blogger.
How To Blog For Profit Without Selling Your Soul – By Ruth Soukup
Full of great content by the same woman who brought us Elite Blog Academy. Good first read if you’re contemplating a blog but haven’t yet decided.
Pro Blogger – Secrets for Blogging Your Way To A Six-Figure Income – Darren Rowe
A good read for wanting to understand what goes into starting a blog.
How To Make Money Blogging – How I Replaced My Day Job With My Blog – Bob Lotich
One of my all-time favorites. I loved this book so much I am now taking his course and will include this resource once I’m through it and can give you an honest assessment.
Pictures and Images
Nikon D 3200 – Nikon’s superior quality is unsurpassed to almost anything out there. An excellent camera for a new photographer with lots of room for growth.
50 mm Lens – A perfect lens for exceptional quality close up images.
Tripod – My favorite tripod and the one I’ve used for quite some time.
PicMonkey – The editing program I use to make all my photos look fantastic! Upgrade to the Royal version for all the incredible editing capabilities available through the Monkey!
BigStock – If you can’t take your own pictures you’ll need to purchase them. Try Big Stock FREE for 14 days with this link! Awesome images and great prices!
Ad Networks
I can’t say enough about these people. First, they are super helpful, but second, they are truly committed to helping your revenue soar! You must be at 100,000 page views a month to be accepted into the network, but once you’re there – sign up and tell them I sent you!
Google Ad Sense A great place to start when just starting out.
Sovern Before I joined AdThrive, made the most money through this ad network.
Media Net If you’ve ever seen those blue bar ads on sites, including mine, then you know you’re looking at Media Net Ads. Good company to work with.
Affiliates
Amazon – Of course, the giant of all affiliates. Join, it’s worth it!
Grove Collaborative – They have a fantastic influencer program that helps you earn cash by introducing products to your readers.
Ebates – Start using Ebates then refer your readers to their program. Great way to make some extra income.
If you’re starting a blog, you’ll go nowhere fast without harnessing the power of Pinterest. Pinterest drives so much traffic to my site each month it’s insane, and it keeps growing! Here’s what I recommend.
Tailwind – I ONLY use Tailwind to pin my content. Why? Because it’s an approved program of Pinterest and it does make a difference. Also Tailwind has this cool feature called Tribes which helps to promote your content and have it seen by more people. Awesome tool – don’t bother with anything else.
Newsletters
Email marking is the number one way you’ll drive revenue. Make sure you consider your options carefully when picking an email marketing platform.
Mail Chimp – If you’re just starting out and don’t have an email list, I recommend going with Mailchimp. You’re first 2000 subscribers are free, making it very economical for the person just starting out.
DRIP – If you plan on going BIG with your online business, I’d go straight to DRIP!
Grammarly – The best money for making sure your grammar is spot on!
Marketing
Lead Pages – Lead pages is a wonderful conversion program that helps you make lead boxes, landing pages and other tools to convert visitors. If you buy ConvertKit, you don’t need Lead Pages. Lead pages does have a free version for those just starting out.
Disclosure: Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you decide to make a purchase. Please understand that I have experience with all of these companies, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions I make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend any money on these products unless you feel you need them or that they will help you achieve your personal or business goals.
