These are the best blogging tools that I’ve used to grow my blog from making zero dollars to bringing in an income that is rapidly growing beyond what I ever imagined possible. When you start a blog, everyone is telling you what you need and it all costs money that your blog isn’t making. I made a lot of costly mistakes over the years and now I now feel very confident in being able to share and recommend all of these blogging tools to you. These are the companies that I currently use and LOVE and I have no plan to change a single one. Many of these have affiliate links so you get a discount on the service by using the link and I may get a small commission. Here are the best blogging tools you need to build a successful blog.
Hosting
SITEGROUND
Once I got set up on WordPress. ORG I needed to find a web hosting site. At first I went with Blue Host. I had quite a few issues getting set up and then whenever I needed help as a new blogger, the customer service was spotty at best…..and it was just confusing! I eventually switched to Siteground and my troubles were over. The switch over was super easy and smooth. Siteground made my site FAST, which helps it rank better in Google (=$). It has amazing features like security, site back-ups etc that give me peace of mind and eliminate the need for a bunch of other WordPress plug-ins that will slow down my site. My advice is to put your site with Siteground and relax! If you use any of my links it’s only $6.99/month which is a no brainer. I’m all about the set it and forget it and the hosting area is a place that bloggers can really get tangled in the confusing weeds. Just sign up with Siteground and keep moving with your blog!
Website Theme
WPZOOM
I went through a lot hassle when my blog was new, trying to figure out how to use themes and which ones to use. I love my latest theme and how easy it was to set up and use! It’s by WPZoom and I love that it conforms to Googles theme standards as well. It’s easy to change any of the looks and elements on the blog, it loads fast and the customer service is great! All of their themes are built to work beautifully with wordpress and they even have the option for someone else to set up the whole thing for you here > SET IT UP FOR ME. WPZoom themes are under $100 and right now you can buy ALL the themes for only $99! You’d never need another.
Gear
Let’s just get one thing straight right now. I STRUGGLE with photography. One of the best pieces of advice I received was to start out with a simple, refurbished camera. Here’s the one I still use and it’s a fraction of the price of a new one. If you’re just learning the basics and don’t have buckets of money to spend I highly recommend going this route. You will benefit greatly from a simple tripod setup and you’ll want to grab some remote buttons. I try to only shoot in natural light, but this little ring light setup is super handy for shooting makeup tutorials, etc for my Insta and FB stories. A smaller tripod/selfie stick for my Iphone is helpful in certain situations as well.
I use and love Lightroom and also Nicky Presets for a lot of my photos. There are loads of tutorials for using Lightroom and achieving the look that you want. I do all my work on a MacBook Pro and I love it SO much and wouldn’t trade it for the world. I would very much like to upgrade to this Iphone for the camera quality it provides but when you are just starting out, you work with what you have.
BUDGET GEAR PICKS
- Refurbished camera
- 50mm lense (for capturing the “blurry” background in blogging images)
- tripod
- remotes
- inexpensive ring light
- Small tripod/selfie stick for Iphone
Services
TAILWIND
One of the best things I ever did for my blog was to sign up for Tailwind and start using it with Pinterest. If you are just starting out my advice is to put a lot of time into learning SEO and using Tailwind for Pinterest. Your blog is nothing if no one reads it so getting traffic to your blog is really the key to monetization. You can use my link here > TAILWIND and get $15 off your sign up. It is hands down the best piece of advice I can offer to new bloggers because it will get you more traffic faster! The PLUS version is 100% worth it if you are trying to monetize your blog. But simultaneously keep learning and implementing SEO strategies and you will be ahead of the game!
CANVA
Canva is the easiest, most user friendly graphic design hub out there. I use and love the Pro version. It allows me to create transparent images so it’s great for professional looking logos, blog graphics (all those collages!), Pinterest pins and really any other graphics you could ever imagine all at your fingertips! My love for Canva is for REAL and I hope it never goes away! You can use my link> CANVA to check out some of the premium elements for free. (I created a pinterest pin for this post at the bottom.
FLODESK
Y’all Flodesk is the best, most user friendly email service out there. When you start blogging you want to start a subscriber list stat. Even if you don’t email to it for awhile, start building that list! Mailchimp is free to start but I found it incredibly complicated. Convertkit is free up until you reach 1000 subscribers then they start billing at a whopping $49 a month! Flodesk beats both of these hands down. Beautiful templates and graphics and a pricing structure that simply can’t be beat. It’s $38 a month……forever. No many how many subsrcibers you have. BUT if you use my link here> FLODESK you can get it all for only $19 a month! They made communicating with my subscribers the best it’s ever been and if you are migrating from another provider they make it incredibly simple- it took me less than 5 minutes! Check out FLODESK.
Wishlist
Currently on my wish list for blogging resources is this new Iphone for it’s camera capabilities. I’m also looking at upgrading to a mirrorless camera for one that will better fit my needs and ability level. The one that I’m wanting to upgrade to is this one by FujiFilm.
Did you guys found this useful? I love blogging and I’m really happy with the direction my blog is going these days. It took me a long time to really see the potential and to get a good grasp of where I needed to spend the bulk of my time to achieve a decent ROI. I still have a lot to learn but whats the old saying? “If you work at what you love you’ll never work a day in your life.”
This page will always be updated here> Blogging Resources as my blogging journey continues!
This comprehensive list is so good! I use Tailwind and Canva too! I’m currently with mailerlite and have been considering transferring to flodesk.
Jill – Doused in Pink
Thank you so much Jill! That means a lot. I’ve never used Mailerlite but for me switching to Flodesk was hands down one of the best things I did for my blog. I think you can try it out through the link and poke around if you want to compare. I love hearing what is working for other bloggerrs- the lightbulb moment for me was SEO! Thanks so much for popping by!
~Melissaxx
such a great post, lot of informations ! thanks for sharing,
Sonia
http://www.soniaaicha.com
Thanks so much Sonia! Appreciate you stopping by!
~Melissa xx
Thank you for sharing all the tips especially about hosting websites! xx
Elegant Duchess xx
https://www.elegantduchess.com/
You are so welcome! The hosting stuff can really bog you down! And because so many of them offer big affiliate programs, they get talked about a lot- but the services are definitely not the same. Having your site down for days is no fun! Thanks so much for stopping. by!
~Melissa xx
It’s great you’ve found so many helpful things for your blogging journey! I just use free hosting and stuff on blogger, and the camera I use is one hubby bought me when we had our first son so I could take better pics, my old camera wasn’t the best, haha! It’s definitely possible to blog on a budget! While I make money from mine it’s just a hobby so I don’t like to spend too much on it!
Hope you are having a good week 🙂
Mica- I hear ya! Too Too many bloggers (raises hand) get caught up and end up paying a bunch of money for things they don’t need or that they will find aren’t the greatest of services. So many (myself included) end up with Bluehost because a lot bloggers talk about it (they have a big affiliate pay out)- but it really wasn’t great and it was such a relief when I switched a few years ago. Thanks so much for the comment and for stopping by! You have a great week too!
~Melissa xx
SEO continues to be a mystery for me! I needed to read this 5 years ago when I started my blog. UGH the mistakes I made – and still make. I used Blue Host too and switched to Site Ground two years ago, so much better. These are such great resources!
xo,
Kellyann
Melissa, thanks so much for sharing your list of blogging resources! I have become so overwhelmed in the past two years of blogging with all the stuff out there and the expectations on social media that I have basically just stopped doing it most of the money making things that we can do on our blogs. But now I feel motivated again to try! I will have to check out some of these resources.
Shelbee
http://www.shelbeeontheedge.com
Shelbee- thank you and you definitely should! In fact, I was recently googling link up parties and your post “About Blogging and Link Ups” was like #3 or 4 on google! Thats a lot of eyeballs on that post! I totally hear you on the social media content. I have scaled WAY back this year concentrating on where most of my actual readers reside and I’m concentrating on those platforms. So far it’s proving to be a good decision both in my mental health, lol- as well as in traffic to the blog.
~Melissa xx
I absolutely love canva! It’s so easy to use and looks super professional! Thanks for sharing these other resources! I need to check them out!