Blog and Website Recommendations

I created this page as a simple blogging reference guide with blog and website recommendations. Listed are all the blogging tools and products I personally use and recommend.

Included in this guide are favorite books, podcasts, and more for both online business and creative inspiration.

I think you’ll find this guide helpful and easy to reference.

*Updated 1/03/22.

*This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you for products you purchase via this website. For more information click here.

Website tools

Web host:

If you are just getting started blogging and want to spend as little as possible to begin, Bluehost is a good option. You can register your domain name and sign up for web hosting for around $3.95/month. Includes WordPress.org One-click installation straight from Bluehost.

If you have been blogging for a while and are looking for superior website speed, customer service, and security, I highly suggest Big Scoots web hosting. I recently switched and cannot say enough good things about them.

I started with Bluehost, now I have Big Scoots.

Website theme:

I use the Amelia theme by 17th Avenue Designs. Oooh, I love how pretty it is! All their themes are, so do check out 17th Avenue Designs.

Blogging courses:

Fantastic beginner blogging course: Kickstart Your Blog.

Affiliate marketing course: Affiliate Marketing for Bloggers. Affordable and helpful.

SEO course: Stupid Simple SEO. This course is pricy but worth it! I just took this course in November 2021, but am seeing my traffic grow by implementing the techniques in this course.

Free entrepreneur planner:

This free planner printable will help organize all your blog and business ideas!

Blog marketing:

In addition to using SEO for ranking in Google, I use Pinterest to market my blog.

I love Pinterest, and using it to market and research is tons of fun. Pinterest can drive massive traffic to your blog. I barely do Instagram and don’t bother at all with FB.

Pinterest marketing tool:

Tailwind– This app will help you spread your pins far and wide by pinning for you at automated set times throughout the day.

It’s a great supplement to manual pinning, because there’s no time to pin throughout the day.

Email list:

I like ConvertKit because I can offer multiple free opt-ins to collect emails- an essential feature that Mailchimp and other free email collection services lack.

Graphic Design

Canva- Create your logo, Pinterest pins, and other images. The basic version is free and includes a selection of free stock photos, vectors, etc. Canva is perfect for blogging.

I also just got an iPad, the Procreate app, and am learning to use Photoshop. All for my Etsy shop though, rather than my blog.