When I first started my blog, I had no idea what all went into it! I learned quickly that I would need to find the tools and resources that worked for me. I enjoy researching so I thought it was fun to go on the hunt for the top blogging tools and resources. My main goal was to find the free options that worked best. Many of the tools and resources below are free.
Some of the resources below are paid resources, but I am very selective about what I will pay for. *Some of the links below are affiliate links. At no additional cost to you, I may earn a commission if you choose to make a purchase.*
Check out my top blogging tools and resources below!
Start Your Blog
Bluehost Starting at $3.95/month. Read my step-by-step (with printable) for starting a blog.
Restored 316 Themes – feminine WordPress Themes for women-owned businesses and blogs. They have great customer service! Take the quiz to find out which theme is best for your website.
If you want to make an income selling digital products, check out The Digital Lab. The Digital Lab is an all-access community for digital biz owners that gives you real-time insight to build, grow, and scale your digital offers. Get a free trial and check it out here!
Free eBook/Workbooks
FREE BOOK (just pay shipping!): How to Blog for Profit without Selling Your Soul
Goal Setting Workbook for Bloggers – by Ruth Soukup of Elite Blog Academy
Blog Structure Blueprint – by Ruth Soukup of Elite Blog Academy
7 Surefire Ways to Boost Your Blog Income Overnight – by Ruth Soukup of Elite Blog Academy
Free Blog Traffic Bonus Guide by Lena Gott of Adventures in Blogging
10 Mistakes that Bloggers Make – free eBook by Food Blogger Pro
The Number 1 Thing – free eBook by Food Blogger Pro
Connect with Your Readers: Build a Mailing List
Powered by MailChimp I use Mailchimp for my mailing list. They offer free accounts for up to 2,000 subscribers.
Email List Setup 101 – designed for newbie bloggers who need help setting up their email list. Remove the confusion from the technical side of building your email list. Get easy-to-understand lessons and how-to videos.
PopupAlly – This is my newsletter signup pop-up. I like the level of customization, so I can decide when I want my pop-up to show up. You will never see it show up the second you arrive on my site!
Social Media
Tailwind for scheduling pins in Pinterest. Use this link to get a credit towards your account!
MiloTree for growing Pinterest following, e-mail list, and more. Try a free 30-day trial.
Social Warfare Pro – Share buttons. I upgraded to Pro so my social share counts will stay when changing to http to https. With 35K shares on one of my posts, I didn’t want to lose out on showing social share counts! I no longer use this service.
Buffer for scheduling tweets. I have only used the free version for Twitter, but Buffer can also be used as a scheduling tool for Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Pinterest.
SumoMe I use the Share app (also free).
Tools
Gumroad (product distribution) – I use Gumroad to sell my Health & Wellness Planner and Travel Planner. I plan on using it for future products. Gumroad is an easy program to work with and it offers an affiliate program for your products.
SendOwl is another option for selling digital goods online.
The Contract Shop – Contracts (such as Privacy Policies and such…protect yourself!)
Canva – I use this design tool for all my blog images. It’s simple to use and free. Before purchasing InDesign, I used Canva to create printables.
Adobe InDesign – I currently create my printables using InDesign.
Pictures
There are so many free stock photo sites out there. Here are a few that I use most often: Unsplash, picjumbo, and Kaboom pics.
I recently joined Haute Stock’s Styled Stock Library. I am excited to use the photos and graphic elements as I improve the look of my blog!
Books & Guides
FREE BOOK (just pay shipping!): How to Blog for Profit without Selling Your Soul
How To Blog For Profit: Without Selling Your Soul
Blog Traffic ebook: 17 Strategies I Used to go from 17K to 350K+ Page Views in 9 Months by Lena Gott
The Core Affiliate Strategy Guide by Rosemarie of The Busy Budgeter. She went from $0/month affiliate income to over $20,000/month in under 18 months just from affiliates using this exact system.
Pinterest Strategy Guide by Rosemarie of The Busy Budgeter.
Free eBook/Workbooks
Goal Setting Workbook for Bloggers – by Ruth Soukup of Elite Blog Academy
Blog Structure Blueprint – by Ruth Soukup of Elite Blog Academy
7 Surefire Ways to Boost Your Blog Income Overnight – by Ruth Soukup of Elite Blog Academy
Free Blog Traffic Bonus Guide by Lena Gott of Adventures in Blogging
10 Mistakes that Bloggers Make – free eBook by Food Blogger Pro
The Number 1 Thing – free eBook by Food Blogger Pro
MORE Free eBook/Workbooks – added January 2019
120 Awesome Blog Post Ideas – In case you are stuck and don’t know what to write, grab these 120 blog post ideas. Either use them for your posts or just use the post ideas as inspiration if you have writer’s block.
The Essential Blog Post Promotion Checklist: You cannot just write and publish a post and walk away. No one will see it! Get the quick checklist that covers everything you need to do to promote your blog posts.
The New Blogger’s Guide to Guest Posting: Packed with practical tips you can implement right away, this guide will help you grow your audience with guest posting and make sure your content is a hit every time.
20 FREE (or almost free) WordPress Plugins: Plugins help bloggers who don’t know a ton about programming but still want a website that looks and functions like it was custom-coded. This list of the best free and almost-free WordPress plugins will help so you don’t have to sort through the many (sometimes bad) plugins out there. (I also have a blogging resources page on my site that lists a few plugins I use.)
Must Have Mobile Apps for Blogging on the Go – Blogging on-the-go that can save a ton of time. (Just be careful that it doesn’t rule your life!) From editing your photos to writing posts, you can do just about anything for your blog from the palm of your hand.
8 Bad Blogging Habits & How to Break Them –
eCourses
Elite Blog Academy with Roth Soukup of Living Well Spending Less – Get on the waiting list for Elite Blog Academy!
Food Blogger Pro – get on the waiting list! (Membership Coupon)
Affiliate Companies and Opportunities
ShareaSale – this affiliate network works with a huge number of companies. A few examples: Cents of Style, Green Kid Crafts, Dayspring Cards, VidAngel
Amazon – link to about any type of product with their affiliate program.
Check out my full list of Top Affiliate Programs and Recommendations here!
Plugins (all free)
Short Pixel – This plugin is used to compress and optimize image sizes. This plug-in will help your SEO’s ranking. (Free version, but you can pay a small amount to have all your past images optimized. I paid under $10 to have my entire site optimized.).
jQuery Pin It Button For Images – This free plugin makes it easy for readers to pin your images. It highlights images on hover and adds a “Pin It” button over them for easy pinning.
Related Posts by Zemanta – This plugin adds recommended posts at the bottom of each of your posts. It will show posts that your reader may also be interested in, hopefully keeping them on your site longer.
Title and Nofollow For Links – The plugin adds a title and a rel=”nofollow” checkbox to the insert link popup box. It’s a simple way to add ‘no-follow’ for affiliate and sponsored links. I like just having to check a box instead of messing with code.
Magic Action Box – Create a simple custom newsletter opt-in box. (To see this in action, view one of my posts. It’s the newsletter sign in under the related posts and above the share buttons.)
Yoast SEO – Easy to use SEO plugin.
Sponsored Posts
Izea
Tap Influence
Clever Girls
Activate
Socialix (brands can get one month free here)
Advertising
Media.net – receive a BONUS of 10% on your earnings for 3 months
Google Adsense
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is my top revenue source at this time. Check out my list of Top Affiliate Programs and Recommendations.
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What are your top blogging tools and resources?
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Teresa says
I am always happy to hear about tools other bloggers are using. Thank you for sharing yours!
P. Jeanne says
These are great! Thank you for sharing 😊
Angela @ Setting My Intention says
I always love hearing about other blogger resources! I will definitely keep these in mind – especially the no follow plugin – that sounds awesome!
Emily says
I love the simple check-box. I would rather not mess with the code!
Elizabeth says
Thank you for sharing! I will definitely be looking into these!
Bill @ The Money Professors says
These are good resources. The only one I would add is commentluv for the comments section. It really increased my engagement among other bloggers.
Emily says
I looked into comentluv a while back, then forgot about it. I should check it out again. Thanks for sharing!
Hannah @Sunshine and Spoons says
What a great list!! Thank you for sharing this!
Stacy says
Love this list! There are few things on here I haven’t used yet so I’m excited to check them out! Pinning this great resource!
Emily says
Let me know if you have questions about any of them. Thanks for pinning!
Annie says
This is a great list! It can be so hard as a blogger to keep everything organized, not to mention remember all of the tools out there!
Ceci says
These are great! Thanks for putting them all in one place.
Bre | Maintaining Me says
Thanks for this list! It’s always interesting to see what different bloggers use!
Shajauna says
This is a great list! Definitely pinning to go through some of these I didn’t know about. Thanks for sharing!
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Sarah says
Thanks for the insights! I’m very new to all of this, so recommendations are appreciated!
Diedre says
I use many of these! Some of them I had no clue about. I love your site. Great resources!
JeeYoung says
Love this list! Using some, but saving to use others!
Corina says
Checking out Yoast and Passionfruit. Thanks for this list! I just love it when bloggers share their favorites!
Michele Morin says
And coffee! Lots and lots of coffee!
Emily says
Yes!! How could I forget? :)
Mary Geisen says
Thank you for sharing these great resources.
Ruthie Gray says
This is an absolutely wonderful post, Emily. Very useful and informative. I’ve wondered about some of the affiliates you mentioned here. We use a lot of the same resources such as Sumo me and MC.
Question: I have Bluehost and am re-upping in July. Do you recommend it long term? Because I haven’t been totally in love with it, yet I don’t want to change my domain email (now that I finally figured out how to use it.
Emily says
Thanks Ruthie! Yes, I noticed that you used SumoMe. I love the options they provide even with the free versions.
I do plan on sticking with Bluehost until they give me reason to switch! I have been very happy with them and have not had issues with my site going down. I do know that many bloggers switch when they start to get very high traffic. I don’t remember the stat that I have seen, but I know some bloggers recommend switching when you get to a certain point. (I don’t remember if it’s a site speed issue?) It’s a very night monthly page view stat, so I don’t plan on switching for a while.
Whitney LaDon says
Thanks for sharing these. Some of these I haven’t heard of, so I’m definitely interested in taking a look.
Elizabeth @ Guilty Chocoholic Mama says
What a treasure trove for bloggers you’ve put together here! Pinned! :) Stopping by from Women With Intention!
Keri Snyder says
These are so good! Boardbooster definitely has been a huge help for me!
Emily says
Yes. I am enjoying Boardbooster. I just wish I had the time to make sure I’m using it best!
Nancy says
This is great. I never knew there were so many resources available for bloggers.
Sherry Hayes says
So sweet of you to take the time to share–“[s]he who refreshes others will him [her] self be refreshed”
Becky says
Such great tips! I am working on building my email list and traffic right now. I would love to move toward monetizing, but it is overwhelming to know where to start.
Julie S @ Fab Working Mom Life says
Lots of great resources here! I’m loving board booster, I just started using it earlier this month.
Melanie Redd says
What a great list of tools and resources!
You’ve listed a few I’ve never heard of.
I found your post today on Wise Woman.
Hope you have a blessed day~
Melanie
Isabelle says
These are great resources. I have quite an extensive list of resources already, but you’ve mentioned some I’ve never heard of before. Thanks for sharing!
Janet Vinyard says
What a great post! I took notes! Thanks for sharing all this great information! Blessings, Janet
Michelle says
Ignorance is bliss! I don’t know what half of these mean when I see bloggers talk about them. So thank you for educating this newbie (I still call myself this) on some of the lingo out there.
Beth Brombosz says
Great list, Emily! I’m a huge fan of Unsplash, too. They have such great photos! Death to Stock Photo has some good ones, too.
Emily says
Thanks for sharing! I’ll have to check it out.
Victoria @DazzleWhileFrazzled says
Thanks for the list. Some of these I’m familiar with, others are new to me. There is so much that goes into blogging, I had no idea when I first started either! :) Visiting from Small Victories Sunday party.
Cathy Lawdanski says
Great post with some tools that are new to me!
Gleniece Lytle says
Great information for a newbie blogger, like me. Thank you!
Kim says
I am saving this post. I feel like there’s SO much to learn, but I am excited. I love posts like this one.
Emily says
I hope you found a few resources that will work for you!
Amanda says
Thank you so much for sharing these helpful tips! I’ve been blogging for quite some time, but it started out as a hobby. Now I’m looking to develop it into something more, and your words of wisdom will certainly help me. Visiting you from Coffee for your Heart linkup. God bless you!
Emily says
Good luck to you as you grow your blog! I hope you found helpful resources on this list.
Leonardo "List Legend" LaVito says
Great collection of blogging tools and resources!
Thanks for sharing. :)
I’d also add for free stock photos, Pexels.com is also a great site. As they gather all the free public domain photo databases into one simple search.
I also use Pixabay.com
Emily says
Thanks for mentioning where you find your stock photos. I’ll have to check them out!
Lisa says
Nice list. I use some of these and have some favorites that aren’t on here that help me get work done in less time.
Rebekah says
I always love seeing what other bloggers do and gleaning from all their wisdom; as I am not tech savy and still feel like a newbie blogger;) Thanks for all the great resources!
Kelly Cannon says
Thanks for sharing this great list of resources! Visiting from the Pretty Pintastic Party, and pinned!
Emily says
You are welcome. Thank you for pinning!!
April says
This is such an incredible list I’m going to print it!! Thank you!!!
Emily says
I hope you find at least a few helpful resources here!