Starting a blog is pretty simple and straightforward process. However, if you really want to create a site that stands out from the other billion active sites on the internet, I have a great set of tools and resources to share with you. I don’t want to overwhelm you with choices, so I have hand-selected only the best tools and resources that I currently use with my own sites. I’ve been an active user and customer of many of these services for many years now and stand by each of them — which means you can also start using them and have full confidence in mind.
Blog Training Courses
The ultimate goal for myself and Blogging.org, is to provide you with the resources, knowledge, and tools you need to find success with a blog of your own. To accomplish this, not only have I created thousands of pages of content on this very site, I’ve also created several video courses as well. Each month a select amount of free coupons will be available through Udemy, which can be redeemed for complimentary access. If you don’t currently have a website or blog of your own, I highly recommend you sign up for the “7ay Blog Challenge” video course for free through the link below. Watch as I create an authority blog from scratch, then walk you through the process of how to do the exact same. It’s one of my favorite courses yet!
Bluehost – Web Hosting
The first and most important thing to set up when starting a blog is selecting your web hosting provider. With literally thousands of different providers on the internet to choose from, the process of trying to find the one that’s right for you and your budget can be a huge headache. To make this easy for you, I personally recommend Bluehost. Not only are they one of the largest hosting companies in the world today (hosting well over 2 million sites and domains), they are also extremely competitively priced, offer a one-click WordPress installation solution and also provide new customers with a free domain name at the time of sign up. As a direct partner with Bluehost, I’ve been able to negotiate an extremely low price of just $2.95 per month for my blogging.org audience.
WPEngine – Premium Web Hosting
Starting a website or blog on the internet is easy. However, growing it into a massive trusted authority that is getting thousands of visitors daily and making money 24/7, isn’t so east. In addition to the many promotional and content creation efforts you will need to put into the site, you will also need to have a trusted web hosting solution to make sure it’s running as fast as possible at all times. For this, I personally use WPEngine — as they are one of the largest, super powerful, highly rated, and most trusted premium web hosting solution provider out there. In addition to making sure my sites are always up and running, they also have the best support I’ve seen from any other hosting solution. Email, chat, phone… they have you covered and ready within seconds!
As a Blogging.org readers, you will also get 4 months free on annual Startup, Growth, and Scale plans when you use coupon code WPE20OFF.
Constant Contact – List Hosting
Building a mailing list is something every blogger, website, and brand should do. It’s not just about having people subscribe to your newsletter so they can get updates, it’s also about getting repeat traffic to your site, getting users to learn more about you, and also providing a long-term source of revenue in the process. The majority of websites and bloggers on the internet today always say they wish they started their mailing list sooner. Constant Contact is one of the most well-known and trusted solutions when it comes to email list management, while also offering a ton of features and advanced marketing tools to help increase your list size and ROI in the process. When you sign up for a free trial with Constant Contact, you will get to use their platform for 60-days at no risk, while also not having to provide a credit card at the time of sign up. This is an excellent solution for anyone looking to start their first mailing list, or grow and scale to that next level.
ConvertKit – List Hosting
Going live with your blog, your first content and seeing visitors come to your site is going to be an extremely exciting time. However, the majority of people who visit your site for the first time aren’t likely to come back. We are talking about around 70%! This doesn’t have so much to do with your site or content, it’s just a numbers game and most people have short attention spans and forget where they’ve been. One of the best ways to increase repeat traffic and growing your following is by starting a mailing list. I’m currently using ConvertKit to manage my mailing lists and I recommend you get to try them out as well. ConvertKit has won the hearts of many bloggers and online marketers because of their easy to use platform, which also offers integration with many other tools and also has a great management and automation platform once logged into their member’s area.
MyThemeShop – WordPress Themes
When installing WordPress for the first time and going live with your blog, you will notice it went live with a default WordPress theme. This is fine at first, but if you want to have a successful and professional looking website, you should really have a premium WordPress theme. MyThemeShop is one of the top players in the WordPress theme space. What’s great about their site is they have more than 80+ different themes to choose from, and they have a low-cost annual membership where you get full access to all WordPress themes and plugins offered through their site. I’m currently using several of their themes for some of my largest websites and blogs.
OptinMonster – WordPress Plugin
Keeping with the theme of building a successful tool and using only the best tools and services possible, OptinMonster is another must-use tool that I recommend for all site owners and bloggers. Just like how I recommended ConvertKit as my preferred list hosting provider, OptinMonster is a pop-up and call-to-action WordPress plugin to help you explode your mailing list. There are currently more than 11 million sites using OptinMonster to grow their mailing lists and increase engagement on their sites. I also use the software on all of my sites as well, and it works amazing! I highly recommend you try it out if you are serious about building a mailing list and a successful blog.
Not sure which of the recommended services, software or WordPress plugins are right for you? Shoot me an email through the contact form and I’ll answer any questions you might have.