When you are starting up a site there are a lot of things to think about. Here are the services that I use to run this site. Some of these may be affiliate links where I may receive compensation for using them. Anything received goes towards improving this site, with 20% of it being donated to charity.
Bluehost
I use BlueHost for all of my hosting needs. They offer a free domain when you sign up for their hosting services. It’s easy to use and I have nothing but good things to say about this company. For a quick guide to getting your own site started you can go here.
1 and 1
I buy some of my domains through 1 and 1. They have a great deal for your first site (from free to 99 cents, I mean that’s awesome). All it took was changing two boxes over to Bluehost and I was all set. This is good if you are wanting to test out a new domain but aren’t completely sold on it. You can check out their 99 cent deal here.
Elegant Themes
I wish I had started with Elegant Themes and the Divi theme. This theme is completely customizable and has taken this site from a look like everyone else, to whatever I can imagine type of site. It’s quick loading and super easy to use. The sky is the limit with these tools. Check them out today!
Social Warfare
I love this plugin for social sharing! It’s customizable, quick loading and it takes care of all of the Pinterest image so I don’t have to worry about finding a place for it in my post. Check them out.
Tailwind
I’m just starting to get onto Pinterest. I really like the visual usefulness. Tailwind allows you to schedule your pins and you can join and create tribes. From those that I know who use it, they all say it’s saved them so much time and the analytics functionality is great. You can check it out here.
Board Booster
I’ve been doubling down on Pinterest since it’s been such an amazing source of traffic for me lately. The problem is making time for this social scheduling. With Board Booster I can create a campaign an have it repost my best post to group boards and my own boards so that I can get on with everything else. Huge bonus, Board Booster also has a delete function so you can delete pins from boards that don’t want you double pinning. You can check them out Board Booster here.
Recur Post
I love interacting on social media, but the self promoting can be a pain. So I use RecurPost to schedule all of my posts from this site that way when someone new discovers our site or finds us on social media they don’t have to dig around for our best content. Click here to get started with your Free Trial today.
WordPress
A ton of sites run on WordPress. If you are wanting to get started building a site and you can use Word, then you can use WordPress. There is a free version of it, but it doesn’t allow you to monetize. Best way to use it is to go the self-hosted route (like through BlueHost) and that way it’s yours to do whatever you want with it.
Manage Flitter
If you are on Twitter, then Manage Flitter is a must. It helps you maintain your followers and following and organizes things easily and effortlessly. It takes minutes to unfollow large groups of people and is great for keeping your Twitter Account in check. Check out their free program here.
Buffer
I wish I could sit on the computer all day and send out tweets and Facebook posts, but there are only so many hours in a day. Buffer allows you to schedule up to 10 social media messages for free. You can set up a regular schedule and let them go. It’s also great when you see a lot of awesome articles from other people so you can share them over time rather than all at once. Without Buffer I would be lost. Give their free program a try today
Canva
If you are running a blog you need to have some images in there otherwise it gets kind of 1950’s newspaper looking. Canva has a great set of resources to use and their program is amazing. The only caution is that it’s extremely addictive. I mean you can easily go down the rabbit hole and fine tune things (which is an awesome feature, just not great for your time). I love Canva and you will too. Start for Free today.
WordSwag
Word Swag is new to my photo arsenal. It’s got great templates and makes doing photos with word designs on them so ridiculously easy that you will wonder why you didn’t start using it sooner. It’s only available in the App Store and it’s here. While there is a small cost to it. The pros and ease of use is definitely worth the price. You can check it out here.
Things I’m looking to try out
Freshbooks
You can take a look at my quick review of Freshbooks here. While I like Freshbooks and what they can do I’m not quite at the point where paying to keep track of my records is needed. The nice thing with a website based business is that there are not very many. You can check out their free 30-day trial here