Full Disclosure: This page contains affiliate links. If you decide to purchase through my links, I’ll receive a commission. But you won’t pay more.
I am all about keeping your business and blog as simple as possible. When I first got started, I signed up, tried, and tested just about every tool and service under the sun. It got extremely overwhelming.
I tried a lot of tools that ended up just slowing down my website and complicating things. Right now, I only have a few key plugins on both my websites. These are plugins and tools that are a must to run the business smoothly. I want to share them with you below.
Everything I share on this page I have been using myself. I endorse these tools and service because I know they’ll support your growth.
Make sure to check out my blog post on how to start your site from scratch to see how I use some of these tools.
Blogging Resources And Tools
Siteground Hosting: I’ve been using Siteground since 2016 after moving away from Bluehost. So many bloggers promote Bluehost because of their very cheap starting plans and their great affiliate commission but I can’t in good conscience promote their hosting services.
Siteground maybe a tiny bit more expensive (by a dollar?), but your website will be in good hands. You can register for hosting and get a domain name during the sign-up process.
GeneratePress theme: I use GeneratePress theme on both of my sites and I love how lightweight and super easy to customize it is. Also, when I purchased the theme, I had a customization question so I contacted their support. I got an answer within 5 minutes. Customer support is a very important thing when you’re doing business online. You need to be in touch with people to help you fix things asap and these guys prioritize that.
Thinkific: My course hosting website of choice. I currently host more than 8 courses on Thinkific with over 2000+ members and it helps me keep everything organized and separate from my blog.
Teachable: Another great course hosting platform I’ve used before. It’s a great option if you’re creating your first course.
Optimizepress: the first-page builder I used. It’s very robust and among the very first page builders out there that works great with WordPress.
Yoast SEO: A great plugin that helps you optimize your posts for search engines. I use this plugin to also keep my website sitemap updated in Google.
Wordfence: Wordfence is a security plugin that’ll help you secure your website from hackers. It’ll also notify you whenever there is unusual activity on your website. It has some great features in its free plan.
Wp Rocket: This is a great plugin I use to speed up my website. As you add more content, images, and other plugins, you want to make sure these resources don’t slow down your website. Wp rocket will help you with that.
Convertkit: Click the link to start for free! The email software service I use to send my weekly newsletters. Convertkit is so different from other software because of its simplicity. Imagine your subscribers getting emails from you that look like emails from a friend. No one wants to open an inbox full of promotional material and flashy images.
Thrivecart: If you plan to sell bookings, courses, or products, I highly recommend Thrivecart as your cart solution. First of all, it is a one-time investment. Almost every single check-out cart software has a monthly subscription. Thrivecart doesn’t. You pay once and you literally use it forever. I’m not sure how long they will keep this up but if you are ready to invest in an advanced cart solution, definitely get Thrivecart. I think this was certainly the best investment in my online business. It has some advanced features such as adding facebook ad pixels (which I haven’t used).
Service Based Business Resources
Dubsado: If you have a service-based business whether online or offline, Dubsado is a complete Client Management System that has some powerful features. I used Dubsado to book and organize my coaching practice. My favorite feature is the automated emails and canned emails! You can automate all of your service or coaching business with Dubsado. You can create invoices (that are also automated), create different packages, customize the scheduling calendar, and embed it anywhere.
Clients can book online, pay, and schedule on your calendar. What I really love about it is you don’t need any external additional booking tools. It has everything you need.
Courses I Took
I took SO MANY online courses on how to build a blog, drive traffic, and generate sales. There are so many over-priced courses out there. Below are the only courses I recommend that actually helped me get tangible results.
Pinterest Traffic Avalanche: I can help you build your site on this blog. But, I don’t want to spend a lot of time teaching you about how to generate amazing traffic if there is already a course teaching that. Pinterest Traffic Avalance is the only Pinterest course I recommend. It’s actually one of the cheapest courses considering how much you’ll learn.