The Best Blogging Resources For New Bloggers

Blog Like A Pro With These Simple Tips

You’ve decided to start a blog, how exciting! But, it’s a minefield out there! Where do you start? What tools do you need? Which domain hosting site should you use? Well, fear not. I have compiled a list of the best resources for new bloggers – Here are some simple tips to blogging like the pros!

This article contains affiliate links, meaning if you choose to purchase any of the products mentioned, I will receive a small commission of that sale at no cost to you.

WHERE DO I START?

WEBSITE

When I first started, I read a lot on this topic. It’s something I knew nothing about so I figured knowledge is power. I read a bunch of articles, but the best ones I found were written by Elna Cain of “Twinsmommy” fame. I took a lot of her advice and it hasn’t lead me astray.

She recommended creating a website on WordPress, so I decided to sign up. I set up my blog and practised posting blog posts, placed pictures and experimented with design. The interface is fairly easy to use for beginners also.

This is a great tool for you to get your grounding in websites and blogging. If you don’t ever really intend on massive website traffic or monetising your blog, then you can stay using WordPress for free.

The real downside is that it is quite slow to load, so if you ever intend on really marketing your site and want a lot of traffic to come along, then you’ll need to upgrade.

My recommendation if you want to upgrade is below.

Siteground is a domain hosting server, which you’ll need if you ever choose to monetise your blog or want large volumes of traffic reading your content. You simply just can’t do it if you remain on a free server like WordPress, due to the limitations as well as the slow load speed. This is a sure fire way to lose readers if the website takes too long to load. 

I personally have visited some blogs where the page takes over a minute to load and honestly, I’ve lost interest before it finishes loading and I move on to something else. Certainly not want you want your readers to do.

So, the package I chose was the “GrowBig” package – it cost just $7.45 per month. For the year but it is 100% worth it. You can also choose from the cheaper package of $4.95 per month or the premium “GoGeek” package for $14.95 per month, dependent on your needs.

The load speeds are super quick, the interface is user-friendly and “uptime” for the site is 99.9% – wow. You simply cannot beat those stats. But, best of all the support team are second to none. They are extremely helpful, friendly and knowledgeable. 

Starting my blog on “Wordpress”, I had to migrate it over. Siteground accommodates this by having a WordPress migrator. It was seamless and so simple to use, even for a novice like me. They also have migrators for Joomla! Wix and more so you can move your site over with ease.

Admittedly I wasn’t very savvy at building a website and had some teething problems. I changed my theme also and had a few issues with this. Each time though I requested help through their support page, they were super efficient and thorough in their response, including with follow up enquiries. I never had to wait long for help and they always solved my issue. As such, I couldn’t recommend them enough!

Want to sign up to Siteground now and start building your brand? Click here to sign up ——-> Siteground Signup

Choosing Your Theme

To me, choosing the right theme is vital to the overall feel of your blog. It is an entirely personal choice depending on your niche and your preference.

There are plenty of free themes available on WordPress. I tried and tested a fair few different ones, but nothing really took my fancy that much that I wanted to keep it.

I wanted a soft, feminine feel and came across one I loved on another blog site. So I scrolled the bottom and had a look at the details which brought me to “Code & Coconut.” They have stunning themes, the one I chose for my site is called “Adelle.”

I think it works perfectly for my niche and is exactly what I was looking for. It was only $35 and I think it was money very well spent.

Secondly, when I had some issues with my theme settings not working correctly I contacted their support and honestly, they couldn’t have been more helpful.

Would you like a gorgeous Code & Coconut theme like mine? Get it here —-> Code & Coconut Signup

Pinterest

After a lot of research, I realised pretty quickly that if I wanted to get my content out there that Pinterest was a must have. I had dabbled in Pinterest myself when planning my wedding but aside from that had never really used it. Once I understood what Pinterest really was, I realised that I simply had to use it. 

Think of Pinterest like this – it is a search engine, much like Google, but uses images or “Pins” to display content. It is also a hybrid in the sense that it is a social media website, allowing users to connect and share content to widen their reach. Once you grasp the concept that Pinterest is a search engine, with 250 million users per month, you will also understand why it is a must have tool for online entrepreneurs. 

Follow these simple steps to use Pinterest to your advantage:

Sign up for a business account – You can also covert your personal account over to a business account if you have good boards or already have a tonne of followers. Getting a business account is essential as it allows you access Pinterest Analytics, which shows your audience reach, engagements etc so you know where you can improve or what is working. 

Join group boards – There are boards out there which display a heap of pins, with one contributor to that board. Then there are group boards, ones that allow multiple contributors. Essentially, you find the board you want to join and either email or DM the board creator to join. Generally, they will also request you follow them on Pinterest or another platform in order to be accepted. Once you have been accepted, you can start pinning your content to these boards, allowing them to be seen by all the followers of that board. 

Tribes – This is something that took me a while to master. Once you do master it though, you definitely start seeing the benefits. Tribes work by having a ‘tribe’ of users join the one tribe focusing on their niche of choice. You then pin your content and re-share the content of the other tribe members, allowing a far greater reach of your pins. Remember though, you must follow the rules of the tribe or you will be kicked out. Don’t be selfish here, bloggers need to help other bloggers. Re-share the content as specified and you will be considered a good tribe member. 

Pinterest works by consistency, this is the key. You should be pinning content daily. The trick is though, not to just pin a bunch of content all at once. Pinterest likes it to be spread out over the day. Unless you are a night owl who likes staying up at all hours pinning content, this simply isn’t achievable without a bit of help, which leads me into the next must-have tool. 

Tailwind is a scheduling tool which automatically pins your content in selected time slots, during the day and while you sleep. This allows you to walk away from the computer knowing your content is still getting out there.

Admittedly, I wasn’t sure at first if I would like this tool or if it was even worth it, so I signed up for a free trial to test it out. The free trial is quite generous and definitely allows you to get a good feel for whether it is worth it for you or not. After my free trial, I signed up because this tool is fantastic. I spend an hour or two scheduling all my pins for the week so when life gets busy, I know my content is still getting out there. 

Pinterest also prefers that you pin over a period of time, instead of all at once so Tailwind can assist in doing this as well as saving you time having to manually pin all the time.

Tailwind also works with Instagram, so you can be scheduling your content and growing your followers while you sleep! Perfect right?

Want Tailwind? Sign up here ——> Tailwind Signup

Grammarly

Another neat little tool I use is one called “Grammarly” this skims across all your posts and corrects any grammatical errors or spelling errors it finds. While I have never been horrible with grammar, inevitably everyone makes mistakes but this tool ensures I can press publish with confidence. Best of all it is a free download, installs onto your web browser and skims across your work as you type.

Interested in Grammarly? Sign up here —-> Grammarly Signup

Images To Illustrate Your Site

Blog posts and websites always look better and do better if they have images on them. But where do you get these images from?

Unless you are an extremely talented photographer, chances are you won’t have beautiful images to place on your site. So, what do you do? Well, there are plenty of free stock images available out there where you can get thousands of gorgeous images to use on your site.

One I found that I absolutely love is Dreamstime.com. They have literally thousands of images for all different subjects, niches and topics to help illustrate your site.

On top of this, I was looking for a place where I could create a blog header, something unique and recognisable and I found Dreamstime is where I could get them from. I downloaded this gorgeous background and placed my header over the top and bingo! A beautiful looking blog header!

Want to sign up to Dreamtime? Do so here —–> Dreamstime Signup

So go ahead and make that beautiful blog and get your content out there!

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