Resources for Bloggers

Interested in starting a blog?

Have you thought about starting a blog but are unsure where to begin? This entire Resources For Bloggers page is dedicated to you! From what hosting to use to my top WordPress Theme picks to photography and social media tools to make your blogging start easier.

*Note: This page, Resources For Bloggers, contains affiliate links. This means that I may receive a commission if you click on the link and decide to purchase. Thanks for your support!

Hosting

BigScoots – This is our favorite hosting and what we use for our website. They are a fully managed website/WordPress host. My experience with them has been flawless. I couldn’t recommend them more!

Site Ground – This is another great option for hosting. It is a budget-friendly hosting option, great for starting out.

WordPress

Plugins

WP Tasty Recipe – If you are diving into recipe blogging, you NEED a recipe plug-in. A recipe plug-in allows you to create a beautiful recipe card within your blog post. This is not only helpful to your readers but to Google. (Recipe plug-ins also have a built-in schema that tells search engines it’s a recipe, so this is a must-have for food bloggers.)

WP Tasty Round-Up – Creating round-up posts, whether for recipes or for some other niche, can be a great way to target keywords, build traffic, and create useful content for your readers. This plug-in makes creating a round-up blog post beautiful and easier to do.

WP Tasty Links – Proving links to useful products can be helpful to your readers. In addition, sharing affiliate links is one of the ways bloggers can earn money. Tasty Links allows you to essentially create a database and automatically insert applicable links based on a specific keyword. (This can save you a lot of time.)

WP Tasty Pins – This nifty plugin allows you to set Pinterest title, description, and alt text (important for accessibility.) It also allows you to set certain images so users cannot pin them. (This can be super helpful!)

Nutrifox – Nutrifox allows you to provide nutritional info to your readers. Copy and paste your recipe ingredients in how many servings it’s for. Then, it automatically calculates and generates a nutrition card for your recipe. (Google also likes when your recipe includes nutrition info.)

WP Rocket – WP Rocket is how I got my site to excel in core web vitals and increase my page speed drastically. (Having a fast website is important for user experience and for ranking in search.)

Imagify – This handy plugin will automatically compress your images (based on your selected perameters). This is incredibly useful as it allows your images to load faster and as a result increases your page speed.

Photography Tools

Current Camera

Canon EOS R Mirrorless Full Frame Camera – This is the camera I use for photography and filming.

Canon RF35mm F1.8 IS Macro STM Lens – This lens is wonderfully versatile. It is perfect for photography and filming alike.

Starter Camera

Canon Rebel SL3 – This is a great beginner DSLR camera to start with. It takes beautiful photos and offers 4K video.

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM Lens – This lens is perfect for close up shots with beautiful blurred backgrounds.

Photo & Video Editing

Adobe CC Photography Plan – Adobe is the software to use for editing photos or videos. You can’t put a price on good editing software.

Photography Backdrops

Bessie Bakes Backdrops – Using your kitchen table, countertops, or a thrifted side table can all work great for a photography backdrop. That being said, I am a fan of variation. These backdrops are more affordable than some. They are lightweight and easy to store. (Which I love.) They are also super easy to clean!

More Blogging

Must-Haves

Flodesk – Flodesk is a great option for email marketing. They have beautiful, pre-designed templates that you simply copy and paste your copy and images into. It’s easy to use and created beautiful emails. There’s always a comma missed here or a different word to use to better convey your message. Grammarly does it all.

Grammarly – The fact that blogging centers around the written word, makes Grammarly a must-have. Whether it’s misplaced commas or recommending a different word to make your message clearer, Grammarly has you covered.

The Contract Shop – Surprisingly, there are certain legal documents that you have to have on your blog. These include a privacy policy, terms and conditions, and more. The contract shop makes putting these pages together a breeze!

Canva – This is an easy to use graphic design tool. I use Canva to create my Pinterest images as well as source stock images for certain posts. Trust me, it will make your blogging life easier!

Planoly – This is your ultimate social media planning tool. It is particularly great for Pinterest, Instagram, and TikTok.

Tailwind – Another great social media planning tool. It is particularly good for Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook.

Blogging Courses

RankIQ – This isn’t technically a course though it does offer a couple of useful tutorial videos. This is a must-have for SEO and writing.

Food Blogger Pro – This is the perfect course for bloggers in general. It does focus a good deal on food (as the title suggests), but most aspects can be applied to any blog topic. They also offer a 60-day money-back guarantee, so if it’s not for you, then no problem.