Professional Blogging Resources & Tools
Here I am sharing the various Blogging Resources which i used personally (which worked otherwise) . These resources and tools are recommended particularly useful for beginners who have a passion to start a blog
Blogging Platform
This is the most important step that every blogger should take and that’s why it occupies the number 1 place. Which platform you should use for your blog? My recommendation (plus more than 50 percent of bloggers too) would be go for self hosted wordpress!
Other platforms which i have tried for hosting small websites(micro niche sites) or particularly for sharing purposes
1. WordPress.com
2. Blogger (Blogspot)
3. Tumblr
Among them , Blogger proves to be equally useful like that of self hosted wordpress blogs. Plus many of the newbie bloggers should first try blogger (blogspot) to get an idea on “how to start a blog “
Recommended Reading –
Domain name
Every business should have a domain name to stand among millions of brands , otherwise it will be lost in the crowd.One of my favorite domain registrar is Godaddy where you can get a domain of your choice for just one dollar
Recommended Reading – Five best domain name registrars 2018
Hosting
If you have chosen WordPress.org as your blogging platform, then you have to opt for a good hosting service to host your blog. Initially i used hostgator, later i switched to SiteGround.
Every hosting service have their own pros and cons (not 100% perfect) but SiteGround is comparatively better for few reasons like Easy WordPress installation,99.9% uptime and Amazing Customer Support
Recommended Reading : How to create a Blog with Siteground – A Beginners Guide
Themes
There are plenty of WordPress themes available for free. Choose wisely according to your niche. Apart from free themes, there are some paid themes which you should give a try (if you have sufficient budget) . These themes offer
1. A very good look for your site or blog
2. May boost your traffic
3. Can improve your revenue
Some of the paid themes which i usually recommend are
1. Genesis framework
2. Themeforest
3. Themeisle
Plugins
I usually restrict the use of plugins as they may cause few problems with loading time but still you need few plugins to run your site smoothly
1. Yoast seo (Most recommended by me and more than 50% of bloggers around)
2. Insert header and footer
3. Share plugins
Tools for Keyword Research and Traffic generation
Google tools – the internet world has become such a thing that without Google, nothing can be done! That’s truly said . Once you create your website you need to use at the least two great tools offered by Google.
1. Google webmaster tools
2. Google analytics
Recommended Reading : Verify Your Site with Google
3. SemRush – This is one of the important tool for keyword research. It gives more insights like search volume, keyword difficulty, competitor analysis for a particular keyword etc. They offer a 7 day free trial. You will love it!
Monetization Resources
There are mainly three types of bloggers around
1. Bloggers who runs blogs to earn a living
2. Bloggers who run blogs just to follow their passion
3. Bloggers who basically wants to share something with their family, friends and like minded people.
80% of the bloggers come under category 1 (its true! Admit it) . So if you run a blog, you should also know how to monetize and earn money. Below are few monetization methods which worked for me (for you too!)
1. Adsense
2. Commission junction
3. Shareasale
4. Amazon
Recommended Reading – How to make money from a blog??
These are the major blogging resources and tools which i have used and came out with good results. Kindly bookmark this page as i will be adding more resources in future days