So You’re Starting A Blog!
Or maybe you are on the fence about starting a blog. Looking back, I remember seeing two mentalities online. The “oh this will be a breeze. Easy money” and “having resource after resource pushed at me”. I felt like I was drowning in blog resources and tools.
*this post may contain affiliate links. Thank for keeping the lights on!
There were all these bloggers everywhere telling me what I needed to succeed. How I would never be able to do it without this tool, or that resource.
I know some of them mean well, and some were simply trying to make affiliate sales with their mentions.
I don’t have an issue with helping a fellow blogger out and using their affiliate links. #communityovercompetition.
Blog Resources and Tools Overwhelm
What I didn’t like was the endless list of so-called “must haves” or my business would supposedly fail. The pins that read “50 must have resources for a successful blog.”
EPIC LIES!
Three months into blogging I found myself with over 30 accounts and passwords for different programs, tools, and resources.
I felt claustrophobic.
Crowded, cluttered, and unproductive to say the least.
I couldn’t even use half these tools properly. Couldn’t figure out how to link them together and make them cohesive for that so called “set it and forget it” automation that would save me so much time.
Nah. Instead I was up to my eyeballs in learning. And, while learning is great, if you do it non-stop (analysis paralysis) it means you aren’t actually doing, which is where the money is.
Blogging Resources Overload
I had blogging friends telling me I needed:
- Hootsuite -Meet Edgar
- MailerLite – SendOwl
- WooCommerce – Dropbox
- Siteground – Mailchimp
- Zapier – Pic Monkey
- Adobe Photoshop – Unsplash
- Asana- Trello
- Co-Schedule – Grammarly
- Social Warfare – PinGroupie
- Tailwind – Genesis Themes
- Pretty Link Lite – Opt-In Monster
- Leadpages – Thrive
- Buffer- Teachable
- Dubsado – Stripe
You get the idea. The list was way longer than this. It was EXHAUSTING. The amount of blogging resources and tools out there is daunting.
Blogging Should be Profitable
Yes, there is some serious groundwork involved to start turning a profit in blogging (Most of it being Mindset work) As for the technical, Hop over to this post if you are just getting started.
But my idea of success is not defined by the “make more, spend more motto.”
I think a blogger should be able to turn profit and not have to sink thousands of dollars into tools or ads to do so.
The tools shouldn’t be overcomplicated or priced out of range for the working class. After all, most of us start a blog in the hopes of creating a business that frees us from a daily grind.
The most successful bloggers I know have kept their operating costs minimal while scaling the sh*t out of their businesses.
This is what I strive for. There are a few costs well worth the investment. But the entire idea of starting a business is to create wealth and freedom while helping others. Not sucking ourselves dry in time and money buying up tools we barely use or don’t need.
Blogging Tools Reality Check
When I sat down with a phenomenal, world class blogger to discuss this overload, I wasn’t sure if I was tearing up from relief, frustration, or both.
She talked to me about the tools she used the first 5 years she was in business.
The list was short.
All the things people were trying to convince me I needed to “make it” online, yeah, she had made 6 figures her second year in without most of them.
She had a few basic tools that you literally have to have. Her few splurges were on a virtual assistant and coaching to move through her self-limiting beliefs around money. (I could have coached her if I’d known her then!)
7 Blogging Tools You Need
So she splayed out her 6-figure strategy from a technical standpoint. That is what I am sharing with you today. The bones of a successful blog or online business don’t have to be so complicated!
Blog Domain and Host
Domain and Host: If you go through BlueHost, like I do, and she did for years, you can get your domain name for free.
You absolutely need to be self-hosted if you want to have the freedom to do what you want with your site. BlueHost is highly recommended by WordPress.org.
For those of you who don’t know. WordPress.com means you are not self-hosted. It’s free, but they can shut down or revoke your content whenever they feel like it. You also face serious restrictions when it comes to ads and sales.
WordPress.Org is a platform that allows self-hosting. It is also free but you have to purchase hosting. This is a foundational cost but an affordable one. 3 years of hosting cost me $142.
And while you can buy some pretty themes and sometimes the framework to go with those themes, WordPress.org offers thousands, yes thousands of free or low cost themes that function just fine.
Email Platform
An Email List. You’ve heard the money is in the list and they aren’t exaggerating.
You own your list. And if Facebook shuts you down, Instagram shadow bans you, and Twitter blocks you, you can still communicate and make money from your email list.
Not to mention, email is so much more personal. Email marketing works. Just ask Marie Forleo.
There are free options available for building an email list but they come with drawbacks. One, they are only free for a little while. Two, they have seriously limited capabilities.
I chose ConvertKit. The owner, Nathan Barry is a good dude. He treats his employees and customers well. And even at $29/month (for up to 1000 subscribers), it’s a steal and here’s why:
ConvertKit’s features for tagging, segmenting, forms, landing pages, etc will eliminate your need for about half a dozen other tools that are far more expensive!
My 6-figure blogging friend went over the math with me. She estimated she saved $286 a month by using ConvertKit and skipping Leadpages, Dubsado, King Sumo, etc!
Your email is where the majority of your sales will occur. Don’t cheap out and screw yourself in this department. ConvertKit is made by a blogger for bloggers, but as an entrepreneur it’s functions are just as amazing.
Winning at Pinterest
Ok so Pinterest is your best friend if you run any kind of business on or offline.
Why you might ask?
For now, it’s free! And MILLIONS of people use it regularly.
If you want to run an ad on Google to be found in search, you’re gonna pay. Yelp, you’re gonna pay. Facebook ads, don’t even get me started.
However, you can create pins for free on Canva and advertise your business for free on Pinterest. And the pins circulate forever.
But how do you make sure your pins get seen and aren’t just buried in the feed?
Enter Pintesting Strategies.
This is the book I’d wish I had bought the first week of my entreprenuerial journey.
She completely delves from the normal Pinterest articles that teach you spam. She teaches a strategy that really improves your reach and converts pins into clicks and shares.
Te best part is it’s a one time fee with lifetime updates. She studies the heck out of Pinterest and maxamizes her profit from it. Then she shares that knowledge with the people who own her book. Carly makes well over 10K a month blogging and at the time I’m writing this she’s only been at it a little over two years.
You want this book and all it’s wisdom.
PayPal for Your Pals
I don’t know about you but I appreciate safety features when it comes to my money.
There are pros and cons to PayPal.
If you are going to be selling a service or product online, you need a way for people to pay you.
You do have options and some of them might be cheaper than PayPal, BUT……PayPal is trusted by tens of millions of people.
Many people have a PayPal account already set up for their other online shopping needs and the brand has been around a while to establish trust with it’s users. Their security is top notch.
One drawback is fees. When someone makes a purchase, you generally pay a % based user fee per transaction. All of the companies that accept payments have these in place.
There are ways to make this less painful though.
If you are running an affiliate program, you can increase the minimum threshhold for payouts. This way you pay one fee for transferring funds instead of several.
You can also have the customer pay the transaction fee although I wouldn’t recommend that. It’s better to just increase the price of your product by a few bucks to compensate.
At the end of the day, most people trust PayPal. It’s free to set up, easy to link to your business bank account, and you don’t get charged fees unless you are making money.
Backing Up Your Blog
You absolutely need to back up your blog.
If you are making changes and screw something up, you have a point of restoration.
If your host gets hacked or goes down. You have a back up.
The amount of work that is on your blog/business page adds up incredibly fast. I have more than 100 posts on this website. Some of them took days to draft because of research and accuracy of content.
Many people will recommend Dropbox, Updraft, and several other programs. I myself still use Updraft Plus but I also invested in another one time purchase which is even a better bet.
This is safer for a few reasons. If your computer crashes or gets a virus, you have instant access to a safe version of your content. It can also save a ton of space on your hard drive.
The Toshiba 2TB Portable is what I recommend. It’s sleek, contemporary, and doesn’t require any techy setup. It’s also a steal usually coming in at a little under $65. You can also look at the 1TB option. Less storage but about $20 less. And 1TB is still a lot of space.
An added bonus, you can use all that extra space to manage your photos too. Don’t want to lose our precious memories!
A Good Mindset
You have to believe in yourself and know you have what it takes to make your dream of running a blog or business a reality.
You can have all the tools and help in the world. But at the end of the day, if your mindset is broke, you will be too.
Making money online or off, doesn’t require “hustling and hard work”. It requires a strong desire to serve others and a belief in yourself like no other.
You will have plenty of doubters, don’t be one of them. People who couldn’t possibly imagine your success. Not because you can’t do it, but because they can’t or more likely, aren’t willing to take a chance.
That is their limiting belief and you can let them have it.
xoxo-Deanna
Other Cool Free Blog Tools
So I want to leave you with a few other tools I use that are completely free. But remember, don’t overwhelm yourself with stuff just to have it.
If it isn’t serving a legitimate purpose in your business like driving traffic or generating sales, chances are you shouldn’t have it 🙂
Better Click to Tweet– Free Plugin on WordPress: How I add tweet boxes to my post making it easier for people to share my articles.
Canva: Free platform for creating graphics and images for you blog posts. The Free version has more than met my needs for over two years now.
Google Analytics: Free and how you can get google to crawl your site and rank your posts. Also invaluable insights into your users and where they come from, what posts are getting traction, and when users interact with your stuff.
Revive Old Post: Free Plugin On WordPress: How my posts are auto added to Twitter every 6 hours in random order.
JQuery Pin It: Free Plugin on WordPress: Puts the little red Pinterest button on my images within a post making it easier for people to pin my posts to their Pinterst accounts or share with others.
Akismet Anti-Spam: Free Plugin on WordPress: A WordPress recommended anti spam filter. I’d give it a B+ rating. They have kept my site safe thus far.
Tailwind: Can be free or paid. I’ve used both. Tailwind can be a time suck if you let it or a great resource if you plan it out right. It can also be used to schedule content to Instagram. I currently use the paid version as I had a coupon for the one year plan.
You’ll notice no affiliate link though. Not sure how I feel about promoting tailwind yet as I think Pinteresting Strategies is a much more affordable and successful way of using Pinterest.