Resources for your blog

Hello ! I thought to make you a list of websites that I use the most to manage my blog. It’s a lot of work, so we quickly get involved in several tools that allow us to simplify our lives!

This article contains affiliate links. This doesn’t cost you anything, but I can earn a small commission if you buy something or sign up on a website. This helps me to maintain the blog. My full disclosure is here.

Configuration of my blog

For my blog, I use WordPress.org. As we must have our hosting and domain name, I use these companies:

• Namecheap: Domain name
• SiteGround: I use this company for my hosting. I previously used DigitalOcean but decided to switch, and I am SO HAPPY! I also recommend this company which has competitive prices and offers the confidentiality option for free.

Monetizing my blog

I started to monetize my blog recently. I only recommend the websites and products that I used before even knowing the existence of affiliate links. My favorite sites for affiliate links are:

• ShareASale: A lot of well-known sites and products, like Grammarly, Tailwind, and Namecheap.
• LinkShare: Udemy is there!
• Amazon Associate: Probably one of the most used monetization programs nowadays! It allows you to earn money when someone clicks on your link and buys something on Amazon within 24 hours.

Tools

• Grammarly: To correct any mistakes I do when I write in English.

SEO

• SEO Analyzer: Super tool created by Neil Patel to analyze the SEO of our blog
• Soovle: To get keyword suggestions according to the search engines.
• Keyword Planner (Google Adwords): To search for the best keywords to use. This tool is free, it is just a little complicated to create an account on Google Adwords. You do not have to enter your credit card.
• Google Search Console: Useful to know what keywords people use on Google to find your blog, identify your dead links, and so on.

Free to use pictures

I often see people asking where to find royalty free photos. So I thought I was going to make you a list of my favorite websites where to find them!

My favorites

• Pixabay
• Pexels
• Unsplash: beautiful landscape pictures
• Free for commercial use

Less known, different images

• Free Range Stock: also offers gorgeous illustrations!
• Vintage Stock Photos
• Flikr

See this page for a massive list of other websites offering photos that you can use for free!

Edit pictures online

• Canva: I do not know if Canva still needs an introduction, but it’s super easy to create beautiful graphics for his blog with the already pre-made themes!
• Vectr: It looks much more like a real photoshop online! A little more complicated than Canva, but more complete.
• Crello: Really similar to Canva, but I like that we can browse through categories to view more design templates!

WordPress

Themes

• CreativeMarket: A lot of resources are available on this website, not just WordPress themes. There are also 6 free resources to download every week.
• ThemeForest: I bought my WP theme there, Soledad!

Essential plugins

On WordPress.org, we can install plugins to add some features to our blog. There are a few that I consider crucial:

• WPML: Translation plugin which allows me to have a blog in English and French. I do not recommend free plugins; it is better to invest in a good product like WPML.
• Google Analytics by Monster Insights: To exclude my IP address from my Google Analytics report, I also use it to connect my Analytics and my blog directly.
• WordFence: To increase the security of your blog.
• WP Super Cache: To make your blog load faster.
• Yoast SEO: To optimize the SEO of your blog! The better your SEO, the higher your blog will be ranked in search results on Google.
• Akismet Anti-Spam: To avoid getting hundreds of spam comments

Plugins I use, not so essential

• Instagram Slider Widget : To show my Instagram pictures in the footer of the blog
• Optin Cat Business : To offer my opt-ins in cute little boxes in my blog posts
• Pretty Links : To manage all my affiliate links
• Contact Form 7 : To create contacts forms, like on my Contact Me page.

Social media

It takes a lot of time to manage our social media accounts! Fortunately, some solutions are available for free on the internet to help us be more efficient. Here are my favorites:

• HootSuite: To plan my publications on my Facebook Group, my Facebook page, and my Twitter account. (I don’t use it anymore, but still, I enjoy it)
• Tailwind: For the automatic publication of “pins” on my Pinterest account
• IFTTT: To schedule my tweets directly from Google calendar.

Planning & Organization

• Trello: I had my editorial calendar on Trello for a year, even though I have now switched to Asana.
• Asana: This is what I use now for my editorial calendar!

My workspace

When we spend so much time in front of the computer, we need to equip ourselves of a good laptop stand or a travel bag. I share mine with you!

• MacBook Pro
• Laptop stand: To have a more ergonomic position when I work.
• Cover for my laptop: to be able to put stickers on my computer!
• Laptop shoulder briefcase: Because I often carry my computer!

Read my blog post about my workspace to know everything I use on a daily basis!

Conclusion

Did you discover new tools in this blog post? Which ones? Tell me all about it in the comments!