Every week, I get emails from readers and fellow bloggers asking about the resources I use for my website. They want to know everything from how to start a blog to who designed my site and how I manage my weekly newsletters. So, I thought I’d put together a list of the resources I currently use.
When I started blogging, I used a free Blogger.com site, like many others. After a few months, I found it limited in design, layout, and navigation. That’s when I discovered WordPress.com, which was also free and easy to use but offered more design options and loaded faster, which is important for image-heavy posts.
I used WordPress.com for a while until I craved more customization. Although it’s free, to get more features like a personal domain or extra themes, you need to pay. Plus, with Blogger and WordPress.com, I was essentially just using space on their servers. Being somewhat of a control freak, I didn’t like not owning my site. After more research, I learned that WordPress offers a fully customizable option where I’d own the site, but I needed to buy my domain and hosting.
Since I wasn’t familiar with this process but wanted to take the plunge, I got professional help. This set me up with my own hosting account, WordPress installation, and a theme that fit my style. A fantastic WordPress tutorial helped me learn everything I needed for my new site.
For those who have been long-time Wellness Mama readers, you might remember my old site design. I kept that look for a year before upgrading. Since then, I’ve frequently updated the blog to keep up with technology and reader expectations.
I also get a lot of questions about my newsletter. I use a service called ConvertKit, which is amazing. It lets me take my site’s RSS feed and insert it into a newsletter format that can be automatically emailed out on any schedule I choose, making it really convenient when I’m short on time.
To protect and back up WellnessMama.com, I use Sucuri. It scans for potential threats and creates backups, ensuring my blog’s safety. I also use Dropbox for storing the images I make for the blog.
For custom forms on my site, like contact pages and surveys, I use a plugin called Gravity Forms. It offers more options than I could ever need.
Here’s my list of resources for the site. Hopefully, it’ll be useful for other bloggers or anyone thinking of starting a blog.
A few years back, I gave a talk at a food bloggers’ summit about the strategies I used to grow WellnessMama.com. I shared a slideshow during that presentation.
I’m sure as time goes on, I’ll adjust this list with new tools and resources, but these work great for me right now. If you’re considering starting a blog, I hope this information helps. Do you have a blog? What strategies have worked for you, and do you have any favorite tools or resources?
