I started this blog of mine not know anything about technology, the back-end of websites, coding, plug-ins, themes etc. and in the last 7 months have been able to teach myself how to do most of it, and quickly. in full transparency, my goal is to grow this blog into a business providing a full time income.
I want to share with you the resources I used to get here and why I think they were helpful. some of the links below are affiliate links, which means I make a small commission from them at no cost to you. some of them are not. but all of the resources I list are ones that i use, i liked, and were simple enough for me to learn, quickly...and you know, i'm all about simple.
The resource list
Food Blogger Pro: Food Blogger Pro is an online resource and community that has been invaluable to me. not only are their courses and video tutorials amazing and easy to follow, but their ongoing live training's are fantastic. in addition to the membership site, they also have a free podcast that provides tons of information and drops a new episode every Tuesday. I highly recommend checking it out.
Start a Mom Blog: Suzi's courses helped me get my start when I first decided to start a blog. She is endlessly upbeat, super responsive and I find her courses and videos to be really thorough. If you have no idea how to get started, this is the course to check out.
WPTasty: This is the plug-in I use for my recipe cards. I didn't know what this was before I found FoodBlogger Pro and now I wouldn't use anything else. They have clean and easy to read templates, make the process seamless and have great customer service!
Canva: This is where I do all of my graphic design work. it's super intuitive and the price is right. you can use it for free, but when you buy a subscription you got a lot of added benefits that are great for building your brand and making your work flow faster.
Tailwind: Tailwind has made my life 100x simpler. Why you ask? Because I don't have time to be on Pinterest all day long pinning 20-30 posts/day. instead, I spend a few hours a month in tailwind and can make sure my pins go out into the world everyday. Great for making sure as many people as possible get to see my content.
BigScoots Hosting: My site is fast because of these guys. I started on Bluehost which was fine when I didn't know what I was doing. Then I realized in order to really make this a business, I needed to get serious. They've been great to work with and are based in Chicago, which is just an added bonus!