Recommended Blogging Resources For New Bloggers

Recommended Blogging Resources For New Bloggers

by | Nov 28, 2018 | Blogging, Blogging Resources, Start A Blog

*This post contains affiliate links

Blogging can be overwhelming and confusing for a novice blogger.  After all, with hundreds of thousands of blogs already swirling among the internet, how is a new blogger supposed to stand out?

When I was just starting out as a new blogger I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.  I searched the internet for information for months.  Then, I became overwhelmed because there is almost too much information.  Who is a new blogger supposed to trust?

Now that I have an established blog up and running I am often asked for recommendations on different tools, training,  and other resources available for new bloggers. And I am always asked what tools I use to run my blogs.

These conversations encouraged me to put together a list of recommended blogging resources that have been instrumental in my success as a new blogger (I will add to this list as I continue to try new things!)

WordPress

Admittedly, I did not use WordPress when I was first starting my own blog.

Instead, I started with Squarespace (which is both easy to use and pretty, but not as good with SEO and has no plugin options).  After I realized how many limitations I had I finally switched over to WordPress.  It was a huge pain in the rear, it caused me a lot of unnecessary stress and I lost time I will never get back.

Here are a few reasons why WordPress is the way to go:

  • Its beginner-friendly:  you do NOT need coding knowledge to create a perfectly functioning website
  • WordPress themes and plugins give you almost unlimited flexibility:  Once you are more advanced with WordPress you are able to customize every aspect of your site as you see fit (or you can be like me and pay someone else to do it, the point being that you CAN customize your site more in the future).
  • WordPress helps you rank higher in search engines:  If your goal is high traffic to your site, then WordPress is the gold standard platform you need to be using.  Not only is WordPress already well-optimized for search engines, but there is an amazing plugin called Yoast SEO that helps me make sure my SEO is on point.
  • Support is available whenever you need it:  There is a WordPress support forum and a ton of online tutorials and courses

(Read more about how to set up a WordPress website on Bluehost here)

Bluehost

A blog host is a company that provides the space on its servers and equipment to store your blog.  There are free options out there but I would not use them for the following reasons:

  • Free blogs appear less professional
  • You would have to have the “blogger” or “WordPress” in your domain name.
  • You have less control over your blog when you use free hosting.  CSS functions and theme selections are limited, and you have little control over expanding your website’s capabilities.
  • Free platforms often limit advertising options, which makes it harder to make money if the future if you plan to monetize your blog.

I recommend Bluehost for several reasons:

  • Customer service is excellent.
  • Good pricing-  you can start your blog for as low as $3.95 a month.   Bluehost is one of the top web hosting companies available and for $3.95 a month, its a good deal.
  • Free domain
  • 24/7 support
  • 30-day money-back guarantee

(Read more about how to set up a WordPress website on Bluehost here)

Yoast SEO WordPress plugin

Search Engine Optimization is a very important tool that helps bloggers rank higher on google and other search engines and helps readers find you on the internet.

Yoast SEO WordPress Plugin helps bloggers optimize for keywords, keyphrases and synonyms, and related keywords.  When optimized correctly, it makes your website more visible to people looking for your specific content.  Your goal, if you want to be a successful blogger, is to rank #1 in search engine results.  Yoast SEO Plugin can help you get that spot.

How it works:    You can enter the keyword or keyphrase you’d like your post or page to rank for in the search results. Yoast SEO Plugin then runs a check on your content to check whether you’re using the keywords often enough – but not too often – and in the right spots.

(I love this plugin so much that I pay annually for the premium version)

Recommended blogging resources for new bloggers

Editorial Calendar (EPIC Blog)

I am almost completely paperless, except for my editorial calendar (which I use as a hard copy for pretty much everything that goes into my blog).  You can find editorial calendars online, but I have found that by using my hard copy of EPIC blog and my scheduler on WordPress that I stay super organized.  I always manage to stay on top of deadlines.

At some point, I would love to create my own editorial calendar for bloggers.  Until then, my EPIC blog editorial calendar is super helpful!

Keyword Planner

If you ever want to rank in a google search you must research your keywords.  Otherwise, how do you know if anyone is actually searching for the keywords you are trying to rank for?

Keyword Planner is actually a FREE Google Ads tool for advertisers.  However, it also makes a great tool for bloggers to find the keywords that people type into Google.

Pinterest

Did you know that Pinterest is a search engine, NOT a social media platform? (Its actually more like Google then it is Instagram, Facebook or Twitter!).

Pinterest has been so helpful for my blog growth.  In fact, many bloggers I know are making a lot (if not most) of their income from pinning on Pinterest.

Pinterest group boards are great for generating more traction to your blog (a group board is a community board where other pinners can pin and, if popular, can give your pins more exposure).

Keep in mind that SEO is the ultimate goal for blog growth, but Pinterest can help you gain website traffic in the short-term.

Check out my Pinterest board at www.pinterest.com/mothernurselove and if you are a nurse blogger please join my Nurse Bloggers Group Board!

Pinterest Ninja

Pinterest has changed tremendously over the last year and seems to have algorithm updates almost weekly.   Mastering Pinterest takes a lot of work and if you want more traffic sooner then you want to invest in a course.

If you want to understand how Pinterest can grow blog traffic you need the Pinterest Ninja Course.

A blogger colleague of mine, Megan Johnson, created Pinterest Ninja to help people increase their blog pages views by the thousands.  I did the course when I was on maternity leave and I was able to increase my blog traffic from 0-1000/day in just over one month.    Seriously, read some of her reviews.  Her course is invaluable.

(You need to know by now – if your goal IS to monetize your blog you must invest in a few courses to help move you forward.  Otherwise, blogging is a lonely, frustrating island.)

Tailwind

If you are a blogger, chances are you are super busy and don’t have time for pinning on Pinterest.  With Tailwind, you won’t have to find time daily to post Pins.   Sit down once a week (or month) and let Tailwind post for you – at the best times every day.

In addition, Pinterest analytics can tell you which content is resonating with pinners. So you can make more of the kind people are interacting with, and make improvements to the ones that aren’t.

Tailwind does all this:

  • Schedules your posts
  • Posts at the best times for engagement
  • Discovers related content you can share
  • Connects you with pinners to share content in Tribes (I love Tailwind Tribes- it is a premium feature that gives you additional reach with Tribes boards)
  • Amplifies your reach
  • And you can measure your results in analytics!

Tailwind saves me valuable time so I can spend more time on other important tasks, like content creation.

PicMonkey

PicMonkey allows me to make amazing graphic designs for my blog and Pinterest account.  I also use it for making blog post headers, watermarks, Instagram photos, my logo, and so many other things I need a graphic design for.

With PicMonkey I can make my graphic designs easily:

  • I pick a pre-sized canvas or customizable template
  • I can add fonts, graphics, logos, and textures.
  • My designs are auto-saved to the PicMonkey hub for later.

Check out my Pinterest board at www.pinterest.com/mothernurselove to see how much I have been able to design with PicMonkey.

Click this link to sign-up for a free PicMonkey trial today!

Mailchimp

Mailchimp is a marketing automation platform that helps me share email and ad campaigns with my email list.   It took me a while to start my email list and I regret not starting my email list sooner!

Mailchimp is ideal for beginners who want to grow their lists and create campaigns because it is FREE until you have up to 2,000 total subscribers (at that point you have to pick a paid plan).

Amazon affiliates

Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular ways people can make money online.   It is a strategy that bloggers can use to earn a commission by promoting other people’s products.  For example, if I find a product or service I like, I can promote it to my readers and earn a small commission for the referral.

I really think that Amazon Affiliates are the easiest platform for new bloggers to start using affiliate marketing.  Its the biggest affiliate program out there and you can find almost anything on Amazon.   (Read more about why Amazon is a great affiliate for new bloggers).

Trello

Trello is a collaboration tool that organizes your projects into boards. In one glance, you can look at everything you are working on and where you are in the process.

I am almost entirely paper-free (except for my EPIC blog editorial calendar).  Trello makes it very easy for me to keep ALL my to-do lists organized, right from my phone or computer.  Best of all, if you start working with a Virtual Assistant or another blogger on a project you can easily add contributors to your Trello account.

Unsplash

Need free stock photos?   Unsplash is a website dedicated to sharing royalty-free stock photography from over 100,000 contributing photographers.  I use Unsplash photos frequently for my Pinterest graphics and blog header photos.

As a brand new blogger, you don’t need to be spending any money on stock photography.  However, as your blog grows you are going to want to look into paying a few dollars for your images (eventually you start to recognize the free photos from the stock photos because everyone else is using them too).

Upwork & Firverr

Upwork and Fiverr are global freelancing platforms where you can hire people online who can help you grow your blog.   You can find a freelancer to do pretty much anything you want them to for your blog for a fee.

I just hired my first freelancer through Upwork recently and I was very happy with the affordable assistance I received with a few technical issues I was having on my blog.  It saved me hours!

Courses

As with any new business, you will need to invest a little money so you can learn the ropes from people who actually know what they are talking about.

Here is one blogging expert that I can, in good faith, recommend. (If you don’t believe me, look at their recommendations.  They are amazing!).

  • Nurse Blogging 101: Healthcare Media Academy –  If you are a nurse or other healthcare blogger, I highly recommend starting with this one.  Creators Brittany Wilson and Kati Kleber are both published, award-winning authors who are also considered the Godmothers in nurse blogging.  They are especially great because they go into more detail about patient privacy concerns and other considerations that healthcare bloggers need to be aware of.

I will keep adding to this list as I find additional recommended resources for new bloggers.  Good luck blogging and let me know if you have any questions!

Recommended Reading

9 Helpful Blogging Tips For New Bloggers

9 Helpful Blogging Tips For New Bloggers

by | Nov 22, 2018 | Blogging, Nurse Blogger, Start A Blog

This post contains affiliate links.  You can find my disclosure page here.

9 Helpful Blogging Tips For New Bloggers

Tip #1.  Use WordPress

Admittedly, I did not use WordPress when I was first starting my own blog.

Instead, I started with Squarespace (which is both easy to use and pretty, but not as good with SEO and has no plugin options).  Once I realized how limited I was with Squarespace I moved over to WordPress.  And I have been so much happier since.  It was a huge pain in the rear, it caused me a lot of unnecessary stress and I lost time I will never get back.

Here are a few reasons why WordPress is the way to go:

  • WordPress is beginner friendly:  you do NOT need coding knowledge to create a perfectly functioning website
  • WordPress themes and plugins give you almost unlimited flexibility:  Once you are more advanced with WordPress you are able to customize every aspect of your site as you see fit (or you can be like me and pay someone else to do it, the point being that you CAN customize your site more in the future).
  • WordPress helps you rank higher in search engines:  If your goal is high traffic to your site, then WordPress is the gold standard platform you need to be using.  Not only is WordPress already well-optimized for search engines, but there is an amazing plugin called Yoast SEO that helps me make sure my SEO is on point.
  • Support is available whenever you need it:  There is a WordPress support forum and a ton of online tutorials and courses

If you have not started your blog and want a step-by-step guide to setting up a WordPress blog on Bluehost check this out!  (I go into more detail about why you need a WordPress blog and why web-hosting with Bluehost is the best thing you can do as a new blogger.

Tip #2.  Find your niche.

In my very early beginner blogging days I had no focus and wrote about everything:  my favorite roasted pumpkin seed recipe, how limiting social media helps brain function, all aspects of motherhood, how to travel with toddlers, my nursing career, yoga, toddler foods….  you get the point.  I was pretty much all over the place.

Then a blogger friend said to me:  “You must find your niche.  Then, take your niche and niche it down even more.”  In essence, she was telling me to get really super specific about who my audience was going to be.

For example, if I just called myself a “nurse blogger” that doesn’t say very much about who I am or what my niche is about (except, of course, that I am one of 2.2 million other nurses in the US).  Its just too vague.

So, I refer to myself as a “nurse mom lifestyle blogger who helps other nurses take better care of themselves with an emphasis on self-care.”  I like to think of myself as a nurse mom advocate.  That sounds a little better, doesn’t it?

Having a specific niche increases your engagement with a very specific group and gives you the opportunity to be an expert in a small area.  You just cant be everything to everyone, and you cant be an expert at everything.

Tip #3.  Just keep writing

What do you do when you have been blogging for months and you’ve just run into your 20th roadblock?

What ever you do, don’t quit!

Here are a few reasons why you need to just keep writing (even when you feel like giving up):

  • Building something unique takes time.  Rome wasn’t built in a day and NO blog is an overnight success.
  • You are learning new (and valuable) skills.  There is a huge learning curve to blogging. As time goes by, you will learn lots more. Your writing will improve and you will start to build relationships with other bloggers.
  • You are closer to making money than you think (it sure is fun for me to see that I am making a little money every single day from something I created all on my own!)

Every single dollar you make through your blog was won entirely by your own efforts. You didn’t have to wait around for someone to employ you: instead, you created something valuable all on your own.

Even if you’re only making a couple of dollars a month, it’s something. And if you’re making nothing at all, it’s just a matter of time.

Tip #4.  Write about what you already know.

Don’t try and write about topics that you know nothing about.  This is one of the best tips for new bloggers who are trying to find their “voice.”

For example, if you are not already an expert in the kitchen, then you probably don’t want to compete with other food bloggers (that is a highly saturated niche already!).

You also don’t want to write a post called “My Top 10 Favorite Dinner Recipes That All Children Will Love!”  It would take you ten times longer to write recipe posts then it would for someone who is awesome at cooking and passionate about sharing recipes.  You will burnout as a blogger.  Fast.

Instead, think of what you are already an expert at and go from there.  What are you passionate about?

9 helpful tips for new bloggers

Tip #5.  Provide value

Quality content is king.  It is the ONE thing that keeps visitors coming back to your blog.

Strive to over-deliver on the value you provide with your blog.  Otherwise, why would anyone want (or need) to continue reading about what you say.

Quality writing is good, but are you giving your readers something that can be used to help them somehow in their daily lives?  Are you helping to answer a question about something they need to know about.  Its all about value.

Think about what phrases your readers would type into Google and then go from there.  Not only will it help you with SEO but it also helps you fill a void for a topic that a reader on the internet need answers to.

Here are a few good delivery methods to easily provide value to readers about a topic you already know a lot about:

  • Make a checklist for your readers
  • Create a resource guide
  • Use bullet points in you posts to easily separate points
  • Write an ebook

Tip #6.  Practice makes perfect

I have a secret that no one told me in my beginning months of blogging…

Your first 5 -10 posts might actually suck.  Really, bad actually.

In fact, I cringe when I look at my first blog posts.   Not only were they full of improperly constructed sentences, they had sneaky grammatical errors that my brain wasn’t used to sniffing out.  And they kept popping out even after 2 or 3 post revisions!

But, alas!  There is great news!  The more you blog, the better you get.  I promise!  Over time not only will your writing improve, but you also won’t spend a week writing and editing a single post.  You’ll get better, faster, more creative, more clever  and more confident each time you push “publish” on a new post.

Sometimes I go back and think what the heck was I thinking when I wrote that?  On a positive note it is great to see how far I have come in the blogging world.  Everybody has to start somewhere.

Tip #7.  Invest in courses

As with any new business, you will need to invest a little money so you can learn the ropes from people who actually know what they are talking about.  When deciding where to invest money, I highly recommend focusing on three things:

  • Invest in courses that will help you understand how to set up a functioning blog
  • Invest in learning that will (eventually) help you make money from your blog
  • Invest in courses that will help you simplify your life and blogging business

I am a blogger who has made friends with many other bloggers who happen to create GREAT courses.  Here are two blogging experts that I can, in good faith, recommend. (If you don’t believe me, look at their recommendations.  They are amazing!).

  • Building A Framework:  Abby Lawson–  This was the first blogging course I ever took and it pretty much covers everything you need to know about setting up a blog from scratch.   It is easy to follow and highly actionable.
  • Nurse Blogging 101: Healthcare Media Academy –  If you are a nurse or other healthcare blogger, I highly recommend starting with this one.  Creators Brittany Wilson and Kati Kleber are both published, award-winning authors who are also considered the Godmothers in nurse blogging.  They are especially great because they go into more detail about patient privacy concerns and other considerations that healthcare bloggers need to be aware of.

Tip #8.  Quit doing other time wasting activities

Life is busy, but there are also a lot of distractions out there.  The number 1 biggest time waster of them all = social media!  I know  people who spend hours on Instagram every single day, yet they swear they are so busy that they never have time to get anything done!  I bet if you quit using social media for 1 week you would find that you are suddenly so much more productive.  And probably happier and living more in the present to boot!

If you are going to be a blogger you have to get really good at using your time wisely.  Be overprotective about your time.  My time is the most important asset I have and it is important to me.  As a result, I rarely use Instagram anymore.  Hopefully one day I will be able to source out a lot of my work (except content creation, of course), but until then I have a lot of work to do.  There is no time to waste.

This is an excellent tip for new bloggers, as well as anyone trying to find more time for more productive activities.

Tip #9.  Have fun.

Blogging is not always all work and no play.  Reach out and make other blogging friends.  Don’t take your writing too seriously.  Remember, blogging is a marathon, not a sprint.  You need to be in it for the long game in order to be successful.

Good luck and let me know if you have any questions!

Recommended reading: