Our Resource Page
Here are our favorite blogging tools that have played a major role in our journey, and we believe they can help you too. Whether you’re just getting started or looking to level up, having the right tools in your corner makes all the difference.
By investing in the tools that align with your goals, you’ll save time, improve efficiency, and set yourself up for long-term success. We’ve partnered with many of these tools because we trust them—and we’re confident that you’ll love them too.
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through our links, at no extra cost to you. We only recommend products we use ourselves or believe will bring value to our readers. Please read full disclosure for more information.
Web Hosting
We’re not tech pros, so we rely on BigScoots to keep our site running smoothly. Fast, reliable, and genuinely helpful—they’re worth every penny if your website matters. Read our full review here.
Theme & Design
First impressions matter. That’s why we use 17th Avenue Designs—stylish, functional WordPress themes perfect for bloggers and creatives. Beautiful, responsive, and built on Kadence. Read our full review here.
Canva is our go-to design tool for everything—Pinterest pins, blog graphics, social posts, and more. It’s easy to use, packed with templates, and no design skills are needed. We use Pro, but free version is great too.
We use iStock for its vast library of high-quality, exclusive images, illustrations, and videos. It’s perfect when we want professional, high-end visuals to make our blog or business stand out.
We use Depositphotos for its large selection of professional photos, vectors, and videos at affordable prices. It’s ideal when we need quality images without spending a fortune.
WordPress Essentials
Serious about blogging or business? Go with self-hosted WordPress.org like we do. Full control, unlimited customization, and no monetization limits—just add solid hosting like BigScoots.
We use Yoast SEO to simplify optimizing our content. It offers real-time SEO tips, keyword guidance, and readability checks to help create content both search engines and readers love. Plus, it handles technical SEO like sitemaps and schema, always staying updated with Google’s latest best practices.
Cookie and privacy laws can be confusing, but Complianz makes compliance easy. This WordPress plugin automates cookie consent and privacy policies, covering GDPR, CCPA, and keeps your site legally protected.
Ally is a web accessibility plugin that makes your site easier to use for everyone. It offers features like adjustable text sizes, contrast options, link highlighting, and lets you quickly create an accessibility statement to show your dedication to inclusivity.
Performance & Email
We use Perfmatters to fine-tune our website’s speed by disabling unnecessary scripts and optimizing performance. It’s lightweight, easy to use, and comes with excellent support that helps us get the most out of our site. For ultimate speed, we pair it with WP Rocket!
We use WP Rocket to speed up our website with easy caching, lazy loading, and file compression. It’s beginner-friendly—just install and go—and helps improve Core Web Vitals for better SEO. Plus, their support team is great. For even more speed, we pair it with Perfmatters! Read our full review here.
We use ShortPixel to optimize our images and speed up our website. It compresses images without losing quality, helping our site load faster and run smoother. With bulk optimization, CDN integration, and flexible compression options, it’s a must-have for bloggers and businesses.
Novashare is our go-to social sharing plugin because it’s lightweight, incredibly fast, and thoughtfully built with performance in mind. It offers helpful features like share counts, click-to-share blocks, and Pinterest hover pins—all without adding bloat.
We love Kit for email marketing because it’s designed specifically for bloggers and creators. It makes list building, automation, and audience engagement simple, with a user-friendly interface and helpful support. The free plan is great to start, but upgrading unlocks more automation. Read our full review here.
Legal Templates
We use A Self Guru’s affordable, lawyer-made legal templates. They’re easy to customize and cover everything from privacy policies to disclaimers, helping small businesses stay protected. Read our full review here.
Blogging Courses
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing genuinely helped us understand how affiliate marketing actually works. Michelle walks you through everything step-by-step, with tons of real examples that make it easy to apply what you learn.
In this course, Sophia Lee breaks everything down in a super practical, easy-to-follow way, and her strategies actually work—she gets millions of views every month. If you want to grow your blog traffic with Pinterest, this is the course we’d start with.