I created this go-to guide for all of my recommended products that I would buy a million times again. These are the best of the best products, services, companies and resources that I know are valuable.
Disclosure: There are some affiliate links below and I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post, but these are all products I highly recommend. I won’t put anything on this page that I haven’t verified and/or personally used.
Pregnancy + Postpartum Resources
Revive Oils
After having kids, I started to really pay attention to the chemicals and toxins in my home. I’m not perfect by any means but essential oils have been one switch that I made in the last year that gives me peace of mind AND smells amazing!
I love Revive Oils because it’s sold directly through the company’s website vs. through a sales person/MLM. This makes the oils much more affordable and there are no minimum monthly purchase requirements. Plus the company runs tons of sales throughout the year!
Rakuten
Rakuten is a company where you can earn cash back just by making purchases online. I’ve been using Rakuten for years and every quarter receive a check from them for money I have earned. It might seem too good to be true but there are no strings attached.
If you use my link and spend $30, you will get $30 back. You can sign up for Rakuten here.
Blogging Resources
WordPress
I run my blog through a self-hosted WordPress blog and I highly recommend it!
There are a lot of other sites you can use for your blog (Squarespace, Wix, etc) but in my experience, WordPress is the top recommended platform to use. Plus it’s a pain to move from another site to WordPress in the future.
Bluehost
Bluehost is the best, inexpensive way to start a WordPress blog. I use it as my host and paid less than $4/month which is crazy. It is one of the best hosting companies and the customer service is top notch.
Etsy – For Website Themes
Unless you’re a website designer or very tech savvy, I recommend you purchase a website theme. This will take your blog to the next level and make it look very professional. Etsy has tons of inexpensive options.
17th Avenue Designs
I personally use the Amelia Theme from 17th Avenue Designs and love it! The theme came with detailed instructions on how to install it and customize the layout to my liking. I have had a great experience so far.
Tailwind
I couldn’t live without Tailwind! It’s a website used to schedule pins to Pinterest and makes my weekly marketing plan sooo much easier.
Pinterest is by far the largest way I market my blog posts. Tailwind takes care of the pinning so I can focus on other aspects of my blog. I spend less than 30 minutes on Pinterest per week and Tailwind takes care of the rest. It literally saves me so much time compared to sitting down and manually pinning each day.
Flodesk
I knew that an email list is a huge part of running a business but there are several email providers out there to choose from. After doing my research, I decided on Flodesk and haven’t looked back since.
Flodesk is a newer email marketing company but one of the best and most inexpensive. It has tons of email templates you can use (so even beginners can get to work right away), customizable sales pages and forms, and it makes it so easy to build workflows and automate your emails so it will work while you sleep.
One thing that sets Flodesk apart from the others is that you pay one flat cost regardless of how big your email list gets. This is a huge advantage since it can cost you thousands to maintain a large email list with other email marketing companies.
You can use my link to get 50% off your plan with Flodesk.
Canva
Canva is the program I use to make all of my graphics for my blog posts and marketing materials for my blog. It is so easy to use even if you don’t have a background in graphic design. There is both a free and paid version – but you can do so much with the free version!
A Self Guru – Legal Services
It’s extremely important to protect you and your blog – and I use A Self Guru to do that.
This is the not so fun part of blogging but Amira, at A Self Guru, makes protecting your website so easy with reasonably priced privacy policies, disclaimers, terms and conditions, and so much more.
I personally bought the Legal Bundle which had all the legal documents and contracts I needed. Amira made it so easy that I was able to get them up on my website in 30 minutes!
My Favorite Blogging Courses
By Sophia Lee Courses
Perfecting Blogging and Perfecting Pinterest are two of the BEST courses out there for learning everything you need to grow a successful blog!
- Perfecting Blogging teaches you every single detail you need to start and grow a blog – from how to strategically brainstorm blog topics, write the title, incorporate SEO and so much more. It’s exactly what Sophia used to grow her blog to 50,000+ pageviews per month.
- Perfecting Pinterest teaches you everything you need to know about how to use Pinterest to market and grow your blog for free.
These two courses can be taken separately but I highly recommend the Perfecting Blogging & Perfecting Pinterest Bundle. The courses really go hand in hand and after following them to a T for about six months, I have been able to generate almost 2,000 pageviews in each of the past two months. This is huge for a newer blogger!
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing was written by Michelle Schroeder-Gardener who is a blogging GENIUS. She makes well over $1,000,000 a year and earns a big portion of it through affiliate marketing. Her course goes into all the details and techniques that bring in that level of income for her blog.
Here’s a free 36-page ebook to learn how to make money with your blog.
Affiliate marketing is something new I am branching out into with my blog. I can’t wait to share my experiences with it in the coming months!