We understand that the world of technology and web hosting can be complicated and hard to get your head around. That’s why we’ve put together a list of helpful resources for you to take advantage of! These resources are invaluable; enabling you to get your personal blog, website, or business startup off the ground and running.
Blogging Tools
Whether you’re creating a personal blog, or a blog for your website, these tools are designed to help you along your journey. Blogs are both interesting, and useful; keeping your users engaged is so important – it builds a relationship with your user base and provides them with a personal touch, as well as up-to-date information.
Blogging Platforms:
- WordPress – One of the biggest blogging platforms in the world, WordPress powers millions of blogs and websites worldwide. With an extensive range of themes, templates, plugins, and features, WordPress is a one-stop-shop for all of your blogging needs.
- WIX – A blogging platform and website builder all-in-one, Wix is a user-friendly tool with lots of professional templates to start your blogging journey. It’s free to use, with paid options available offering more features as and when you require them.
- Blogger – Blogger has been around for almost 20 years, providing a solid base to start your blog. Blogger is simple to use, and a great starting point if you’ve never blogged before.
Blogging Themes & Templates:
- Theme Forest – Offering over 40,000 themes and templates for WordPress, HTML, CMS, etc. Theme Forest is a reliable and useful resource if you need some inspiration, or want to purchase a template pack from a trusted website. Most themes and templates come with multiple variations (colour, style, design), and they’re all yours once you purchase them. From as little as $2 (no recurring payment required), you can’t go wrong.
- BTemplates – Although it’s not as popular as other blogging platforms, Blogger is still going strong, and so are their templates. BTemplates offers free templates for your Blogger blog, and have been around since 2008.
- Pip Dig – If you’re looking for Blogger or Blog Spot templates, Pip Dig offers some really professional-looking templates. They also offer a range of WordPress themes too, as well as helpful guides on how to start a blog and install your new themes.
WordPress Plugins
WordPress has a lot of interesting and useful features, whether you’re creating a blog or website, it’s open-source nature means that WordPress plugins are in abundance. There are so many to choose from, so we’ve picked out a few of our favourite and most useful plugins available on the market (and ones that we use!).
- Yoast SEO – A must-have plugin if you’re looking to establish or increase your blog or website’s SEO. Including XML sitemaps, breadcrumb implementation, title and meta descriptions, and content analysis, Yoast SEO has you covered and will even show you how your webpage will look on a search engine results page – very handy!
- Jetpack – Providing you with a complete package, Jetpack provides your website with image optimisation, page optimisation, speed and performance improvements, and SEO tools. With real-time site stats and analytics tools, you’ll be able to manage your website’s traffic and plan your marketing strategy more effectively.
- W3 Total Cache – Just like a CDN, W3 Total Cache is a brilliant resource if you’re looking to up your website’s performance and user experience. Providing a browser cache for your users, they’ll experience faster loading speeds, encouraging further traffic to your website, and an increase in your SEO ranking.
- Wordfence Security – Generating traffic to your website is obviously important, but stopping malicious traffic maybe even more so. Wordfence Security will identify and block malicious traffic to your website, including malware scans, spam detection, and an all-round solution to keeping your website safe.
SEO Tools
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a key element to getting your website or blog seen and found on the internet. Whether you’re looking to generate traffic to your personal or business website, or want to generate more back links to your content, we’ve put together some of the most helpful tools around to get you on your SEO journey.
BuzzSumo – Input details on your website content, article or blog topics to establish the best content for your industry, and how it compares to potential competitors. Unique and meaningful content will perform better when looking to climb the search engine ranks.
Moz.com (fantastic SEO guide for beginners) – Whether you’re looking to generate more traffic, analyse SEO insights, or generally learn how to start your website’s SEO, Moz has some invaluable resources to help you out.
Ahrefs.com (a great keyword/research tool) – If you’re wondering where to begin with your keywords or how to implement them, Ahrefs has all you need to know.
SEMrush (a must have for all SEO’s) – By entering your website’s domain or keywords, you can establish how to plan your SEO and marketing strategy to get the most from your website.
Images and Photos
Stock images and photos can be very useful if you can’t source the images you want yourself. Whether you’re looking for a specific theme for your imagery, most stock photo sites will offer thousands of images for you to choose from, in the resolution that you want.
- Pexels – Free stock images and photos all in one place. Pexels makes it easy to find your perfect image, with multiple categories to filter by.
- iStock – iStock has a wide range of high quality stock photos available, priced individually, or via a subscription which allows access to photos, illustrations, video, and audio.
- Shutterstock – Royalty free images, footage, and music is available from Shutterstock with multiple pricing plans available for you to choose from.
- Unsplash – Unsplash offers free stock photos in high-resolution, from a range of categories.
- Envato – With thousands of images to choose from, the Envato market has everything you need, offering photos on a monthly subscription basis.
- Fluid UI -Fluid UI is a smart prototyping tool that focuses on simplicity and communication. It’s impressive array of features include built-in high and low fidelity component libraries, live team collaboration, device previews and video presentations. It is a perfect solution for designers, early-stage entrepreneurs, product managers and product visionaries.
Useful Blog Articles
We’ve put together some of our favourite and most useful blog articles for you to indulge. Our aim is to make your life easier, keeping up to date with all the latest technologies now and in the future.
The Real Meaning of “Unlimited Web Hosting”
How to Develop a Great Social Media Strategy
11 Ways to Generate More Comments for Your Blog
Helpful Guides
The internet is an ever-growing and expanding place, with so much to learn, the online world is constantly changing. We keep you updated with helpful guides so that you don’t feel lost; all of our guides are intended to inform you of the latest trends and how to stay on top of them.
Internet Safety Guide (for Parents)
Our Guide to the Best VPS Hosting