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Favorite Resources and Tools
When you make plans for your financial future, saving money, making money, and trusting your money with the right business is important. These are the different tools and resources I use to make extra money, save even more, and plan for my financial wellness.
If you are starting a new website or blog, there are so many resources and tools you will need to make your site a success. Here are a few of my favorite blogging tools and resources that you’ll want to start using yourself.
Recommended Creators to Grow Your Biz, and Help Your Finances
Check out my list of Recommended Business and Finance Experts
Finance Tools and Resources
SoFi Savings and Checking
This online bank offers a high-yield savings account with an APY of 10x higher than the national average (4.6%). Even their checking accounts offer interest so you can earn passive income while also saving money.
Get a $25 bonus when you open an account and deposit at least $50.
SoFi Investing
SoFi doesn’t just offer high-yield savings and checking accounts. They also offer a great platform for you to invest in stocks. If you want to buy a stock, but the market is closed, SoFi allows you to schedule your next investment as soon as the market opens again.
So you really can set it and forget it. When you invest $10 in a new account, you also get $25 as a bonus.
User Interviews
This market research site allows you to earn money, sometimes as much as $60 an hour or more. You will start with a short screening questionnaire, and if you are the right candidate for the study you’ve applied to, then you will schedule and complete the study.
Once you finish the study, you will get paid in Paypal cash, digital gift cards, and more.
Swagbucks
This survey site pays you to take all kinds of surveys, play games, participate in polls, and much more. You can earn a few cents to a few dollars for different actions. And, you get paid with your favorite gift cards, PayPal, and other methods.
You can sign up for this free survey site to start earning towards your next gift card.
Blogging Tools and Resources
Lyrical Hosting (Web Host)
Lyrical Host is my all-time favorite web hosting service. Not only are they affordable and trustworthy, but they also offer more benefits than any other hosting services I know. You receive a variety of monthly fresh stock photos, Canva templates, Ebook templates, Ebooks, spreadsheets, worksheets/workbooks, and much more to help you in your blogging journey. This supportive community is sure to give you that extra support boost you need as a beginner.
Read my Lyrical Hosting Review.
You can get 10% off your first year of web hosting using my code LMLG10.
Convert Kit (Email Marketing)
Convertkit is a popular choice among many new and experienced bloggers. And it’s easy to see why when you discover how great their platform is. From a user-friendly interface, A/B split testing, automated funnels, sequences, templates, beautiful landing pages/forms, and more, Convertkit really does have it all.
This is the email marketing system that I use and I absolutely love it. If you have a small list (<1,000) you will be able to use the free version of Convertkit. However, you will find that the premium version offers far better options that will maximize your earning potential.
Use the free version by signing up, or start a free trial of the premium version to discover what Convertkit can do for your blog or business.
Site Ground Hosting
Site Ground is a great hosting service for beginner bloggers looking for a budget-friendly option to start their blogging journey. At just $2.99/month, you can launch your blog for the first year for just $36.
So, if you want to give blogging a try, but aren’t quite ready to commit to a costly web host, Site Ground offers you exactly what you need to get started.
Legal Pages (required for all sites)
There are certain legal pages that are required for all websites, even if you aren’t making money yet. This includes a privacy policy, disclosure page, and terms and conditions. But, there may be other things you want to include in your blog that will require additional legal documents.
Whether you need the basic 3 required documents, or additional legal templates as you grow and scale your blog, these tried and trusted legal bundles will guarantee that your site is legal and safe.
Rank IQ (SEO Keyword Research)
Rank IQ is an A.I. software all-in-one SEO keyword research tool that is user-friendly and perfect for new and experienced bloggers. This tool allows you to rank on Google in as little as a few weeks, as opposed to the traditional months or years that it normally takes.
With proven results from thousands of users, this tool will boost your organic Google search in just a few months, if not sooner, so you can start earning more in ad and affiliate income.
Read my review and experience with Rank IQ.
Canva (Design Software)
Canva is a free design software that is perfect for brand-new beginners with zero experience in design. You can create great-looking designs for your website, social media, brand logo, t-shirts, mugs, and so much more.
This software provides access to thousands of templates for brochures, event announcements, social media post templates, and just about anything you can think of.
Deposit Photos (stock photos)
Use Code letsmakelifegreat15 for 15% off any purchase.
Paid Stock photos are the best and safest way to ensure that you are not wrongfully or worse, illegally, using images on your site. Deposit Photos is one of the most popular stock photo sites among bloggers.
With its affordable prices (especially on Black Friday), you will be able to boost your readers experience with eye-catching images, and attract new viewers to your site. Plus, you can view their stock music and videos to give your site and social media a seamless look.
Legal Templates for Bloggers and Entrepreneurs
Amira Irfan has been a lawyer for over 10 years helping bloggers, business owners, and entrepreneurs protect their businesses with affordable, easy-to-use legal templates. Many of her templates take as little as a few minutes to customize and can save you thousands in lawyer fees. I use her templates on my website, in my digital courses and products, and even when I need permission to use certain media. Check out Amira’s affordable legal templates and start protecting your website, business, and hard work.
You can also learn more about her templates in my review post where I go into detail about what is included in her templates and bundles.
Pinteresting Strategies 2.0
Pinteresting Strategies is an excellent course, specifically for bloggers to help boost organic Pinterest Traffic. The creator of this course, Carly Campbell, explains her strategies and walks you through the what, the how, and the why of her success, and what you need to do to also achieve this success.
Her course is very affordable ($97), and is updated frequently, so you always get the most accurate and relevant information. She is upfront and honest about her success, her struggles, and even her failures, while she identifies why things didn’t work so you can avoid those mistakes too. And, her strategy doesn’t even require any paid tools to work.
The high success rate of her students is evidence enough of the quality of her course. This is probably my #1 recommended course for bloggers interested in using Pinterest as a means of organic traffic.
Affiliate Marketing for Bloggers
This is another excellent course by Carly Campbell, who is by far my top 3 favorite online course creators. Her upfront and honest teaching style gives it to you straight so you can trust that her personal experience and analysis of affiliate marketing is spot on.
This course is specific to bloggers interested in making money through affiliate marketing and includes some strategies that I had never thought of or heard of before. And, she even walks you through one of her most successful email marketing campaigns, how she did it, and why it was a success.
This course is among my top 2 most recommended courses for bloggers, and is affordable at $79.
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing is a course created by Michelle Schroder-Gardner, who is a professional blogger who has made millions from her blog just by using affiliate marketing. This course is perfect for bloggers who are first learning how to work with affiliate marketing, and for bloggers who have been trying affiliate marketing for a while but haven’t had much success.
Michelle shares all of her best strategies, important information you need to know, and what you need to do to start making your first commissions through affiliate marketing. You can also sign up for her free Affiliate Marketing tips for bloggers.
Rank IQ
Rank IQ is an A.I. powered SEO tool built specifically for bloggers to help them fully optimize their blog posts to rank on the 1st page of Google. Search engine optimization (SEO) can be a tough task to learn and understand, especially when you first start off. So, by using Rank IQ, you will be able to optimize your post titles, content, keywords, and more. Additionally, you will have access to the incredibly supportive Facebook mastermind group filled with thousands of professional bloggers to help you find the solutions to your smallest and biggest of problems.
After I started using Rank IQ, I finally saw the first of my organic traffic coming in after months of struggling to bring in even a few views a day by posting to social media. So if you are struggling with organic traffic like I was, Rank IQ will find you the best high-traffic, low-competition keywords to bring you that money-making organic traffic. Click the button below to check it out and learn more.
Convert Kit
Email marketing has proven to be one of the best investments of many bloggers and business owners. With an average return on investment (ROI) of 3600% ($36 earned for every $1 spent, or 36x), it’s no wonder that it continues to work so well today. I have been using Convertkit from the very beginning of my blog and have been able to stay connected with my audience.
With email marketing, you don’t have to worry about being hacked out of your social media and losing all of your followers. You own your list, so you can always stay connected with them. Plus, your email list is often more loyal to you than your social media followers, and are more likely to engage with your content. So if you’re ready to invest in email marketing, you can get started for free with Convertkit, and when you’re ready to scale, you can easily upgrade to the next level. Check it out now!
Lyrical Hosting
Finding the right web hosting service can be a bit tricky. Between finding the right price for the services you need, and finding a service that actually holds up to their promise. I have had bad experiences with web hosting in the past, and would never go back to them, nor would I recommend them to others (aka Bluehost).
When I was recommended to Lyrical Hosting by a fellow blogger in my Rank IQ mastermind group, I knew that it was a good idea. However, I wasn’t 100% sure about it at first since it is hosted by a smaller company. But, ever since I switched, I have had great experiences and have not had a single issue with my site.
Plus, Lyrical Hosting even provides an amazing resource library for their users that includes tons of free stock photos, informational e-books and PDFs, Canva templates for social media, and more. And, they even bring in new content to their library every month. Lyrical Hosting has great value to their customers including increased site speeds, great customer and tech support, and amazing free resources.
Enter code LMLG10 at checkout for 10% off any hosting plan.
Traffic Building Course + Ebook
I recently created this online course and Ebook to help others start growing their online traffic using some of the best actionable tips and tricks to target their ideal audience.
Boost your website traffic by using the included site optimization checklists, worksheets, perfect blog post templates, link-building tips, and much more to bring in more of your ideal audience. Sell any products, or trying to make more in affiliate commissions? Use the list of strong calls to action (CTA), and other tips and tricks to start boosting your sales.
This course included lifetime on-demand access to all its content, including the Ebook, any updates to the content, and any bonuses that are added on to the course in the future. Grab my course for just $15 today!
Join our Community
If you are ready to be part of a supportive online community, come join our group filled with business owners who are growing their businesses by networking, collaborating, and learning new tips and tricks every day. In this group, you’ll learn how to increase your sales, bring in new leads, and take advantage of great opportunities to network with business owners in your niche. Click the button below to join today!