Blogging Tools Totally Worth Paying For
This post contains affiliate links. Using them helps support this blog. This post originally appeared on the blog in May, but was lost in the great server wipe of June. I managed to find it on a RSS feeder website and knew that I needed to share it again.
Blogging can be expensive, especially if you don’t know how to effectively make money at it, or make extra money to supplement it. So, when it comes time to start spending money on things, it’s hard to know where to begin with paying for things, so today, I’m sharing some blogging tools totally worth paying for. You can start small or start big, but start somewhere!
Starting Out
Domain Name: A domain name is your .com name, so for instance, my domain name is gingerandcoblog.com. This just establishes a second layer of professionalism, compared to .wordpress.com or .blogspot.com
Schedulers: So, I use two scheduling programs: Sendible (use this code to save 10%: 148518) and Board Booster. Sensible does Facebook and Twitter, while board booster does pinterest. I love sendible for giving me the option to recycle content, so I’m never not sharing content from other people. Another great scheduler for Pinterest is Tailwind.
My Productivity Tools: I use Evernote & Todoist to keep organized, and this goes into my blog life too. I have a running list of what I do for a blog post. Every step in my blogging process is a checkmark in Todoist, and I use evernote to save articles I want to add to my sharing queue when I’m on the go.
Investing in your blog, but not sure where to start? Some Blogging Tools Totally Worth Paying For. Share on X
A Blog Planner: Right now, I see a big wall calendar to plan out posts (so I can see both Ginger & Co. posts and Ginger & Book posts), and I use this planner for all the extra goodies, like passwords, ideas, and stats.
e-books: there are tons of e-books you can use to learn more about blogging, but of course they all come a little price. Totally worth it though!
Hosting: Since I’m on the WordPress platform, I’m self-hosted, and I pay for that. Siteground is what I currently use, and I absolutely love them.
BIGGER STEPS
When it came time to think about what’s next? I asked some friends what they thought would be next, and I have to say, I totally agree with them on these!
e-courses: they’re a lot like e-books, but usually involve more people and more money. I personally prefer e-books, but I have friends like Karen who choose e-courses.
Camera and equipment: A DSLR camera is expensive. Entry levels are usually $400-500, so make sure you can afford this! Besides cameras, you can buy camera apps for your phone like Ashley does, or Kendra buys photo back drops (mine are $1 poster boards from Hobby Lobby).
You also need a great photo editing program, whether it’s Canva (love that thing), Picmonkey Pro (Hannah’s go-to), or Photoshop (I have this too because of school).
Google Apps: google apps allows me to have my own email on my domain name, all with the reliability of Google products like Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Calendar, three things I use every day in my blogging.
And finally, we have VA Services: VA stands for Virtual Assistant, and they can be a great resource to help you with tasks like social media and other things. If you’re looking to earn more money, being a VA is a great way to bring in some extra money. Krystal from Krystal’s Kitsch has a great post about being a VA.
So tell me, what is a must have on your blogging journey that you pay for?