Must-have resources - Video

You know how they say it takes a village to raise a child?

Well it takes resources to make a blog happen!

Yes, you will feel like a massive village of one, tackling all of the upcoming tasks, however. It is so damn rewarding, and you will thank yourself, full stop.

Like motherhood, blogging is challenging, it's also very gratifying. Seeing your finished product, once you've hit publish, is so incredible. I can't wait for you to experience it!

Check out some of the resources that I highly suggest you utilize. Some of which, you'll see throughout this training, other's will come in handy down the road in your blogging career.

GoDaddy

The most popular domain purchasing site there is. I'm sure you've seen the commercials, or the ads online.

Wine & Mommy Time was purchased from GoDaddy for like $14, and frankly, best $14 I've ever spent. I've since purchased other domain names that I may use in the future (don't worry W&MT isn't going anywhere!).

What is a domain server? Well, think of a domain as your street address. It's your .com, or whatever ending you choose. It's where people type your name in, on the web, and find you. In other words, your URL.

Even once you have your blog up and running, a new name may strike your fancy. If you don't end up using it, you can actually sell, or auction it! True story! Tons of people make a lot of money off of flipping domain names. If you think something sounds catchy, others will too. Trust me. It's a great, small cost investment if you ask me. For instance. I gave the idea of my friend's domain name to her, after seeing it wasn't already taken. She purchased it, and when I went to check it out on GoDaddy, it told me, that it was no longer available, but that I could contact her to purchase it for $100+! Yeah. How about them apples?

BlueHost

One of the world wide web's most trusted hosts! Your host is where your blog lives. Think of it as your apartment, house, or condo! It's where you keep all of your things. Why do I recommend BlueHost? Well, for one, their up-time, is incredible. What is up-time? It's basically the percentage that your website is reachable by people online.

Ever go to a website and it says that they are currently down, not for maintenance, but with a strange error code? Well, that's what you don't want. BlueHost is very well known for having pretty well the highest up-time. That's nothing to shake a stick at. What's the point of all that hard work if you're with a host that crashes all the time. No thanks. Plus, WordPress is built right in with them, just click and go.

Seriously. Check out my post: Start a blog in 3 easy steps. In that post, I bring you through the BlueHost setup process!

Don't be that blogger who's stressed out and can't contact their host because you choose some cheap no-name site. Trust me when I say, you want amazing customer service. You want people who are there to help, and who have an amazing reputation. BlueHost are those people.

MailerLite

Your blog needs to have an email list. There is no getting around that. If you want to be the best blogger you can be, and also have access to potential clients, or want to make money for that matter, you need an email list.

W&MT has been running on MailerLite since the beginning. Well... Almost, I started with another mail client, but then quickly realized that hey, their free version really didn't give me very much. I'm not one for smearing brands so I won't say which one. But honestly, when you're starting out, I don't suggest spending money on your email list.

MailerLite gives you up to 1000 subscribers for free! Free! As in, you can have up to 1000 people sign up for your list and not pay a cent for it. Or if your Canadian, a nickle, because we don't have pennies.

It's so worth it. MailerLite is very, very easy to use. We'll get more into them later on in this course, so you might as well sign up now. Because it's free, remember?

Canva

All of Wine & Mommy Time's images, workbooks, downloads, and more, are created on Canva. And guess what. It's free! Just like MailerLite.

Canva is a website that lets you create digital content, or items. Anything from Pinterest images, to ebooks, to infographics, and so much more!

One thing I love about Canva is that since it's a website, I can access it anywhere. And they have an app. So yes, when I'm on lunch or break at work, I can create things, which is awesome. Or, when I'm on my couch, watching hour 18 of Paw Patrol with my son. Because mama needs to get stuff done.

Since everything is within an app, or website, that means, you won't be taking up precious room on your computer, which is amazing. Later on in this course, I will bring you through some Canva basics, so just sign up now, because you're going to be using it a lot.

Pretty Darn Cute Designs

Every blog needs an image. Later in this course, you'll get a free workbook that will take you through brainstorming your blog image. However, the biggest part of your image, if your theme.

A blog theme is the overall look of your blog. Where your menu's are, where, or if you have a header image, maybe you have sidebars. Basically, it's your layout.

Pretty Darn Cute Designs makes some incredible, feminine themes which are so darn easy to install in your WordPress. If you don't want to spend tons of time customizing a free theme to exactly how you want it, to only be let down over and over again, head on over to Pretty Darn Cute Designs and let them do the work for you.

Trust me, ain't no body got time to be fretting over framework when someone else can do it for you, you know I'm right.

Tailwind

You may or may not of heard of Tailwind. If you have, great, if you haven't buckle your seat belt.

Tailwind is the only platform that Pinterest allows to work for you, on autopilot to pin for you. Yes. For you. It's hands down the biggest point to my success for blog traffic. In fact, I wrote a review on my early days of Tailwind, my blog post: First Week of Tailwind Review. By far, one of the smartest decisions I've made lately. Any blogger will tell you the same.

Chances are, you don't have hours and hours a day to pin at peak times. Well, fear not, because Tailwind does it for you. Seriously. And, you can join tribes, which is basically like group pinning, but for other people who use Tailwind as well. In other words, not only are you pinning on autopilot, but others are for you as well. It's amazing.

If you don't know why Pinterest is so important, let me give you a little info. Pinterest is not social media, as much as people lump it that way, it isn't. Pinterest, is like Google images, but better, because you can save them, and they typically are linked to helpful articles. Aka, blogs. Aka, you! That's the clif notes.

The less time you spend pinning, the more time you have to write and create content! You can sign up for free with my link! So seriously, what do you have to lose? Free time? No, because I'm giving that to you!


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