Disclosure: This page may contain affiliate links. You can read my full disclosure for more info.
Today, I want to share with you all my favorite tools, products, and services that I use daily and helped me increase my blog’s traffic exponentially.
I remember my first month of blogging when I would try to gain blog page views… it was frustrating. It didn’t matter what I did; on good days I barely got 100 views and sometimes even less than that.
However, thanks to the recommended blogging resources below, my blog’s traffic has increased considerably. The best part is that these blogging resources helped me understand how I can successfully make money by blogging. These tools have not only helped me to increase my traffic, but they have been the key to reaching success for many other bloggers as well.
I need to emphasize that these are tools not only I use on my blog, but many successful bloggers also. So, you don’t need to look any further! Without further ado, let’s begin!…
Top Must Have Recommended Blogging Resources:
Blogging Platform:
WordPress: This is the platform I use and that the majority of pro bloggers use too. Some of the benefits:
- Very easy to use
- Friendly tool editor
- Search engine friendly
- Most or 99.99999% of professional bloggers use it!
Hosting:
Bluehost:
I run Smart Cents for Life through Bluehost and I highly recommend it especially if you are a new blogger. Why choose Bluehost:
- It is super easy to use with their 1-click WordPress installation.
- They have one of the best customer services – 24/7!
- They have one of the lowest prices in the market for new bloggers.
- You can start your own self-hosted blog or website for only $3.95 per month when you sign up through this link. This includes a FREE domain when signing up for a 12-month plan.
You can learn more about how to start a profitable blog here.
Image Creation:
PicMonkey:
I use PicMonkey to create all my images for Pinterest or other social media platforms. They have pre-made templates to use for different platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. PicMonkey is very easy to use and super affordable! You can get the membership for only $3.99 a month (after a 7-day trial period!). I highly recommend PicMonkey for anyone looking for an affordable and very easy to use option.
You can sign up here for FREE and try the 7-day trial period.
Pin-Worthy Images
This is another reason why my page views have increased so much. My main traffic source is from Pinterest. Having pinnable images are necessary to attract visitors to your blog. Tall images with a ratio of 2:3 do better on Pinterest than a square or short images. So try to play around with your images. Also, whenever you are about to create an image for a post, check out pins with a great re-pin rate on Pinterest so you can have an idea to recreate a great pin!
Social Media Scheduler:
I currently use BoardBooster and Tailwind to pin my pins and other bloggers pins.
BoardBooster:
This is the tool I use to schedule my pins on Pinterest. Since I started using BoardBooster my blog’s traffic has increased a lot! BoardBooster is very easy to use! I basically spend 15 to 20 minutes per week setting up all of my boards and I am done! It saves me tons of valuable time and I love it!
You can sign up here and schedule for FREE your first 100 pins!
Tailwind:
I use Tailwind mainly to schedule pins from others not only because you should spread the love by sharing, but because it helps with Pinterest!
Besides, Tailwind has great features such as its analytics that lets you know what your best performance pins and boards are. Oh and wait! ….. the best part of Tailwind is that it allows you to join tribes, which can seriously improve your monthly page views!
Click here for a FREE trial with Tailwind.
Email Service:
Convertkit:
Convertkit is the tool that you need if you really want to take your blog to the next level! It is a way for readers to subscribe to your blog posts and your newsletters. With Convertkit, you can easily create subscription boxes, landing pages and add free downloads for subscribers.
Since using Convertkit, my subscription rate has increased a lot! If you are one of those people that are still using a free service such as Mailchimp, you should switch to Convertkit immediately because this is the main mistake new bloggers make. You will notice that your email list will grow a lot faster!
You can sign up for Convertkit here.
Social Media Share Buttons
Social Warfare
I use social warfare on my blog and I am very happy with it. In the past, I tried Shareaholic but I was so frustrated because I couldn’t control the images I wanted to be pinned or shared on different platforms.
Now, with Social Warfare, I can easily set up for every post what I want to share or what not for every post. Also, you can easily customize your social media titles and Twitter descriptions, which is also a big plus for increasing your blog’s traffic. Having a plugging like Social Warfare, it can easily drive more traffic to your blog.
You can learn more about Social Warfare here.
Blogging Courses:
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing:
If you are really serious about how to make money by blogging, then you NEED this course! I’ve recently completed this course developed by Michelle and the results I had are shocking! Now I can say that I found the exact way on how I can successfully monetize my blog.
With this course, you will find the exact steps and strategies Michelle took to increase from $0 in affiliate income to $50,000 per month! Yes, you read right 50K/month! The biggest bonus in this course is its private Facebook group where you can find tons of help from other bloggers.
Here are some things you will learn:
- What affiliate marketing is and how it works
- The exact steps Michelle took to earn over $300,000 from a single blog post
- How to pick the right affiliate products to promote
- Different strategies to use to promote your affiliate products
- How to use Pinterest to succeed at affiliate marketing.
And much, much more!
You can find out more about Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing here
Traffic Transformation Guide: 
This guide is one of the MAIN reasons my traffic or page views are increasing super fast! I believe that this e-book is a MUST have for every pro or new blogger. Lena’s e-book will teach you how to get lots of traffic from less frequently used social media platforms like Stumbleupon and Google+.
Also, the traffic transformation guide is packed with TONS of helpful tips for growing your blog readership and income! Besides, this e-book will guide you on the exact steps you need to take to double your blog traffic and your page views within a month. This translates to more page views, meaning more income!
Here are some things you will learn:
- How to Duplicate & Piggybank Blogging Successes
- Social Platform Focus
- Interlinking Secrets
- Optimize for Search Engines
- Split Test Strategies
and so much more!!
You can find out more about this e-book here
Affiliate Networks
The list below has some of the networks I recommend to any blogger that wants to monetize their blog. Even if you are a new blogger I encourage you to start applying to these affiliate networks and start making money with your blog from day one! The signup process is very easy and fast.
Affiliate Networks I recommend:
I will add more eventually, but for now, start with these affiliate networks and start promoting and making money with your blog from day one!
Lastly, I want to tell you that thanks to ALL of these blogging recommended tools I am really seeing positive results!
Thanks to blogging and these MUST have tools I am able to earn a full-time income! The best part is that I know my earning potential is unlimited.
So, don’t wait too long and start to skyrocket your blog traffic now!
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