Resources and Recommendations

Resources & recommendations for bloggers, sider hustlers, money savers, & money makers.

I thought it might be helpful to create a recommendations page as a resource for those who are interested in services, products, & companies that can help you grow your blog & income. Now you can quickly & easily find resources on one page that will help you grow your blog, save money, & make money! This list will grow & evolve as I discover resources that I use &/or know will be valuable to you.

Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links & I will earn a commission if you make a purchase through those links. All of the products & companies listed below are ones that I personally use &/or recommend because I have found them to be helpful, useful, & trustworthy. I won’t put anything on this page that I haven’t verified &/or personally used. Feel free to email me if you have any questions!

Blog Resources & Recommendations

WordPress.org

If you plan to use your blog as a side hustle, have big blogging dreams, or would like to eventually turn your hobby blog into a full-time income job I highly recommend WordPress.org for your blog. A few of the reasons I chose WordPress.org is because I wanted more theme (background) options, I wanted plugins, & I wanted to have the opportunity to make an income on my blog through ads. You can read more about WordPress.org in this post on How to Start a Blog.

SiteGround

If you are looking for a hosting provider that is inexpensive, has incredible customer service, & includes a free domain for life then you are going to love SiteGround! SiteGround is officially recommended by WordPress.org & you can set up your blog in just 3 easy steps! Domestically Blissful is on SiteGround’s Cloud Hosting Plan, but new bloggers can get hosting for as low as $3.95 a month. What a deal!! Start now by reading How to Start a Blog on SiteGround.

StudioPress & Genesis Framework

Looking to design or redesign the face of your blog? StudioPress’s Genesis Framework is highly recommended by many bloggers because of it’s function, security, flexibility, customization, appeal, & so much more. The Genesis Framework is used on my blog & I personally recommend it. And more specifically I am using the Simply Pro Theme by the Bloom Blog Shop.

VaultPress

VaultPress is a great way to backup your website so you never have to worry about losing your hours & hours of hard work!

Being penalized by Google is not fun & neither is the fear of accidentally forgetting to properly tag a NoFollow link. The Blog Fixer is a great tool that has a variety of services, depending on your blog’s needs. I have personally used their NoFollow Service, their Penalty Reversal Service, & their Live Fix Feature. Instead of spending countless hours finding & fixing your links, the NoFollow Service will do it for you & in a fraction of the time. Within one week of purchasing the NoFollow Service & the Penalty Reversal Service, my blog was cleaned up & The Blog Fixer added NoFollow to over 805 links & about 152 post updates. They also applied the bonus link target fix, which optimized 740 links for SEO (external links open in new tabs, internal in the same tab). And on top of all of this, they submitted a reconsideration request to Google, which was quickly accepted & the manual penalty was removed! I highly recommend their services!

The Blog Fixer also provides other services such as Import from Blogspot, Image Attribute Optimization, Typewriter Service, & much more!

Canon

I use a Canon EOS Rebel T3 to take the photos you see on Domestically Blissful. I have been using this camera on a very regular basis for 3+ years & it has held up very well with my rough & clumsy behavior. I love Canon!

Adobe Lightroom

All of my photos are edited in Adobe Lightroom. I love how simple it is to use this Adobe program & the very noticeable difference in the appearance of my photos after using this photo editing program. By editing my photos in Lightroom my recipes & projects are more often accepted by submission sites, shared on Pinterest, & picked up by other blogs & websites.

Tailwind

Tailwind is not only a huge time saver, but you can really see the difference when using Tailwind‘s Pinterest scheduler. I use to spend hours a day (spread out throughout the day) pinning on Pinterest, now I can schedule everything & Tailwind will pin for me. Since using Tailwind & the introduction of their Tribe feature I have been seeing huge growth. I’m now gaining well over 1,000 new Pinterest followers a week. As you can imagine I’m a huge believer in Tailwind! I use Tailwind‘s yearly Plus Plan & my only regret is that I wish I had started using Tailwind sooner.

BoardBooster

BoardBooster is also a Pinterest scheduler that you I use to save time & increase traffic to my blog. I started using BoardBooster after taking the Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing Course (see below) & learning how this can save me even more time (along with Tailwind) while growing my blog exponentially.

Canva

To create my Pinterest graphics with the word overlay I use Canva. It’s simple, free, & filled with customization options to make your pictures special & unique!

Building a Framework

This is the dream. Turning your hobby blog into a six-figure income is an amazing fete, & Abby Lawson not only did this, but she has compiled her success & knowledge into applicable steps in her book Building a Framework: The Ultimate Blogging Handbook. This book is filled with information for both brand new bloggers & those of us who have been blogging for a few years. This ultimate book has over 200 pages of information that are easy to understand & apply to your own blog!

17 Strategies I Used to Go from 17K to 350K+ Pageviews in 9 Months

Looking at your daily, weekly, & monthly page views is very addicting, but let’s be honest, it can also be depressing. We’ve all had moments where we excitedly open Google Analytics only to be dumped into despair. After Lena had this same experience she was determined to break free & grow her page views like never before. In her book 17 Strategies I Used to Go from 17K to 350K+ Pageviews in 9 Months she breaks down her knowledge into 17 steps that will help you grow your page views to heights you had once only dreamed of seeing. I loved how easy her book was to understand & that it was straight to the point with tips & advice that will help you & I have the same success.

Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing

If you are interested in turning your hobby blog or side hustle blog into one that makes you a real income I highly recommend that you take the course Making Sense of Affiliate Marking. If you apply all of the advice & tips from this course to your blog you will see a real difference as your income increases each month. Also, you don’t have to wait until you have been blogging a few months to take this course, why not start making money the moment your blog goes live!?

Strategies Worth Sharing

Facebook is something I have struggled with for years, but after taking this course on Strategies Worth Sharing I feel like I finally know what to do to make Domestically Blissful’s Facebook page grow & create real engagement with my followers. This course is extremely inexpensive for all of the wonderful content it contains! Strategies Worth Sharing is a great course for new bloggers (as it has a section on how to set up your blog) as well as seasoned bloggers who want to see real growth & engagement on their Facebook page.

Income Opportunities for Bloggers

Linqia: These campaigns are unique & awesome because you get paid by the click. Through their campaigns, you have the opportunity to make more money on future campaigns based off of the performance of your past campaigns. How awesome is that?

Social Fabric: “Shop” for opportunities by applying to sponsored posts. New sponsored posts, also known as “Shoppertunties,” are posted almost every day!

IZEA: I love that with IZEA you can both apply for opportunities & that they will also reach out to you with private sponsored post opportunities that they believe will be a good fit for your blog.

Real Clever: Apply for sponsored posts & social media opportunities with awesome brands.

Affiliate Window: You can become an affiliate for some of your favorite companies, including ETSY!!

VigLink: This is a wonderful way to make sure you aren’t missing any possible affiliate income. It searches your website & adds links to keywords of specific brands and & businesses that they are partnered with so you can make even more income.

Facebook Groups to Connect & Grow Your Blog

Here are a few of my favorite Facebook Groups:

The Peony Project: “A space for women who love Jesus, love blogging, & love community.”

Pinterest Group Boards: If you want to join more Pinterest boards you will love this Facebook group!!

Blogger Roundups: This Facebook group is great for sharing your posts in specific roundups & curating your own collection for a blog post.

Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing: This is a closed group only for those who have taken the Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing Course. This group is invaluable & a huge free bonus that came with the course.