My Favorite Things!
TOOLS YOU CAN USE TO SUCCEED
Here you will find a curated list of tools and resources I strongly recommend. I have used every one of these in my business. I think you will find them helpful too.
Now before delving into these awesome resources I know and trust, here is an important disclosure:
I am an affiliate of some of the links below, which means if you choose to make a purchase through these links I will earn a small commission. This comes at no additional cost to you. Please know that, through my years of experience, I have used many different services and tools. These are the ones I recommend and use myself. These recommendations are vetted by me, and are only here because I feel they will help you. Please only purchase products or services if you feel they will be beneficial to your business.
Hosting & Domain
For professional websites.
My preferred website hosting service for my clients is Siteground.com. They are well-rated, are set up specifically for WordPress, have virtually no down-time, and their customer service is fabulous. I use their Chat tool for help. And their servers are set up to work especially well with WordPress. PACKAGE PRICING.
Hosting & Domain
For very small sites and do-it-yourselfers.
Bluehost.com has been around for many years and has a long history of working with WordPress. In fact, when you set up your hosting with them, they automatically set up WordPress in your hosting area. Simple!
PACKAGE PRICING.
Find a Domain
Use the official ICANN WhoIs search to see if the domain you want is available. They have no vested interested in tracking your searches and possibly jacking up the price! FREE.
Imak Computer Glove
I spend so much time on the computer, and my wrists pay for it. I saw someone using this glove and I had to get one; actually I got two of them. They are reversible, so you can have one on each hand for typing. It offers support for your wrist with a pocket of ergoBeads underneath and gentle compression. You can find these at Amazon.
Premium Themes
When you need a quality WordPress theme to start your layout go to ThemeForest by Envato. It is the most popular and safe place to purchase quality themes for WordPress. I have used several themes from them and have actually found Avada to be the most flexible, intuitive theme, and you can grow your site till the cows come home! They also offer fantastic plugins at affordable prices that give tons of premium features. VARIOUS PRICING.
Stock Photos & Illustrations
iStockphoto.com is now owned by Getty Images (long renowned for their stock photography). They offer royalty-free (but not free) photos, illustrations and videos. iStockphoto.com has you buy "credits." The more you buy at a time, the less each credit costs. Photos are either 1 credit or 3 credits. If you just buy enough credits for the one photo you want it's about $11/credit. Be sure to buy large versions of the photo. You can make large photos smaller, but you cannot make small photos larger. VARIOUS PRICING.
Free Stock Photos & Illustrations
Pixabay.com offers free stock photos and illustrations that are pretty good. Many times I can find just the right image there. Most are covered under the Creative Commons law which means they are free to use. Some require attribution so you have to put their name as a caption to the image, but most do not require this. It will tell you what is required for each image. FREE.
Free Stock Photos & Illustrations
Pexels.com also offers a nice selection of free photos. Check to see if you need to give credit for using your selected photo or not. FREE.
Create Stunning Graphics & Illustrations
Canva.com is a fabulous tool for quickly creating social media graphics (you know, those pretty pictures with the profound quotes and inspirations), blog images, and even PDF layouts. I use this tool a lot when I want to make something quickly but still have it look professional. It's mostly free, but some of their premium elements (photos, templates, etc.) cost all of $1. Well worth it!
FREE & PREMIUM (I do almost everything there for free!)
Compress Images for the Web
TinyPNG.com offers fast compression of web images (jpg and png). It's an online service so you just go to the website, upload your image, wait for it to compress, and then click the download button when it's complete! I use Photoshop to compress my images and then I compress them again through this website. AND THEN... I use the TinyPNG.com plugin on all websites so they get as compressed as possible. You can set the plugin to compress every image you upload. Every little bit helps! FREE & PREMIUM
