Resources For Bloggers
If you are looking to start your own blog, this information will be useful to you! This page lists the products and services that I use for Berry Sweet Life – the list will change as I add new products or services that I discover and find useful along the way.
Disclaimer: Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links and at no cost to you, I may earn a commission if you purchase through those links. I use all of the products listed below and recommend them because they are companies that I have found helpful and trustworthy. Please let me know if you have any questions about anything listed below!
Getting Started With Your Own Blog
Bluehost – Bluehost is the hosting platform that I use for Berry Sweet Life, they offer a slick and easy way to get up and running with your blog on WordPress. Bluehost has free domain name registration, is amazingly affordable, and is the perfect place to start.
The Genesis Framework – The Genesis Framework is what is currently running on Berry Sweet Life. With Genesis, you’re going to want to purchase the Framework ($59.95) along with a child theme (prices vary). It’s also possible to get a child theme custom designed if that’s what you want.
Restored 316 Themes
– I use a Restored 316 Theme for Berry Sweet Life, it was easy to install and customise to achieve the look and feel I wanted. The support team at Restored 316 are prompt and super helpful if you have any questions or run into any problems with installation and setup.
Free Themes for Wordpress – WordPress has thousands of free themes available if you’re not interested in purchasing a “premium” theme right away. It’s a great place to start if you’re looking to start your blog without spending a lot of money from day one. Be sure to do some research and check the theme’s rating before you download it and install it onto your blog. I would recommend looking for themes with a four or five star rating.
Updraft Plus
– This is the plugin I use to automatically backup my WordPress account on a weekly basis. It would really suck if all my hard work was wiped out and I lost everything. Updraft Plus ensures that if something like that did happen I’d be able to recover everything from a backup.
Social Warfare Pro
– Social Warfare Pro is the plugin I use to display social share buttons. They load fast, look great (you can fully customise the look and colours of the buttons to suit your site) and they have a recovery tool so you won’t lose your social shares even if you change your domain name or move to SSL. You can start with the free plugin, or go ahead and get Social Warfare Pro which is what I use for Berry Sweet Life.
MailChimp
– MailChimp is the email marketing software I use to send the Berry Sweet Life blog posts via email. This is called an RSS-to-Email campaign. The long and short of it: it’s simple, it’s powerful, and they have brilliant customer support. AND how’s this for awesome: they have an account option that’s completely free!
Food Blogger Pro
– Food Blogger Pro is a platform for people that want to learn how to start and grow a food blog. They have an awesome collection of training videos and a community forum. The videos provide easy-to-understand tips for getting started with your blog and step-by-step instructions for how to do things like install advertising code, create a branded email address, or use the manual settings on your DSLR camera. The community forum is a place where you can go to get questions answered by other food bloggers.
Building A Framework
– This is an e-book that basically holds your hand and walks you through the step by step process of starting a blog and all the bases you need to cover when you’re a newby. Believe me, it makes a HUGE difference a few years down this blogging road when you’ve put “best practices” in place from day one. This e-book will help you to do just that. Not sure about buying the book? Take this free Launch A Blog That Thrives E-Course and check out this free guide on 5 Types of Content That Will Boost Blog Traffic.
Photography Tools
DSLR Camera
– Your photos are a powerful way to draw people to your blog and keep them interested once they’re there! Make sure you have a decent DSLR camera and that you learn to use the manual settings for best results and the most creative control. I have the Canon EOS 1300D and it is a great entry level DSLR that is ideal for food photography, landscape and portraits. If you’re really serious about photography and can afford it, the Canon EOS 6D is an incredible camera for any kind of photography. (I do not have this camera but I know people who do and I have seen incredible photos produced from it)
SD Card – Get yourself a decent SD Card, I learnt early on that you can have an awesome camera, but if you don’t have a good SD Card, your photos won’t be good quality no matter what you do. I suggest the San Disk Extreme 32GB card. You can get better cards with more memory, but this is a great one to start with.
Photoshop
– While it’s not cheap, it’s an amazing tool! If you’re interested in getting it I’d suggest getting the free trial first to give it a test run. If you’re still a little hesitant on purchasing the software you can always purchase a month-by-month subscription until you know you’re ready to purchase the software outright.
Gimp – A great photo editing tool that is free to download. While it’s not as powerful as photoshop, it’s a great alternative if you’re looking for a good program that’s not going to cost you a cent.
Tasty Food Photography – Photography is an incredible tool that can have a profound impact on the life of your blog or website. I read this book when I first started my blog and it is practical, easy to understand, and will ultimately help you take awesome food photos (and photos in general) that you can be proud of. To date, over 9,400 people have purchased Tasty Food Photography and used it to help improve their photography. You can learn more about the book and read some testimonials on this page. (If you join Food Blogger Pro, this ebook and an awesome video course on food photography is included!)
Driving Traffic To Your Blog
Pinterest – By far the most effective social platform for driving traffic to your blog (especially if you are in the food and/or lifestyle sector). It’s essential to set up a Pinterest account alongside your other social media accounts, and get pinning high quality, beautiful images with well written descriptions.
Here is a list of the food photo submission sites that I use. There are A LOT out there, but the ones listed here are the ones that I submit to. It can take some time to go through the process of entering a submission, but the traffic you gain from getting a submission accepted can be huge! It’s not uncommon to see 1,000 – 1,500 people visit your blog in a day if you get a submission featured on the right site at the right time.
WordPress Plugins
Akismet – Spam comments are just the worst! Akismet is like a comment guard, making sure that no spamming comments get through to your site.
WP Recipe Maker – This is the free recipe card plugin that I use, it’s a user-friendly recipe plugin with automatic JSON-LD metadata for better SEO that will get you more visitors from google and Pinterest.
I hope this list of Resources For Bloggers assists you on your blogging path! If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me via my Contact Page, I’m always happy to help.
