Blogging Tools For Beginners

I see lots of preschool moms posting blogging how-to questions. While teaching blogging is not my niche, I have encountered some gold mines of information out there that would have saved me a lot of money if I had found them sooner. This is a collection of blogging tools for beginners that I wish I had known when I started.

Free Blogging Tools for Beginners

Blogging was still in its beginning stage when I started homeschooling. Today many homeschoolers are considering blogging for one reason or the other. Some are blogging as a way to journal their family’s homeschool experience. Some blog about a special interest. Others blog as a ministry. Blogging for any of these reasons has the potential to make you some extra money at home.

As with any investment, initially, it takes a little money to set up a blog and get started but if you don’t do your homework, it could end up costing you money that you didn’t need to spend.

I want to share these blogging tools with you, in hope that they will help prevent you from making some of the same mistakes I made.

If like me, you’ve already wasted a little money heading down the wrong trail(s), then these links in the first section are perfect for you because ALL of them are FREE.

This post contains affiliate links. For more information please read my full disclosure.

Free Blogging Courses

1. I would start with these 3 free blogging courses first, to get a firm foundation for the basics of blogging. These are by LeeAnn at Kingdom Bloggers and are jam-packed with valuable information all bloggers need to know – but best of all she focuses on Christian blogging!

• The Complete Guide to Starting a Christian Blog Ministry
• How to Clearly Define Your Target Audience as a Christian Blogger
• SEO Fundamentals for Christian Bloggers

2. Next, I would join the Kingdom Blogger Facebook Group. This is an amazing group! You can search the site for any blogging questions you have. If your question hasn’t been answered already, then just ask. LeeAnn will give you an easy-to-understand answer in a timely manner. She also has a wealth of information on her website Kingdom Bloggers.

When I first started the group I gleaned so much information from other folk’s questions. There was so much I didn’t know, I didn’t know – lol. (This is why, if I were doing it all over, I would have taken those 3 courses first – to give me a basic foundation to build more info on – then the stuff in the Facebook group would make more sense.)

Free Tools for SEO, Analyzing Traffic and Fixing Problems

Next, I’d make sure I set up the following to help with SEO, analyzing traffic, and fixing problems:

• Google Search Console (Free)
• Ahref (the free version gives you a wealth of information)

Best Plugins for WordPress

Forth, I would set up my blog with these essential WordPress plugins. I use the free version of everything except the last two.

• Free
  • AstroPro Theme
  • Ultimate Addons for Gutenberg
  • Rank Math  as my SEO plugin
  • Antispam Bee  or keeping SPAM out of my comments
  • Grow Social by Media Vine (Free Version) for Social media links
  • Really Simple SSS  so my site is certified safe (with the lock icon on the address bar)
  • Updraft Plus for backup and restoring
  • Cookie Notice & Compliance for GDPR / CCPA ( the least annoying one I’ve found) (Free)
  • Word Fence for security ( I use the paid but you can get a free version)
  • UserWay to be ADA Compliant (free widget you add – not a plugin)
• Paid
  • WP Rocket for caching
  • Short Pixel for my image compression

Must-Have Resources for Bloggers

I’ll close with these last few resources. I have to mention them because I don’t know where I’d be without them. I use the paid version for the first two but there’s a free version for both.

• Canva – This is what I use for all my images and forms for blogging but it is also a valuable tool for preschool homeschoolers! You can make all kinds of printables – coloring sheets, games, charts, forms, worksheets and much more. Almost all the images on this website were made with Canva. I also use it for all of the items on my Tothood 101 Etsy store.
• Evernote
  • This is what I use to keep all my blogging ideas, notes, and planning organized. It’s also a great tool for lesson planning, organizing and keeping track of homeschool curriculum. I even use it for household things like menu planning, budgeting, and keeping track of home projects.
• Christain Blogger’s Boot Camp
  • The magnum opus of blogging tools for Christian bloggers has to be LeeAnn’s Christian Blogger’s Boot Camp. She is currently hosting it twice a year. It is an 8-week training with weekly zoom calls, “homework” and a private Facebook Group page. LeeAnn serves as a mentor to help answer any blogging questions you may have. One of the most incredible things about this Boot Camp is that you pay once but can take this over every time she presents it. As things are constantly changing on the internet, this is a wonderful plus. And as you learn and grow as a blogger you can ask more advanced questions.
• Legal Documents
  • Every blog has to have 3 legal pages, a Privacy Policy, a Disclaimer, and a Terms & Condition Page. The legal pages I use for this site are from a Legal Bundle I bought from Amir, a business lawyer at A Self Guru. One of the things I like about this bundle is it comes with a lifetime of free updates. When I first started out, before I had everything set up on my site, I used free templates from Termly.

I hope these tools will be as tremendous a help to you as they have been to me. When you get your blog up and running ( or if you already have one set up) send me the link in the comments. I’d love to check it out.

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