Hosting
Hostinger
I’ve been using Hostinger for my web hosting since I started blogging. I made it to over 50,000 pageviews on the Premium Shared Plan and will continue to upgrade to higher plans as my site grows. I have only experienced one issue of my site being down due to a DDos attack. They have 24/7 customer service, allowing you to scale into cloud hosting as your site grows. Using my link you will get an additional 20% off your order!
Ads
Ezoic
Ezoic is an AI-based platform that is must more than just an ad provider. They are not an ad network, but a program that connects content creators to quality advertisers. They have excellent analytics and also have free features such as hosting, caching, and speed optimization. They do not require a minimum requirement for monthly visits to join and are a great way to start earning today!
Themes
GeneratePress
GeneratePress is a lightweight theme that I am using for all of my sites. I started on a different theme but have since changed to this theme. This is a theme which Ezoic supports, too! There’s also a money back guarantee for the first 30 days for you to try it out! There’s also a free version if you want to start with that.
Keyword Research
Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest is pretty much the only keyword research tool that I use. I have purchased a lifetime plan keeping the costs compared to other trackers quite low.
Content
No recommendations at this time.
Plugins
Rank Math
Almost all WordPress websites require an SEO plugin. These types of plugins make it easy to add breadcrumbs, sitemaps, and optimizations to your content. I currently use Rank Math. This is a free tool (with a premium option) that does everything I need. Based on my metrics, this does not have any impact on site speed and it helps me remain consistent in making my content optimized in similar ways.
Asset Cleanup
Asset Cleanup is a great tool for those needing to optimize your blog for site speed. It allows you to prevent certain code from loading on specific pages. This can be code from plugins or special features. It’s a great way to remove unnecessary code. It also has other basic speed optimizations, too.
Smush
Images can really hurt site speed. Smush allows you to compress uploaded images to your webpage and lazy load images. This helps reduce the file size and improves speed by delaying scripts from loading until the item is in the viewport to the reader.
Converter for Media
Along with images being compressed, there is an image file type that is optimized for web. This is called WebP. Smush has a premium option to add this, but there is a free plugin that converts all uploaded images to this new format, improving page speed.
Wordfence
The security of your blog is just as important as everything else. Hackers are constantly trying to find ways to get into your site. Wordfence is a great free tool (with a premium option) that allows you to block IP addresses, lock out users trying to get into your account and track malicious attacks.
WP Table Builder
The sites I have require making tables. WP table builder is the best plugin out there for making tables in my opinion. There are many customizations that can be made to them, but the best part here is that it uses shortcodes to embed into your blog post so one chart can be shown and edited in more than one place at a time. It can also be used for affiliate marketing for comparison tables and featured products.
WP Forms Lite
Many people use email marketing for their campaigns, and WPForms lite is a great place to start. It allows you to setup an email subscription form for free that will send you an email when someone has filled it out. If you upgrade to premium there are a lot more features that can be added, but it seems to be a lightweight, and free option.
Calculated Fields Form
This tool is perfect if you ever want to make some type of calculator on your site.
Images
Canva
Canva is a wonderful free tool that helps you create images, logos, youtube thumbnails, and social media posts easily. There are thousands of templates to choose from and you can customize them as you want. I have made all my logos myself using Canva and have also used their library of images to create visuals and featured images for all of my posts.
Automation
MailerLite is the email automation and collection service I use for my main site. Why I like them is that they allow you to have an email list up to 1,000 subscribers and you get 12,000 emails free. That’s still 12 free emails per address even if you maxed out the total amount. Even the next tier for unlimited emails is only $10 a month and an email list that big is definitely worth that.
Tailwind
Tailwind is a Pinterest and Instagram auto-posting software. It allows you to create and schedule special pins and Instagram posts. Though I am not very active on these platforms, I do have a subscription and have used it in the past and it can really streamline social media efforts to increase traffic.
Content
Texta.ai
Though some people use AI to completely write content, I only use AI as a tool! This means that it assists in writing content for me. I don’t rely on this to write content to publish immediately, but I use the tools available in Texta to help guide my writing. It creates outlines, detailed long form articles and is, from what I can find the cheapest tool on the market.
