It’s all too easy to spend countless hours down rabbit holes looking at software, tools and ways to make money online.
It’s so hard to find everything that you might need to be profitable online and so many of us are trying to figure things out as we go along.
So I’ve started this resources page as a central hub to help you out. Grab a cup of tea or coffee and browse away. And don’t forget to bookmark this page so that you can come back to it easily at any time!
Quick Disclaimer: This post contains some affiliate links. If you click on or purchase through these links, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. However, I only recommend products or services that I genuinely like and trust.
Business Operations
G-Suite
I LOVE G-Suite and I have been using it for years. Whether you are working on something solo or as a team, G-Suite gives you all the basic tools that you need in one place from email, to calendar to storing files.
Asana
Asana is by far the best project management tool in my opinion because it has so many cool features. You can view your tasks in board, list or calendar format, colour code your projects and calendar, see all your projects in one central view plus you can also integrate other business tools like Google Drive. Look out for flying unicorns when you complete tasks!
Invoicing & Money Management
HoneyBook
Get 20% off your first year on HoneyBook
Honeybook is amazing. Itโs a game changer because it is essentially an all-encompassing platform. Invoicing, collecting payments, sending and collecting contracts, timed automated emails and messages, questionnaires, end to end project tracking, workflows and so much more. There are also tons of templates for things like creating contracts, brochures, emails and proposals. Plus, it also integrates with tons of other tools including Quickbooks, Calendly, Google Calendar, Gmail, Zapier and more.
Quickbooks Online
Get 50% off for first 6 months
Quickbooks Online makes book-keeping easy and quick to do. The Quickbooks homepage shows everything you need to know in one place โ including profit & loss, and a breakdown of expenses. You can connect accounts, upload receipts on your phone and quickly enter transactions on the go.
PayPal for Business
PayPal for Business has additional features like the ability to create and send invoices. Some affiliates and merchants only use PayPal and set requirements that they will only send funds to business PayPal accounts so it is likely that you will need an account.
Stripe
Stripe will allow you to accept credit cards, debit cards, mobile wallets, and other payment methods globally on your website with a single integration.
Some publishing platforms such as Medium, affiliates and other merchants use Stripe as their only method of payment so if you do affiliate marketing or sign up for Medium’s partner program you will need Stripe.
Wise
All fees waived on your first transfer up to $800 CAD
If you need an inexpensive way to send and receive money between overseas banks accounts, check out Wise.
Website Creation & Maintenance
Bluehost
If you want to make money from blogging, you need a self-hosted blog, There are several hosting companies that you can choose from, including Bluehost. I use Bluehost for This Brits Life and my other websites and they have been great so far. They are the biggest in the WordPress hosting business with over 2 million sites on their servers, they specialize in WordPress, and most importantly I’ve found their customer service to be great.
Their plans start as low as $3.95 per month and that includes a free domain (special price for This Brits Life readers), and they will either automatically install WordPress for you or help you transfer your existing domain.
Start your website with Bluehost for $3.95 a month
WordPress
WordPress is used to build your blog and create content. You can set up WordPress right through Bluehost account once youโve set up your site.
In WordPress, youโll choose a theme, which is the layout and โlookโ of your blog. There are a bunch of free themes right in there when you get started and changing your theme later isnโt a big deal, so go ahead and pick whatever you like!
Legal Requirements
Plug And Law
One of the most important things to do for your website or blog is to legally protect it. The smart way to do this is to to have legal pages on your website that are comprehensive and drafted by actual lawyers.
I’ve used Plug and Law’s “Legal Bundle” because it’s inexpensive, created by an attorney and contains the 3 legal pages that you need for your website: Terms & Conditions, Disclaimer and Privacy Policy. These legal pages will ensure that you are compliant with all the various laws and regulations so that you don’t have to worry about it, and they are really easy to set up.
Learn more about the Legal Bundle here.
Themes & Page Builders
Blossom Themes
Blossom Themes specialize in feminine, SEO friendly, and feature rich themes that are easy to set up. They provide step by step documentation, videos, and email support for setting up and using their themes, and it took me hours rather than days to get everything set up. I only had to contact the support team a couple of times, for a couple of specific customizations that required coding, and I got very fast responses.
Blossom Themes has over 45 free and inexpensive premium themes (around $50).
I am currently using Fashion Diva which is a free theme for This Brits Life
15 premium blossom themes for $89 (worth $735)
Elementor
I have used Elementor to create my blog because it is a really easy to use drag and drop page builder.
It’s a visual builder with over 80 design elements, and it works with almost any WordPress theme and plugin so it is really flexible. Of all the website builders I have used, I have found this to be the easiest, and fastest to use. I love the fact that you don’t need prior coding or website building skills to use it.
There is a free version and a pro version, and I’ve found that so far the free version has enabled me to do everything that I’ve needed to do.
WordPress Plugins
Updraft Plus
Regular backups of your website are really important. Updraft Plus is the World’s leading backup, restore and migration WordPress plugin and a must have for your WordPress website.
WP Fastest Cache
The speed of your site matters. If your website page load times are slow people will click off your site without reading your content, and you will find it harder to achieve results with SEO.
One of the ways to reduce your page load time is with a caching plugin like WP Fastest Cache
All in One SEO
Using a SEO plugin like All in One SEO will enable you to easily optimize your WordPress SEO and improve your rankings…even as an absolute beginner.
Akismet Anti-Spam
Protect your blog from unwanted Spam with Akismet Anti-Spam
Pretty Links
If you choose to monetize your website with affiliate marketing then Pretty Links is a must have. You can shrink, track and share all of your URLs using your website and brand.
Just remember that all affiliate links need to be labeled as sponsored and no follow for SEO.
CoSchedule
Create attention grabbing headlines with the CoSchedule tool. It will rate your headlines and help you to create strong titles for your blog posts.
CoSchedule is also a all in one content marketing calendar
Broken Link Checker
Broken links will hurt your SEO, affect your bottom line and give your audience a poor experience. The easiest way to keep on top of broken links is to use the free broken link checker plugin.
GDPR Cookie Consent
A simple way to show your website complies with the EU Cookie Law / GDPR is to install the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin
No Self Pings
This handy plugin will stop WordPress from sending pings to your own site.
Website Performance
Google Analytics
Analyzing your website stats is really important, and that’s where Google Analytics comes in. It is by far the best resource to to get an in-depth look at what content your audience likes, and where your blog’s traffic comes from.
Google Analytics can be a little overwhelming so I will be adding some resources on the basics. However, I would say the best thing to do is to learn by doing. Google has lots of free resources, and a training course with a certification.
Content Creation
Grammarly
Whether you are a master at spelling and grammar or not, grammarly is a must have and you will find it really helpful especially when you are editing or rushing to get something published. You can also install the Grammarly Chrome extension which is really helpful.
Canva
I LOVE Canva and use it every single day. From social media posts, to blog graphics, e-books, presentations and lead magnets, you can create countless things in Canva and its really easy to use. It’s a must have for content creation.
PicMonkey
PicMonkey is another super simple, easy to use graphic design and photo editing tool that
Fiverr
If you are just getting started with your Blog or online business, funds are limited, or you just have small tasks that you need help with then check out Fiverr.
Fiverr is a service marketplace where you can get small jobs completed from as little as $5. From logo design and proof reading to setting up Google Analytics and video editing, you can find all kind of “gigs” available that will save you time. Register for a free account to see everything that is available.
PDFescape
PDFescape is a free tool recommended by Louise Henry that will enable you to turn any PDF into a fillable PDF quickly and easily.
Answer The Public
Answer The Public is a free visual keyword research and content tool which will give you insights into what information people are looking for. Whenever you are stuck for content ideas or need more insights into what your audience may want to know on a topic use Answer The Public to find out.
HubSpot
Another great resource if you find yourself in a creative rut with no idea what to write is the HubSpot Blog Topic Generator.
Simply put any word into the generator and it will give you some blog ideas for that topic.
Bit.ly URL Shortener
Bit.ly is a easy to use URL shortener that also lets you easily track your url’s clicks. Long url’s can be hard to remember, and are also an issue when you have character limits so you will need this tool. It’s also handy if you want to track people coming to your site or a specific link you’ve shared. For example if you want to track how many people click on a Twitter link to read a blog post.
Stock Photography
Unsplash
Unsplash offers thousands of high-quality images that you can download and use for anything for free.
Pexels
Pexels also provides thousands of free stock photos that you can use anywhere with no attribution required.
Pixabay
For more standard free photos that you can use for anything, Pixabay is great.
Tide & Tree
If you are looking for nature-inspired, hygge or soulful imagery for your website or blog then I’d recommend Tide & Tree. It’s affordable, the image library is extensive with all images available in lots of different sizes, and the imagery is very high quality.
Subscribe to Tide & Tree
Email Marketing
Mailchimp
Free up to 1000 subscribers
If you are just starting out and you are looking for a free option that is easy to use, then I really like Mailchimp. You can create lovely looking emails with their templates and its completely free until you hit 2000 subscribers. Over 2,000 subscribers starts at around $10.
Flodesk
A great alternative to Mailchimp is Flodesk which is a women-led company that’s focused on making list building and email marketing really simple.
It’s one monthly price with unlimited subscribers so you arenโt penalized for growing your list.
Like Mailchimp it is a click and drag email builder that allows you to create beautiful emails quickly and easily with custom fonts, and images so everything will always be on brand.
Social Media Management
Tailwind
Tailwind is a must have for Pinterest, that is constantly being recommended by bloggers.
The Tailwind app connects to your Pinterest account to post on your behalf at the best times of the day for your audience so it will save you hours every week.
It will also give you in-depth analytics on all of your pins showing you information like repin counts, board performance and the traffic Pinterest is sending to your blog through Google Analytics integration.
Plann
Social media is far easier to manage if you pre-schedule your posts and stories. I started using Plann a few weeks ago and its made my life so much easier. You can map out strategies and plan out your grid visually in minutes, create collections of images, captions and hashtags, and track your performance all in one place. It also connects to Google Drive and Canva so its made content creation more efficient and I have literally saved myself hours.
Flick
Looking to grow your following and engagement on Instagram? Check out Flick. To get your content to your target audience you need to use the right hashtags and that’s where Flick comes in. It’s basically an n all in one hashtag tool for finding, organizing and analyzing the best performing hashtags for your Instagram content
Digital Courses
Blogging
Blogging Blastoff
Blogging Blastoff is a 30 day step by step plan to create the blog of your dreams. It covers everything you need to be set up for success including creating great content, generating traffic, monetizing your blog and running your blog as a professional blogger with a business.
Travel Blogging Blastoff
Do you want to become a travel blogger or are you an existing travel blogger looking to up their game? If the answer is yes then I highly recommend Travel Blogging Blastoff
I recently bought this course and I am already blown away by the content. It’s a really comprehensive 6 week course covering literally everything you could possible need to become a successful professional blogger. It even includes directories of over 450+ US-Based, European and Caribbean travel contacts such as visitor bureaus as well as things like email pitch templates, and behind the scenes vlogs so we can see what it is really like to be a travel blogger.
Between July 9 and July 11 2021 you can sign up for 50% off and you will also get a travel voucher for a comp’d stay at a luxury resort (you would just pay resort fees).
Affiliate Blogger Bootcamp
This is the affiliate course that I have taken to set up my affiliate marketing the right way. This course helped me to start obtaining affiliates, and also gave me a lot of helpful information about creating an affiliate marketing strategy.
SEO Blogger Bootcamp
Every blogger needs to master SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) in order for their blog and their amazing content to show up on Google. SEO is not my strongest area so taking a course was a must. This is the course that I am taking to improve my SEO knowledge and its been very beneficial so far.
Social Media
Pin Success Bootcamp
Pinterest is one of the absolute best ways for you to get free traffic to your website. The Pin Success Bootcamp covers everything from the essentials of Pinterest, Pinterest marketing strategy, automation and scheduling pins to Pinterest SEO and measuring success.
It’s a really affordable course with a supportive Facebook community and assignments to complete.
Your Social Media Bootcamp, Jasmine Star
This is a really comprehensive CreativeLive course covering everything from building a brand and creating a social media strategy to content creation and photography in 43 video lessons. I really like her style of teaching because she makes everything simple and easy to implement. She’s a professional photographer so you are basically getting a social media course and a photography course in one.
Your Social Media Bootcamp, Jasmine Star
Virtual Assistant
Digital Nomad Kit
Interested in becoming a Virtual Assistant? Check out Digital Nomad Kit which is a robust digital course on becoming a Virtual Assistant and an online business owner with a vibrant community that I love being a part of.
Take the free 5 day VA Challenge
Make Money Online
Affiliate Marketing Networks
A popular way to make money online is through affiliate marketing where you will promote products and services that you use and like to your readers.
Large affiliates like Amazon, and Affiliate networks are a great way to get started. These are networks that are accepting new bloggers.
Get your free affiliate marketing dashboard to manage all of your affiliates and track your results in the freebie library.
Bitcoin
I started investing in Bitcoin earlier this year, and have roughly made a 70% return on my money so far. Investing in Bitcoin does come with some risk, as the value of Bitcoin is volatile so you will see its value fluctuate. I’ve been investing when the value drops and holding when it rises.
I’ve been using Mogo, which is FINTRAC regulated, publicly traded on the TSX and NASDAQ and has over 1,000,000 members. It enables me to invest directly in bitcoin with no annual fees on a secure platform, which means I can earn up to 20% more. I’ve also found that it is just a much simpler and lower cost way to invest in bitcoin.
Curious about Bitcoin? If you sign up for Mogo with my link you will get $20 to buy bitcoin (or you can just keep the cash)
Publishing Platforms
Medium
Another way to get paid for your writing is by self-publishing your blog posts and any other articles that you write on publishing platforms like Medium and Vocal.
On Medium, you will just need to sign up to their partner program for the chance to earn money when other paying members read your stories.
Vocal
On Vocal, your earnings are also determined by how many people read your stories. From what I’ve read online, you will earn about $3.80 per 1000 reads so it will take time on both Vocal and Medium to start earning decent money.
Cashback
Rakuten
Get cashback when you shop online with Rakuten.
It’s a free service, and a great way to save on resources for your online business as well as your general shopping.
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