Here is a collection of my favorite products & services related to blogging & maintaining a site.
I’ll update periodically as my favs & recommendations change. 🙂
Domains
Namecheap – a tried & true favorite. Domains are about $13USD/year. I’ve bought way more domains over the years than I’d ever need, as have many others I know. I wonder why this is…maybe because buying them makes you feel like you’re staking out territory? Buying “land?” Staking a claim? No idea, but #thestruggleisreal. 😉
Starter Web Hosting
When you’re starting your site, I recommend the following companies:
All you need are the basic, least-expensive shared hosting plans; these are mine and my clients’ favorites over the years. They’re inexpensive, easy to use, and they have great customer service.
As your site grows, you might outgrow a shared hosting environment (where you are “sharing” space on a server with thousands of other sites) and need to upgrade to more robust solution that can handle heavier traffic (including moving to VPS (virtual private server) and the ultimate, a private server). But I always say that when your site traffic causes you to need to upgrade hosting, that that is a good problem to have. 🙂
SSL
While you can purchase an SSL certificate at any hosting company, many hosts offer free SSL with their plans, so I recommend going that route when you’re starting out. The companies I listed above offer free SSL.
If you need to purchase a SSL certificate, go with Namecheap, as you can get a starter-level SSL for $9USD/year.
Free Photos
Hundreds of free, gorgeous photographs are available on Unsplash.com. All free, all the time.
Free Fonts
Free fonts can be had at dafont.com and befonts.com.
Image Editing
For fast creation of blog images, go with Canva. It’s free & very easy to use to put together graphics on the fly.
For more detailed graphics work, you can’t beat Photoshop.
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I’ll add to this list as time goes by.