Tools and Resources to Get You Jump Started
Awesome Content: Set Up For Online Success
Are you tired of feeling like your invisible? Are you tired of writing, working and reaching nobody?
Perhaps you’re new to blogging. Or maybe you’ve been blogging for a while and you’ve been looking for the resources necessary to take your blogging onward and upward to the next level. Whichever category you may fit into, this page will have the tools and resources that you need to jump start your blogging journey.
On this page, I’ve compiled a list of domain registrars, hosting companies, theme clubs, email marketing resources, and additional reading. Below you’ll find everything that you need to become a successful blogger.
Domain Registration
Start Building Your Brand Today
When it comes to branding your website or blog, there’s no better way to get started then to get yourself setup with a fresh, easy-sounding domain name. Having your own domain is the first step to establishing yourself as a credible, online authority.
In case you’re having trouble finding a place to register your domain and get started, here’s a couple good ones to get you on your journey.
| Domain Registrar | .com | .net | .info | .org | |
| #1 | Godaddy | $9.99 | $2.99 | $2.99 | $8.99 |
| #2 | 1 and 1 | $6.99 | $8.99 | $0.99 | $8.99 |
I personally recommend and use Godaddy for domain registration. They’re easy to use and they offer great customer service.
The best part about getting your own domain is that they’re so incredibly cheap. You can start building your own brand for less than $10 per year.
Hosting Companies
Reliable Web Hosting For Your Website
Once you have your domain picked out and purchased, you’ll need a place online to store your website’s files and content. Hosting is like renting an apartment.
You’ll be renting a hard drive on a server somewhere for a few dollars a month where you can install Wordpress, Joomla or some other content management system of your choice. In fact, most hosting companies offer the option to install Wordpress for you automatically through their control panel.
| Hosting Company | Space | Bandwidth | Price | |
| #1 | BlueHost | Unlimited | Unlimited | $6.95 |
| #2 | Host Gator | Unlimited | Unlimited | $4.95 |
| #3 | 1 and 1 | 10 GB | Unlimited | $3.99 |
| #4 | Godaddy | 10 GB | 300 GB | $4.99 |
| #5 | Super Green Hosting | Unlimited | Unlimited | $3.95 |
| #6 | Fat Cow | Unlimited | Unlimited | $3.67 |
I personally recommend and use BlueHost for hosting Site Sketch 101. They offer unlimited storage and unlimited bandwidth.
I called BlueHost once for a tech issue and they actually logged into my WordPress control panel and figured out my issue in a matter of minutes. I can’t imagine another hosting company being willing to do that for me. They make my experience very hassle free.
Templates & Theme Clubs
Because First Impressions are Lasting Impressions.
Every visitor that hits a less-than-amazing blog ends up leaving before even looking at the first post titles. Visitors never even make it far enough to see the ‘amazing’ content that the blogger has put together. First impressions are, after all, lasting impressions.
Don’t be afraid to spend a few dollars to make your site into something amazing. You can buy templates for less that $20 that are absolutely inspiring.
| Theme Club | Theme Price |
Membership Price |
|
| #1 | Elegant Themes | NA | $19.95 |
| #2 | Woo Themes | $79.99 | $125.00 |
| #3 | ThemeForest | $20.00 | NA |
| #4 | StudioPress | $59.95 | $140 |
| #5 | Thesis | $87.00 | NA |
I’m personally a member at both Elegant Themes and Woo Themes. It doesn’t get any better than Elegant Theme’s $20 per year membership. Their themes really are elegant and their prices are absolutely amazing.
Email Marketing
Build Your List. Build Your Profits.
One of the most important tools you can have to market yourself effectively online is an email list. Marketing products, articles, and ideas to users who have specifically requested your information is a powerful way to make extra cash.
Feedburner is great for someone starting out but if your looking for a way to take your email marketing on to bigger and better things then keep reading.
AWeber Communications
Top Notch Email Deliverability
Quickly create and run your campaigns with powerful, easy-to-use email marketing tools. They’ve got just what you need for your email marketing.
Constant Contact
Connect. Inform. Grow.
With Constant Contact’s email marketing, you don’t need technical design skills to create html emails. If you can cut, paste, point and click, you’re good to go!
I personally use Aweber and I’m pretty excited about the email marketing capabilities that they offer. The number one thing that impresses me about them is how strict they are about refusing to allow emails into their databases unless people opt-in. This is terrific because it sets them apart from spam email marketing companies and causes them to be extremely ISP friendly.
In other words, emails sent through Aweber rarely get blocked as spam. They get delivered right to their inbox where they’re supposed to be. In fact, you can even check how many emails were opened and you can automatically track clicks inside of your emails.
Aweber really offers everything you need to build a powerful email marketing campaign.
Additional Reading
Fill Your Mind With The Knowledge to Succeed
I personally own and have read every book in this collection. Each of the books below are amazing resources that are absolutely packed with vital information that every blogger should have in their arsenal.
Get these books, read them, and then tell your friends about them. These are must-have resources.
31 Days to Build a Better Blog
by Darren Rowse
31 Days to Build a Better Blog is a comprehensive guide to taking your blog to the next level. Each day’s chapter has information and challenges that will push your blog to a higher level than it has ever been!
ProBlogger: The Book
by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett
Both authors are successful probloggers and here they reveal at last some of their secrets. These two bloggers show you how to turn your passion for blogging into extra revenue.
Blogging to the Third Power
by Nicholas Cardot (Coming Soon)
31 Days to Build a Better Blog is a comprehensive guide to taking your blog to the next level. Each day’s chapter has information and challenges that will push your blog to a higher level than it has ever been!
The Bottom Line
Despite what others may try to tell you, it’s not difficult to build an amazing blog. The most important part of the entire formula is that you learn to reach out and connect with people around the interests that fuel your blog.
Develop a brand. Make your website beautiful. Express your passions. Build traffic and subscribers. Enjoy the potential profits.
Nicholas Cardot
Nick uses his blog Site Sketch 101 to express his passion for helping bloggers and webmasters connect with real people through brilliant designs, unique content, and genuine creativity. Nicholas Cardot has 200 post(s) at Site Sketch 101
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Eric Bannatyne said:
Thanks for sharing these resources, I’ve been thinking of switching web hosts. As soon as I can, I’m going to try to get away from the crap that is Just Host.
My Latest Blog Post: Designing an Effective Admin Back-End
Robomaster @ CoolAppSite said:
Yep, awhile ago I couldn’t believe how good their plans were and was just about to sign up, but then I read their terms of service and am now 100% against them. Stick to WpWebHost or another reliable, wordpress-happy host.
My Latest Blog Post: Microsoft Security Essentials Review
Nicholas Cardot said:
Robomaster @ CoolAppSite –> Yeah. Stay away from them.
Chad said:
I am also planning a hosting switch. I’ve been with GoDaddy for a while, but I’m not really into their pricing for hosting or email anymore, and the interface is so cluttered it drives me crazy.
My Latest Blog Post: What is a Firewall and Do I Have One?
Robomaster @ CoolAppSite said:
If you’re looking for hosting, make sure to check out WpWebHost.
Their support isn’t the best but their hosting and cost is unbeatable.
http://www.wpwebhost.com
(I really wanted to stick in an affiliate link here, but oh well…)
My Latest Blog Post: Microsoft Security Essentials Review
Nicholas Cardot said:
Robomaster @ CoolAppSite –> Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll be sure to get that into future resources lists as well. I can’t believe that I forgot to mention them.
Lee Ka Hoong said:
I believe that Godaddy Hosting might cost you a lot. I suggest you to switch to Hostgator as they’re the most reliable web hosting that I’ve never seen before. I’m using Hostgator right now and am happy with their technical support.
The pricing is lower than Godaddy I believe, definitely worth it.
Cheers,
Lee
Nicholas Cardot said:
Chad –> I was with Godaddy for a while and I still have my domains with them but I’ve switched all of my hosting to BlueHost and everything is great.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Eric Bannatyne –> You already know about my experience with Just Host. They drove me absolutely crazy. Switch as fast as you can.
Robomaster @ CoolAppSite said:
Excellent post: I’ve found many of these resources very helpful already, and I’ll definitely check out the others.
My Latest Blog Post: Microsoft Security Essentials Review
Nicholas Cardot said:
Robomaster @ CoolAppSite –> That’s great to here. I hope that you find something helpful in here.
King Sidharth said:
Woot!
This was an awesome post. No doubt each resources is valuable.
But you forgot Mail Chip they are pretty cool.
My Latest Blog Post: Prove Thyself
Senthil Ramesh said:
Agreed!! I think Mail Chimp is the most used one for EM. As they show in their homepage, Mozilla uses it for Email marketing.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Senthil Ramesh –> One of the cool reasons that I use Aweber is that I can use them to broadcast my rss to the email subscribers and they send those numbers to feedburner so that feedburner can use them to calculate the total number of subscribers to this blog.
King Sidharth in Meditation said:
NICK IS BACK YAY!!!
Really they do that? That’s wow! I am up for aweber!
Nicholas Cardot said:
King Sidharth in Meditation –> That’s one of the major features that really drew me in. Those subscriber numbers really help to establish your credibility as a blogger. The bigger the better.
izzat aziz said:
if what you mean is mail chimp, yup they awesome too
My Latest Blog Post: When all else fails, They don’t – Create a winner blog
Robomaster @ CoolAppSite said:
Which would you consider better, Aweber or Mail Chimp?
My Latest Blog Post: Microsoft Security Essentials Review
Lee Ka Hoong said:
I’ve heard about Mail Chimp before, but didn’t have much impression on them, Aweber would be more popular on the web. I’m going to sign up Aweber very soon.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Lee Ka Hoong –> I just switched over to Aweber a few weeks ago and I’m really enjoying them so far. They got a lot of great features.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Robomaster @ CoolAppSite –> I like Aweber because they let me integrate my stats into my subscriber count with feedburner. They both allow fully customized html emails.
Nicholas Cardot said:
izzat aziz –> I’ve definitely heard great things about Mail Chimp and I’ll be sure to include them in future round ups.
Nicholas Cardot said:
King Sidharth –> Great! I’m glad it was helpful.
Chad said:
Great resources. I am surprised to see GoDaddy higher on the list than Fat Cow, and I haven’t heard of Host Gator before. Elegant themes also looks promising.
I use Headway now, but I’m finding customization beyond what they provide to be cumbersome.
My Latest Blog Post: What is a Firewall and Do I Have One?
Blog Handbook said:
I also use FatCow and when I compare the price with the value I believe it is the best choice. Even the support has been quite good, altough support requests take some time.
My Latest Blog Post: Adsense Optimization for Blogs
Nicholas Cardot said:
Blog Handbook –> I’m sorry to hear that support takes a while with them. I know that all of my calls to BlueHost have been handled incredibly quickly and have been absolutely terrific.
Ali Papila said:
I switched my template to the one from elegant themes. Now, I am asking myself, why haven’t I done it before. For the price you get lots of good looking templates. Another good thing about them is, admin panel makes it very easy to modify the template.
My Latest Blog Post: Week in a Post: Roundup for this week
Robomaster @ CoolAppSite said:
You’re right! Elegantthemes is amazing and I’d suggest them to anyone.
My Latest Blog Post: Microsoft Security Essentials Review
David | ilcantone.com said:
Yes Ali, I’m thinking to follow your footsteps, but not yet. I’m still thinking what theme best fits with my site. I need to decide the look I want to my blog, I have some good ideas, but I’m not sure I can do it for myself
My Latest Blog Post: THE STORY OF WILLIAM KAMKWAMBA: THE BOY WHO HARNESSED THE WIND
Nicholas Cardot said:
Ali Papila –> You’re site looks great. I really like the improvement. Great work on that.
Seth W said:
Hostgator is an awesome hosting service I would recommend. I have had great service from them.
My Latest Blog Post: Reaching New Customers By Expanding Your Vision
Nicholas Cardot said:
Seth W –> That’s good to know. I’ve been hearing a lot of great things about them.
Lee Ka Hoong said:
That’s weird, I thought everyone on the web might know about Hostgator as it’s one of the most reliable web hosting on the web. I’ve just switched my previous hosting to Hostgator, and what I can say is they provide wonderful support for their clients.
Cheers,
Lee
My Latest Blog Post: WebHostingGeeks – The Web Hosting Review Site
Nicholas Cardot said:
Chad –> I love Elegant Themes. You just can’t beat $20 per year.
Ron Leyba said:
Never heard of Fat Cow before. I am doing my own research and price comparison as of now. Feels like a good place for my blog. Hopefully, I can enjoy a great advantage or benefit on their service.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Ron Leyba » Ha ha. Fat Cow hosting might be exactly what you need.
Phaoloo said:
This is like a toolbox for every blogger to launch a new blog. Thanks for gathering them.
King Sidharth said:
There, you’ve put the right title. AWEsome!
Robomaster @ CoolAppSite said:
That definitely fits well! It’s a toolbox of resources!
My Latest Blog Post: Microsoft Security Essentials Review
Nicholas Cardot said:
Phaoloo –> You’re welcome. I hope that a lot of people are helped by this. That would be terrific.
Ron Leyba said:
Absolutely a toolbox. It can also be a one stop shop, a directory or an all in one resource site for new or beginner bloggers. I have this page posted or bookmarked on my browser so every time I will launch a new site, I have a good guide to follow.
Jim Clary said:
I personally use HostGator and have no complaints at all. I have been with them for almost 3 years with no real downtime and top notch customer support.
My Latest Blog Post: 5 Common Mistakes You Shouldn’t Commit If You Want To Come Up With a User-friendly Website
Robomaster @ CoolAppSite said:
Good to know – I’m happy with wpwebhost for now, but it’s nice that there’s other good webhosts out there.
My Latest Blog Post: Microsoft Security Essentials Review
Nicholas Cardot said:
Jim Clary –> That’s great to hear. That is certainly the goal that we all strive for with web hosting.
Mary E. Ulrich said:
Thanks Nicholas. Awesome list of resources.
Any chance you could incorporate the resources recommended in the comments and help us sort this all out?
I find the amount of information is overwhelming. The personal recommendations are the most trustworthy. You have the beginnings of a “Good Housekeeping” stamp of approval.
izzat aziz said:
Nicholas can’t asnwer it for now, but he already suggest what he think the best from it all, for domain godaddy, for hosting bluehost and for theme it is elegant themes.
and for me, i agree with elegant themes.. i love it too
My Latest Blog Post: When all else fails, They don’t – Create a winner blog
Nicholas Cardot said:
izzat aziz –> That’s right. Those are currently my personal recommendations. Thanks.
izzat aziz said:
I used hostgator before and i think they pretty good. But I hate the fact it is unlimited storage and bandwith, it might look good for use.. but try imagine 200 people under one server and all 200 are have unlimited storage and bandwith.. see how cluster that gonna be.
Godaddy I love the fact that .net domain really cheap.. since i don’t care whether it .com or .net it just the same to me
My Latest Blog Post: When all else fails, They don’t – Create a winner blog
Robomaster @ CoolAppSite said:
Well .com domains are usually the best to get – they’re easier to remember and more professional.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Robomaster @ CoolAppSite –> I completely agree. You might not care about .com’s but your reader’s often do. Go for the .com. You won’t regret it.
chandan said:
All tools are nice Nick, Thank you for getting another nice information from your blog.
My Latest Blog Post: How to submit article to article directories
Nicholas Cardot said:
chandan –> You’re welcome. I’m glad that it’s helpful.
Lee Ka Hoong said:
Nicholas listed out every steps in details, this post might help a lot of newbie who wants to start their blogging business.
Between, I’ve seen many people are using Aweber but I’ve yet to start it for myself. I’m going to sign up Aweber but have to plan first what I need to do after signing up.
Cheers,
Lee
My Latest Blog Post: WebHostingGeeks – The Web Hosting Review Site
Nicholas Cardot said:
Lee Ka Hoong –> I’m using Aweber and I’m still learning ways to make the emails look better since they display differently than the html on our website. But I’m getting them looking better and better.
Worship said:
Pardon me but your godaddy price list is outdated. Now they are selling .net .org .com at flat rate 10 point something $.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Worship –> Thanks for pointing that out. They change their prices often for sales and things like that.
David | ilcantone.com said:
Hi Nicholas, great compilation of resources.
I buy all my domains on CDmon.com, it’s more expensive but they provide a good support.
My hosting: hostgator. I did some research, I was doubting between bluehost or hostgator, but I found a great offer
Tisha said:
Thank you so much for the information. It has gave alot of pointers on where I should start being that I have not yet started my blog yet. I am kinda going crazy b/c i don’t know quite where to start. So I will do a little research and just dive in I guess.
Robomaster @ CoolAppSite said:
You’re at the right place! It’s very hard and rather overwhelming when you first start a blog, as there’s so many options, and if you don’t know what you’re doing, it’s very easy to give up in the first month. I’d suggest you read some of these articles:
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2009/01/30/starting-your-first-blog-29-tips-tutorials-and-resources-for-new-bloggers/
http://www.sitesketch101.com/power-blogging
http://www.sitesketch101.com/strategy-cycles
Let me or one of the others here at SS101 if you need help with anything – we’d love to help, and I’m sure Nick will as well when he gets back!
My Latest Blog Post: Microsoft Security Essentials Review
Nicholas Cardot said:
Tisha –> That’s the way to do it. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with me if you have questions or need help.
Tisha said:
To robomaster…Thank you for advice…I need as much as I can get. I will check out the information that you have provided.
Tisha said:
It is great to know that there is help out there. I am so glad that I came across this site!!!! Thank you again NICK!!!!
Nicholas Cardot said:
Tisha –> You’re welcome. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with me if you have questions or if you need help with anything.
Web Design Firm said:
Hi,
Godaddy is perfect solution for hosting your website.
I have used constantcontact and that is simple awesome. It’s free version also gives almost all of the functionality except the limited no. of recipients. The management interface is quite easy and I feel email marketing can be done effectively using constantcontact. I have not used AWeber Communications!
My Latest Blog Post: 3 Benefits of Web Design and Development Company
Nicholas Cardot said:
Web Design Firm –> Thanks for the review on that. I appreciate your sharing of your experiences with us.
Typhoon said:
I prefer using Name.com as domain registrar as it’s cheap and I had to choose it because earlier, my paypal wasn’t verified so Godaddy can’t be picked up by me and hence I went for Name.com
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Gabe | freebloghelp.com said:
I use GoDaddy for both my domain registrations and for my hosting. I’ve been thrilled with their top notch customer service so I’m not planning on leaving them any time soon.
Just a tip, rather than pay full price, do a search for GoDaddy codes and you should be able to get ~20% off.
My Latest Blog Post: Theme itch – no blogger is immune
Nicholas Cardot said:
Gabe | freebloghelp.com –> Very cool idea on the godaddy codes. I definitely like that idea.
Web Design Company said:
Though I use Godaddy for hosting some of my sites but for one of my clients I need to move on to some UK based host. Is there any best among UK having some promo?
- J.
My Latest Blog Post: 22+ jQuery Plugins for Website Design and Development
Nicholas Cardot said:
Web Design Company –> I really don’t know of any UK specific web hosting companies.
Reid Klos said:
Man, I needed this about a month ago when I was trying to get things together. Thankfully I had a couple of friends that were web savvy and took me through everything. I will definitely point any newbies to this page when they are looking to start up.
I’m going to get my hands on one of those books. Nicholas, don’t slow around, man. Get that book out!
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Reid Klos –> I sure will. I have about 125 pages written so far and I’m going to be driving forward with some major progress over my Christmas vacation from work. I’ll get it out to you as soon as possible.
Ron Leyba said:
This is like a one stop shop in terms of blog building.
My Latest Blog Post: SEO Contests
Nicholas Cardot said:
Ron Leyba –> I hope so. I hope that it will be a helpful plate full of nutritious blogging resources.
Vinish said:
This is really a great list for starters like me, what i am missing here is Email Marketing, i think i will be gearing up for it now.
Thanks Nick for sharing the information.
My Latest Blog Post: Cost Push Inflation and Its Types
Nicholas Cardot said:
Vinish –> I started using Aweber recently and it seems to work wonders. I’m having terrific results and I really that that you will also. They’ve got a terrific resource there.
John Samuel said:
Excellent set of resources. Thanks
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Nicholas Cardot said:
John Samuel –> You’re welcome. I’m glad that they’re useful for you.
Davor Gasparevic said:
What is your opinion about free blog platforms and free domains?
My Latest Blog Post: Niche/money making ebook #5 – The Law Of Attraction!
Nicholas Cardot said:
Davor Gasparevic –> I think they provide a great learning platform but I don’t know of very many well-branded blogs that draw in high traffic and are hosted on blogspot or wordpress. I learned how to blog at blogspot.com but when I moved to a self hosted wordpress site I watched my effectiveness explode.
Davor Gasparevic said:
Well, that is how I see this blog too, it’s my first blog that I seriously started working on, and when I look back when I first started it and how I promoted it, I see many mistakes, and no doubt that 3-4 months from now I will learn few more things that help in my blogging.
However, I really expect this blog to make me at least 20-30$ dollars a month.
I dream about big things, but I aim for tiny, achievable goals and objectives.
My Latest Blog Post: Niche/money making ebook #6 – ATV Made Easy!
Nicholas Cardot said:
Davor Gasparevic –> It’s not wrong to make mistakes at the beginning. In fact, that’s one of the best ways of learning. But that’s the key. Make sure that you’re learning from them and not repeating them.
Tisha C said:
Hey Nick….I need your book!!!
Nicholas Cardot said:
That’s great to hear. I’ll be launching it hopefully within the next month or two.
Tisha C said:
Great! Can’t wait!
Ed said:
cooleos
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Self Improvement said:
Nice list of resources you’ve built here. I use bluehost also and they really are good! I like them a lot.
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Kok Siong Chen said:
Yes! When i start blogging, i read a lot of books related to blogging. I wish to learn the knowledge as much as i can. Now i have learnt something useful to develop my own blog.
So far, i think my blog is on the right track. Hope that it can develop well in short future.
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Serge@AutoCarTransporters said:
Definitely agree with you on BLueHost.com they are great.