Last updated October 29th, 2019 FREE websites, plugins & resources for starting your own blog!
Affiliate Links Disclosure: Please keep in mind that we may receive commissions when you click our links & make purchases. However, this does not change the cost to you or impact our reviews & comparisons. We try our best to keep things fair & balanced, in order to help you make the best choice possible.
Free Websites
Links to free websites & resources I find extremely helpful in managing, creating & promoting my blog!
| Website | Notes | Category |
|---|---|---|
| IncomeSchool | SEO and building passive website based income to replace your current income in 24 months | Education |
| LunaPic | Free photo editor. | Graphics & Images |
| Snappa | Creating pins & info-graphics. | Graphics & Images |
| PixaBay | Free high quality photos. | Graphics & Images |
| BlueHost | 1 click Wordpress setup! Wordpress hosting. | Manage |
| Unfollowspy | Manage Twitter followers / unfollowers | Promote |
| BlogLovin' | Blog reader - helps manage blogs you want to keep up on! | Promote |
| Tailwind | Schedule pins for Pinterest and join tribes to promote your pins. | Promote |
| MailChimp | Build & maintain email subscription list. Opt-in pop-up tool. | Promote |
| OneSignal | Push notification to subscribers. Opt-in through bowser. | Promote |
| Google Analytics | Metrics on website traffic. | Manage |
| Google Adsense | Manage Ads on your website. | Monitize |
| Microsoft Advertising (Bing Ads) | Manage advertising with Microsoft & Bing | Promote |
| Resize Image | Resize & Compress Images. | Graphics & Images |
| Bing Webmaster Tools | Metrics on website with Bing | Manage |
| Small SEO Tools | Search Engine Optimization Tools | Manage |
| Optimizilla | Image Compressor | Graphics & Images |
| Pexels.com | Free images | Graphics & Images |
| Indiana Jones Font | Indiana Jones Font | Font |
| Combine PDF | PDF Manipulation | General Tool |
| GTmetrix | Website speed test | Test |
| Google Trends | Topic Research | Research |
| Answer The Public | Topic Research | Research |
| Uber Suggest | Topic Research | Research |
Free Plugins to Build & Manage Your WordPress Blog!
These are some FREE WordPress plugins I have found particularly helpful in setting up my blog. There are ways to accomplish many of the things you see the heavily advertised PAID plugins do for FREE. It took some time and digging – but here are some of the most useful FREE plugins I have found and continue to use on this blog.
| Plugin | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Easy Forms for MailChimp | Make subscription form that ties into MailChimp. |
| Featured Images in RSS for Mailchimp & Other Email | Include image in MailChimp new blog posting email. |
| Insert Headers & Footers | Add code to header & footers - but in a way that you can still easily change themes. |
| OneSignal Push Notifications | Browser popup notifications & subscription. |
| Updraftplus - Backup & Restore | Free backup & restore |
| Tablepress | Sortable & filterable tables |
| HD Quiz | Make interactive quizzes. |
| Photo Gallery | Manage and display images. |
See If The Domain You Want is Available
Us the search box below to check for domain availability. For example – if you were interested in the domain www.ILoveLucy.com type in “ilovelucy” and click the “check availability” button to see if is available, or already taken (It is taken!)
Please Note: There are many more top level domains (extensions) to choose from these days! So if the domain name that you want is not available with the .com extension – it might still be available as a .net, or .website. So in my example of www.ILoveLucy.com – whereas the .com is already taken, www.ILoveLucy.blog and www.ILoveLucy.website IS still available (as of May 21st, 2019).
Opensource Tools & Applications
These are some tools we like and use for the blogs and YouTube:
GIMP: A very powerful image editor available on Linux, Windows & Mac.
Openshot Video Editor: We use this in creating and editing videos. I really liked Microsoft Movie Maker – but that went away. This is the next best thing – more powerful and almost as easy to use – but not quite as stable.
Inkscape: This is what we use for illustrations, logos, etc. It is a vector based program.
Krita: This is an opensource illustration & painting program that we use.
OBS Studio: (Open Broadcaster Software) This is what we use for screen records for tutorials and the like. We have also used this for live streaming.
Image Editors (Free, but not opensource)
Paint.net: Another Image editor that is not as powerful as GIMP, but simpler and more familiar for Windows users. It is only available on Windows.