Fatten The Wallet

Free Resources to Grow Your Blog

Welcome to my free blogging resources page.  Here is a list of resources I use to make on my blog.  Start here if you’re new to my blog.

START A BLOG

Hosting

SiteGround: I cannot recommend SiteGround enough.  You can get it for as little as $3.95/month and it is one of the fastest, if not the fastest loading time among web hosts.  Not to mention their amazing customer/technical support team.

Bluehost:  I started out using Bluehost and it is still one of the most recommended, but it is not for me.  I did not have a good experience with Bluehost customer service.  But if you don’t have a lot of money to spend, then BlueHost might be for you since they offer a free domain first year (which is around $15).

Grammar Tool

Grammarly: I have been using Grammarly for over a year now.  Grammarly is the most comprehensive grammar and spell-checker I’ve ever used.  I installed the Chrome extension and have my articles checked without losing any text formatting.

While the premium version will set you back $139 per year (they often run discounts up to 60% off).  I currently use the free version and will sign up for the FREE one month upgrade to the premium version.  I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t at least sign up for the free version.

Update:  After you sign up, you can earn $25 by writing a short review.  It took me less than 5 minutes.  Click here to find out how if you’re interested.

Ad Network

Media.net:  If you cannot get Google Adsense to approve, then give Media.net a try.  You can use both Media.net and Google Adsense at the same time on your blog to maximize your earning, but I have to caution you – you don’t want to make it look to spammy to your readers.

Stock Images

Ivory Mix:  Over 300+ FREE stock photos and they are feminine and beautiful!!!  Wish I knew about it a year ago when I first started blogging because my pins were so ugly.

Lollipop Creative Stock:  Lollipop has some of the best feminine stock photos.  They are bright and eye-catching.  You get 5 free stock photos every month!

Pixabay: This is completely free and you can alter and do whatever you want with the images.  No attribution is required.

Pikwizard: This is a great new stock photography website with over 100,000 high-quality images, with 20,000 exclusive to the site.

Canva: I use Canva to make most of my images/pins.  Canva also has a lot of free images you can use on top of the paid ones.

Graphic Design Tools

Canva: I use Canva to make most of my images on my blog.  There is a paid version, but the free version is more than enough.

PicMonkey:  PickMonkey has been around for a very long time.  I remember using it when I was in high school.

Social Media

Social Warfare: I have used so many different social media plugins from SUMO to Shareholic to a few others in between and I have found Social Warfare to be the best.  The plugin is light and it is so simple to use.

Social Pug: I have tried many different social media plugins before I found Social Warfare.  It was clean and just perfect until it started to have so many security/hacking problems.  I still refused to switch until it happened again!  Social Pug also has a clean look without the security problems.

Tailwind:  Use this link for a free month.  It is so amazing.  It makes my life so much easier not having to manually pin pins.  My time is better used to work on content and to monetize.  Tailwind is the only scheduler approved by Pinterest.

BLOGGING COURSES

Traffic

Pinterest Traffic Avalanche:  This is a very popular Pinterest traffic course.  Bloggers Alex and Lauren only started blogging at the end of 2015 and is now making over a million dollars a year.  I always knew traffic was important but I never paid any attention to it.  After I purchased the course, my Pinterest followers went from 0 to 182 in a week and it was 0 for a whole year before that.

EXTRA INCOME SIDE HUSTLES

eBates: Get cash back just for shopping online at the stores you love.  Get $10 back when you spend your first $25.

Swagbucks: While you’re waiting to make money from your blog, you can take surveys and make money from Swagbucks.