When starting a new website or blog there are so many resources you need to know about to help you have a successful site as well as simply getting started with your new venture! Here are some of my favorite links that I hope will help you find your way, or at least inspire you!
This site runs on:
WordPress Blog Hosting:
- Bluehost- My number 1 recommendation for WordPress hosting unless you have a very large readership. This site is hosted through Bluehost.
- Hostmonster- Another great hosting provider that is equal to the one above.
- Synthesis- If you’re using the Genesis framework, this hosting rocks! They offer specific support to WordPress and Genesis and they know their stuff.
E-commerce Website Hosting:
- Shoppe Pro- I’ve worked with Shoppe Pro since the moment I began this business and I’ve never once been disappointed! Their team is amazing and offer wonderful customer support. All my e-commerce websites are done using Shoppe Pro.
Printing Services
- Moo- An amazing print company best known for their Mini and Luxe Cards. I’ve used them myself over and over again and have yet to be disappointed!
- Vistaprint- The most popular print company out there!! Great for ordering large quantities of materials.
- Custom Couture Label Company- This company offers hangtags and clothing labels for those companies in need of those items.
Stock Photography and Color Inspiration
- iStockphoto.com- iStock has tons of royalty free photographs and vector artwork that you can use on your site! A great resources used by all designers!
- ColourLovers- Be prepared to get lost in this site as it has thousands (millions?) of color schemes to choose from! Along with allowing you to create your own!
- Design-Seeds- One of my favorite color scheme sites! I am best inspired by images, so this site pulls color schemes from some amazing photographs!
Newsletter Services
- Mailchimp- A great free (for up to 2000 subscribers) newsletter service! I use them personally for all my newsletters and they’re great!
- Constant Contact- Another great newsletter service. This one is a bit more robust than mailchimp and does have a monthly fee.
SEO Services
- HERseo.com- I’ve recommended both these ladies to lots of my ecommerce clients and they’ve both been great!! I would only recommend these ladies for my ecommerce websites! There are other resources for WordPress.
- MySEOgal.com- read above
- GreatProofReading.com- Great SEO and other services for all my WordPress clients.
Photo Editing Services
- Picmonkey- a great online photo editing tool for resizing images.
- Photobucket- an online photo storage site. If you have a WordPress site, you can store images on your own server, so a service like this may not be necessary.
- Flickr- an online photo storage site and a great source of photo inspiration. If you have a WordPress site, you can store images on your own server, so a service like this may not be necessary.
Disclaimer: Some of the links on this page are affiliate links, which mean if you sign up for their services or purchase their product, I will get a ‘commission’ for the sale. With that said, I only list items here that I’ve personally used and love and feel that you should know about!!