A Round-Up of Resources that I’ve Found and Used so far

Hello friends,

As promised in my “behind the scenes” post a couple of weeks ago, I thought it might be helpful to others out there like me to make a list of resources for new bloggers that I have used. None of these are sponsored. They are simply sites and creators that I’ve come across that offer a lot of information to those new folk to blogging. I’ve found them extremely helpful and their articles and videos have definitely been a support to me in getting this blog off the ground.

As a quick summary of where things are right now for Blue Light Yonder, I am currently posting about once per week. I have focused primarily on book reviews. That’s because, quite honestly, I love to share about what I’m reading. It’s fun for me.

I’m noticing that another area that I’m enjoying is puzzling out this whole blogging thing. It feels like a game and that I just need to figure out the right strategy to win at it. For me, winning would look like getting people reading, making contacts with other folk out there, collaborating, and hopefully making some money. Truth be told, I love to collaborate with others. I already collaborate a ton at work as a teacher with an amazing Grade 7 teaching partner. It’s proven a huge source of strength and inspiration there. I can’t see how the blogging world would be any different!

Introduction to the Resource List

Briefly, the list below is a mix of different resources for new bloggers that I’ve found around the Internet. I have not paid for any courses or books yet, but a lot of these fine people do offer both courses and books. I have to say that I will have a lot of good options when I do end up making some purchases! Given how knowledgeable these people are, and what they offer for free, I imagine their paid offerings would be very useful.

However, I’m not making any money yet at this, so free is the first place I looked.

I hope I haven’t missed any, and I will do future Round-Ups of resources that I find throughout the Internet as I continue to learn.

Without further ado, and in no particular order:

Useful Resources around the Internet for New Bloggers

Finsavvy Panda – Save More, Make More and Live Better – Finsavvy Panda Ling, the person who runs this blog, is incredibly helpful. She provides a wealth of information in an easy-to-read and relatable way. She provides resources that are free or reasonably priced. And best of all, she sends useful emails and will reply personally to questions. She really puts the time in and her resources were very much appreciated as I moved through this process.

Answer the Public is a resource that has just recently been bought by Ubersuggest (more on them in a minute). It is basically a roundup of all the Google searches that relate to keywords you enter. It’s organized by prepositions and is a useful way to do some keyword research (something that I have to learn a LOT more about). You get a few free searches per day. You an also sign up for a free course that is offered through their site.

Ubersuggest is another keyword research site. I think they offer a lot of paid services, as well, and you certainly only get a few searches on your keywords, so it is limited. However, the information is quite in depth. He also offers a lot of blog posts and videos with information for us newbies.

Adam Enfroy – Start an Online Business | Business Software Reviews Adam Enfroy is an absolute goldmine of information. He even provides a free course on how to start a blog with tips on monetization from get-go. I’ve been slowly trying to implement some of his tips and I’m excited to see where else I can go with them. He has a YouTube channel, (510) Adam Enfroy – YouTube, as well, which brings out even more useful content on a regular basis.

Ali Abdaal I found Ali Abdaal through watching his youtube channel, (510) Ali Abdaal – YouTube, and I find his information to be entertaining, interesting, and useful in turns. While a lot of his stuff isn’t directly blog related (that I’ve found so far, anyway), I find watching him to be a great source of inspiration. He has useful articles and recommendations on his website, and his YouTube channel is great.

Blogging Like You Mean It Lots of courses but also some free content. As I’ve been learning how to use Pinterest to direct traffic to my blog, I’ve come across her content. I hope to be able to purchase some of her courses, too, as her free content was great.

Welcome to WhatMommyDoes! I found that this blog has some great examples of printables and ways that you can leverage simple products that will actively help others. One thing I’m noticing, and have experienced myself, is that I get so busy that a simple organizing hack would really make a difference to me, but I haven’t got time to make it. Her blog is a great collection of different ways of organizing a busy family life, and provides printables to make it happen. So, not a directly “how to blog” sort of blog, though she has some materials about that, but lots of great examples on how to be a useful blogger, something I aspire to be.

11 Steps to Start A Money Making Mom Blog in 2022 The Right Way – Start a Mom Blog Suzi Whitford’s blog on how to become a blogger is so helpful. She provides a personal touch, as I was able to email directly and have someone from her site answer questions I had one on one. Also, she provides useful and free information, including a beginners course and a fantastic free Blog Plan downloadable pdf. She provides a series of courses, too, which look great. I have found her content to be extremely useful and really appreciate her for making available such a wealth of information.

Home – The She Approach Ana, from “The She Approach” has a lot of great information on her blog. She also provides a suite of ebooks and challenges that provide more targeted information. However, as a beginner, I find her emailed articles and general information to be extremely useful, and her blog has a lot of really good entries on building traffic.

Latest Articles – Simple Pin Media® This website is more focused on how to do well at Pinterest. When I started my blog, I had no experience whatsoever with blogging. I also had no experience with Pinterest, beyond mindless scrolling and looking at outfits (so relaxing). Using her blog posts has given me a great place to jump off from and I am slowly building my Pinterest presence.

Start Here – Welcome to ByTaylorStanford Taylor Stanford provides a free, introductory course on how to set up a blog with a mind to monetization. Like most of the other free products I’ve listed here, it is very introductory, but when you know nothing, as I did, they’re perfect. Her information was useful and appreciated.

How to Start a Blog in 2022 – Easy Guide to Create a Blog for Beginners (theblogstarter.com) This step by step guide was the one I used for setting up my blog from nothing, to something. It was simple and easy to follow.

Gathering Dreams – Design Your Dream Life! The guide on how to start a blog on this website was phenomenal. It was detailed and went step-by-step through the many layers that you might want to think about. Indeed, when I had time to go through it systematically (which was definitely a summer holidays task, phew!), I was able to make a lot of edits, which seem to have made my blog run better than it was before.

Social

This is not a link but I’ve noticed that a lot of these people also run Facebook groups and YouTube channels, which are great places to go to get more information and make contacts.

Finally…

These free and amazing resources for new bloggers have made my journey so far much smoother than it would have been. I still know very little about what I’m doing, but I’m learning! At present, my traffic has grown to almost 200 per month, which I know is small. But! It’s much bigger than it was a month ago, so any progress is still progress, right?

I’ve joined Amazon Affiliates, for both Amazon.ca and Amazon.com. Since I’m told by WordPress.org that my traffic mainly comes from Canada, I’ve used the affiliate links for the books I’ve reviews from Amazon.ca, rather than Amazon.com. Hopefully I’ve done it correctly! Feel free to email me or comment below if you have any feedback.

Thank you!

One final thank you to all these content creators that I’ve been visiting. I hope I haven’t missed anyone, but I will definitely update this post, or create a new one, when I have more useful information to share.