Blogging Resources

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Today I’m excited for my hubby to post for the first time!  He has been the “back end” brains of this blog!  He helped us with our move from blogger to wordpress and pretty much anything else we’ve needed!  We thought it would be fun to start sharing some of the “business” stuff we’ve learned throughout our year in blogging!  I hope you enjoy!  Please feel free to ask questions if you have any!

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I am Scott, Pam’s husband. I love playing with my two little boys, riding dirt bikes, dreaming about fast cars and playing pranks on people – although my wife is a horrible sport, so I don’t prank her very often:)

I have been in the creative industry since 2002 and have had many great opportunities to work with fantastic companies and learn a wide variety of skills. I consider myself pretty well versed. I do a lot of consulting and mainly focus on the Business/Online Business Industry currently. At present I have a full time contract with H&S Performance where I lead the creative team.

I plan on posting regular blogging tips/tricks and other web and online ideas and/or tutorials on OTBM. I want to do this in an effort to help those who may be interested in starting a blog/website, or to help those who may already have a blog/website and want to learn more. Please feel free to contact me (leave comment below or message me on my Facebook account) with any questions that you may have concerning your blog/website and I will be glad to help you in any way that I can!

Disclaimer

Some of the links below are affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, we will earn a commission if you decide to make a purchase. We recommend these companies because they have been a benefit and help to us and our blog, we don’t recommend these companies just to try and get a commission if you decide to buy their product. We use their products and want to help others by recommending them. Please do not buy these products unless you feel you need them or that they will help you achieve your goals.

Hosting

  • Godaddy – I love go daddy for their affordability, I do not love go daddy for their user interface. I buy all of my domain names through go daddy, you can always find great promo codes for discounts on domain names. I have also been very impressed with their 4G Hosting – especially for blogs who are starting out. It is very affordable and scalable. It is currently what OTBM is using and we have had no problems with sluggish performance.
  • Lunarpages – Great solution for starters, because it’s affordable.  You can upgrade to a faster server to a dedicated server as your blog/website grows if needed.
  • Bluehost – Great solution for starters, because it’s very affordable.  But, can be slow during high traffic times.  So, for a smaller/newer blog, you shouldn’t have a problem.  But, as your blog grows you may run into some problems.

Blogging

  • WordPress – Fantastic blogging solution, possibly even the best solution out there for a blogging platform. I would definitely recommend going with the self hosted solution rather than the wordpress.com solution.
  • Joomla – My favorite Content Management Solution (CMS) great for medium to large websites. Great library of extensions available.

eCommerce

  • WooCommerce – If you want a quick, easier solution that is based on wordpress, then WooCommerce is for you. A great solution for smaller eCommerce sites or even for those selling digital products.
  • Magento Commerce – A very good solution for more serious eCommerce websites, medium to large. I would recommend getting a dedicated server if running Magento. I have based many eCommerce solutions off of Magento. It is a little more complex and takes some getting used to. But overall my best recommendation for serious eCommerce websites.

Tools

  • Evernote – one of my favorite apps, I keep everything I need to remember in Evernote; To-do’s, automobile maintenance schedules, server information, project plans, favorite quotes, etc. Plus it is available on many platforms, so I can sync it from my phone, to my computer, and to my iPad.
  • Skitch – works great with evernote. Perfect for annotating your screenshots and using in your blogging projects.
  • Adobe Creative Suite – A MUST HAVE for any creative person and highly recommended even for the average blogger. I know it seems expensive but there are options – Adobe now has what is called Adobe Creative Cloud which allows you to use the whole Master Collection (usually $2500 to buy) for $29.99 per month if you are a previously registered user or $49.99 per month if you are a new user. Totally worth it!

Must Have WordPress Plugins

  • Google Sitemaps – This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines to better index your blog.
  • All in one SEO – WordPress SEO plugin to automatically optimize your WordPress blog for Search Engines.
  • Google Analyticator – Adds the necessary JavaScript code to enable Google Analytics. Includes widgets for Analytics data display.
  • Widgetkit – The next generation toolkit for Joomla and WordPress to enrich your website experience.

Ways to earn

  • CJ – The worlds largest affiliate network.
  • linkshare – Another great affiliate network.
  • Amazon Associates – One of the first affiliate programs a blogger should sign up for.
  • Google Adsense – One of the most essential ways to earn income as a blogger.
  • Etsy – If you have a self made or homemade product and want to sell it, then Etsy is a good place to start.

WordPress Themes

  • Woothemes – A great library of designs, especially if you are using WooCommerce.
  • Yootheme – My favorite themes to use! They make it very easy to customize widgets and visibility of widgets on different pages/posts.

Suggestions/Recommendations

  • W3SchoolsLearn some basic HTML and CSS! I still to this day use w3schools.com, it is a great resource for learning various types of programming languages.

More resource links to come!

  • Sarah @ Pretty Providence

    Great post!! Thank you for sharing your wisdom, as a fairly new blogger I am always looking for ways to do it better.

    • overthebigmoon

      No problem! Let us know if you have any questions.

  • Ashley Largent

    Love the links. But what do we do if we are still on Blogger? I am still very new to this and building my way up, but I would like to be able to do more while still on Blogger?
    Any tips?

    • overthebigmoon

      Ashley, you can still utilize the affiliate networks that are listed under “Ways to Earn” while you are still on blogger. There isn’t any limitations there for the blogger platform. One good reasons to having your blog on wordpress is the ability to upload your photos and files and have control of those on your own server. Otherwise, as I am sure you already know, you have to upload your photos to a third party host like 4shared or something similar.

      I always recommend starting on wordpress or switching to wordpress as soon as you can. – The longer you wait, the harder it will be to switch all of your content. But, like I said, you can still use all of the affiliate networks as well as adsense while you are still on blogger.

      Hope this helps.
      Scott

  • http://www.facebook.com/pat.marek1 Pat Marek

    Great post! I haven’t started blogging yet, but I seriously want to get started. I have been doing research and your post has given me even more info. Sometimes I’m just really computer challenged. What do I need to do to buy a domain name and how much does it cost? I’m trying to make it as affordable as I can. I do have a Storenvy page, but I haven’t sold anything and the same with etsy. So I though I could start blogging and put my items on Pinterest which I love.

    • http://www.onlineincomeresource.com/ Scott Dana

      Pat, to buy a domain just go to: http://www.overthebigmoon.com/godaddy – they start at only $12.99 per year. I recommend starting with Godaddy’s WordPress hosting option to host your domain. Let us know if you have any other questions.

    • http://www.onlineincomeresource.com/ Scott Dana

      Pat, to buy a domain just go to: http://www.overthebigmoon.com/godaddy – they start at only $12.99 per year. I recommend starting with Godaddy’s WordPress hosting option to host your domain. Let us know if you have any other questions.

  • ebobmik

    Hi Scott! Thanks for sharing this. I would very much like to start a blog/website, but have absolutely no experience and basically have no clue where to start. I appreciate the information and links above, but it is a bit overwhelming and intimidating to me. What would you recommend as a first step? Thanks for your help.

    • http://www.onlineincomeresource.com/ Scott Dana

      I would recommend buying a domain and hosting through Godaddy as a first step. Like I mentioned above, I would set up their WordPress (Previously 4g) hosting. Once you purchase that, godaddy will install the wordpress blog for you. From there it is a matter of getting familiar with WordPress. Let us know if you have any further questions. Thanks.

  • Lin

    Hi Scott! Thanks for the insight! We had major trouble with our initial WordPress theme and its integration, and eventually resorted to having our entire site built with HTML and CSS. Now, however, we are struggling to get it to function like a blog, particularly with widgets and plug-ins. Can you offer any suggestions and/or advice?

    • http://www.onlineincomeresource.com/ Scott Dana

      Is it a totally custom HTML and CSS site? What is the URL?