Over the past eight years, blogging has become important to me.
At first, it was a hobby that I loved. Years later, it provided the platform for full-time employment. But most importantly, through it all, it has provided opportunity to make a lasting change and impact in the world.
I recently sat down with Val Geisler from ConvertKit to discuss, in detail, my personal growth in blogging and my transition from hobby to full-time writing. You can find the conversation on the Reach Podcast.
If you blog as a hobby or career, you’ll find the conversation helpful.
I have worked hard to keep my blogging platform simple and minimal—focused in both pursuits and tools. As a result, I use many of the same tools today that I used when I first started Becoming Minimalist.
So I thought I’d take a moment to list them. Perhaps you will find some of the recommendations helpful.
The 7 Internet Tools I Use for Blogging
Bluehost. Eight years ago, I signed up to use Bluehost as my domain host for www.becomingminimalist.com. At the time I knew very little about starting a website. But I found the Bluehost interface to be inexpensive and very easy-to-use. I have been pleased with their service ever since and continue to recommend their service to others.
WordPress. WordPress is my blogging platform of choice. Easily integratabtle with Bluehost or as a free hosting site, I find the platform user friendly and fully customizable with a nearly unlimited number of tools to use (called plug-ins). If you’re interested in starting a blog for the first time, here’s a simple, helpful guide to get you started.
Genesis. Genesis is the framework that I use to create the look and design of this website. WordPress offers a number of free designs on their platform. But for full customization, you’ll need a stronger tool. Genesis is a premium framework ($59.95) that is both robust and user-friendly. Becoming Minimalist was designed by Brian Gardner (as noted on the bottom of every page).
ConvertKit. ConvertKit is my email distributor of choice. If you receive Becoming Minimalist posts by email, they are delivered by ConvertKit. If you’ve been a part of our Uncluttered Course, it is ConvertKit that made it possible. ConvertKit is relatively new to the email provider scene. As a result, they are highly personable and open to user feedback. Built by bloggers, for bloggers, I switched to their service (from MailChimp) last year and am incredibly pleased with it. Their plans begin at $29/month for unlimited emails.
Unsplash. Unsplash offers free (do whatever you want) high-resolution photos. Most of the images that appear here on Becoming Minimalist are found via Unsplash. If you use images for blogging or social media, you’ll love the tool. And their recent addition of a search function has made navigating the site even easier.
Social Media. I use three social media platforms to promote Becoming Minimalist content (Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest). But I have found Facebook to be the most productive and efficient for promoting content and engaging with readers. So I choose to spend most of my social media time over there. As a fun little side note, we are just about to surpass 500,000 followers on Facebook—how exciting is that! For a more in-depth look at why and how I use social media, read this.
Google Analytics. Google Analytics provides the information I need to be intentional about the growth and effectiveness of Becoming Minimalist. It allows me to understand how people find this site (search traffic or referral traffic), what posts are most popular, and even what posts cause the most people to leave. If you want to be serious about blogging, you’ll need an analytics tool—and there are few free tools as powerful as Google.
Honorable Mention: Jason Charnes handles all of my web coding and technical problems. When I run into any significant back-end issues that are beyond my limited programming knowledge base, he’s the first one I call. If you need technical support in any way, he’s earned my recommendation. You can contact him at Red Beard Coding.
If you enjoy blogging, you’ll enjoy these tools. Hope that’s helpful.
—
Note: This post contains affiliate links which means the company has graciously offered me a small commission every time someone signs up via one of my links. This does not influence my recommendation. I have used these tools from the very beginning and continue to do so today.
Unsplash is great and I too find Facebook the best ROI for social media. Beyond tools, bloggers need a compelling subject and great writing. Two things I enjoy about your blog, Joshua. Thanks!
I’m pretty new to blogging, so I always appreciate these tips! Something I have found helpful is Pixlr. I can use it to edit photos, create collages, etc. I’ve used it as a substitute to buying Photoshop.
Yes, that is good Jalene. Thank you for the recommendation. I have friends who also use Canva for the same thing. I use Photoshop Elements on my computer to edit photos.
I use Unsplash all the time! I love the quality of their content and I also like to share some of my pictures so other people can have them aswell. Gonna keep this list in a handy place :) And I should start using Facebook for my blog, I don’t know why but I didn’t think of it when I first started.
Great post!
xx Cecil // http://www.wednesday19th.blogspot.com
I’ve never heard of Unsplash until now. Thanks for sharing.
Do you have any preferences for minimalist writing software? I use Scrivener and then I run my posts through Marked2 for a final edit.
How about you?
I use Scrivener for book writing. Ommwriter for blog posts.
Really nice post. I am getting back to blogging after a couple of years. I did have a wordpress blog earlier but I am unable to find it. So I am starting from scratch. These tips are really helpful. Thank you.
I use Genesis too. Bought the Dynamik child theme. Amazing tool. Constantly run to it. Throw in Beaver Builder and Genesis Dambuster and you’ve got one powerful setup.
As for free images, Pixabay is great for those. I might need to take a look at Unsplash though.
Nice basic toolset. I have been reading about bloggers switching to ConvertKit. There must be something of value there. As for themes, I still use a free theme. At some point I need to checkout the Genesis theme platform. I have some great theme ideas I would like to implement. Thank you for reminding me you don’t need a lot of bells and whistles to blog successfully.
Great post! Did you start your blog directly from bluehost, or did you transfer your website? I am a blogger who is wanting to self-host now and was thinking about going to bluehost. Again, awesome post and it was very helpful!
-Andrea Othela
http://www.andreaothela.co/
I began blogging on a free WordPress site, but switched to my own domain after about four months.
I recently came off of Facebook. (It was becoming more of a detriment to me than it was helpful) My husband is still on there and he helps to manage my blogs FB page so he puts those posts out there for me. I really want to check out Unsplash! Thanks!
I teach a workshop on blogging at University of North Florida and we use WordPress as our platform. I’m always looking for great resources to share with students and I really appreciate the rich sources you’ve shared here, especially UnSplash!
I use Picjumbo & Stocksnap for my blog images, Just now visited Unspalsh and it looks great will use it for sure. Thanks for introducing Converkit its new to me will look in to it.
Excellent timing! Trying to minimize the amount of effort I’m spending on tools, this is invaluable! You just saved me a ton of time! Gracias! Namaste! Jai Bhagwan!
This was so helpful – thank you so much. I’ve been looking for a place to get high quality images from!
Lauren – http://www.theyoproedit.com
Hi Joshua,
Thank you for this post, super insightful and helpful. I currently am using WordPress, Genesis and ConvertKit and love them all.
I really appreciate the social media section and the link to the summary of your experience with each. In the process of setting up a Pinterest account and testing that out.
Also, Facebook is biggest for promotion for me as well. Currently using my personal page for all business and personal posts. After reading how you use Facebook I am going to set up a business page and shift from using my personal account to the business page. So simple yet so great! Thank you.
That’s what I did Kendra. I post very little “blogging/business” type things on my personal page. I prefer to keep them separate.
This is great! I’m a new Facebook follower, and I love seeing the tools other bloggers use successfully.
I love Unsplash—another similar resource is http://www.pexels.com. (I’ve found there’s sometimes crossover in the images available on the two sites, but both have great quality!).
Keep up the great work!
Yes, same with pixabay. I think, because Unsplash allows people to do anything they want with their photos, there are a number of photo collection that pick them up and post them on their site.
I’m considering switching to Bluehost. I’ve heard they’re supposed to be pretty good! Am using SiteGround at the moment, but I find I have issues with them now and again, and I’d rather not, haha.
I like Unsplash as well and my other resource is Pixabay as mentioned. There are number of photography bloggers that give away free photos on sign up too.
I’m def going to check out Unsplash! Thanks for these.
Jabeen x
http://www.spilling-the-beans.co.uk/
Awesome man. Thanks for sharing that!
How many posts have you averaged each week over that time?
Cheers
I haven’t heard of Unsplash until now.
Might give it a try! xx
Great list, I actually already use most of them. Never knew about Unsplash! I will definitely check it out!
=) Bridget | http://nuttyhiker.com
I think WordPress is much more useful compared to other platform.
This was very generous of you – thank you.
Nice share, Joshua. I would probably move to ConvertKit from GetResponse.
I actually shared my blogging tools I use to manage multiple blogs in my site – http://bloggingio.com/best-blogging-tools/
Hope you will love it.
Thank you
Nice one, Joshua. I use lots of blogging tools to increase my Alexa and Google rankings. It matters to me in getting high traffic and ranking.
Social media is a tool every online entrepreneurs ought to have.
Pixlr is really awesome and the post you wrote is superb.
Thanks for the tools you shared they are really awesome