Blogging Resources

I often get emails asking what tools I use on my blog. So I thought it would be helpful to answer those here. These are the main tools I use.

Please let me know if you have any questions about any of them and I’d be glad to answer them. 

Disclaimer: Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links and I will earn a commission if you purchase through those links. These are all things that I have experience with that I am recommending because they are helpful and are companies that I trust, not because of the commissions that I may earn from you using these products.

When I first started Get Busy Living, I found a great free theme, which I loved. I used it for five months and allowed me to focus on writing great content and building a great community.

However, the more I visited other blogs, the more I saw the same theme being used. I don’t blame them because it’s a great theme. I just wanted a unique look to stand out even more.

There are no shortages of great premium themes. A-list bloggers use Thesis, Genesis, or Headway. Places like Woothemes make great themes as well.

In the end I went with the Standard Theme. It’s not as popular as the ones I just mentioned but doesn’t make it a weaker choice. Mashable recognized it as one of the 8 Best Premium themes.

I did the customizations myself. I found the member only forums to be so helpful in answering all my questions. I’m happy with how it turned out.

I’ve had Bluehost since I ran a sports blog from 2005-2007. I’ve created many defunct blogs and niche sites since then. One click WordPress install. Great customer service. I recommend them.

The internet’s most powerful email opt-in service and email marketing/broadcasting tool. This is what I use to build my email list and newsletter. If you need help or advice setting up your first email list, contact me and I can help you out.

Favorite Plugins

This plugin has really helped me increase subscribers to my list. The reason is because it makes it easy to add opt-in boxes on your blog. One easy place is in the comments. After the reader has put in their name and email address, they can just click a box to get your ebook or sign up to your list. So they leave a comment and can get your free ebook at the same time. Also if you see the end of my posts, that opt-in box was added with WpSubscribers. That’s just a tip of the features you can do. If you want to read more, visit the website.

I love this free plugin because it allows me to reply directly to the person who left a comment. If you’ve ever left a comment here, you saw an email in your inbox of my reply to your comment.

I love this plugin because you know that I replied to your comment. That way if I followed up with a question, you would know. If I loved what you said, you would know. No more guessing or having to come back to see if I did or not.

I personally don’t like to subscribe to the comments because then I’ll get every single comment. This plugin just gives your readers one-to-one attention.

Very valuable for building a community on your blog.

At the end of my posts, you will see a retweet box that makes it easier for readers to retweet your post. Making it so simple makes them more likely to do so.

This free plugin took me awhile to setup but my friend Adrienne Smith made a video that will get you setup in five minutes. I spent hours (no joke) trying to set it up and wish I had seen her video first! See Make it Easy for your Readers to Retweet Your Posts

In the sidebar you can see a list of the most popular posts on my blog. Depending on your posting frequency you can set it to weekly, monthly, or all time. I love how clean and simple it looks.

The free plugin was created by John Saddington, who runs one of my favorite blogs, Tentblogger.com. In addition to this plugin, he’s created so many other great plugins.

You can see a list of his free plugins starting at the middle of this page.

This plugin again is from John at Tentblogger.com. If you’re looking to get more comments, rewarding those who leave comments is a great way to do that. You can have it count comments for the week, month, or all time. You can hide or show the number of comments.

This is the only plugin you need if you don’t want spam comments. It gets rid of 99% of the spam. After I’ve recommended this to friends, spam comments cut down drastically. Don’t waste valuable time deleting spam.

How it gets rid of spam is when you leave a comment, you have to check a box that proves you are human. If you don’t check it, you can’t leave a comment. So simple but effective!

Sure you’ll get some humans who are paid to spam comment but it’s so few that it’s not a problem.

This is the best plugin to combat spam comments. Install it right now.