If craft blogging is the journey you’re considering, here is a free list of blogging tools to help you build an efficient and well-designed blog.
Choosing the right tools right from the beginning is an essential step in creating a successful blog, that’ll eventually save you time and money.
Each of the resources listed is or has been used by me personally, as a blogger and throughout my 15+ year web designer career before diving into the craft blogging adventure.
Disclaimer: This post might contain some affiliate links, you can find my full Disclosure Policy here.
Hosting
To get your blog up and running, I would highly recommend a self-managed WordPress website. Not only is it the new blogging standard, but it also offers a vast array of free add-ons (known as plugins) that can help you grow your blog. These are the web hosts I suggest for a self-managed WordPress website.
Bluehost is the top hosting provider for bloggers. They offer the most budget-friendly plans for beginner bloggers, plus 24-hour customer support. Makenstitch blog is hosted on Bluehost.
If a friend asked me which hosting service I’d recommend, I’d say hands down Bluehost.
Once your blog starts to expand and gets more than 100K/visits a month, you might need to shift to a fully managed WordPress hosting like WP Engine. This is essential for the site’s speed and for reducing website downtime.
WordPress Themes
Now, it’s time to make your site look amazing. Get your site running in no time by adding a theme – I recommend a framework + a child theme setup for maximum security, SEO, and the best user experience.
In my opinion, this is the standard for a WordPress framework. It’s solid, secure, efficient, and always keeps user experience as a top priority. Makenstitch blog is running on the Genesis framework with a customized version of the Foodie Pro child theme.
This is an excellent blog theme that sits on top of the Genesis framework. This theme has been designed with food bloggers in mind, yet it is highly versatile. Its powerful grid index makes it ideal for craft blogs, no matter your niche. Makenstitch blog is using a customized version of the Foodie Pro child theme.
WordPress Plugins
Third-party plugins are great blogging tools to help you grow your business, but use them wisely! Too many plugins can quickly slow down your blog. As a general rule, if you can do manually what a plugin does, then don’t install a new plugin – it can easily get out of hand. As an example, if you want fancy tables in your post, you can use WordPress instead of a plugin. No need for extra software. To ensure your blog runs smoothly and quickly, here are my recommendations:
Spammy comments are annoying and they hurt your site’s credibility. Filtering it manually is confusing and time-consuming. Akismet filters out all the spam comments for you, so you can focus on your business.
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is key to ensuring that your posts appear in the top results when users search on Google so you don’t miss out on any potential traffic. This plugin helps you in making your posts and blog SEO-friendly, which is essential to rank higher for the relevant search terms.
The Yoast Duplicate Post plugin lets you duplicate any post or page in WordPress. Of course, you could copy a page by hand if you like, but that takes more time and doesn’t duplicate things like the featured image, metadata, or SEO optimizations. This plugin allows you to copy everything over, with one click. I always start from a copy of an older post, much easier and faster.
Slickstream Search and Engagement
I’m a huge fan of Slickstream – it’s an invaluable tool for growing my blog and engaging with my readers. Check out the amazing smart search feature located at the bottom right of this page. Trust me, the favorites functionality and the analytics Slickstream offers are invaluable.
This plugin identifies and blocks malicious attackers targeting your WordPress blog. Wordfence Free (the free version of the plugin) is the most comprehensive free WordPress security solution.
I use this plugin to add social media buttons to every post – customize where they show up and control Pinterest save buttons, pin descriptions, and images that I want to be pinned.
Email Marketing Tools
Building an email list should be your first priority as soon as you start blogging. There are a few choices when it comes to email service providers, and here are my suggestions.
One of the best and easiest tools to get you started with no hassle. Much more straightforward to use and quicker to set up than Mailchimp. After giving Mailchimp a shot, I switched to using ConvertKit – and I’m loving it!
For a long time, Mailchimp has been the leading email marketing service provider. However, they haven’t been great at incorporating useful tools in the last few years without charging an additional fee for them. Not as straightforward to set up and use as ConvertKit.
Design Tools
I use a variety of design tools when creating my patterns, retouching the images that go on the blog, or editing my Youtube videos. Here’s an inside look at the tools I use on a daily basis.
Adobe Creative Cloud is a bundle of design tools that can help you create anything visual for your craft business. I primarily use Photoshop for editing my blog images, but you can also use Lightroom for image editing. I also use Illustrator (for creating my embroidery, cross-stitch, and sewing patterns), InDesign (for creating ebooks and PDFs), and Premiere Pro (for my Youtube videos).
Creative Market is a marketplace that has it all. From logos to specialty photos, designs, and lots of inspiration!! One of my go-to sites when I need stock assets.
Business Tools
Once your website starts to grow you will need additional blogging tools to help you run your craft business. Out of all of the options, here are my top recommendation.
I’m using Leadpages to create landing pages fast and without too much hassle. I also love the alert bar at the top, which is a massive help in growing my email list.
Once your blog starts to get the attention it deserves, you may want to monetize it. To do this, one of the most effective strategies is to create courses. Kajabi makes it easy to craft and market online courses, subscription sites, and coaching services in an engaging way.
Once your blog starts to take off, you may want to create and sell your own products. Shopify is the top platform for online stores, and having your own shop is always a great idea – even if you’re already selling on Etsy. Mix it up, spread your wings and let your products reach even more people!
