I just wanted to share with you all the things I use and love to manage my money, blog, travels, and photography. I find all these resources so valuable and I am sure they will help you as much as they helped me.
Note: Some of the links below are affiliate links, so I may get a commission if you choose to use these companies. They are all companies I use and love. Thanks for supporting my blog!
BLOGGING
These are all the technical bits, as well as the best plugins and software I used to create this blog.
Bluehost: If you’re looking to start a blog for cheap, I recommend using Bluehost for your hosting (Bluehost is what I’m using right now for this blog). Launch your blog in under 15 minutes with their 1-click WordPress installation. Also, if you sign up using my link, you will get your domain for free if you purchase a 12-month or longer blog hosting plan. See how to start your very first blog with the free guide I created on how to start a successful blog.
I am so happy to announce that I was able to negotiate a really low monthly subscription for my readers. For a limited time, you can start your blog for only $2.95/month when you sign up with Bluehost That’s over 50% off regular pricing!
BONUS!!: As a thank you to those of you that sign up through my link 🙂 make sure to message me here, & I’ll add you to my Share The Blog Love group board on Pinterest, so you can get a jump start on your blogging career by promoting your posts to my 140,000 followers!
A fast-loading and professional theme is a requirement these days if you want to be taken seriously as a blogger. If you are already familiar with WordPress, you’ve seen that they already offer free website templates but let’s be real – when you take a really good look at them you’ll realize they’re really bare-boned and resemble websites from 20 years ago :(.
That’s where pre-made website templates come in. Three of my favorites are Elegant Themes, 17th Avenue, and the Studiopress Genesis Framework. These powerful themes give your new business the look and feel of a professional authority website, not a hobby blog.
17th Avenue Designs
If you are looking for a fast and reliable feminine WordPress theme for a fashion, travel, or lifestyle blog I highly recommend 17th avenue. My blog is currently running on the Aubrey theme. 17th Avenue utilizes the Genises Framework which means that not only will your website be pretty it will also load fast and have a good website structure – which will lead to higher rankings in Google search results.
Elegant Themes
Trusted by 350,000+ WordPress users and includes their popular Divi Theme. Elegant Themes has been around forever and has a solid reputation.
Studiopress
is the most well-known theme developer in the industry for having the fastest loading time, and clean, responsive designs. They have top-notch customer support and very detailed youtube installation tutorials.
Canva Pro – This is the website I use in order to design pins for Pinterest.
In fact, I should probably go ahead and directly thank them for the 22 million monthly impressions I get. Seriously. I literally wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without this website.
They offer a free subscription which is great and offers a lot of value
Canva’s paid subscription ($12.99/month) offers MILLIONS of stunning templates for every kind of social media platform, business project, and printable that you can imagine.
Investing
Robinhood: Gone are the days when you needed to put aside a large sum of money just to open an investment account in order to trade stocks. I’ve recently taken up stock trading again, and I was surprised to find out about Robinhood. It’s a trading app that allows you to trade any stock on iPhone/Android phones & they don’t charge commissions on trades.
Recent market volatility makes the next couple of months (April – June 2020) an interesting time to be involved in the stock market. Arguably the most exciting time in the past decade. Learn how to trade gold, options, crypto, and stocks + get a free stock (worth up to $250) with Robinhood.
Cashback and discounts!
Earning money for stuff I already buy is one of my favorite things to do! Why leave free money on the table when you can make some by just clicking on a link before purchasing something? I made over $500 last year using a combination of these apps.
Rakuten: This free cashback app has over 2,000 stores to choose from for all of your online and in-store purchases. You will be able to make some extra money every month! Depending on what you buy, you might be able to get anything between 2 to 7% of your money back, without much effort. And you can get a $10 bonus by signing up here.
Swagbucks: With Swagbucks, you can get cash back on your online shopping, but also earn money by taking surveys quick surveys, surfing the internet, or watching videos! Last year, I made over $200 with Swagbucks alone. Plus you get a $5 bonus when you sign up here.
Respondent.io: Last year, I came across a post where a woman made $45 dollars for just an hour of her time from Respondent.io. I honestly didn’t believe it at first, so I signed up and immediately found out that I was eligible for a survey that paid $150. The survey took about an hour to complete and by the end of it, I had earned $150 that got deposited directly into my Paypal account!! After doing a bit of research I found out that some people make $200 a week just by completing simple surveys on Respondent. It’s super easy to use and new surveys are being submitted daily.
It’s similar to taking surveys online, on Respondent you can share your opinion in focus groups or market research studies, and the great thing is that anyone aged 18 or older can join. All you need to join is a PayPal account, and either Facebook or LinkedIn to connect your profile.
TRAVEL
I love traveling so much! My dream is to travel for at least six months every year. These are the websites I use every time I need to plan my next adventure!
Airbnb: We love booking places with Airbnb for our trips, especially when we manage to travel for a few weeks at a time. Airbnb helped us save a lot of money, and it always gives us a home away from home. It’s perfect when you want to meet local people and get their special recommendations on the best places to eat and explore. If you are new to Airbnb, you can get $55 off your first stay by clicking here!
Booking.com: You can find amazing hotel deals on booking.com. I always compare Airbnb, Booking.com and Agoda prices before booking anything!
Skyscanner: I never book flights without checking Skyscanner first. You can read more about all the tips I use to book cheap flights here, but Skyscanner is always on top of my list!
PHOTOGRAPHY
These are all the things I loves and use for travel photography!
Skillshare: learned everything I need to know and then some, by signing up to Skillshare. Skillshare is an online learning community with over 30,000 classes on any topic you wish to learn about. I used Skillshare to master watercolor painting, and photography, and I even set up this very blog with what I learned on the site.
Readers of my blog will get their first two months for free just by clicking on this link :):) ❤️
Adobe Creative Suite: I love using Adobe Creative Suite for graphic design and photography. I use Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop for pin design and infographics, and Adobe Lightroom for travel and lifestyle photography. It can be quite expensive, but it’s the best tool out there!
Must Reads
If you have a question about any of the things I mentioned here, please contact me by sending me a message here. I’d love to hear from you!
