My Favorite Tools

I have tried soooo many different email programs but my all-time favorite is ConvertKit. I love their teaching and I love the software. It's easy-to-use AND super powerful and I'm confident it will grow with me. It makes creating content upgrades and delivering lead magnets a breeze and their reports are ridiculously simple for me to read and understand. Pricing starts at $29/mo and includes all the features.

The only thing I don't LOVE about ConvertKit is the appearance of their forms. But ThriveLeads fills the gap quite nicely. It works perfectly with ConvertKit and enables me to create lots of different gorgeous opt-in forms including pop-ups, slide-ins, content upgrades, etc. You can even split-test with this plugin, it's epic! And you only have to purchase it one time, no subscription required.

There is one other plugin that I use to make it simple for people to give me their email address and it has a ridiculous name, OptinMonster. But think of it like Cookie Monster, silly name but one of my favorites! This is an elegant option that starts with a limited-feature free plugin and then offers a lot of flexibility and power with their paid upgrade. 

I believe you should interact on the right social media networks at the right time in an authentic way. However, there are a couple of tools that I love that help me leverage my time. Tailwind is one of them! You can schedule content to Pinterest (Pinterest-approved!) and Instagram including a sexy hashtag finder. You can get started with Tailwind free AND get a $15 credit just by clicking my link. 

This is my other favorite Pinterest tool. Tasty Pins allows you to set Pinterest images and the oh-so-important descriptions. You know you need vertical images and good descriptions, right? Well with Tasty Pins you can upload a correctly-sized image, tell browser extensions which images NOT to share to Pinterest and add keyword-rich pin descriptions and hashtags. 

This is the social media sharing tool that you see on this site. Social Warfare is a lightweight, good-looking plugin that adds social sharing to my posts and pages. I can pick my sharing location (including floating) and use the sexy Click-to-Tweet tool that's included. Bitly shortening for your URLs and custom colors round out the features.

I own and managed several different websites and my default site for beginners or new sites is SiteGround. Their hosting has been very reliable, their support is quick and responsive, and their pricing is awesome. For a reasonably-priced, secure and reliable host, you can't do any better! 

This was my first 'managed' WordPress host and they just keep getting better and better. If you have greater performance needs than entry-level hosting provides, check out WPEngine! They just bought my favorite framework, StudioPress, and I can't wait to see what that acquisition does to their offerings.

It's important to 'own' the registration of your domains. Lots of vendors will offer to take care of that for you, but it's really simple to register and manage your domains at NameCheap. I have all my domains registered with them and have never had any problems. And they frequently offer specials and discounts and you know how much I love a discount!

​I LOVE BLOG VAULT! Full review coming soon!

​If you don't have a backup solution for your website, drop everything ​and get it.

The majority of my websites use the Genesis Framework and almost all of those use a Restored316 designs theme. I love Lauren's work, she keeps her themes updated and is always helpful when I'm trying to hack them for some special feature or another.​