Blogging Resources For Beginners – My Top 5 Recommendations

Useful Resources For Blogging – My Top 5 For Beginners To Learn

If you’re thinking about starting a blog or have recently started one you’ve no doubt discovered that there is a steep learning curve to blogging! From social media and Pinterest strategies to compiling content and SEO – there’s A LOT to learn. Learning it on your own is hard, time-consuming, and may end up leading you in the wrong direction. However, turning to good blogging resources can help you learn reliably and fast, propelling you to success.

I both laugh at myself and melt into deep embarrassment when I think about what my blog looked like and the strategies that I implemented during my first year of running it. From the horrible strategy of pinning just one ugly image to Pinterest per post and having no understanding of header tags, no-follow links, or where to find backlinks, to searching out affiliate programs to join, learning how to place affiliate links, and landing with a good advertising company – I had no idea what I was doing. I had almost no money to invest in learning and was committed to figuring things out myself with any free information I could find.

I made some progress that way. However, I reached a plateau where I finally decided to take the financial hit and invest in a resource that I thought might help me grow. (That resource was Carly Campbell’s Pinteresting Strategies course – which I will get into in further detail below!) Making the decision to invest in that course changed EVERYTHING. It helped me to grow my traffic through Pinterest, but more importantly, it opened my eyes to how much I could learn by listening to those who had already learned it before me. It also connected me with a networking group that has been absolutely instrumental to my success (again, more on that below).

I have invested in several additional resources since. Some have had a similar effect of strongly propelling me forward to grow and some have left me regretful of the time and/or expense that I put into them.

There are still MANY resources for blogging that I have not explored. However, in this post I want to share with you my top 5 blogging resources for beginners with details about the type of information in each and how it has been helpful to me. While some of these resources do have a price tag attached, they will not leave you broke and are well worth the investment. A few of the resources are also free!

(Note: This post contains affiliate links which means if you purchase through one of my links I make a commission on your purchase – at no additional expense to you! Read my full disclosure here.)

My Top 5 Blogging Resource Recommendations For Beginners:

1. Carly Campbell’s Pinteresting Strategies course

This course was the first blogging resource that I invested in and was absolutely a game-changer for me. When I first purchased the course I did so because I wanted to avoid paying for a Tailwind subscription and the course was all about how to achieve pageviews from Pinterest by pinning without a scheduler like Tailwind. The course taught me all about how to engage with Pinterest to get blog traffic – from how to set up my Pinterest account for maximum results to how to create a strategy for pinning post images. My blog traffic grew substantially from implementing many of the tips outlined in this course.

While I now use Tailwind for my Pinterest strategy, I still occasionally reference back to this course for tips. It is updated periodically to stay up to date with Pinterest changes and I have found that the information in it is helpful and solid – whether you are committed to pinning manually or whether you use a scheduler. You can read more details from Carly and purchase the course here.

2. Carly Campbell’s Affiliate Marketing For Bloggers

Like her Pinteresting Strategies course, Carly’s Affiliate Marketing course is full of valuable content! Whether you already do some affiliate marketing or have never implemented any of it, this course is applicable and helpful. It outlines where and how to best place links in your posts, where to find affiliate programs to join, how to build links into your content in a way that gets clicks and purchases, and more.

I invested in this course when I felt like I was really at a stand-still with growing my affiliate income. It helped me to find and connect with some new programs to earn from as well as to better place my links for higher returns. If you feel stuck with affiliate marketing or haven’t taken the plunge to even get started with it, I highly recommend the information that Carly provides in this course.

You can read more from Carly and purchase the course here.

3. Debbie Gardener’s SEO ebooks

SEO can be a daunting subject for bloggers, ESPECIALLY if you are just starting out. If you have no idea what SEO is or you know you need to learn it but feel overwhelmed by where to start or who to trust, I highly recommend Debbie Gartner’s ebooks! Debbie gets over 350,000 views per month on her flooring blog – 60% of which come from organic (or search engine) traffic. She shares her knowledge on how to grow organic traffic through SEO in her ebooks about on-page SEO, gaining backlinks, and using Google Analytics.

Before Debbie’s ebooks were available, I had the privilege of an SEO personal coaching session with her. Debbie shared with me much of the knowledge that is now available in her ebooks and it transformed my knowledge of and approach to SEO. Before Debbie’s coaching, I had no understanding of how to structure my blog posts to rank well on Google or how to obtain backlinks without writing guest posts. Her coaching helped me learn how to format my posts for optimal results with Google, where to secure backlinks to my site without searching out guest posting, and how to include keywords into my content effectively. She also directed me to various free browser plugins and information sources that have been extremely helpful!

If SEO overwhelms you or you’ve dabbled in it but want to learn proven ways to improve your blog’s SEO, you can purchase and read more about each of Debbie’s ebooks here.

4. Brandon Gaille’s podcast – The Blogging Millionaire

If you’ve been holding out for a free resource, here it is! Brandon Gaille’s podcast, The Blogging Millionaire, is an extremely helpful blogging resource available for NO COST AT ALL. His podcast covers topics ranging from blog post structure and SEO to positioning your mindset, engaging your email list, and much more. Some of the information and topics are geared toward more advanced bloggers, but you can still learn a lot from them if you are closer to the start of your game!

I discovered Brandon’s podcast further into my blogging journey, but it has been an extremely helpful resource for me to continue learning and growing. Listening to his episodes helps to keep me focused on my blogging goals and up to date on changes and trends that could affect my blog’s performance. He literally has a podcast episode on almost every blogging topic you could think of – and every one of them is full of valuable and easy to understand information! His success speaks for him so I count it a privilege to learn from his experience.

You can find Brandon’s podcast, The Blogging Millionaire, on your podcast app or view more information about it with Apple’s Podcasts Preview here.

5. Facebook Groups!

Networking and engaging with other bloggers can be one of the best resources available to you as you grow your blog. There are many successful bloggers already out there and what better way to learn than to pick the brains of those who have already met the goals that you are trying to achieve? Facebook groups are a great way to connect with other bloggers in a casual environment where you can simply observe questions being asked and answered or chime in on occasion. Even if you are not regularly active in a group, you can learn a lot by checking into it periodically and searching for new knowledge or advice that has been shared.

Near the beginning of my blogging journey, I had searched out a few Facebook blogging groups and joined them. However, many of the groups just did a lot of share for share and like for like threads that didn’t help me learn or even propel my traffic forward in any notable way. It wasn’t until I purchased Carly Campbell’s Pinteresting Strategies course (details above) that I joined her Facebook group and for the first time really experienced a group that was sharing knowledge and helping each other grow. Being part of that Facebook group allowed me to learn from successful bloggers and interact with newer bloggers alike – on all sorts of questions and topics. I attribute my involvement in that group to A LOT of my success with my blog.

You can join Carly’s Facebook group here. When you qualify for a good ad network many of them also run valuable Facebook groups where you can learn a lot. Being part of a GOOD Facebook group can be one of the most valuable resources available.

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Finding success as a blogger without investing in knowledge is a LONG uphill road. Pouring a little bit of investment and time into some good blogging resources can make all the difference in your success. I know it did in mine!

In addition to the resources above, if you haven’t yet started your blog make sure you check out my step-by-step instructions for how to start a blog as well as my post on how to make money blogging for beginners. The information in each of those posts will help you get started on a good foundation to build a profitable blog.

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Useful Resources For Blogging – My Top 5 For Beginners To Learn