I just wanted to share with you all the things I use and love for my 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 we may get a commission if you choose to use these companies. They are all companies we use and love. Thanks for supporting Gathering Dreams!
BLOGGING
Setup
These are all the technical bits, and best plugins and software I use on Gathering Dreams.
Bluehost: if you’re looking to start a blog for cheap, I recommend using Bluehost for your hosting (that’s what I use on Gathering Dreams). It’s very easy to launch your blog with their 1-click WordPress installation, and their customer service via phone or chat is excellent too. 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. You can also use my free guide on how to start a successful blog.
Genesis Framework: Gathering Dreams runs on Genesis Framework. Genesis has built-in SEO and lots of great plugins to help you change the look and feel of your blog. If you are using Genesis, you will need a theme built on the Genesis Framework. I use Simply Pro by Bloom.
Mailerlite: I recently switched from MailChimp to Mailerlite and I couldn’t be happier! I just wish I started out with Mailerlite as it was a bit of a headache to switch! I love the simplicity of Mailerlite. It’s free up to 1,000 subscribers and after that, it’s quite cheap compared to other providers like MailChimp or Convertkit.
Adobe Creative Suite: Dan and I love using Adobe Creative Suite for graphic design and photography. I use Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop for pin design and infographics, and Dan uses Adobe Lightroom for travel and food photography. It can be quite expensive, but it’s the best tool out there!
Tailwind: If you are tired of pinning manually, try Tailwind. It’s the perfect scheduler to set up your pin strategy and make the most of your time and get optimum results from Pinterest. Try it for free for the first month, and get a $15 free credit for your second month!
Blogging Courses
These are all the blogging course I took and loved! I took some more, but these are the only ones that really helped my blogging success so far!
Pinteresting Strategies: Carly’s book on how to pin with a manual strategy is very helpful when you are starting out. It really makes you understand what Pinterest is about, and her strategy is very useful when you are familiarizing yourself with Pinterest. Plus at the current price is really an amazing deal! It’s the first course I ever bought and I can’t recommend it enough. I managed to get over 10,000 page views to my blog after a month thanks to what I learned from this book! Carly has just updated her amazing course and has given all my readers a lifetime $5 discount. Make sure you use the code PINNING5 at checkout!
Dare to Conquer: what can I say about Dare to Conquer? It’s so much more than a course! It’s actually all the courses you can ask for in one place (How to set up a blog, Pinterest, SEO, Affiliate Marketing and much much more…). It’s a community of great people always ready to help you and support you. And Scrivs, the owner, is always present and ready to encourage you, in his own special way! If you are serious about creating a 6-figure blog, this is the place to be!
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing: Michelle’s course helped me to go from $1.34 to $1,264 in affiliate marketing in only 4 weeks. If you want to learn how to master affiliate marketing from one of the best people out there, and cannot invest a lot of money in something like BBC, I strongly recommend you to invest in Michelle’s course. She makes over $50,000 a month in affiliate marketing alone!
Stupid Simple SEO: I can’t recommend Mike’s course enough. I am so happy I decided to invest in it! It’s full of helpful step-by-step videos and he teaches something as complicated as SEO in a very straightforward way! He clearly knows what he is talking about. This course is perfect for anyone serious about improving their organic traffic and I especially love the way Mike approaches keyword research.
TRAVEL
I love traveling so much! My dream is to travel for at least six months every year. These are the website I use every time I need to plan our 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 recommendation on the best places to eat and explore. Click here to get a free $35 credit!
Booking.com: you can find amazing hotel deals on booking.com. I always compare Airbnb, Booking.com and Agoda prices before booking anything!
Agoda: Agoda is great for finding cheap deals for hotels in Asia. We used it several times for our last trip to Indonesia, and it has helped us to save hundreds of $$$.
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 Dan loves and we use for our food photography and while we travel!
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!
