Resources

Resources, tools to plugins here are a few easy-to-use and cost-effective resources that are highly recommended, and key for running a small/ creative/ freelance business.

Website Hosting and Design

Bluehost

Bluehost is the company that I host my sites with, they offer a one-click WordPress set up, which is the easiest way to get your site up and running. They have great support as well as a trustworthy reputation, their prices don’t skyrocket like many of their competitors after the first year – something to be aware of when looking for a provider.

Siteground

Siteground while they are a little pricier than their competitors, and they’ve been around for as long as I have worked in digital – which is a long time. They’re one of the most trusted and reliable brands and come highly recommended by website designers.

If you have not yet seen it, I do have a blog post that goes into more details on launching your website here.

Design Tools & Website Templates

Canva

Canva is the best tool for making social media posts, and banners for LinkedIn or Facebook, you can make logos, and design templates – it allows for endless creative potential.  You can pay for a pro version, which I use as there is a larger selection of image choices, however, for small businesses or personal use, there is also plenty available for free.

Creative Market

Creative Market is just as the name implies, a market for everything create, from WordPress, PowerPoint, website, logo, and letterhead templates. The site also offers fonts, photos and icons.  Most do come at a small fee however you do end up with a more professional yet affordable design.

Envato

Envato has the best selection of WordPress themes to suit every type of business, they also sell graphics, photos and code.  Their templates help you to create the brand, business and style for your company.

Unsplash

Unsplash has the best selection of images available online.  The right image can say even more than words. Boring stock images can also set the wrong tone.  Ideally, images create an atmosphere and offer a sense of who we are and what we are about.  Unsplash, is my go-to as they have a superb selection of modern, fresh and attractive images that are free to use.  Do leave a credit where possible, it promotes them and the photographer’s great work.

Social Media Tools

Tailwind is the ideal tool for organising and automating your social media posts. That means you can set up all your posts for the following week or month ahead of time. This helps saves not only a lot of time but keeps everything consistent. There is a great trial period for you which gives you more than enough time to decide if the tool is right for you.

Hootsuite is another great social media tool, that also allows you to automate your posts and track your stats automatically.

Combin is the best tool for posting to Instagram, a lot of tools don’t always automatically post to Instagram, but Combin lets you plan it ahead of time and posts it and gives you a good overview of the layout.

Coschedule has recently made access to their marketing calendar free, and you can choose two social networks to connect with.  It gives you a good overview, is easy to use and is an extremely useful tool that can save a lot of time and money. They also have a marketing suite and are one of the best providers on the market.

Big thanks to rawpixel on Unsplash for the photo