Recommended Resources
All of the resources I recommend here are those with which I have a great deal of familiarity. I don’t recommend resources based on what they pay, rather these are tools I’ve used that are quite helpful. If I’ve written a review, those will be linked below as well. Some of these recommendations are not affiliate links. I’ve noted those below as well.
Password Managers
I am a huge proponent of using password managers to manage your credentials. As it currently stands, passwords are broken. While companies catch up with passkeys, use a password manager, strong and unique passwords, and two factor authentication. With the recent LastPass debacle, many are looking for a new option.
I highly recommend NordPass. They have two plans, one for business and one for personal use. Here’s my review of NordPass.
Get 2 years of NordPass with 1 month free for a personal account. Or, use code kathyzant at the checkout.
Or, get 3 months free on their impressive business plan using the same code.
Domain Registration
- Cloudflare. Not only does Cloudflare offer exceptional content delivery network and security services, they offer very inexpensive domain registration.
- Namecheap. Namecheap provides a number of services, but I’m only familiar with their domain registration. Easy to use interface.
Website Hosting
There are so many options in the website hosting world, and you can get started inexpensively. What you need in a host is a very personal decision. If you have technical familiarity and you are in the WordPress world, I highly recommend SpinupWP. If you’re looking for someone to manage it all for you with exceptional customer support, Nexcess hosting can help. Working on a budget and just getting started, Dreamhost can get you started.
Website Builders
I am firmly in the camp that you should build on open source. There are a variety of reasons why, but I’ll start with the most important: community. The WordPress community is helpful, diverse, and everywhere. There is a learning curve, but you’ll be fully empowered by a community of developers, designers, and educators who can help you do almost anything. There’s a reason WordPress powers 40%+ of the internet, and I am here for it. You’ll want to do more once you get it installed, so here are some other tools:
Kadence. When you’ve got the hang of WordPress and you’re looking for speed and ease of build, then you can easily start building with Kadence and Kadence Blocks. As with most things in the WordPress space, Kadence has a number of free tools to get you started and paid tools when you’re building more feature rich sites.
Elementor. What you see is what you get. This does come with some speed compromises, but for beginners looking to easily build beautiful sites, Elementor is great.
If you aren’t poised for growth and you’re never going to want to build an engine for commerce, well, there are other options. You could always use SquareSpace just to get something up and never have to worry much about anything. You’re limited however, and there have been plenty of complaints about site speed. Webflow is another great tool that is similar.
I am a big fan of ConvertKit for good reason. Powerful tools, an easy and simple to use interface, and tons of content with ideas to help you become more successful.
Privacy & Security
If privacy is important to you and your customers, but you still want to track your site’s traffic, Fathom is a great alternative to Google Analytics. Get 10% off with this link.
Production
Pond5 is a great place to get music.
For easy editing, I cannot say enough about Descript for editing both video and audio. You can also record videos very easily, too.
Streamyard is AMAZING for live-streaming. Nothing to install, just right in your Chrome browser. Connect it to YouTube for high impact live events, Facebook to connect with community, or even to Twitter for whatever the heck is going on over there these days.
Podcasting is a breeze with Castos. Not only do they have a gorgeous player that fits anywhere on your site, they will host the MP3 file on their servers, help you syndicate to all of the important services. If you’re looking to record with interviews, Riverside is an amazing tool for recording.