I get asked all the time how someone can build up a knowledge of all things social media and freelancing. These are some of my favorite resources, but it takes a lot more. Like I tell my clients, I have to live and breathe social media to stay on top of it!
Some of these links are affiliate links, which means I might make a small commission if you make a purchase on those sites after clicking on my custom link. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Books & Courses
Pinning Perfect – The ONLY Pinterest course I recommend. The wonderful women behind the course keep it up to date with the latest information directly from Pinterest. Their practices are for long-term success, not an overnight & fleeting success. It’s also a very reasonably priced course for the amount of content & updates that you get.
Sponsored Success – This course includes everything you need for bringing in sponsored content as an income steam! Learn how to leverage your online presence to increase your earnings without undervaluing yourself. It includes multiple templates so you can pursue sponsored opportunities right away!
List Growth – Algorithms are constantly changing, but email is not going away. Learn how to generate a newsletter list and leverage it to grow your own community of followers!
Finish by Jon Acuff – In the hustle culture that dominates the business world, it’s easy to miss what matters – finishing. Jon’s book explores the different hangups people struggle with that prevent them from finishing. Then, he offers strategies to really help you finish, and not fail!
The Miracle Morning – I’m not a morning person, but this book helped me develop a routine to make the most of my mornings. I don’t agree with everything in it (like the emphasis on hustling) but it’s a good strategy to give your days a great foundation.
Website & Design Resources
A2 Hosting – The only thing worse than politics (in my opinion) is finding a reliable hosting provider. There is a lot of misinformation when searching online for hosting company reviews, especially because of their affiliate programs. I can say, as someone who has been around since Greymatter was the only blogging system, that A2 Hosting is a great company. They lead the pack in server setups, they don’t oversell their space, nor do they try to push additional costs onto you when something goes wrong. They’re also not owned by that blue monster of a hosting company that seems to own all the others.
Tasty Pins – This plugin embeds Pinterest’s own metadata into your blog posts so you can optimize for both Pinterest & SEO!
Creative Market – My absolute favorite place to get commercial use graphic design elements, fonts, and more.
Hello You Designs – I prefer the Genesis/Studio Press system as a foundation for my WordPress sites, and Hello You makes AMAZING child themes for Genesis! My site is designed on the Hello Lovely child theme.
Software
Harvest – This system is great for invoicing, timesheets, project tracking, and expense reports. You can have multiple users too!
Tailwind – My FAVORITE approved scheduler for Pinterest! Not only can you schedule your pins in a fraction of the time, but you can participate in tribes for your niche to expand your reach. They also offer amazing tools for Instagram, like true scheduling and hashtag research.
G Suite – It’s basically all the Google tools (Gmail, Google Drive, Hangouts, etc) but unique to your domain name! It’s great for maintaining your branding while also keeping your personal and business emails separate.
Quickbooks Self Employed – Hands down, the easiest way to track all your business finances and figure out your tax liability!
Social Insider – I love this app as a secondary tool to Facebook’s Insights! It helps with not only watching your own pages’ growth, but others in your niche AND with curating top content to share.
Other Resources for Freelancers
Craft Industry Alliance – The name says it all! Craft Industry Alliance is a great community for those in the craft industry. They have an extensive library of business resources, regular networking opportunities, webinars, industry updates, and so much more. Even though I’m not directly working as a craft industry creator anymore, their community is one of my favorites as a business owner. Full disclosure, I now manage their Instagram account.
Instacart – Seriously in love with this service! Yes, I work from home, and can set my own hours – but Instacart makes it easy to stick to my meal plan & save time. This link gets you $10 and free delivery for your first order.
Amazon’s Subscribe & Save – Hands down, this keeps me sane when it comes to things we need regularly. Not only does Amazon handle everything for me, but you get an additional 15% off the products you buy all the time. If it weren’t for Subscribe & Save, I would forget to reorder my supplements until I was down to my last capsule!
AirBNB – This is quickly becoming our favorite method of finding a place to stay when traveling!
