Are you looking to start a new blog? This post on Blogging Courses and Tools to Help You Start Your Blog will help you along your journey.
Starting a blog can be incredibly exciting — but also a little overwhelming. With so many courses, tools, and bits of advice out there, how do you know where to begin?
In this post, I’ve pulled together my favorite blogging course recommendations, essential tools, and free plugins that I personally use and trust.
Let’s get in to it.
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The Blog Authority Course by Sherry Bennett
If you’re feeling stuck or unsure where to start, The Blog Authority by Sherry Bennett is a fantastic course that walks you through everything from the foundations of blogging to monetization.
Sherry has been blogging since she was in university and has created numerous successful blogs over the years. She’s an expert in affiliate marketing, which is one of her favourite topics—and an area she truly specialises in. Her real-world experience shines through in the way she teaches, making complex topics feel easy to grasp.
What I love about Sherry’s course is how easy it is to follow, even if you’re completely new to the blogging world. It’s like having a friend show you step-by-step what to do without all the fluff or overwhelm.
Click here to check out The Blog Authority
Choosing Your Blog Host – Why I Recommend BigScoots
Before you can start publishing, you need a reliable home for your blog—and hosting really matters. I originally started with SiteGround, but after needing a more affordable and flexible plan for multiple sites, I moved to BigScoots. I now host four websites with them and have been with them for over four years.
You can read more about my journey here!
Their support team is amazing, their servers are fast, and their developer plan made it affordable for me to grow.
Why SEO Is a Must – Learn It Early!
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) helps your blog get found on Google—and that means more readers, traffic, and eventually, income. Learning SEO from the start can save you months of frustration.
I highly recommend Debbie Gartner’s SEO guides. She has a simple, no-jargon way of explaining SEO that’s ideal for beginners. Her strategies helped me improve my rankings, and they’re incredibly budget-friendly too!
Check out Debbie Gartner’s SEO guides in this article on SEO
Free Plugins I Recommend for Every WordPress Blog
You don’t need to spend a fortune on tools to run a professional blog. These are my favorite free plugins I install on almost every site I build:
Yoast SEO
One of the most popular plugins for a reason, Yoast SEO helps you optimize every blog post for search engines—without needing to be an SEO expert. It provides real-time suggestions as you write, including tips on keyword placement, internal linking, meta descriptions, and even the readability of your content. It’s like having an SEO coach sitting right beside you.
What makes Yoast especially helpful is how it uses simple color-coded signals (green, orange, and red) to show whether your post meets SEO best practices. You can quickly see what needs adjusting before you hit publish.
Another great feature is the snippet preview. This shows how your post will appear in search results and allows you to tweak your title and description to improve click-through rates. Whether you’re writing a quick blog post or a detailed guide, Yoast keeps you on track.
Why I love it: It’s beginner-friendly, lightweight, and takes the guesswork out of SEO. It’s one of the first plugins I install on every WordPress site I build, and it continues to be a reliable tool as my content grows.
UpdraftPlus
When you run a blog, one of the most important things you can do is back it up regularly. That’s where UpdraftPlus comes in—it’s one of the most reliable and user-friendly backup plugins available for WordPress.
In my former working life, I was an IT Manager for a large training institute, and I cannot stress enough how critical backups are. While most good hosts (like BigScoots) do provide regular backups, DO NOT rely on that backup alone. Hosting backups can sometimes fail or become inaccessible just when you need them most. You need to be prepared for the worst-case scenario and that means having your own reliable backup system in place.
When you run a blog, one of the most important things you can do is back it up regularly. That’s where UpdraftPlus comes in. It’s one of the most reliable and user-friendly backup plugins available for WordPress.
UpdraftPlus lets you schedule automatic backups and store them safely in locations like Google Drive, Dropbox, or even your email. If anything ever goes wrong—like a failed plugin update, a security breach, or just a human error—you can restore your site in just a few clicks.
The interface is clean and straightforward, so even beginners can set it up without stress. There’s also a premium version with even more features, but the free version is perfect for most blogs.
Why I love it: Peace of mind. Knowing my site is backed up regularly allows me to focus on creating content—not worrying about technical disasters.
Peace of mind in a few clicks—and it’s free.
Wordfence Security
Protecting your blog from hackers and malware should be high on your list and Wordfence does a fantastic job of keeping your site secure.
This powerful plugin includes a firewall, malware scanner, and real-time monitoring. It alerts you if anything suspicious happens, like someone trying to log in to your site or a file being unexpectedly changed. You also get email notifications, which is super handy if you’re not logging into your dashboard daily.
Despite its advanced features, Wordfence is surprisingly beginner-friendly. You can install it and use the default settings, or dig deeper and customize things as you grow more confident.
Why I love it: It works quietly in the background and gives me full control over my site’s security, without needing to be a cybersecurity expert.
Set it up once and let it run in the background.
Antispam Bee
Once your blog starts getting traffic, spam comments will almost certainly follow. Antispam Bee is a lightweight, privacy-friendly solution that filters out the junk without requiring complex setup or subscriptions.
Unlike Akismet, Antispam Bee doesn’t require an API key, doesn’t track your users, and is fully compliant with GDPR making it ideal for bloggers in the EU or anyone who values privacy. It works straight out of the box, and you can easily tweak the settings if you want more control.
You’ll also get stats on how many spam comments have been blocked, so you can see the plugin doing its job behind the scenes.
Why I love it: It’s fast, free, and handles spam quietly without needing ongoing management. A must-have for comment sections.
A great alternative to Akismet, especially for EU bloggers.
ShortPixel
Images are a huge part of most blogs, but large image files can seriously slow down your site. ShortPixel is a smart image optimization plugin that compresses your images without sacrificing quality.
It supports JPEGs, PNGs, and even PDFs, automatically optimizing them when you upload new files to your Media Library. You can also bulk-optimize existing images, which is great if you’re improving an older blog with hundreds of posts.
NOTE: I’ve found it’s better to store larger PDF files off your website, using services like Google Drive or Dropbox, which are both free up to a certain limit. Personally, I use Bunny.net. While it’s not free, it’s incredibly affordable, especially when compared to many other content delivery or file hosting options. PDFs can take up a lot of space, particularly if you have multiple files. Hosting just one or two small PDFs is usually fine, but too many can quickly consume your server space and impact performance.
A fast-loading website not only improves user experience but also helps your SEO rankings, so image optimization is more important than it might seem. Always upload your images at the size they’ll be served on your site and aim to keep file sizes to a minimum. One of my websites is particularly image-heavy, and I target around 60KB per image to maintain speed. I also prefer using the JPG format, as it offers a lighter alternative to PNG for web viewing, while still keeping quality high.
Why I love it: ShortPixel works quietly in the background and makes a noticeable difference in site speed. I recommend it for any blog with a visual focus or lots of photos.
Perfect for bloggers who use lots of photos but still want a speedy site.
Final Thoughts
If you’re just starting out, don’t feel like you have to do everything all at once. Focus on the essentials: a solid course to guide you, quality hosting, learning SEO, and setting up the right tools.
You’ll find your rhythm as you go and with the right setup, you’ll be ready for long-term blogging success.
Have any questions about getting started? Feel free to reach out or drop a comment. I’m always happy to help!
Until next time,
Sue
Hooked on Blogging