Resource List for Your WordPress Website

Share this on:

Updated December 28, 2020

stack of folders and papers

This resource list for your WordPress website highlights resources I actually use for my clients or myself. There are lots of other good resources; these are just mine.

Domain Name Registrars

Namecheap – This registrar has good prices and customer support. Their management interface is easier to use than most.

Hover – They have good prices and technical support, and very reasonable pricing on professional email at your domain name.

For some hosting – those listed below – I recommend the domain name at the hosting site, as it’s simpler for those just starting out.

Website Hosts

Tiger Technologies – Besides amazing support from company employees, this website hosting company gives refunds for partial months, if you cancel hosting. They have reasonable monthly or yearly prices, support from their own employees (no outsourced support), no CPanel, but a clean, simple interface, one-click WordPress install, shell access, up-to-date PHP, MySQL database access, backups, carbon neutral hosting, free domain name with hosting.

WPEngine – This website host has great WordPress-only hosting; they have managed updates (They update WordPress for you automatically.), daily backups, malware scanning, and staging area for testing. They recommend using Hover for domain names.

Siteground – This is also good for WordPress-only hosting. They have backups, scanning, and no longer use CPanel. They also have caching and security plugins that integrate with their hosting. They have several email options. Discounts are for the first year only.

Website or Blog Platform

WordPress – This is the most popular and fastest growing publishing platform on the web because it’s so flexible, allowing it to power e-commerce sites, personal websites, business websites, blogs, and everything in-between. With a content management system (CMS) like WordPress, you can easily publish and update your own content, and have a blog with your website. WordPress is ten years old on May 27, 2013.

WordPress Themes

StudioPress Themes and Genesis Framework – Genesis framework is a premium theme, but is are well-coded, has good SEO, and a great assortment of child themes to give your site a unique look.

WordPress Default Themes – These are all really nice free themes available in the WordPress theme directory. WordPress themes also include default themes Twenty Twenty-One (and other “Twenty” themes which can easily be customized for a business.

e-Commerce WordPress Plugins

Easy Digital Downloads – This free plugin is great for managing document downloads whether paid or free. It’s a light-weight, easy-to-customize plugin with Paypal Standard gateway, shopping cart, coupon codes, reports for seller and customers. There are lots of additional free and premium add-ons, including a Stripe add-on and a Mailchimp add-on.

Woocommerce – This is an easy-to-use plugin for selling products online using PayPal Standard and Stripe. It has excellent documentation, inventory management, reports, flat-rate shipping, shopping cart, coupon codes, is easy to customize, and has many add-ons for your shop. While it’s free to get started, some of the premium add-ons are helpful, including additional shipping tables and methods, recurring payments, and other payment gateways. The one-page checkout is very easy for customers to use, as well. It is now owned by Automattic – the parent company of WordPress.

WordPress Plugins

WordPress Plugin Editors

Newsletter services

You can read more about no cost email newsletter services.

Images to Use in Your Blog Posts

You might want to see How to Customize Your WordPress Website Header.

  • Unsplash – These images can be used for personal or commercial use, and is my personal favorite.
  • Big Stock Photos – Low cost, royalty-free images.
  • Pexels – Lots of free-to-use images
  • Pixabay – Free-to-use images
  • Depositphotos – Low cost royalty-free images.
  • Canva – Online image editing, but includes royalty-free images – link in Image Editors section.

Backgrounds

  • Lost & Taken – High resolution textures and backgrounds.
  • Subtle Patterns – Lots of wonderful subtle textures; great for backgrounds.

Web Font Resources

Image Editors

  • GIMP – Similar to Photoshop, but at no cost; good for editing photos or creating images.
  • Canva – Free and Premium online image editing software.
  • Affinity – Has several low-cost image editors for photos, vectors, and documents. Also for iPad.

You can have a beautiful, hardworking website for your small business.

Tell me about your website project for a personalized solution!


Do you need website tips?

Sign up to get easy-to-use WordPress tutorials, Genesis theme customizations, and other helpful tips for your small business website.

Your email address will be used to send you blog posts. Privacy Policy


photo of Marcy Diaz who owns Amethyst Website Design

Comments

4 responses to “Resource List for Your WordPress Website”

  1. Marcus Tibesar Avatar
    Marcus Tibesar

    Thank you for the web hosting recommendation. After having recent problems with my GoDaddy hosting, I decided to transfer my domain name and website to Tiger Technologies.

    I have informed Tiger Technologies of your recommendation.

    So far the transfer process has been clear and painless. We hope to have the move completed by next week.

    Cheers,

    Marcus Tibesar, Founder and Lead Archivist
    Tibesar Family Archives

    1. Marcy Diaz Avatar

      I hope you like Tiger Technologies as well as I do, Marcus. And thank you for mentioning me to them!

      1. Marcus Tibesar Avatar
        Marcus Tibesar

        As a follow-up I am still hosting with Tiger Technologies and yes, they are superb. They make the WordPress hosters look real bad. The best support I have ever witnessed. They thoroughly research requests for support and time after time again provide a full explanation of the WordPress issue(s) and their resolution. I hosted with WP Engine in the past and TigerTech really shines compared with them.

      2. Marcy Diaz Avatar

        Thanks for letting me know, Marcus. I still like them too.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.