How To Make Money Online – My Top Resources

Welcome to the Recommendations page of LynSire blog and YouTube channel! Over the years I have used several products that have helped me transform every area of my life. I’ve explored online courses, read books, and used a lot of tools and resources to help me grow my online business. I often get asked what I use and recommend, which is why I thought it’d be useful to share with you the resources I have used.

This page contains all of the best resources that I have used so that you can improve different aspects of your life. Whether you’re a blogger or YouTuber or want to live a cruelty-free, vegan lifestyle – this page provides tools and resources to help you make it happen!

This page is all about how to make money online.

Disclosure: There are some affiliate links below and I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post, but these are all products I highly recommend. I won’t put anything on this page that I haven’t verified and/or personally used.

I want to leave my 9-5.

I want to be my own boss.

I need to take care of my family.

I want to have a flexible schedule.

I’d like to make money doing what I love most.

“If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.” – Warren Buffet

FAVORITE BLOGGING COURSES TO MAKE MONEY FROM HOME

I truly believe in taking blogging courses. Not only does it gives you the knowledge but also the confidence in what you are doing.!

These are the courses I have bought and under each one, I share my honest thoughts. I share them in the order of when I purchased them…

1. Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing

This was the first blog course I purchased! Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing is written by the blogger Michelle Schroeder-Gardner, and makes over 1,000,000 MILLION yearly on her blog, wow! Yep, you read that right! She makes the majority of her money from affiliate marketing and her course goes over the exact techniques she used on her blog to make that much money.

My thoughts: If you are new to the blogging world then this course is a must-learn for you. I knew half of the things she talked about but nonetheless, I did learn many things. The course was worth it for me, and I love how she gives specific ideas on how you can incorporate what she teaches depending on your niche. I enjoyed it, and I HIGHLY recommend it!

2. Pinteresting Strategies

This is one of the most affordable Pinterest courses that you can find and is FULL of beneficial strategies. I believe Pinteresting Strategies is the course every blogger needs. I took a lot of notes while taking the course, and within the first few days of applying what I learned, I started seeing results. I got new Pinterest followers, and my page views went up.

My thoughts: I definitely learned A LOT from this course! There’s a lot I didn’t know about Pinterest and I have applied most of the strategies she talks about. I would buy the course again and again because it’s that good and has a lot of information. I still find myself going back to refresh my mind. It’s all about how to properly set up your boards, Pinterest SEO, design your pins, and so much more that you need to know to succeed on Pinterest. This course will definitely help you grow.

Also, she recommends manually pinning but I find myself using Tailwind to schedule some of my pins when I have a lot of content coming out.

3. List Love Masterclass

List Love Masterclass is a course about how to build your mailing list. This was recommended by a blogger that I follow and she was able to leave her nanny job after she started making good money from just her blog.

Jennifer Maker, the creator of this course, built a list of over 70,000 subscribers in less than two years which is amazing. She has made over $25,000 in two days selling a product just to her email list. Pretty good huh?

Thanks to her I subscribed to ConvertKit to start sending out newsletters before I used Mailchimp.

My thoughts: This is a course full of good information and tips. There are some things I think could be better:

She recommends delivering your freebie with ConvertKit. If you follow this method you will need the paid version of ConverKit to be able to create sequence emails. You can create sequence emails for free with Mailchimp up to a certain amount of subscribers.
She recommends delivering your freebies through a password-protected page. This is what has worked for her but personally, I would have liked to see other methods as well.

4 & 5. Perfecting Blogging + Perfecting Pinterest Bundle

These courses were created by Sophia Lee. Sophia is a smart lady who started her online business just from her laptop while she was in college and also working as a nanny. She wanted to make money blogging to have a more flexible schedule around her classes and to also be able to pay her student loan. She was able to achieve that, and more!

My thoughts: I took advantage of her two courses bundle to pay a lower price, and I’m glad I did!! I learned so much as to EXACTLY what to add in each blog post, how to correctly use SEO techniques, increase Pinterest visibility, and much more! I HIGHLY recommend both courses but of course, you can take one or the other.

Templates For You To Work With Brands

I have available various templates for social media influencers to help you work with brands, and be successful at it.

The following is a list of templates that will help you:

MY TOP BLOGGING RECOMMENDATIONS

This is a list of my all-time favorite products that I would use over and over again. These are must-haves that I recommend to any blogger for an easier experience.

1. Tailwind

I love Tailwind to save time and make the blogging experience SO much easier!

Tailwind is a website that can schedule all of your pins to go out on Pinterest at the best times. Since one of the biggest ways I market my blog posts is through Pinterest, I can focus on other parts of my blogging while Tailwind takes care of the pinning.

I would never have time to manually pin every day so it’s awesome to have Tailwind help me with Pinterest.

2023 Update – I think Tailwind it’s worth it because they have integrated AI features like creating a blog post outline, creating Pin descriptions, creating SEO meta descriptions and so much more. My favorite part is how easy it is to create Pin images by just adding your own images, add a title, and in seconds it creates for you a LOT of pin images to choose from!

2. Mailchimp

Mailchimp is what I currently use as my newsletter.

What I like about Mailchimp is that it’s free to use for up to 1,500 subscribers. If offers so much for the free version. With ConvertKit you are not able to create sequence emails unless you pay for their service, but with Mailchimp this feature is free! I also like how you can integrate it with WooCommerce if you are selling digital products, and it can track information like conversion rates.

My favorite feature? It has drag-and-drop features so it’s user-friendly, and it was so easy to set up RSS Feed emails so that my subscribers receive an email when there’s a new blog post.

3. Depositphotos

For my blog post images, I do one of three things. I either take my own photos, use embedded Pinterest images, or find photos on Depositphotos. It is the cheapest stock photo website with GOOD photos that I have been able to find. I’ve been using their images for more than two years now!

2023 Update – I still think Deposit Photos is great but I no longer pay for this after I learned you can get stock images on Canva Pro which I mention below.

4. Canva Pro

Canva is an online editing tool that is amazing for creating pins, printables, and more. It’s basically the easier version of Photoshop.

I use canva for creating my LTK images, YouTube thumbnails, and more, and I LOVE it. My favorite features are deleting the background from images, and the stock photos you can use for your blog posts. I started with the free version, and now I enjoy the pro version. In my opinion, it’s worth it but you can still get plenty of good features with the free one.

Favorite features? With one click you can remove image backgrounds, and I use their stock images.

5. Envato – Rosemary Theme

You can find so many beautiful WordPress templates on Envato. This is where I found my current Rosemary theme for only $40 which is great because the pretty themes cost way more. I spent days looking for something that was simple, yet cute that fit what I had in mind. Unfortunately, this theme is no longer available on Envato, but I think you can find it here.

MONEY SAVING WEBSITES

AIRBNB

www.Airbnb.com

Join Airbnb and get up to $65 off your first trip with the link above or click on the image.

AMAZON PRIME STUDENT

www.Amazon.com

6 month trial with the link above.

After your trial, your membership will upgrade to Amazon Prime for 50% off.

Check out my Amazon store for products I use and recommend.

ETSY

www.Etsy.com

When you open a shop get 40 free listings with Etsy through the link above!

EYE BUY DIRECT

www.EyeBuyDirect.com

Get nice glasses at an affordable price. I got two glasses including shipping for around $22.

Get $10 off your first purchase by using my special code: IF44YW95DM

GROUPON

www.groupon.com

Save money on events, restaurants, beauty salons, and more!

IBOTTA

www.ibotta.com

Get cash rewards for doing groceries, dining out, shopping, and more!

Use code urfdfoi to get a $10 welcome bonus.

INSTACART

www.Instacart.com

Do your groceries from home!

With my special link you get $10, and I get $10.
Or use my code ROSORTO147.

LYFT RIDE
www.ride.lyft.com
Download the Lyft app using my referral link to get $5 in ride credit. Lyft is more affordable than Uber.

POSKMARK

Join me on Poshmark—my favorite app to buy & sell fashion, beauty, and more.

You’ll save up to 70% off top brands! For a limited time, use my invite code LYNSIRE to save $10.

This is my Poshmark closet in case you want to check it out.

RAKUTEN (IT USED TO BE CALLED EBATES)

www.raukten.com

Get a $30 cash bonus through the link above!

See in this blog post how I use Rakuten.

UBER RIDE

www.Uber.com

Your first Uber ride is FREE (up to $20) with the invite code rosalyno32ue.

Download the app, and enjoy!

PHOTO EDITING WEBSITES

ADOBE
For most of my photo editing, I use either Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Lightroom. I use Photoshop for specific touchups, and Lightroom is easier to use for batch editing.

CANVA
www.Canva.com
When you join Canva and create a design, you both earn 1 Canva credit. This is how Canva credit works.

CREATIVE MARKET
www.CreativeMarket.com
I find this site useful to search for photos, graphics, themes, templates, fonts, and more. They offer free goods every week!

PICMONKEY
www.PicMonkey.com
Free photo editing site for effects, and touch up. Perfect for your blog or YouTube thumbnails!
I have a video tutorial on how to add the bokeh effect with PicMonkey.

GEAR I USE FOR PHOTOGRAPHY & VIDEO

Canon EOS 70D Camera – The camera that I use for my photos and videos. The quality is amazing. There are also a few useful books on this particular camera: this one and this one. It came with a 18-135mm lens.

Canon 50mm Lens – The lens I use for close-ups, and for a background blurry effect.

Rode VideoMic – The microphone I use with my Canon 70D camera. I use it for all my YouTube videos.

Canon G7 X Mark II – My newest, and current camera for my Spanish vlog channel. It’s small and lightweight so it’s perfect for travel photography.

MeFOTO Tripod – I had to buy a stronger tripod to hold the Canon 70D camera when I record videos for my beauty channels in my English channel and my Spanish channel. I have the gold tone tripod but it’s available in different colors.

Wireless Remote Control – This is the camera remote control I use. It’s easier to use this when I record a video or take photos and I don’t have to be standing up to reach the camera to press the record button.

Camera Battery – I have two extra backup batteries. These are generic but work just as well as the Canon brand (plus they’re much cheaper).

Koolertron Camera Backpack – The backpack that I have to carry around my Canon 70D camera. It has many compartments, and space to take a small laptop, and I can even attach my tripod to the bottom.

Ring Light – Similar to the one I have, mine is also by the brand Neewer. I the ring circle I bought for better light quality. An affordable alternative to the original Diva ring light. I also bought the ring light diffusion cloth for a softer light effect.

SD Cards – I have several to record and take photos.

Adobe Premiere – I use Premiere to edit all of my videos. It’s available for Mac and Windows. If you’re a beginner and have Windows I recommend Windows Movie Maker which is free and easy to learn.

WD My Passport Driver – I use a 2 TB hard drive to have extra storage for pictures and videos.

Toddy Screen Cloth – Ii came as a 3-pack and each one is a different pattern. They work really well to clean your laptop, iPhone, and iPad screen.

Faux Sheepskin – This is the texture I use to take many of my beauty product photos. I also use this in some of my favorite videos in the background. You can see it in my May Favorites blog post.

Marble film vinyl– I put this on a whiteboard to have ready when I take product photos for my blog or Instagram. This is the same sticker I have on my laptop. See this sticker on my Instagram photo.

Other items I will consider buying in the near future: Portable dressing tent, floral camera strap, Tripod dolly, Dolly Slider, Yeti microphone, any of these lights LimoStudio Softbox Light, StudioPRO Lighting Kit, Neewer Softbox lighting kit, or LimoStudio Lighting Kit, Neewer lighting reflector kit, and a Drone would be nice haha!

BLOG RELATED RESOURCES

Blogger.com – (I currently use WordPress, but Blogger is a great way to start) Blogger is a popular blogging platform and this is what I use to run this blog. It’s 100% free and easy to set up. It comes with handy free templates/ themes and gadgets/ widgets included.

My Blogger Themes – This site is great if you want to have other options for your blog design. This site offers a great selection of themes. Personally, I like the themes available in the ‘Elegant’ and ‘Simple’ categories.

ConvertKit – This is the service I use to send out newsletters and freebies to my subscribers. It’s easy to use and frees up to 2,000 subscribers.

Cursors-4U – This is the website I use to find cute cursors. I like to change my cursor depending on the holiday, have a flower cursor, or anything else that is cute.

DaFont – The site that I use the most to find beautiful fonts for my blog posts and videos.

Gleam – What I use to host giveaways. You can add multiple ways for your readers/viewers to participate. My favorite one so far, and so easy to use.

Izea – Get paid for being a creator as a blogger. With Izea find brands that want to work with you, and get paid!

Shareaholic – The site I use to add the share buttons on the left of my blog and also the social media follow icons that are on the right column.

Tailwind – I use Tailwind to schedule a lot of my Pins at the recommended times, and it saves me so much time.

ThemeXpose – A useful site if you have Blogger and you want to give your blog a whole new look. I like that their templates are minimal and they are free!

YOUTUBE RELATED RESOURCES

Envato Market – Where I find high-quality sound effects for a small fee. They also have stock images, and videos.

Famebit – I use Famebit to find campaigns and work with brands. You can join if you have more than 5,000 subscribers on your YouTube channel (they also work with Bloggers!).

Incompetech – I use this site to find free songs without any copyright restrictions. Purple Planet is another good place. For a full list check out my Complete List of Royalty Free Music for Videos blog post.

Soundible – I like this site if I want to find a particular free sound effect.

AFFILIATE PROGRAMS I RECOMMEND

You can earn money online if you join any of these affiliate programs…

Amazon Associates – One of the most popular ones out there apart from eBay.

Rakuten – Also has a lot of great brands like Toms, Walmart, Zaful, and more.

OUTSOURCE WORK FOR MORE PRODUCTIVITY

Fiverr – An excellent place where you can get a variety of things done for only $5. I’ve used Fiverr for many small tasks to help me with building my businesses like getting a photo edited, video edited, get a designed logo, and more. When you use my link you get one free gig.

Upwork – A great place to find photo/video editors, web designers, Pinterest managers, and so much more. This is where I found my bilingual video editor.

Philippine Virtual Assistant Network – This is a Facebook group where you can hire someone to outsource work. This is where I found my wonderful VA (Virtual Assistant) to help me with social media-related tasks. You can get almost anything done very inexpensively. Philippines Best Virtual Assistant Jobs is another group that you can use.

ONLINE MARKETING

CC Search – This is what I use to search for free stock photos. For a complete list of image sites without any copyright, or restriction visit my Best Sites for Free Stock Photos blog post.

Creative Market – I find this site useful to search for photos, graphics, themes, templates, fonts, and more. They offer free goods every week!

Freepik – For free graphic resources. Here you can find vectors, PSD, icons, and photos.

Google Trends – This is what I use to have access to the Keyword Planner and search for trending keywords.

Google Analytics – This is what I use to track all of the statistics for my websites, including visitors, traffic sources, etc.

Google Translate – Since I’m always translating everything on my blog and YouTube channels this is a handy site to use. Another great translator is this one, and I like its Text-to-Speech feature.

MailChimp – One of the most popular email opt-in services. I use MailChimp for all my newsletters and mailing lists.

The Alphabetizer – A simple site to alphabetize, sort by last name, capitalize titles, and more.

TinEye – A handy site to search where a certain image originated from. Similar to Google Images search.

SOCIAL MARKETING

Facebook Link Fix – This page is useful if you have a Facebook page. Sometimes I want to share a link but it won’t show an image preview. With this page, you can easily fix that.

Fsymbols – I use this site to find symbols like hearts, and arrows. This is where I found the symbols that you see on my Instagram bio.

Hashtagify – Sometimes I get stuck not knowing which hashtags I will use on Instagram, so I come to this site and type in a certain tag. It will show me the most popular hashtags for that keyword according to circle size.

iEmoji – I’m not always on my phone, in fact, I spend most of my time using my laptop. This site is useful to attach emojis to Twitter, Facebook, etc. using my laptop.

Social Bluebook – Add multiple social accounts and know how much you can get paid by a brand to work with them. You can add your blog, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and more.

TweetDeck – I use this site with my VA (Virtual Assistant) so that she can have access to my Twitter. She schedules most of my Tweets.