The following is a list of great tools and resources that will assist you in your journey to launching your genius. I highly recommend them!

Note: Some of the links below are affiliate links which means that if you decide to buy them, I will earn a small commission on them at no additional cost to you. Please note that I am suggesting these resources because they have been very helpful to me, and I hope they will be useful and helpful to you too. I am not suggesting these because of the small commission that I will make. Please do not purchase anything unless you think that you need them and they will be highly useful and helpful to you in your journey.

Blogging

WordPress: The best and most easily customizable and completely free blog building platform!
Elegant Themes: I am a current member of the Elegant Themes Developer package and I totally recommend these themes for your website! They are some of the most beautiful themes you can find anywhere and the price is a real bargain!

Hosting

Hostgator: I host all my websites on Hostgator and I am very happy with the quality of web hosting that they provide. They have easy 1-click installations of WordPress and an user friendly control panel window. They also have excellent customer service. I highly recommend Hostgator for your first blog or website.

Images

iStockphoto: iStockphoto is the site where I purchase royalty free images that I use on my websites.
Crestock is another site that I use to purchase royalty free images that I use on my websites.
Flickr Creative Commons: This a site where you can get free images for your blog but there are some rules of usage. Please review each individual license before deciding to use them on your website because each image comes with a different license: some can be commercially used and some cannot be and so on.

Writing

Scrivener: Scrivener is a great software to use for writing. Ever since I tried Scrivener, I have been completely hooked. Not only is scrivener a wonderful writing tool with many features like distraction-free writing and split screens, but it is also a wonderful organizational tool. Here is the link to the regular Mac OSX version and here is the link to the Windows version. Here is the link for the Mac OSX educational version and here is the link to the Windows educational version.