The simple tools you need, no tech degree required. If tool overwhelm has kept you from starting, let’s cut through it completely. Here’s genuinely everything you need, with nothing extra bolted on.
The Only Two Things You Need to Start
A place to publish your writing.
A simple blog platform, most of which today walk you through setup step by step.
Very similar to setting up a new email account.
And a basic email tool, so you can start collecting subscribers from day one, even before you have very many.
The simple tools you need
That’s it. That’s your entire starting toolkit. Everything else can wait.
What You’ll Add Later, Once You Actually Need It
As you grow, you might add a simple design tool for creating Pinterest images.
Most offer free, fill-in-the-blank templates, no design skill required.
You might add a basic analytics tool to see where your visitors come from.
Though this only becomes useful once you actually have visitors to analyze.
Notice what’s missing from this list: nothing expensive, nothing requiring a course to understand how to use it.
Where People Waste Time
The trap is spending weeks comparing tools, reading reviews, watching tutorials about tools you don’t even need yet.
This feels productive, but it’s usually a way to avoid the less comfortable work of actually writing your first post.
If you catch yourself deep in tool research instead of publishing, that’s your sign to close the tabs.
The simple tools you need
A Realistic First Setup
Pick one blog platform, set it up in an afternoon following its built-in instructions.
And don’t overthink the choice — most platforms are more similar than different.
What This Costs You
Genuinely, close to nothing to start.
Free-tier plans exist for both the blog platform and email tool for most beginners.
Your investment right now is time, not money.
Which means the risk of trying this is lower than almost any other business you could start.
The simple tools you need
If you haven’t set up your basic blog and email tool yet, block off one afternoon this week to do exactly that, and nothing more ambitious than that.
Do you currently promote a specific product or service? If not, it can be a tough choice to make.
Need a suggestion? Use what’s working for me. (No experience needed)
Also, reading my other blog posts might help you get clarity.
And if this post helped you, share it with someone else.
That’s genuinely the best way to help me keep writing more of this.
Sheldon Mohl
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