ACCOUNTING/FINANCE
- Freshbooks: Easy to use small business accounting software designed for the non-accountant
- Quickbooks Online: Free Trial and offers as low as $5 per month. Accounting software designed to manage payroll, inventory, sales and other needs from solo entrepreneur as you grow into a small (or large!) business.
- 17Hats – The all-in-one tool to manage your business in under 10 minutes a day. Start for FREE with plans that grow with your business. 24/7 email support, live chat, amazing support specialists, training, webinars, and more.
AFFILIATE PROGRAMS/SYSTEMS
- Easy AZON – WordPress plugin that helps create and generate Amazon affiliate links and commissions and saves a huge amount of time in the process. From within WordPress, you can search Amazon to find products, add text links, image boxes and call to action buttons in just a few clicks!
ANALYZING AND TRACKING WEB SITE RESULTS:
- Google Analytics: Recommended! Google’s free website tracking and analytical tool. A must
- PrettyLink: VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED – Pretty Link is a must-have WordPress plugin that will enable you to shrink, track, measure, organize, share, customize and test all of your links on your own domain and server.
AUTOMATION
- Zapier: Allows you to automate tasks between other online apps. Connect your apps and automate workflows, as Zapier moves info between your web apps automatically. Build processes faster and get more done with no coding
EMAIL/LIST BUILDING
- ActiveCampaign: RECOMMENDED – Get a feature rich email marketing and sales automation platform which also integrates beautiful newsletters, and automated marketing processes that save you time and generate additional revenue.
- ConvertKit: Building an email list is one of the single most important things to do when you’re building a business. ConvertKit is the “new kid in town”, but it’s super intuitive, and it’s all we use.
- SumoMe: VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED – SumoMe is a suite of free tools that can be used to grow your website’s traffic. TheSumoMe tools are easy to install and work on any website.
- Mailchimp: RECOMMENDED – I personally used Mailchimp for years to manage a list of more than 30,000 subscribers. I believe it has the best combinations of features, ease-of-use, reporting and price, especially if you are just building your list. The drag-and-drop interface is second to none, easy to use, and their detailed stats allow you to gain valuable insight, segment lists, etc.
- AWeber: Popular service with more than 700 templates to help you grow your email list quickly
GRAPHICS DESIGN
- Canva: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED – An amazing, easy-to-use, free (yes, FREE) online design service called Canva that provides a huge gallery of templates, tools and images to help you create beautiful graphics for your site, social media, podcast artwork and much more. You don’t need to be a designer (or even want to be one) to make beautiful images via Canva.
- Skitch: An app developed by Evernote to help you get your point across with fewer words using annotation, shapes and sketches. Use Skitch on your desktop, tablet and phone and quickly focus on what’s important using annotation and markup
- Pablo: RECOMMENDED – Buffer created Pablo in order to provide everyone with an easy, FREE tool to create beautiful images they can share on social media. Design images for social posts in 30 seconds – http://bufferapp.com/pablo
- SNAPPA – One of my new favorites! Want to create social media posts, images, infographics, etc. but stink at Photoshop (Lou raises his hand)? Check THIS out!!
- Adobe Post allows you to create beautiful, photo-based graphics (you can choose from a library of about 8 gajillion pictures) for social and/or posts. Best of all, it’s (wait for it…) FREE!
- Fiverr: RECOMMENDED – I LOVE Fiverr for simple jobs (and use it quite often). Fiverr is a global online marketplace offering tasks and services, referred to as ‘gigs’ beginning at a cost of just $5 per job performed (some gigs have add-on extras). Everything from Graphics & Design, Digital Marketing, Writing, Video & Animation, Music & Audio, Programming, Advertising, and much more!
- 99 Designs – Looking for a logo, web site design, infographic, cover, marketing materials, and more? Choose a design package and launch your contest for over 900,000 designers to see. You will then receive many designs, give feedback, and then choose a winner. Packages start as low as $299
- CrowdSpring – Name your price and collaborate with dozens of designers and writers, choose your favorite, and get full rights to the work. They even give you a free, customized legal contract to protect your purchase.
- PiktoChart – Lets you create easy infographics with a drag and drop interface
- Graphics and Button Creator: So… are you trying to create a button (i.e. “Buy Now,” “Sign Up Here!”, “Look! Cronuts!”, etc.? Now you can create Headlines, Buy Now buttons, Guarantees, and others quickly and easily
IMAGES & PHOTOS
- Pixabay: Where I usually go first. All photos on Pixabay are published under Creative Commons public domain deed CC0. They offer approximately 240,000 free images that you are free to copy, modify, and distribute even for commercial purposes.
- MorgueFile: Easy to use, great selection of images, and clear instructions regarding ability to use and adapt the photos.
- Getty mages: Getty Images now offers access to over 50 million images that you can embed on your website or blog legally and for free.
- Flickr: The granddaddy of them all. Just type in your keyword, choose ‘Creative Commons’ at the top of the screen, select your image and click on the button under the image to see the licensing terms. Ensure you give appropriate attribution to the creator.
- Unsplash: RECOMMENDED – Free (yes, really free) hi-res photos. No attribution required.
KEYWORD RESEARCH:
- Market Samurai – Great keyword research tool in order to rank high in search engines, get more traffic, then this is the tool you need.
- Google Adwords Tool: A free research tool from Google Adwords which provides data around the search queries that happen in Google and other resources for planning a Google Adwords specific advertising campaign. It will help you to get keywords and ad group ideas, historical statistics, keywords trend, competitions, bidding etc.
- Marketing Samurai: Market Samurai is a standalone SEO keyword tool that helps you research the best keywords for your industry and narrow your focus on a keyword niche.
- Long Tail Pro: Use Long Tail Pro’s step-by-step system to discover thousands of profitable, targeted keywords and calculate Keyword Competitiveness for almost any niche.
SCREEN RECORDING TOOLS
- Camtasia: RECOMMENDED – Powerful, yet easy-to-use, Camtasia helps you create professional videos without having to be a video pro. It gives you all the tools you need to record on-screen activity, edit and enhance your content, and share in high-quality to viewers anywhere.
- ScreenFlow: Screencasting and video editing software for Mac which allows you to record the contents of your entire monitor while also capturing your video camera, iOS device, microphone and your computer audio
MEMBERSHIP SITES
- WishList Member: RECOMMENDED – Powerful, easy to use membership solution that can turn a WordPress site into a membership site with protected, members-only content, integrated payments, member management, and more.
- MemberPress – Easy to use Membership Plugin that seamlessly integrates with WordPress, and payment processors like Stripe, PayPal and Authorize.net
- Amember: aMember is the perfect membership software for selling digital products and downloads and easily run your own affiliate program with aMember Pro.
- Membermouse: MemberMouse is an easy to use WordPress membership plugin that allows you to sell products, subscriptions and memberships, setup a password protected member’s area, offer 1-click upsells and downsells, manage customers, automate customer service, track critical retention metrics and more.
NEWSLETTER SIGN-UP/OPT-IN
- Magic Action Box: RECOMMENDED – I was looking for a quick, yet attractive, newsletter signup box for my loumongello.com site, but didn’t want the time and expense of setting up something like Leadpages. Just a simple box that I could put in a post, have my lead magnet, etc. I found http://www.magicactionbox.com/ and had it installed and working within about 10 minutes. I’m using the free version and does what I need it to do, but can see the benefits of the paid version as well. If you’re looking for an easy, free application to get started, this is definitely worth checking out!
PHOTO EDITING
- Make your images transparent – World’s simplest online Portable Network Graphics transparency maker. Just import your PNG image in the editor on the left and you will instantly get a transparent PNG on the right. Free, quick, and very powerful. Import a PNG – get a transparent PNG.
- FREE (Really) images at Pixabay – Stunning free images & royalty free stock – Over 1 million+ high quality stock images and videos shared by our talented community.
- Adobe Spark – Create impactful social graphics, web pages, and short videos in minutes with Adobe Spark
- Create the perfect color palate with Paletton
- Create and edit photos with BeFunky – BeFunky’s all-in-one online Creative Platform has everything you need to easily edit photos, create graphic designs, and make photo collages.
- Create online photo collages – Add photos without uploading, create your own photo collage and save/share your collages. This tool works on PCs, tablets and smart phones. Use the site without registration and create Facebook, Google+ or Twitter covers and header collages. Choose from collage templates or create free form collages.
- Simple Image Resizing. Drag-n-Drop. Click. Done.
- Find the accurate color code from your image – https://html-color-codes.info/colors-from-image
- Amazing, free color tools – https://pinetools.com/invert-image-colors
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT
- SocialReport allows you to manage multiple accounts across different social media channels in one place, including being able to track all your Facebook pages (as well as your competitors!), Twitter profiles, business reviews, blog posts and see how everything is working together. Similarly, you can schedule posts, monitor relevant conversations, and set automations on your social media pages.
- BuzzSumo – This tool helps you determine which topic is being shared, liked, and commented on in social media. Simply enter keywords or phrases related to your niche and Buzzsumo will search for related content, and show how well the content is performing by providing quick stats about Facebook Engagement, Linkedin Shares, Twitter Shares, Pinterest Shares, links, and Total Shares.
- PageModo helps you stand out among the sea of generic of Facebook pages through amazing visuals and custom tabs. Using professionally designed themes, you can create a custom tab on your Facebook business page and easily add photos, videos, maps, product information, coupons, and more to it. In addition, you can also use templates to create, manage, and track contests, sweepstakes, giveaways, and coupon offerings to keep your audience engaged. Their easy-to-use cover photo build also allows you to create visually appealing banners with custom images and text with no prior design experience required.
SHOPPING CARTS
- E-Junkie: RECOMMENDED – E-junkie empowers you to turn your passion project into an online business with easy to use e-commerce tools, helping you sell digital downloads (and tangible goods) online. They provide a lightweight, embeddable shopping cart that can go anywhere, including your website, blog and social media.
- Gumroad: An easy-to-use platform that enables creators to sell products directly to consumers
- SamCart: A shopping cart for information marketers and internet marketers selling digital products online
- PayPal: A fast, safe way to send money, make an online payment, receive money or set up a merchant accoun
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
- Audible: Try Audible FREE for 30 days by choosing a book from over 150,000 titles. Download the app and listen anywhere.
PODCASTING SOFTWARE/SERVICES
- Call Recorder: Call Recorder records Skype audio and video calls directly to your Mac. Record automatically, or use the record and stop buttons. It’s that simple.
- Libsyn: Your one stop solution for everything you need to start podcasting, get your podcast in iTunes and even turn your show into an App.
- Skype: Allows users to communicate through instant messaging, voice, and video chat on your desktop or mobile device
PODCASTING GEAR
- Behringer PODCASTUDIO USB – Everything you need for professional podcasting, music production and digital home recording. Includes FireWire interface, mixer, microphone, headphones, professional music software and more
- Microphones
- Shure SM-58 with cable – RECOMMENDED – The go-to mic for podcasters for many years, it is affordable yet is designed for professional vocal use and studio recording. A highly effective, built-in spherical filter minimizes wind and breath noise, and the cardioid pickup pattern isolates the main sound source while minimizing unwanted background noise. It’s a workhorse.
- Audio Technica ATR2100-USB – Perfect starter and pro microphone, coming in at less than $100. It offers You can use the USB or XLR interface and the sound is pro quality
- Electrovoice RE320 – Professional quality mic, ideal for capturing voice.
- Heil PR40 – The best of the best. Hands-down.
- Accessories:
- Heil PR-40 Shockmount – Flexible support system for the Heil-PR 40 microphone only. Available in Silver or Black
- Heil Sound PL-2T Overhead Broadcast Boom – Uses a system of perfectly balanced internal springs instead of mechanically unstable outboard springs used on booms of lesser quality. Handles microphones up to 3-1/2 pounds in weight
- Heil Sound Windscreen for PR40 Microphones – Designed to snuggly fit the Heil PR30 and PR40 large-diaphragm microphones.
- XLR Microphone Audio cable – Engineered to deliver years of solid reliability
- Blue Icicle – XLR to USB Mic Converter/Mic Preamp – Turn any XLR microphone into a streamlined, USB-ready recording device – no mixer required. The Icicle features a studio quality microphone preamp, 48V phantom power, fully balanced low noise front end, analog gain control, and driverless operation
- Post Audio ARF-59 Noise Reducing Vocal Booth with Isolated Shock Mounted Desk Stand – Noisy room? Loud neighbors? Lots of echo? Don’t worry – you don’t have to podcast in the closet anymore, or spend thousands on trying to soundproof your room. The Post Audio desktop “vocal booth” drastically reduces the ambient sounds in a room
- Mixer – You don’t necessarily need a mixer, especially with a USB microphone, but if you want to have multiple microphones or do advanced mixing, I recommend this:
- Headphones
- Sony Slim Lightweight Dynamic Studio Monitor Stereo Headphones – The headphones I’ve used for years. I’ve had the same pair for nearly a decade. They are light, clean, compact and sound great.
- Portable, Handheld Recorders
- Roland R–05 Studio WAVE/MP3 Recorder: My recorder of choice for recording in the field, and a backup recording from my mixer when in the studio. Easy to use, affordable, amazing sound, and packed with features like enhanced recording and editing features, and extended battery lif
- Zoom H5 Four-Track Portable Recorder – Want to plug in an XLR mic to a portable recorder? Look no further than here, as the Zoom has Everything you need to create professional quality audio. It comes with a detachable stereo X/Y microphone and utilizes a system of interchangeable input capsules that allow you to choose the best mic for every situation. Ideal for field recording as well as an in-studio system as well.
- Recording on Your Mobile Device (Phone/Tablet)
- Zoom iQ5 Mid-Side Stereo Microphone for iOS – The Zoom iQ5 is a high-quality mid-side stereo condenser mic for your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch and fire up Zoom’s free Handy Recorder app to start recording highest quality sound. It also enables you to apply compression, EQ and reverb effects, as well as normalize and divide files. Also works with the iPhone/iPad video camera as well.
- Bossjock Studio – Beginner or Pro, bossjock studio is the tool you need to create and publish your podcast on iOS. You can record a podcast while triggering intros/outros, bumpers and background music all on-the-fly. Send your recordings out via FTP, Dropbox, Soundcloud, iTunes, Wifi, iTunes Share, AudioCopy and Email, or use the turnkey publishing features for Podcasters.
- Rode smartLav+ Lavalier Microphone for iPhone and Smartphones – The Rode SmartLav+ is an affordable, high-quality lav mic designed specifically for use with iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches. Perfect for recording interview audio in noisy environments interview subjects and for presentation speakers. Record via the Rode Rec app for iOS, or any other audio app of their choice. Tip: Always ensure you enable Airplane mode before recording on your iPhone.
- iStabilizer Flex Smartphone Flexible Leg Tripod – Designed and engineered to work with all smartphones. Flexible legs with wrapping capability allow you to secure your Flexible Tripod to virtually any surface.
- Microphones
- PRESENTATIONS
- Beautiful.ai –RECOMMENDED: Create stunning online presentations with this free, web-based, AI-powered tool. Beautiful.AI is the perfect blend of design and function that produces some stunning results with very little effort.
- PRODUCTIVITY
- Calendars: Google Calendar and Calendar 5 on iPhone – RECOMMENDED: – Calendars 5 is an impressive calendar and reminders app for iOS that looks terrific, offers easy-to-use features, and works equally well on iPhone and iPad, and syncs with Google, Outlook and other calendars.
- Any.Do – VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: What I use to manage my To-Do list (and stay sane). Uses a version of the Eisenhower Method and keeps your tasks in perfect sync across all your devices (even when you are offline). You can also increase team productivity with shared tasks, attachments, sub-tasks & conversations. Works on mobile device and desktop client. FREE version available
- Focus@Will: – Staying focused is hard. I love to use Focus@Will which provides music scientifically optimized to boost concentration and help you stay focused
- Nozbe – To-do, task, project and time management productivity tool inspired by the “Getting Things Done (GTD)” methodology.
- Noisii – RECOMMENDED: I recently discovered http://www.noisli.com, which gives you the option to choose sound for relaxation or productivity. I love the simple interface and choices of sounds, and the combinations it has built-in. Oh, yeah.. it’s FREE (and wonderful!)!
- Blinkist: Wish you had more time to read (Lou raises his hand), but still want to get to key messages and insights from business, marketing, and other types of books? Check out the Blinkist app/site and get a free trial!
- Trello: Easy, free, visual way to organize important ideas, notes, etc. simply by dragging and dropping cards
- CloudApp – capture screenshots and files for sharing on Slack, Twitter, email, etc. There’s not a day that goes by I don’t share something quickly using this tiny app on my mac. In fact, here’s the latest thing I shared to Corbett.
- Dropbox – Get to all your files from anywhere, on any device, and share them with anyone.
- 1Password – RECOMMENDED – remembers all your passwords for you.Store all your passwords, PIN codes, documents, credit cards and more.Change weak or duplicate passwords to improve your online security. Save time on the web by signing in to accounts with a single click.
- CrashPlan: Download CrashPlan Online Backup for Windows, Mac and Linux. Select a local drive, a trusted computer, the CrashPlan cloud, or all three. Click “start” to backup. I can’t stress this enough – backup, backup, BACKUP!!!. Only CrashPlan offers totally FREE local and offsite backup. A subscription to our cloud backup service gets you continuous backup, mobile file access and lots more. For the ultimate in computer backup, get all three, from the same easy application. Your computer WILL crash one day. Don’t wait until it’s too late.
- TextExpander: RECOMMENDED: What I use – Every,. Single. Day! Save a huge amount of time and keystrokes by using expanding custom keyboard shortcuts. You can insert standard greetings, text, and signatures, including formatted text and pictures, just by typing short abbreviations. Get it. Now.
- Evernote: MY MOST HIGHLY RECOMMENDED ON THIS LIST!!!! – Let me be clear. I LIVE on Evernote. It’s my #1 desktop and mobile app. It’s amazing, and free. Get it. Now!!!
- Evernote Essentials: Guide to Evernote VERY highly recommended. It will save you hours in learning all that Evernote can do, and teach you new ways to get the most from this incredible app
- Flycut: RECOMMENDED – Flycut extends your clipboard to 40 items and lives quietly in your menu bar. I use it every day. A lot.
- PROJECT MANAGEMENT
- Trello -Trello lets you and your team work more collaboratively and get more done. Trello’s boards, lists, and cards enable you to organize and prioritize your projects in a fun, flexible and rewarding way.
- Google Sheets (FREE) – Create, collaborate, and share online spreadsheets and have access to them anytime, anywhere.
- RECORDING FROM YOUR COMPUTER
- Piezo: RECOMMENDED– Allows you to very simply record audio from any source (Chrome, Skype, YouTube, DVDs [what are they?], etc.) It’s one-button simple and you can get it at https://rogueamoeba.com/piezo. The paid version lets you record more than 10 minutes per clip
- SCHEDULING
- ScheduleOnce: RECOMMENDED -What I use (http://LouMongello.com/schedule). I’ve compared a number of others, and found it to be the best combination of features and value. Create a booking page at Meetme.so/yourname, add it to your email signature, your cards, sidebar, etc. or simply send it to anyone who needs to schedule time with you. When people click your booking page link, they can easily see time slots in which you’re available but have no access to any calendar information – not even to your free/busy view. The appointment is automatically booked, or, if you would like to approve each appointment, you are notified to review the times and book it yourself. When booked, the appointment is automatically added to your calendar and confirmations are sent to your clients. You can even schedule group meetings!
- SOCIAL MEDIA
- Buffer: RECOMMENDED – I use Buffer every day and recommend it highly! Buffer lets you write and schedule posts across multiple platforms, including Twitter (profile, pages and groups), Google+ and LinkedIn. You can have Buffer schedule them automatically for you, or choose exact dates and times for them to post. Buffer also can automatically shorten your links for you, and give you detailed analytics, including clicks, retweets, etc.
- SocialOomph: I use this in conjunction with Buffer to easily schedule recurring updates, find quality people to follow, and monitor activity. I use it to schedule recurring tweets and you can even upload bulk content to be posted automatically for you. SocialOomph can also help with auto follows and social media monitoring. Incredibly valuable in helping to drive traffic to your site and show.
- MeetEdgar: Edgar is a social media scheduling tool that automatically builds a library of every update a user uploads, so they can share them again and again over time. Edgar isn’t just another social media tool – he’s a smart scheduler who fundamentally changes the way social traffic works. He gives your best content new life
- PostPlanner have just released a web based management tool for Facebook and Twitter
- ManageFlitter – Work Faster & Smarter with Twitter
- Ripl – An easy-to-use app that allows anyone to create animated social media posts in a short videos
- TubeBuddy is a browser plugin that helps you optimize your videos to rank well in YouTube search
- Adobe Spark– Lets you easily (and impressively) create videos from text. If you are creating (or want to create) social images, short videos, presentations, announcements, invitations, lessons, etc. etc. check this out!
- TweetDeck: A Twitter dashboard that allows you to organize and build custom timelines, keep track of lists, searches, activity and more – all in one interface. Can be used with multiple Twitter accounts as well.
- TweetPages: Keep your branding consistent across all social media platforms via custom Twitter and Facebook backgrounds, covers, apps, fan pages and more
- HootSuite: Manage social networks, schedule messages, engage your audience from the easy-to-use dashboard.
- KnowEm – Simply enter your website’s URL, and their Social Media Optimization (SMO) tool will analyze your markup code will analyze whether or not the HTML code is optimized for sharing on social media and the results will show a rough approximation of how you site will appear on Facebook’s Open Graph protocol, LinkedIn and Twitter’s Summary Card data when they are shared via Social Media buttons.
- VIDEO
- TubeBuddy.com – TubeBuddy is a FREE browser extension that integrates directly into YouTube to help you run your channel with ease.
- YouTube Director – Create polished video ads right from your phone—for free
- ShowBox – if you’re looking to create videos (but don’t have time and/or big budget), check this out: https://showbox.com/ which allows you to create stunning videos right in your browser. It also includes free stock video, backgrounds, and music all included in a drag and drop editor. Looks easy and excellent quality. Give it a try and let me know what you think!
- Jing – Want to take quick screencasts to share images or videos but not quite ready for Camtasia or Screenflow just yet? Try Jing! It’s a free and easy screen capture and recorder tool
- VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS AND OUTSOURCING:
- Virtual Staff Finder: My buddy Chris Ducker’s service is the best in the business for finding VAs in the Philippines. They have been in the VA business for more than 10 years and will find, select and test the best candidates for you, and you interview the top 3 contenders, and hire. Chris literally wrote the book on working with VAs, and their service is second to none.
- Fiverr: Anything you need for just $5. Images, videos, voiceovers, web dev… pretty much anything can be found on Fiverr
- Upwork RECOMMENDED (formerly Odesk and Elance): I have found numerous freelancers here for a number of different long and short-term projects, including virtual assistants, web developers, graphics designers and much more. It is the largest online workplace where you can hire, manage, and pay freelancers online, all with a money back guarantee. Browse profiles, reviews, and proposals then interview top candidates.Use the Upwork platform to chat, share files, and collaborate from your desktop or on the go. Invoicing and payments happen on Upwork, and with Upwork Protection, only pay for work you authorize.
- WEBINARS (Host Your Own)
- WebinarJam – RECOMMENDED: Webinars are one of the most powerful ways to drive traffic and engagement to your show and site, and get the word out about who you are, what you do, and what you have to offer. I personally use, love and recommend Webinarjam for a variety of reasons. Webinars can be tricky and confusing to setup sometimes, but WebinarJam does all the work for you, and you never have to touch a line of code! It’s incredibly reliable and easy to use, but has incredibly powerful features. It has point-and-click templates, present using your webcam, PowerPoint/Keynote. or other apps on your computer. You’ll get detailed analytics about traffic, registrations, attendees, sales, revenue, earnings per visitor, etc. You get unlimited attendees and unlimited webinars, free webinar hosting, unlimited features, free updates for life, unlimited support, and more
- Google Hangouts: Google Hangouts are completely free and can be used for private video chats with another person or group of people. Hangout On Air are public and can be viewed by anyone. They are automatically recorded to your YouTube channel associated with your Google+ account. You can invite individuals or circles to join the hangout (up to 10 other presenters) to be part of a group broadcast.
- Easy Webinar: You can create a complete webinar system for your business straight from your own WordPress site. EasyWebinar lets you create high converting webinar/event funnels using their customized templates and integrations. From live events that integrate with Google Hangouts and YouTube Live (private events) to pre-recorded videos that stream in real time.
- Webinar Ninja: The easiest way to create high-converting webinars. Webinars don’t have to be a nightmare. Stop pulling your hair and start using WebinarNinja. Create a webinar in 10 seconds!
- WEB SITE HOSTING:
- BLUEHOST: RECOMMENDED – Having a website as a speaker is a must. The simplest way to do that is with WordPress and the simplest way to host that site is Bluehost. You can use their 1-click automatic WordPress installation which makes getting your site up and running a breeze.
- WEB SITE PLUGINS:
- Akismet – VERY VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED (OK, it’s required!) – Akismet is an advanced hosted anti-spam service aimed at ending the underbelly of the web. It processes and analyzes mass data from millions of sites and communities in real time. It continually learns and evolves so it can fight the latest spam tactics, so you don’t have to.
- Yoast SEO: RECOMMENDED – Easily optimize your WordPress site with one plugin. Provides real time content analysis functionality and many more features to streamline your site. Yoast is the most complete WordPress SEO plugin that exists today for WordPress.org users. It incorporates everything from a snippet editor and real time page analysis functionality that helps you optimize your pages content, images titles, meta descriptions and more to XML sitemaps, and loads of optimization options in between.
- Pretty Link: RECOMMENDED – Pretty Link is a Plugin for WordPress that will enable you to shrink, cloak, track, organize, share and test all of your links on your own domain and server. Pretty Link Pro is more than a mere Affiliate Link Cloaker or URL shortener — it will revolutionize how you approach your business by allowing you to automate repetitive tasks, optimize your site with testing, see the results of your campaigns immediately and virally spread your links
- Google XML Sitemaps: – This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google better index your blog. With such a sitemap, it’s much easier for the crawlers to see the complete structure of your site and retrieve it more efficiently. The plugin supports all kinds of WordPress generated pages as well as custom URLs. Additionally it notifies all major search engines every time you create a post about the new content.
- All in One SEO Pack: RECOMMENDED -The most downloaded plugin for WordPress (almost 30 million downloads). Use All in One SEO Pack to automatically optimize your site for Search Engines
- Revive Old Posts – Re-share old, evergreen content with Revive Old Post. It automatically pulls from all of your existing blog posts and post them randomly to your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts
- Google Analytics Tag Manager: Does adding tracking and other code to your web site keep you up late at night? Me neither, BUT there’s an easier way to do it when you have to #GoogleToTheRescueAgain
- WORDPRESS BACKUP RECOMMENDED
- Do you backup your web site? What about your WordPress database? No?! (yikes). Hopefully your host does, but as an added layer of protection (and peace of mind), you can back it up automatically. There are some great paid plugins, but here are 2 FREE ones you can use: BackupWordpress OR BackWPUp (which also lets you backup to the cloud). Don’t wait until it’s too late!
- WORDPRESS THEMES
- ThemeForest: RECOMMENDED – ThemeForest has thousands of easy to install and beautiful themes for every need, budget, and content.
- Genesis Framework: The Genesis Framework empowers you to quickly and easily build incredible websites with WordPress. Genesis’ turnkey designs give you an array of beautiful frames for your content. You get unlimited support, updates, and websites.
- StudioPress: StudioPress builds WordPress themes through the Genesis Framework. They provide solid security, fast performance, out-of-the-box.
- Thesis Theme: The easiest way to manage (and tweak) your WordPress designs. Install Thesis and you’ll have a responsive website that works seamlessly on mobile devices everywhere, featuring easy search engine optimization, fast page load times, and extensive design controls.
- OptimizePress: OptimizePress is a way to create high converting landing pages, sales pages, membership portals, and more. You can build and edit your site with their LiveEditor system. OptimizePress is also completely integrated with WordPress.
- Woo Themes: WooCommerce is the most popular and FREE WordPress eCommerce plugin. It allows you to sell anything (payments, shipping, inventory, reporting, and more), use provided extensions, and choose from creative themes.
- Countingdownto.com – Not ready to launch your full site yet? Create a countdown clock widget for your event or web site launch and embed it in your site
- WORDPRESS WEB SITE DEVELOPMENT
- BoldGrid Backup: FREE The WordPress backup plugin by BoldGrid is an automated backup solution that allows you to secure, restore or move your website with ease.
- BoldGrid Page Builder: FREE The WordPress Post and Page Builder by BoldGrid provides a true WYSIWYG experience while allowing full control over your content. Easily create content rich layouts with a drag and drop builder that actually works – and without having to code nor manage shortcode.
- BoldGrid Crio: BoldGrid Crio extends the functionality of WordPress while simplifying the workflow. BoldGrid Crio has everything both beginners and experts need to quickly build and manage beautiful and professional websites. With intuitive, easy-to-use visual controls and editors on the front-end, and powerful back-end customization features for advanced users, BoldGrid Crio allows you create without bounds or restrictions, with your imagination the only limit.
- BoldGrid Cloud WordPress: Cloud WordPress allows you to create fully functional WordPress installations — with or without BoldGrid — in just a few clicks. When you’re finished, simply delete the Cloud WordPress installation, or use the BoldGrid Backup Plugin to easily transfer it to a live WordPress site.
