RESOURCES

I have compiled a list of some of the top tools that I use that can help you with your online business. I will update this list often as I discover more tools, so bookmark this page and check back every now and again.

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you decide to make a purchase. I recommend these tools because I feel that they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions I make if you decide to buy something. Although these commissions make it possible for me to continue delivering free and helpful content for you, please do not spend any money on these products unless you feel you need them or that they will help you achieve your goals.

DOMAIN REGISTRATION

GoDaddy: I register all my domains with GoDaddy because of their ease of use with buying them cheaply and managing them with external hosting.

HOSTING

Bluehost: By far, this is the best hosting company that I have used. They are very affordable, and super easy to use. Their 1 click WordPress installation will have your site up and running in no time.

Weebly: For those who find customizing WordPress too intimidating, Weebly is a pre-built website platform that allows you to pick from many themes to customize and create a simple website fast just by dragging and dropping images, text, and more. Don’t be fooled by the word simple. By simple, I mean easy, not cheesy looking.

EMAIL AUTORESPONDER

Aweber: Building an email list is essential to running a successful web business. Aweber is inexpensive and has great tools that allow you to capture visitor email addresses and setup an autoresponder series of emails to market and promote directly to people who have shown a strong interest in your brand.

CUSTOM WEB DESIGN

EasyBoyWeb: These guys can build your website for you and more. They are also black owned.

UpWork: A great place to outsource web and graphic designers to do technical work that either you can’t do yourself or simply don’t have the time to do it.

GRAPHIC EDITOR

Adobe Photoshop Elements: A website needs good graphics to make it pop and break up monotonous text, but contracting a graphic designer can get pricey real fast, especially for a regularly updated site. Photoshop Elements is a graphics editor that allows you to create and manipulate images. Photoshop Elements does take a bit of practice to learn, but it will be well worth it and save you money in the long run.

SCREEN CAPTURE AND VIDEO EDITING

Camtasia: Sometimes you need to “show” how things are done and not just “tell” it. This is a powerful screen capture program that allows you to do just that.

Screenflow: This is another good screen capture program for Mac users. I’m a PC guy, but I’ve heard great things about this program from my Mac friends.

Adobe Premiere Elements: Powerful video editing software that I use.

WORDPRESS THEMES

Elegant Themes: Default WordPress themes are not very cute nor are they very customizable. Elegant Themes offers some great looking themes to make your site look nice and professional.

Woothemes: They also offer great looking and professional themes.

AFFILLIATE MARKETING

Clickbank: A great place to find products and services to promote for a commission.

CJ Affiliate: A great place to find products and services to promote for a commission.

Amazon: The most popular online retailer is also has an affiliate program for its products.

AD PROGRAMS

Google Adsense: Make money by placing relevant ads on your website that are generated from advertisers using Google Adwords. This is free to use, but you have to register for an account.

Google Adwords: If you want to begin advertising on Google, you can select keywords and locations and you pay each time someone clicks on your advertisement.