Online Marketing Tools

I’ve compiled a list of the top resources I recommend to coaching clients and business owners.

We ‘ve used most, but not all, of these products and services myself and am confident in recommending all of them. Many of these products and suppliers have affiliate programs, so I get a commission if you purchase from my affiliate links. We only promote affiliate products we believe in, so if you like our material and website, then tell us by using our affiliate links to patronize our partners.

I’ve had great success with these products and suppliers – this list is a result of much trial and error, I can assure you! I hope it is helpful for you too. I am an affiliate If you need more guidance, contact me for coaching or just to talk through your decision process.

Website & Blogs

WordPress.org The best software for blogs and most ‘website’ functionality too. Powerful features, easy to use and free. You have your choice of plugins to automate tasks as well.

Woo Themes Custom WordPress themes – a good selection of themes when you want a more professional look. They have good products at good prices – perfect for taking the next step up from the free WP themes. They look more professional and perform better and still relatively low cost.

DIY Themes This is the “Thesis” WordPress theme developer. Thesis is a high end theme, very flexible and powerful enough for your Tech Guy and still user friendly enough for most average users. Get this one if you are serious about your blog or if you have multiple sites.

Name Cheap I recommend buying domains here for 3 key reasons – low price, free privacy on every domain for one year, and easy to use site. The performance, features, and price all make a difference for businesses that have a lot of domains. Buy your domains here, host the sites at BlueHost.

BlueHost The only hosting service I recommend. Unlimited site hosting for one fee, full service CPanel, simple scripts (one-click WordPress install), 24/7 live customer service. Overwhelming performance and price advantage.

Renegade Tech Consulting This is your “website guy”. WordPress expert, including custom themes, blog installation and general tech questions. Affordable and reliable; he’s my Tech Guy. Unless your core business is being the tech guy, you need a good tech guy.

99 Designs For logos and all graphic design work – this is the right place to start. It’s crowdsourcing that benefits the small business owner. Multiple designers compete to win your business; you get a lot of ideas to choose from at very reasonable prices. Logos to full web design.

Outsourcing

Smaller Jobs

Odesk Find outsourcers from all over the world. Safe place to find freelancers for contract work; can be bid out by the job rather than hiring someone full time, or even part time. They provide a good marketplace for searching a lot of candidates.

Elance Similar to Odesk – large selection, safe marketplace, contract work. The high number of people seeking freelance work keeps prices very competitive.

Larger Jobs-VA Management

VA Classroom Virtual assistants to help you with everything from office work to social media marketing. They train VAs and provide a marketplace to find and work with a virtual assistant directly. Typically works better for larger projects or regular work.

Team Double-Click Virtual assistants for practically every business job, including online marketing. This company has great customer service, your own account manager, and fully manages all aspects of matching you with a VA; you pay the company, the VA works for them. A good option for long-term, full time or part time workers who are US based so language or time zones is typically not an issue.

Philippine Outsourcing – Low Cost

Virtual Staff Finder: A VA search service that handles all the hassles of finding, interviewing, and highlighting the top three candidates for you. You take over and do the final interview, select the VA that’s right for you and hire them directly. Very experienced group – Perfect for a business owner that knows what they want in a VA but doesn’t have the time or desire to read through a bunch of resumes.

Replace Myself: Training and resources for outsourcing, including outsourcer management tools. This is for business owners that want to hire and manage their own team of people at an affordable price point. This is training + a system for the business owner + many online marketing training tools for the people you hire. Caution: This approach is a lot of work. Most Business owners should start with Virtual Staff Finder.

Outsourcing Tools

DropBox Great resource for sharing documents with your outsourcers. Keeps all data synced and backed up. This one is a technical or logistics tool for the business owner, but I include it here because it’s a good way to start out sharing files with contractors before you have enough work to invest in a project management system. Start with the free version.

SugarSync Similar to DropBox. It does all the same backup, sharing, syncing work. SugarSync is more robust and a little bit more flexible, but Dropbox is simpler to use. Start with the free version on this one too.

Jing Create short (5 minute) video tutorials – ideal for training outsourcers. Associated with Screencast, so it’s like Camtasia’s baby brother. Easy to use and there is a free version to start out with.

Training

Small Biz Incubator: Start Here. The ideal place to develop the skills you need to build and operate successful online businesses. Top pick for training because of the small group support and mentoring. A lot of people have good information, but Small Biz Incubator adds the ongoing interactive aspect that keeps skills current.

MLM Blog: I recommend getting marketing assistance from your MLM company. The best company for online marketing skills, including Social Media, Blogging, and Mobile integrated marketing is Body by Vi. That’s my company and I personally work with people that partner with me in Body by Vi to fully utilize the cutting edge tools. For general skills – still use Small Biz Incubator.

Blog Profit Blueprint I recommend this as a starting point for most online marketers who want to start a blog and Make Money with Affiliate Marketing. Start with the free ebook – it’s understandable and direct – it’s the right foundation. If you want to jump ahead, try his Blog Mastermind.

Direct Response Training Learn direct response marketing to increase conversion rates from a very successful Network Marketer. Probably the fastest way to start earning money, if you have a budget for PPC and related strategies.

Definitive Guide to Adwords The best guide to Adwords written by the Adwords guru Perry Marshall. If you are going to learn PPC yourself, this is the only place to start.

Search Engine Optimization

Market Samurai The best keyword research tool available. Lots of power in this one – it integrates all the aspects of keyword research into one tool AND it includes profitability. Most people should spend more time on keyword research – this is the only software I recommend if you are serious about it.

Synnd This is the only automated, or semi-automated, system I recommend for generating social proof. The main reason that it works so well is that all the work is done by real people with real accounts at popular sites. It’s worth learning the software and the approach – powerful and ‘white hat’.
Read a full SYNND Review.

Unique Article Wizard: Article Marketing can be very powerful when done correctly. UAW is the only article distribution service that gets the balance between quality and quantity correct. It takes a little more work up front, but delivers significantly higher, sustainable, results. It’s a unique approach, an efficient system, and very good training/support materials.

Customer Relationship Management

Oprius Customer relations management software. Nice integration between online, offline and email. Perfect one-stop shop for network marketers and people just starting their online business. Autoresponder, CRM, Email, Calendar, Address book all rolled into one.
Click here for a Full Oprius Review.

Aweber Best autoresponder software. It’s just an autoresponder, but it is the best and they insist on good behavior (don’t even think about spamming) and therefore they have great delivery rates. I love their training and tools.

iContact As autoresponder software goes, this is about the easiest for beginners to master. It’s not the best autoresponder, that’s Aweber, but it’s also not nearly as complex. It’s just an autoresponder too (no CRM like Oprius) but iContact has very good customer service, is a little cheaper, and the performance and support is perfectly fine. They also make it a little easier than Aweber to move an existing list into the system.

Infusionsoft Advanced, full featured, customer relations management system. I mean really advanced. This is not for the beginner or the intermediate user – it is for successful, growing companies that want the top quality CRM and integrated marketing system available. Period.
Click Here to read a comprehensive Infusionsoft review.