Below is a collection of resources that I’ve found really useful and which I can also recommend to you.
Some of the links are affiliate links for which I receive commission if you sign up for them. But no worries, they’re all quality products and I stand by them – I wouldn’t be endorsing them otherwise!
If you know of any other resources you’ve found particularly useful that are also worth a mention, let me know via the comments section at the foot of the page and I’ll check them out for including here.
Website Building
WordPress.com – The world’s Number One CMS (Content Management System). WordPress is the best CMS for building and operating a website. It’s a really powerful platform which offers you a vast amount of functionality.
Yes there are systems out there like Joomla and Drupal which are more sophisticated, but they’re also more complicated and for the majority of online purposes they’re unnecessary overkill.
WordPress is easy to implement and operate and it’s a pleasure to use. It’s completely free of charge and is offered by practically all hosting providers.
WordPress Themes
Two excellent sources of quality premium WordPress themes are Woo Themes and Elegant Themes. I myself use both Woo Themes and Elegant Themes for many of my sites.
www.woothemes.com – Woo Themes offer a large range of excellent quality affordable themes built around a solid framework. Their themes all come with an easy to configure dashboard system and they are mostly highly configurable. Plus their customer support is excellent.
At the time of writing Woo Themes are running a 3-for-1 offer, meaning you can select two other themes as well which you can use for additional websites later on.
www.elegantthemes.com – Elegant Themes also offer a large range of very professional looking themes. As a variation to other theme providers, Elegant Themes use an annual subscription fee system for their themes. This is currently $19.95 per year. The subscription fee entitles you to full access to all the themes in their portfolio.
Both of these theme suppliers also have an excellent support facility, including an online users forum, very useful if you need help later with any specific customization of your theme.
Thrilling Theme If you want a high quality free blog-style theme, then look no further than the Thrilling Theme. It’s so good it’s the one I use for BreakingOut.NET It’s designed by Cody McKibben of www.thrillingheroics.com
Arthemia Premium - by ColorLabs. This is a really smart and eye catching magazine-style theme that’s very image graphics-based and which also gives you the flexibility of a blog format. It’s an increasingly popular theme and it’s one that I’m currently using for a couple of my sites. It’s not expensive either and ColorLabs offer an excellent support service.
Check out Arthemia Premium at www.ColorLabsProject.com
E-Commerce
E-Junkie - For simple e-commerce projects – in particular for things like eBooks, e-junkie is an excellent solution. It’s low priced and easy to set up. It’s also ideal for setting up an e-commerce system for affiliate partners.
ECover Maker – ideal for making ebook covers. If you join the ECover Maker mailing list you get four great Ebook cover designs completely free of charge.
Paypal Paypal is pretty well essential if you are running an online business.
Training
The Challenge The annual Challenge Course is probably the world’s most popular, FREE intensive online course in the fundamentals of Internet Marketing aimed at beginners. This was the first course I took and I found it to be a great introduction.
It doesn’t cover everything (but which course does – there’s too much to learn in one go), but the material is excellent quality and it’s easy to follow.
It’s presented by the original founder Ed Dale, plus a team of other people and it’s available around the year online for free access and download. The Challenge Course is at www.challenge.co (that’s not a typo, the address is .co, not .com).
www.chrisfarrellmembership.com - Chris Farrell Membership is an Internet Marketing training course for beginners which is strongly webinar and video-based. The course was voted Number One Internet Marketing Service Online by IMReportCard.com in 2009 and then again in 2010. It’s especially suited for people who aren’t so well up on IT matters.
Super Fast Results - is a monthly membership forum and online community for Internet Marketers, run by Australian Internet Marketer James Schramko. It covers a wide range of different Internet Marketing techniques and also provides a number of exclusive tools and utilities for members to use. I’m currently a member of this program and I find it an excellent all-round resource on pretty well all aspects of Internet Marketing. Visit www.SuperFastResults.com
www.skipmcgrath.com is an eBay auction sellers resource site run by Skip McGrath. He also offers a training course called The Complete eBay Marketing System. This is about the best eBay training course available on the net if you’re interested in starting your own eBay store. Skip McGrath also offers a version tailored specifically to the eBay market in the UK at www.skipmcgrath.co.uk
Market Research
Google Keyword Tool. This was designed specifically to assist with evaluating keywords for Google Adwords campaigns, but it can also be used for researching keywords and niche market viability. Free to use.
Market Samurai – or online market research in real time. Market Samurai is the Swiss -Army knife of Internet Marketing. If you’re serious about online business and if you’re running more than one website then Market Samurai is a must-have.
Indispensible for doing competitive keyword, backlink and competition analysis. This is a paid for tool, currently priced at $149 or thereabouts. They also offer a free trial period with no obligation to purchase.
Mailing Lists/Newsletter Subscriptions
Aweber - Practically everyone in the Internet Media and Marketing field knows Aweber. So here they are. Aweber offer an excellent service and they’re pretty well the world’s number one when it comes to email marketing.
Web Hosting
Hostgator.com Hostgator are fast, reliable and affordable. They offer great service and support. I’ve tried a couple of different providers in the past and believe me, Hostgator have been the best I’ve encountered. They’re competitive in price, without being cheap and nasty like some other large hosting providers.
Cloud Storage
Dropbox – Online storage, file sharing, and computer back-ups. Dropbox is an excellent and cloud storage system. Right now they give you 2 GB worth of storage free of charge. For anything more there’s a small monthly fee.
You can access Dropbox via your file explorer on your computer as well as via your web browser. It takes care of backups and file sharing by automatically synchronizing the files or folders that you specify.
Communication
GMail – An excellent email system which enables you to connect with all Google tools such as Google Docs and Google Calendar with one single account login profile.
Skype – is ideal for making long distance phone calls to anywhere in the world.
Voipfone - if you’re looking for a VOIP telecom services provider based in the UK then Voipfone are about the best. They’re also the service I use for my own web business.
Podcasts
Blogcast.FM – Presented by Sid Savara and Srinivas Rao. This is a great site for audio podcasts about online business and especially blogging. The format is based around interviews with entrepeneurs from all over the world.
Lifestyle Business Podcast.com - Presented by a location independent entrepreneur called Dan Andrews.
Monetization
Clickbank – An easy way to source goods to sell online as an affiliate. Clickbank’s strength lies in it’s wealth of digitized information products. Although there are plenty of quality products in the Clickbank database, not all of them meet the grade, so caution is advised.
Google Adsense – Known by some people as Google Welfare. I don’t really recommend it, there are better affiliate programs out there, but it can be useful to test run a niche. It can also be used as a stop gap until you get proper affiliate programs in place for your site.
Google Adsense is free of charge, easy to sign up for and simple to implement.
Analytics
Google Analytics – is practically the industry standard for the web media and marketing sectors. Although some claim the data it produces is not 100 percent reliable, it’s the most widely used and recognized web traffic statistics program in use world-wide. Free of charge.
Ad Monetization
Dfp Google DoubleClick for Publishers An ad management system is essential if you run more than one site. Dfp has the advantage of being free to smaller scale online publishers (measured by traffic). It’s a bit complex to configure, but it’s reliable and well supported.
Accounting
Kashflow -Forget all about installing complicated bloated accounting software packages on your computer. Cloud-based online accounting is now the way to go. It’s much easier for you and much easier for your accountant as well.
Kashflow is a well-established and proven online accounting service based in the UK, but can also be used for other currencies such as US$ and Euro. It’s also the accounting service of choice that I use for my business.
