Tools and Resources

A few of the product, tools, and online resources I recommend. More to come.

Need An Article: A an article writing service that I use pretty often. It is a whole lot easier than trying to find freelance writers who fit your needs, and the prices are really good. I plan on using this service a whole lot more in the future.

Elegant Themes: A collection of, well, Elegant Themes. Elegant WordPress themes to me more precise. I’ve always been hesitant to buy “Premium” wordpress themes because there are so many free WordPress themes out there. But I eventually got tired of wading through all the mostly decent, but often mediocre free themes every time I wanted a new theme, that I finally ended up buying a membership to Elegant Themes so I could choose from a portfolio only superb themes. For only $39 for a whole year of unlimited access to all the themes (currently 67) I think its a great deal!

Mailbox Forwarding: A remote mailbox and forwarding service. Useful if you don’t want to use your home address as your business address, if you move a lot, or travel a lot, or even just an easy way to cut down on the clutter from mail. It allows you to manage your snail mail just like your email, all online from anywhere in the world. Each piece of mail you receive will be scanned (just the envelope initially). You can then log into your online account and choose to either have them open and scan the contents (which can be read online), forward to your home, shred and throw out, or just have them hold it for you until you decide.

Aweber: My preferred Email Autoresponder. Just $1 for your first month.

SEOBook Rank Checker: Great firefox plugin for checking website search engine rankings. I use it very often.

Micro Niche Finder: My favorite keyword research tool. It helps you collect and organize keyword data from a variety of sources. Has saved me hundreds of hours. Well worth it.

Traffic Travis: Very cool piece of SEO software that has several function; keyword research, rank checking, backlink checker, competitor analysis, on page seo analysis, etc. I use it primarily just for the rank checking, backlink checker, and competitor analysis, but I do use the other features as well from time to time.

Article Trader: An article submission service that I use from time to time. They also offer a link building service, which I haven’t tried yet.

SpyFu: A great PPC Keyword and market research tool. Lets you see a lot of data about your competitors.

Odesk: A very useful freelance/outsourcing website. Allows you to hire hourly or fixed price. The hourly billing aspect of it is what makes it unique from other similar websites. Providers you hire hourly have to log into a remote monitoring program, that tracks their time, gives memos of what they are working on and takes periodic screenshots. You only pay for the hours they work, which you can review and verify based on the memos and screenshots. I started out using it to outsource several tasks and projects, but I actually ended up finding a lot of freelance jobs for myself too. I now use it for both outsourcing and finding freelance/consulting clients. So whether you want to hire someone or find a job yourself its a great website.