The following list is a list of tools and service sites that I personally use in my business on a regular basis. Some it took me a while to find, others are standards in the industry. I have compiled them here all in one place to make it easier for you to get your business going. Please note that this is not a comprehensive list and I am always adding more tools to my toolbox as time goes on. Also, in full disclosure, it should be assumed that I may make a referral fee on some if not all of these services and products I recommend. (That is for the FTC).
Some of these items are must haves if you’re trying to market online, some are just nice to have and make life easier. Some cost money, some are free tools. I tried to provide as best a mix as possible so that you could round out your toolbox. Check back often as more will be added from time to time.
Enjoy, have fun and make the most of every moment.
The following are listed in no particular order other than the order they came to my mind.
I use GoDaddy to purchase all of my domain names. I do not use their hosting or other services at this time.
Hostgator has excellent customer service and is one of the leading providers of hosting services for Internet Markets. They have always gone above and beyond for me and I highly recommend them. They customer support is awesome.
SendSpace is a file hosting website. It offers temporary file hosting to enable users to send and receive large files that are too big for email attachments. Users can upload and download files up to 300MB each for free (up to 1.5GB files can be uploaded with the paid service), and have the ability to manage and edit their uploads.
I keep this on hand when I need to transfer large files. I use their free service and haven’t had a need to upgrade.
Dreamstime is a distinguished leader in stock photography and a major supplier of high quality digital images at unbelievable prices. This is one of two sites I use for stock photos.
iStockphoto is an online, royalty free, international microstock photography provider operating with the micropayment business model. Images cost between 1 and 150 credits, depending on size and image collection (with credits ranging from $.95 to $1.50 USD each).
ClickBank is a secure online retail outlet for more than 50,000 digital products and 100,000 active affiliate marketers. It makes a sale somewhere in the world every three seconds, safely processing more than 35,000 digital transactions a day and serve more than 200 countries, and are consistently ranked as one of the most highly-trafficked sites on the web. This is a top affiliate promotion site.
ShareASale is an affiliate marketing network based in Chicago, IL USA. ShareASale services two customer sets in affiliate marketing: the affiliate, and the merchant. Affiliates use ShareASale to find products to promote, and earn commission for referrals on those products. Affiliates use their own website, blogs, PPC campaigns, SEO campaigns, RSS and email, as well as a number of other means. Merchants use ShareASale to implement, track, and manage their affiliate program. This is one of my favorite affiliate program sites.
Elegant Themes is an affordable paid themes system and one of the handful of paid theme sets I use for my sites. under 40/year for access to over 50 different themes.
PayDotCom.com is a fast growing online marketplace that catalogs thousands of products and services, both physical products and digital products. It offers the following features: Digital Products, Physical Products, Membership site billing monthly, Integration with PayPal, Easy tools, Manage Affiliates, Stats and Campaign tracking, Instant Payment for Vendors, Easy to use interface to add buttons to your site, and Manage unlimited products with one account. A nice affiliate product site owned by Mike Filsaime, leading Internet Marketer.
Commission Junction is the largest affiliate network in North America and operates worldwide. Among the top 500 retailers using 3rd party affiliate marketing software, 62% are powered by Commission Junction. This is where you can find big companies to promote like Groupon, Overstock.com, Sears. Etc. More mainstream for niche sites.
ScriptLance is an affordable software outsourcing service that caters to small online businesses. Anyone can post a programming, design, writing or marketing project to receive free work quotes from freelancers worldwide. A winning bid is selected and the freelancer begins working. The healthy competition between freelancers always means affordable costs for businesses. I use Scriptlance on a regular basis for my web development needs.
Elance is a global Internet platform for online employment, where businesses hire independent freelance professionals with online collaboration tools to manage remote teams and projects online. I use Elance for some of my outsourced writing needs.
FreeScreenSharing is a free online meeting service designed for screen sharing, web conferencing, product demonstrations, webinars and more. I use this when I have multiple people to screenshare with because Free Skype does not let you share your screen with more than 1 person.
AnyMeeting is a robust meeting platform for giving presentations and sharing documents while interacting with your online audience. It’s completely free and extremely easy-to-use. You get what you pay for here and there are certain features not available as you would get with a higher cost paid program like GoToMeeting.
PayPal is a service that enables you to pay, send money, and accept payments without revealing your financial information. This is a must to have in our industry and you need to have a Business account not just the personal account so you can receive and send money as needed.
Xoom is an online international money transfer service. We offer a secure, fast, and inexpensive way to send money from our website to friends and family. Xoom is how I pay some of my outsourcers overseas because it is cheaper to process for everyone than PayPal.
Skype is for doing things together, whenever you’re apart. Skype’s text, voice and video make it simple to share experiences with the people that matter to you, wherever they are.
Skype is used to communicate with your connections around the world through your computer with your headset. This saves on phone charges.
FreeConference.com frees you from the hassles and expense of traditional call conferencing services with little or no cost. I use Free Conference when Skype is not the preferred option or not needed for screen sharing. Sometimes there are some challenges but for the most part the service works well and I have been using it a few years.
Gmail is a free, advertising-supported email service provided by Google. Users may access Gmail as secure webmail, as well via POP3 or IMAP protocols. I manage multiple email accounts and find Gmail to be one of the most reliable services and it integrates easily with all of Google Products and Services including Analytics and Webmaster Tools.
DISCLAIMER: It should be assumed that the recommender profits from many of the products, services, or businesses endorsed on. I will only recommend products that I have either created or used myself and find valuable to my business and life. Tools are that, just tools to help you in your life and business. We recommend that all readers use due diligence before purchasing or using any and all products. Nothing here should be considered legal or financial advice. As with any business, your results may vary, and will be based on your individual capacity, business experience, expertise, and level of desire. There are no guarantees concerning the level of success you may experience. The testimonials and examples used are exceptional results, which do not apply to the average purchaser, and are not intended to represent or guarantee that anyone anyone will achieve the same or similar results. Each individual’s success depends on his or her background, dedication, desire and motivation.