When you are building a business presence online, it is easy to get overwhelmed by information overload as you try to determine where to start and what to do next. Below is a list of trusted sources that I have either used, or reputable sources that I feel good recommending to you because I know who they are. I have separated them into specific topics to make it easier for you to find what you are looking for. There are both paid and free sources listed below. Go through each one, and determine which sources are most useful to you.
Free Training to Help Grow Your Business:
How to Create & Sell a Digital Product:
This is an on-demand training webinar to help viewers make sense of digital product creation. In it, she busts the myths that keep would-be product creators stuck, and give them a simple blueprint for transforming what they know into a new income stream.
How to Create Your Funnel to Sell More Products:
Put your lead generating efforts on autopilot with an automated funnel that turns visitors into leads, leads into prospects, and prospects into raving fans!
Website Building:
All businesses, even brick and mortar ones, should have an online presence. One of the best ways to do this is with your own website. If you are just starting to develop an online presence for your existing offline business or you are starting solely an online business, this is where you need to start. You can either hire someone to build your website or you can do it yourself. In either case, make sure that it is built using WordPress.
(1.) WordPress Beginner – Free program to help you get your WordPress website set up. Unlike the creator of this site though, my recommendations (that I use) for my domain names and web hosting are listed immediately below.
**New 2021** How to Build a WordPress Website in a Weekend – I have bought several of Carmen’s courses, and they don’t disappoint.
(2.) Namecheap – This is the company that I use to buy my domain names for my websites.
(3.) Mom Webs – I ditched Hostgator a year ago, and I have not regretted it one bit! The support I receive from Mom Webs, is phenomenal, and it was the smartest move I made when I decided to change my hosting provider.
Updating & Your Existing WordPress Website:
If your wordpress website already exists, but you do not know how to update it and do things behind the scenes, this can be very frustrating as you have to wait for someone else to have to do it for you. It can also get very expensive if you have to hire someone every time you need to make a minor change to your site. This is why it is important to know how to do some of the behind-the-scenes work yourself from time to time. The first course listed below will teach you how to use wordpress, and the second one will enhance your current website.
Choosing a Shopping Cart:
If you are selling products digitally on your site, you need to use a shopping cart that ensures that only those who have purchased the product get access. My suggestion is to find a shopping cart that also supports an affiliate program. You will find more below about setting up your affiliate program.
(1.) Amember (This is what I use on my sites; it acts as a shopping cart and has an affiliate program. You can also use it for membership sites.)
Learn about Amember under “Setting up your Affiliate Program” below. I also previously wrote a post about all the shopping carts that I have used.
Setting up your Affiliate Program:
Set up an affiliate program so that others will want to spread the word about your business and grow your business.
(1.) Checklists to Help You Put your Affiliate Program Together
(2.) Amember – As I mentioned above, Amember is the script I use as a “cart” to sell my digital products securely (i.e. prevents theft of your products by people who haven’t purchased your product) and to run my affiliate program. I also use Amember to deliver products that I sell on JV Zoo.com. You need to purchase the Amember script. They will install it for you on your domain, but then you need to set it all up yourself. I love everything that I can do with Amember. There is full documentation with the product, but if you need more hand-holding to help you with set-up, keep reading….
Fortunately, there is a separate course that can be purchased that teaches you how to use Amember. Of course, you could always hire a Virtual Assistant to do all the set-up and then teach you how to use Amember, and that is certainly an option. No matter what though, you will want to know how to use Amember to some degree so that you don’t have to wait on someone else to make minor changes for you from time to time.
Here is a link to the Amember course that will teach you how to set it up and use it to add and sell your digital products securely. I own this course too, and it’s all broken up into bite-size videos showing you what to do.
(3.) 10 Ways to Recognize a Good Affiliate Program – Free Slideshare report that I wrote. This will give you ideas for affiliate programs you join, as well as what kind of affiliate program you want to set up.
Creating an Email List using Autoresponders:
You’ve probably heard that “the money is in the list.” Well, it’s true. You need to begin building a list sooner than later. There are a few options for autoresponders. If you decide to use Amember mentioned above, it has a built-in autoresponder service, and the Amember course teaches you how to set it up using SMTP (such as Mandrill). The advantage of this is that there can be much lower monthly costs.
My preference, however, is to use a paid autoresponder service as my list is important to me, and I don’t want to lose it. The two autoresponder options I have used and recommend are:
(1.) Get Response – The autoresponder that I use. I like the stats I get within Get Response much better, as well as the fact that you can use their webinar service (you can do that with Aweber too, but you have to integrate with Go-To webinar, which is very expensive).
(2.) Email Marketing Momentum – Checklists and Templates to help you
Content for your Business –
Depending what type of business you have, you might need content for your website, your autoresponder emails, pamphlets, books that you are putting together for sale, videos that want to upload to You Tube to advertise your business, and so forth. If you do this all by yourself, it’s going to take A LOT of your time. You need a shortcut. The least expensive way to do this is to use private label rights (PLR) content.
(1.) PLR Providers –
Here is a list of quality PLR providers, with other topics that may not be on my site.
(2.) Content Tips Software – **New 2021** Use This Amazing Software Tool To Create High-Quality, Income-Producing Content, 20X Faster Than You Ever Believed Possible.
Graphics Creation: (Recently updated!)
(1.) Canva – You can use their free program. You will only have to pay a small price ($1) if you want to use one of their stock images, but you don’t need to. Here is a brief video I did demonstrating Canva. There are some nice options to updating to their monthly (or yearly – less expensive) option such as the ability to post straight to Pinterest, as an example.
(2.) How to Use Affinity Publisher – I bought this course, as a way to learn how to use Affinity (one of the Serif products), and I think you would also find it helpful.
(3.) How to Use Affinity Designer – I also bought this course, and if you are ready to give up the Adobe suite of products and their monthly fees, then check out these courses.
Graphics, Fonts, Templates:
(1.) My favorite site for clipart, digital papers, all kinds of fonts and much more! I use it so much that I have a monthly subscription as it saves me a lot of money.
(2.) Check this out also if you are looking for some amazing freebies, $1 deals, as well as graphics, fonts, and templates.
Screen Capture/Video Software:
If you buy PLR PowerPoint slides, this is a must to turn the PowerPoint into a video. It is also necessary if you plan to make videos of your computer screen for publishing on You Tube, etc.
Coming soon!
Outsourcing/Virtual Assistant Help:
Nothing currently available.
Pricing:
Nothing currently available.
Password Manager:
(1.) Roboform – Don’t try to remember all your passwords. Even worse, do NOT use the same username and passwords for all your accounts as you stand a huge risk of getting hacked. This password manager will safely store and manage all your usernames and passwords. I’ve been using it for around 10 years. It syncs with all of your computers, even your smartphone.
Sync Your Computer Files and BackUp Your Computer Files:
My newest discovery! – I have always used Dropbox (and still do for some files) to store my files, and sync them between computers, but the price is higher and adds up when you have a number of subscriptions every year. I wanted a service that would give me more syncing space without a higher cost. Plus, I wanted a way to back up some of my computer files, and to store my photos. I chose this. The installation was pretty easy to set up.
More tools will be added as I come across or use them, so check back periodically.
Are you looking for something that I have not included? Please contact me with your questions.
Disclosure: I am an affiliate for some of the tools and services listed above. If you decide to purchase because of my recommendation, I do earn an affiliate commission. Please note that I only recommend products that I personally use or have used, and would only recommend to a dear friend. You never pay more by purchasing products or services through my links. In fact, you may even pay less, if I have been able to secure a discount for you.
