
These tools helped me to succeed with my online business. You will however help me to create more useful content.
Web Hosting & Mail
The best web hosting provider is essential to start a blog. Web hosting can be expensive.
Also, you can read my top Web Hosting Services as well as Who’s the Best Registrar.
Our Take
Bluehost is the best option for someone who is just getting started in web hosting. They give you a domain name for free for the first year. You can also install WordPress quickly and easily.
Bluehost Review
9.5
Ten of 10
Price | $2.95 – $13.95 per month |
Annual Discount | Yes |
Promotion | Start at $2.95/mo |
Our Take
WP Engine has been my go-to web hosting company when I was creating WordPress blogs.
WP Engine Review
8.5
Ten of 10
Platform | Cloud |
Price | $25 – $258+ per month |
Annual Discount | Yes |
Promotion | 4 Months Free – Promo cyberweekend22 |
Our Take
Linode is the perfect cloud provider for DIYers who have complex hosting needs. Linode has been my cloud service provider for eight years. Linode hosts all my content.
9.0
Ten of 10
Platform | Cloud, Linux |
Price | $5 – $4,000 per month |
Annual Discount | No |
Promotion | $100 Credit No Charge |
Our Take
Namecheap is an ICANN-accredited domain registrar.
Namecheap Review
9.0
Ten of 10
Platform | Cloud |
Price | $1.44 – 11.88 per month |
Annual Discount | No |
Promotion | Purchase a.COM for $6.98 |
Our Take
I use Microsoft 365 but I prefer Google Workspace. Google has excellent antispam filtering and many third-party plugins to enhance Workspace.
9.5
Ten of 10
Platform | Cloud |
Price | $6-$18 per user/month |
Annual Discount | No |
Promotion | First 14 Days are Free |
Link Trackers
It is better to have all of your affiliate links in one place than manually adding each of them to your site. Affiliate links can change often and could result in lost revenue of thousands of dollar.
You can hide links with a link tracker and track conversions.
To discover more, read my best link trackers list.
Our Take
ClickMeter has been my favorite link-tracking platform. It’s easy to use and track conversions.
ClickMeter Review
8.5
Ten of 10
Platform | Cloud |
Conversion tracking | Yes |
Price | $19 – $3,990 per month |
Annual Discount | 2 months free! |
Our Take
Pretty Links Pro, a WordPress plugin that tracks and tracks links, is affordable. You can use it for as low as $99.50 per year.
7.5
Ten of 10
Platform | WordPress |
Conversion tracking | No |
Price | FREE – $199.50/year |
Our Take
Rebrandly is a sister service of ClickMeter and targets influencers, as well as users who want to shorten links. The lack of conversion tracking is what Rebrandly does not have (which ClickMeter does).
9.0
Ten of 10
Platform | Cloud |
Conversion tracking | No |
Price | Free – 499 |
Annual Discount | You can save 16% |
Email marketing providers
Although email is not as popular as it used to be, it’s still a great way to keep your audience interested.
Here’s a comparison of ConvertKit versus ActiveCampaign. This will let you know which one is better and why ActiveCampaign has been my favorite.
Our Take
ActiveCampaign is my top choice for email marketing.
ActiveCampaign Review
9.5
Ten of 10
Platform | Cloud and WordPress |
Price | $15 – $1,306+ per month |
Annual Discount | Yes |
Promotion | Get Started Free |
Our Take
ConvertKit is a great platform for bloggers. ConvertKit gives a free plan to your first 1,000 customers. The price for the service will go up as more subscribers sign up.
ConvertKit Review
9.0
Ten of 10
Platform | Cloud and WordPress |
Price | FREE – $2,539+ per month |
Annual Discount | 2 months free! |
Promotion | Register now for a free account |
Software to Land Pages
To promote your newsletter, you must grow your audience. OptimizePress is my favorite WordPress theme.
Our Take
This is the best WordPress landing page. ClickFunnels is more expensive.
9.0
Ten of 10
Platform | WordPress |
Price | $99 – $399 per year |
Lead Generation Software
These products can help you increase your audience.
OurTake
OptinMonster is a great option if you are looking for a service that can work with WordPress and SaaS applications. These templates can be used for both email and product forms.
OptinMonster Review
9.5
Ten of 10
Platform | Cloud and WordPress |
Price | $14 – $80 per month |
Annual Discount | No |
Promotion | Get Discounts up to 60% |
Our Take
Deadline Funnel is a great service that I recommend to anyone interested in adding it into their sales funnel.
Deadline Funnel Review
9.5
Ten of 10
Platform | Cloud |
Price | $49 – $199 per month |
Annual Discount | You can save 20% |
Promotion | Free trial |
Analytics
You can improve your website by measuring what you don’t know. These tools will help you track visitors’ use of your website and traffic sources.
OurTake
This is my favorite tool for increasing conversion rates. Crazy Egg creates heatmaps and records visitor sessions. These data can be used to enhance your user experience.
9.5
Ten of 10
Platform | Cloud and WordPress |
Price | $24 – $249 per month |
Annual Discount | No |
Our Take
Woopra Analytics Tool is a tool I recommend to my clients. The $1,000 price tag for many businesses and lack of premade templates for reporting are the biggest issues with the tool.
9.5
Ten of 10
Platform | Cloud |
Price | FREE – $999 per month |
Annual Discount | Yes |
Our Take
Google Analytics can be set up without Javascript tags being incorrectly configured or not accurately tracking every event on your blog.
9.0
Ten of 10
Platform | WordPress |
Price | $199 – $799 per annum |
Promotion | Get Discounts up to 50% |
Our Take
Track website usage to increase conversions. I prefer Crazy Egg heatmaps to Hotjar video recordings.
8.5
Ten of 10
Platform | Cloud |
Price | FREE – $989 per month |
Annual Discount | No |
Promotion | Download it free |
WordPress Themes
StudioPress Genesis Framework has been a favorite theme of mine. StudioPress Genesis Framework creates SEO friendly content which I use on all my WordPress blogs.
Our Take
This is the recommended WordPress theme that I use on all my blogs. It also supports Gutenberg blocks.
9.0
Ten of 10
Pre-Made Templates | 41 |
WooCommerce Support | Yes |
Free Version | Yes |
Price | Free – $360/year |
WordPress Plugins
It doesn’t mean you have to create a new plugin for your WordPress site. ).
I love to pay for premium WordPress plugins. The amount that you spend on plugins will usually save you time and/or generate higher income in the long-term.
Our Take
AAWP plugin is what you need to make Amazon Associates monetize the site. It also has the ability to quickly create product comparison pages.
9.0
Ten of 10
Platform | WordPress |
Price | $47 – $389/year |
Our Take
Page load speeds are critical for SEO and users. The plugin will compress your files using a CDN. WordPress Rocket is my favorite plugin to speed up WordPress blogs.
9.5
Ten of 10
Platform | WordPress |
Price | $49 – 249/year |
Enjoy 30% Discount
Our Take
This plugin creates buttons to share social media content on WordPress blogs. This plugin creates counters and social proof for popular social media platforms.
9.0
Ten of 10
Platform | WordPress |
Price | Free – 349 |
Our Take
Backups and security are crucial to the maintenance of your WordPress blog.
8.5
Ten of 10
Platform | Cloud and WordPress |
Price | $7.40 – $149 per month |
Annual Discount | Yes |
Promotion | Free trial |
Our Take
While I prefer Google’s tag manager, Pixelyour Site allows for you to add tracking on your website. This is great for tracking conversions.
7.5
Ten of 10
Platform | WordPress |
Price | $189 to $5999 per Year |
OurTake
If you send emails from your blog, this plugin is vital. This plugin will stop your WordPress emails being sent to spam folders.
9.5
Ten of 10
Platform | WordPress |
Price | $39 – 299 per annum |
Promotion | Take up to $150 off your purchase now |
Our Take
7.5
Ten of 10
Platform | WordPress |
Price | $39 – $299 per month |
Annual Discount | You can save 17% |
Promotion | 14-day trial |
Our Take
Turn your WordPress site into a learning management system (LMS) Create an online course with
9.5
Ten of 10
Platform | WordPress |
Price | $199 – $369 per year |
Promotion | Get $40 off |
Our Take
Receive alerts and monitor WordPress events. Track user changes and plugin updates. Use this tool to audit and secure your site.
8.0
Ten of 10
Platform | WordPress |
Price | $89 – $449/year |
Promotion | 14-day trial |
Our Take
Zapier allows you to set up your WordPress to run automatically. This plugin gives you more functionality, plugins, and services than Zapier. It is essential for any WordPress membership website.
9.5
Ten of 10
Platform | WordPress |
Price | Free – 499 |
Our Take
This plugin fixes specific issues with WordPress and SEO. You can test pages or posts to see if they improve your SEO.
9.5
Ten of 10
Platform | WordPress |
Price | $55 per annum |
SEO Tools
Is it possible for a tree to fall into the woods and make a sound? SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a way to improve your content’s rank.
SEO is a key concept for bloggers. Check out my article about the best SEO tools.
Our Take
SEOPress is a competitor WordPress plugin to Yoast SEO. It is lighter and has more functionality. It supports structured data types, breadcrumbs, and Google Page Speed. Instant Indexing is also possible. URL rewriting is also available.
9.0
Ten of 10
Platform | WordPress |
Price | FREE – $118 Per Year |
Our Take
This is my favorite SEO research tool. It is highly recommended. You can track and monitor your progress as well as receive feedback about how you are doing.
Ahrefs Review
10.0
Ten of 10
Platform | Cloud |
Price | $99 – $999 per month |
Annual Discount | 2 months free! |
Our Take
Mangools is a great alternative to Ahrefs for keyword research. It includes a keyword finder (called “KWFinder”), SERPWatcher and LinkMiner, and SiteProfiler.
8.0
Ten of 10
Platform | Cloud |
Price | $49 – $129 per month |
Annual Discount | You can save up to 40% |
Promotion | 10 Day Free Trial |
Our Take
Surfer is an addition to my SEO toolbox.
Surfer Review
9.0
Ten of 10
Platform | Cloud |
Price | FREE – $239 per month |
Annual Discount | Yes |
Promotion | Get started for free |
eCommerce Platforms
If you want to sell products and services online, an online shopping cart is essential.
You can sell digital products like ebooks, courses or software with ThriveCart or SamCart. While WooCommerce can handle physical goods, it can also handle digital items.
To , check out my top eCommerce Platforms Rankings.
Our Take
ThriveCart Review
9.5
Ten of 10
Platform | Cloud |
Dunning | Yes |
Affiliate Program | Yes |
Price | $495 – $690 one-time fee |
Promotion | Get a Lifetime License for $495 |
Our Take
SamCart can be a great option if you want to sell digital products. It’s a toss-up. I prefer the former. SamCart or not, it all depends on your needs.
SamCart Review
8.5
Ten of 10
Platform | Cloud |
Dunning | Yes |
Affiliate Program | Yes |
Price | $59 – $299 per month |
Annual Discount | Save up to 47% |
Promotion | Get Started For Free |
Our Take
WooCommerce can be a great choice if you want to sell physical products. ThriveCart and SamCart are the best options.
WooCommerce Review
8.5
Ten of 10
Platform | WordPress |
Dunning | No |
Affiliate Program | No |
Price | Free |
Annual Discount | No |
Social proof
Robert Cialdini’s book “Influence” explains the importance of social proof. Showing other people what you have done will let them know how valuable your services and products are.
Our Take
Notifies users about purchases made by others. Visitors can be converted to leads, demos and sales up to 300% faster than normal.
8.0
Ten of 10.
Platform | Cloud |
Price | $29 – $299 per month |
Annual Discount | Yes |
Promotion | Enjoy a 14-day trial |
Our Take
It’s easy to create social proof for your visitors. A widget can be embedded to show your ratings on your blog.
9.0
Ten of 10
Platform | Cloud |
Price | $199 per month |
Annual Discount | No |
Promotion | 30 day free trial |
Miscellaneous
I believe in constant small improvements of 1%. One week’s improvement can translate into huge gains over a year. You can use the tools below to help improve your website.
Our Take
Hosting a website requires the best web servers. This allows you to cache web pages which is great for WordPress plugins.
9.0
Ten of 10
Platform | Linux, FreeBSD |
Price | FREE – $92 per month |
Annual Discount | No |
OurTake
This macOS-based app lets you stream Facebook Live, YouTube Live, and Periscope.io videos. Twitch and Switchboard are supported.
8.5
Ten of 10
Platform | macOS |
Price | $20 – $40 per month |
Annual Discount | You can save 20% |
Promotion | Get Started For Free |
OurTake
Vimeo offers better video hosting than YouTube. The service protects your content from being stolen by others.
10.0
Ten of 10
Platform | Cloud |
Price | $7 – $75 per month |
Annual Discount | No |
Promotion | 30-Day Free Trial |