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Following my own struggle of finding the right tools to jump-start and improve my business, I have created the ultimate guide for all your business needs. This post lists tools that I either use myself or have firmly researched to help you start/bring your business to the next level online.
*** Make sure to save or check back on this post every once in a while – it gets updated whenever I find additional amazing tools to share with you!
WEBSITE
There are NUMEROUS website platforms that can help you build your business. That said, I have chosen to share with you the top three platforms (other than WordPress) that I believe bring the best value and quality, and allow versatility and flexibility, no matter your business.
Wix – Wix is a great web platform that allows you to start your website from scratch, or use their beautifully curated templates. You can start using it for free, and when you’re ready to launch, you can choose one of their many affordable plans. Once you upgrade, you get endless tools to help you build a successful business. Wix also allows you to build an online store and run a blog. I highly recommend Wix; it is the web platform I use and I couldn’t be happier.Cost: Starts at $14/month billed annually & includes a domain.Check it out here.
Squarespace – On Squarespace, you can also build your own website from scratch or use their templates. Squarespace is known to have many tools that will help take your online presence to the next level. You can start using it for free as well, before upgrading your account and get access to more tools that will allow you to grow and develop.Cost: Business account starts at $18/month billed annually & includes a domain.Check it out here.
Shopify– If your business is product-based (digital goods count too!), I highly recommend using Shopify as your web platform. Shopify offers the best platform for online merchants. You only have to think about your products because Shopify has figured out how to completely elevate online shopping. Anything you can think of that needs to be behind the scenes of running an online shop is more than likely to be offered on Shopify. You can also run a blog and a website on their platform to further build your business. Cost: Your 14-day FREE trial plans start as low as $29/month & it includes everything you need to run a full-scale business and a domain.Check it out here.
Suggestion: Also read Why You Need to Start your Online Business on Shopify
TIP: No matter which platform you go with, paying an annual rate instead of the monthly fee will be more cost-efficient and will give you the lowest price possible.
TIP: ALL of these platforms have a FREE 14-day trial and money-back guarantee. You can sign up for one and try it, and if you don’t like it, you can move to the next one.
Note: If you sign up for any of the above web platforms you get a website builder and a host for your website which includes a domain.
HOSTING & DOMAIN
When setting up your website, you can always buy the hosting and get your domain separately from the web platform. Once you choose a platform, you can easily connect your hosting/domain to the web platforms. These hosting websites are amongst the best and they all offer amazing services:
SiteGround – is one of the leaders in the game. SiteGround offers:
➤ SSL certification for your domain. This gives your site a lot more credibility online when it’s listed in search engines and also protects customer data. It’s the little extra “S” in Http. Not everyone provides certification when you buy you buy hosting
➤ CDN integration: If you have a lot of traffic coming your way, it will help to prevent your site from crashing
➤ a free domain with your hosting
➤ high speed hosting for your site
➤ excellent customer service (many bloggers were highly satisfied with their customer service)
Cost: Domains start as low as $3.95/month billed annually. Check it out here.
GoDaddy – An old player in the game, GoDaddy offers many services to help you start your business. It offers:
➤ the ability to back up and easily restore your information
➤ 24/7 web monitoring & DDoS protection – protects from data theft
➤ SSL certification for your domain
➤ A free domain with your hosting
➤ Integration with many platforms
Cost: Domain starts as low as $2.99/month billed annually. Check it out here.
Google Domain – Google also offers domain purchases and support. Buying through Google will guarantee the highest security. Google only offers the domain name itself and does not provide any exclusive hosting like the other websites listed here.
Cost: Domain costs start as low as $12/month billed annually. Check it out here.
Bluehost – Bluehost is another amazing platform and leader in the game for hosting your site and buying a domain (this is the one we’re using ;). It offers:
➤ SSL certification
➤ up to 5 emails connected to your domain for the basic package
➤ a user-friendly system
➤ fast speed page loader
➤ Secure Shell
➤ web statistics
➤ CGI, Ruby Perl, PHP, MySQL
➤ 24/7 customer support ( many bloggers also commented on their customer service)
Cost: domain plans as low as $2.65/month billed annually.Check it out here.
How you choose to approach your business is entirely up to you. One thing to remember is that unless you buy your domain, the name you want is not secured. If you have a name in mind and you’re sure to stick with it but aren’t ready to start your website, I would highly recommend buying the domain for your own security. Otherwise, there is no right or wrong option.
TRACKING & CONVERSION
We all want success, but sometimes we don’t know how to get it. I have been searching online for a way to understand the value of what I’m putting out and what I’m getting back. In my search, I found an incredible tool called ClickMagick.
ClickMagick helps you track every single link you send out to understand what your customers are responding to and what you need to change. This tool tracks if your customers opened their email, the money you spent on getting traffic, and all the results of sales and revenue (and so much more). This is a great tool if you want to save money and optimize your business. ClickMagick also created a FREE guide to help you understand what benefits you gain from using their services and how it will increase your business by up to 50%.
Cost: Free 14 day trial on all account types and then it starts from $12/ monthly billed annually. Check it out here.
EMAIL LISTS
Your mailing list is your holy grail. A good email strategy will have people signing up for your email and helping to turn them into customers. Thankfully, there are a few tools out there that will make your life easier and can help you plan and automate all your emails.
ConvertKit– This email tool allows you to automate your emails. ConvertKit integrates with many other tools you may use for your business. ConvertKit also has many templates you can use to send different kinds of emails to your customers. Plus, ConvertKit gives you reports on how well your email strategy is doing. ConvertKit is a little more advanced than MailChimp and gives you next-level email marketing functions.
Cost: They offer a 14-day trial and then the cost per month depends on the number of email subscribers you have. It starts at $24/month billed annually for 0-2000 subscribers. Check it out here.
MailChimp– Unlike ConvertKit, MailChimp offers a free account for up to 2000 mailing contacts. MailChimp provides similar options as ConvertKit, one main difference is that the free version does not give you as much as ConvertKit offers with their comparable plan. Some of those features include a landing page, custom white glove migration, and infusion soft.
Cost: Once you hit above 2000 subscribers the plans start at $9.99/month billed annually and will vary based on the number of your subscribers. Check it out here.
If you’re only starting out, I would recommend MailChimp first. Once you understand how to work it and build your email strategy, then you should consider upgrading on either platform.
SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Having good SEO helps you be easily found through search engines like Google, and even land on its first page. This is very important for your traffic growth. If you’re just starting out with SEO, you can read Google’s beginner’s guide to SEO here. If you already know what SEO is, these tools will help you step up your game and improve your current SEO strategy:
Mangools – Mangools offers a few kinds of SEO help, from Keyword search to backlink analysis. It helps you greatly improve your site’s current SEO and take it to the next level. It offers services and tools to make your job extremely simple.
Cost: Starts at $29.99/ month billed annually. Check it out here.
Yoast – This is another great place for SEO help, Yoast offers SEO courses and plugins for your website to better your SEO.Cost: This varies, as it depends on whether you’re looking for a course or a plugin. Check it out here.
BRANDING & CREATING
Setting up your brand is the hardest part, but have no fear – all the resources below will be your saving grace.
Pixabay – Pixabay is a great royalty-free stock image website that you can use to source for your site graphics and make social media posts. I personally love this website; it helped me a lot when I couldn’t create the images I needed.
Cost: FREE – Check it out here.
Pexels – This is another great royalty-free stock images website where you can use free images to create your graphics.
Cost: FREE – Check it out here.
Canva – You have a beautiful picture but now you need to edit it. Canva is a great tool if you do not have access to or know how to use photoshop. It is very simple and FREE to use.
Cost: FREE – Check it out here.
Easil– Another killer website to help you create amazing graphics is Easil. It offers FREE templates for any social media platform. You can also create your Instagram story posts and Facebook ads right on their editing screen. I absolutely love this tool!
Cost: FREE – Check it out here.
Creative Market – Creative Market offers FREE weekly graphics to help you create amazing graphics for your website/blog business. Also, Creative Market sells freelancers’ work, so if you decide to buy through them, you’re supporting one of your own.
Cost: some free stuff and some stuff as low as $5, Check it out here.
LogoNerds – If you’re yet to have a logo design and want it done by the pros, go with LogoNerds. They create a custom logo with three different variations. They offer different packages based on your needs, but they are extremely affordable.
Cost: Starts at $27, Check it out here.
Wave – If you have always wanted to make amazing Instagram videos, Wave is the platform for you. Wave lets you create short promotional videos for social media through a simple interactive platform. On Wave, you can create your Facebook Ads and Instagram stories. It is truly a great tool to look professional on a budget.
Cost: FREECheck it out here.
SOCIAL MEDIA SCHEDULING
Once you start running your business, you will have a lot of content to produce and market to your customers. It is hard to remember to keep up with posting and the right timing. These tools will make your life easier in the social media world:
Tailwind – This is the go-to tool to grow your website traffic through Pinterest. Tailwind helps you schedule your posts and optimize it for your audience. Pinterest is one of the leading reasons why many websites earn high traffic, and Tailwind helps you do it right. Tailwind posts your pins when most of your target audience is active and will also provide analytics, including your pin performance and web traffic.
Cost: FREE 30 day trial and then its $9.99/ month paid annually, Check it out here.
SocialPilot – This is a great tool if you’re not running your business solo. SocialPilot lets you use all of your social media platforms and have them managed by up to 20 people. You get all the analytics from your social platforms in one place and you can also bulk post all your content so you don’t have to think about it. However, if you’re riding solo in your business they also have a plan for you.
Cost: FREE 14 trial and then it starts at $8.33/ month billed annually. Check it out here.
HootSuite – Another great social media automation platform is Hootsuite. HootSuite offers a free plan for individuals who connect up to three social platforms. They also offer different kinds of subscription plans depending on the size of your team and your social media needs.
Cost: FREE. Subscription costs start as low as $19/ month billed annually. Check it out here.
NEW SKILLS
When you start your business, you may realize that there are skills you may not know yet. It is important to be open to learning new skills and always expending your knowledge because it will help you grow your business. So, here are two tools that I LOVE to use to develop and hone new skills:
Skillshare is my go-to platform for learning new skills in anything. It is a great platform that hosts classes by field professionals to teach you their expertise on a topic. You can learn anything from business to design. I have taken a few classes with Skillshare and really enjoyed what they had to offer. Skillshare has both free and paid programs, and the free version is amazing! You get over access to over 1000 classes that will teach and enhance your skills in multiple subjects.
Cost: FREE, Check it out here.
Coursera is another great site for online classes. This one is a little more formal, as it offers classes that are taught by top academics from institutions like Stanford, Penn State, and UofT. If you complete any of their courses you get a legitimate certification that you can add to your qualification formally. If you want to get a higher education qualification without paying the tuition for a four-year program, this is a great place to start.
Cost: Try it for FREE and then prices will vary on the course you chose. Check it out here.
PROPER WRITING
If you’re anything like me and you’re not a born writer, you may need some extra help in that department. One tool I use religiously to check over every single thing I post is Grammarly. Grammarly is a spelling, grammar, and punctuation tool that checks over what you’re writing and corrects it. I would highly recommend this to your business and your daily life. IT IS A LIFESAVER!
Cost: They have a FREE version and if you upgrade to premium then its $11.66/ month billed annually. Check it out here.
There you have it, I hope these tools will help you with your business and take you to the next level. They are definitely doing the job for me!