Resources
This page details all the tools, services and vendors we use in our business and for client projects. We thought it'd be a helpful resource for anyone looking for new tools to help start or scale their online business.
We update the page periodically with new cool things we've tested and added to our arsenal.
Disclosure: This page contains affiliate links. We have a strict policy to only promote products we personally use in our business or for clients. If you decide to purchase a subscription/tool through an affiliate link we will receive a commission at no additional cost to you.
Hosting Services
WP Engine
If you want a WordPress site and care about its load time, security, scalability, and uptime then WP Engine is an ideal choice for you. We use this on all of our sites now. More expensive than some other options, but by far the best for WordPress sites.
Bluehost
Just starting out and need something more affordable? Bluehost is a solid hosting option for smaller websites. It's inexpensive and incredibly easy to use with 1-click automatic WordPress installation. This is a great cost-effective shared hosting solution for smaller websites.
WordPress Themes
Thrive Themes
Thrive Themes is our personal favorite (and we are using it on this site). You can get a membership for a very reasonable price which also includes a page building, optin box creator, testimonial management, quiz builder, scarcity timer and a lot more. It really is the all-in-one online business toolbox.
Socrates 5
If you think you'll struggle with (or never use) fancy features or page builders this is a great option to get a great site up fast. Socrates 5 is fast loading, seo friendly, fully responsive premium WordPress theme for marketers and bloggers.
Email & List Building
Convert Kit
ConvertKit is an email service provider that is specifically marketed towards bloggers, podcasters, and other online creators. If you fall into that category, this is probably the best option. Very powerful compared to Aweber or Mailchimp, but far easier to use than Infusionsoft or Ontraport. We are using ConvertKit now and absolutely love it.
Thrive Leads
Their drag and drop builder allows you to create any type of lead generation form imaginable - popups, header bars, slide ins, in-post forms, lead links, content locks and sidebar forms while targeting them to specific parts of your website (categories, pages, post types, tags etc). This is perfect for content upgrades. Use the huge selection of opt-in form templates or create your own.
Landing Page / Funnel Builder
Thrive Architect
Thrive Architect is a powerful, stand-alone front-end, drag-and-drop page builder plugin for WordPress. That means you can build any type of page in WordPress using simple drag-and-drop. Almost everything you dreamed of ever doing with your WordPress site, from creating a custom homepage, product pages, sales pages, lead generation pages, podcast pages, video archive pages, blog posts, and everything else in between, is possible with Thrive Architect.
ClickFunnels
ClickFunnels is a web-based tool that lets anyone build different types of marketing funnels - optin funnels, sales funnels, webinar funnels, and more. All accounts all come with quite a few free templates. You just choose your industry and it will give you a bunch of funnels that have done well in the industry. You just need to plug in your niche, your audience desires, etc. and the funnel is ready to roll.
Shopping Cart
SamCart
SamCart is a web-based shopping cart software built for business owners who are looking for a powerfully simple way to sell more of their products online. Built with simplicity in mind, SamCart is the world's easiest shopping cart solution for small business owners
SEO
SEM Rush
SEM Rush has the phenomenal capability to find profitable keywords (that you can rank for) in any niche as well as provide competitive research data like no other tool in the market. It's the preferred SEO tool of marketing experts around the world and once you start using the tool, it’s easy to see why.
Yoast SEO Plugin
Yoast SEO Plugin one of the most downloaded WordPress plugin of all times. It's huge list of features make it a no-brainer for anyone. There is a paid version, but the free version is all you probably need.
Content Research
Social Animal
Social Animal is a content marketing tool to help find trending content, influencers and generate ideas. We use it to find what our market is talking about and sharing online the most, so we know whatever we put out will have an interested audience.
Graphics
Snappa
Snappa is our favorite tool to create graphics for our blog, podcast and social media posts. They have a bigger library than Canva or any other alternative we've seen.
