Making sure you use the right tools, software and apps can greatly increase not only your profits, but the ease of monetization on your offers and products. Pay particular attention to which resources that you already have are working so well, you don’t see the point in changing them. If you need to add more features, however, look at CRMS and tools that integrate with what you already have.
Here are twenty-one popular current choices to help you run your online business.
1. Reliable Webs
If you are still fairly new to web hosting, you do not need to pay nose-bleeding prices for a concierge-style web hosting plan. In fact, you could do no better than to start out with a web hosting company that has consistently drawn rave reviews from its very happy customers since 1998 – Reliable Webs.
Reliable Webs is very comfortable handling single-entrepreneur business. Their support rivals the top concierge web hosts and beats them for speed and courtesy. Take a look at their Support page to see what they will do simply as part of their services.
The other wonderful factor: Reliable Webs can grow with your business. In fact, if you start out with Reliable Webs you may end up one of those happy customers delighted to stay with this rock-solid web-hosting company.
PRICING: Plans start at $12.00 USD monthly for a single site; $25.00 USD monthly for Reseller hosting with unlimited domains. (Discounted rates available if you pay quarterly or annually.)
2. WP Engine
Security is the hallmark of this ultimate concierge web hosting company, who tailor their hosting exclusively to WordPress sites. In fact, they prefer to do everything for you — which means you install your own security plugins – but theirs are better and far more secure. In fact, they monitor for hackers 24-7.
If you have several sites or heavy eCommerce, and particularly if you’ve experienced problems with hackers before, this may be your first choice.
PRICING: Plans start at $35.00 USD and they can grow with you, all the way up to $290.00+ USD.
Both Reliable Webs and WP Engine offer free site migration.
3. MomWebs Hosting
The perfect place to start if you need a mini-site or you’re brand new to web-hosting. The same superlative Support service as Reliable Webs, plus MomWebs will set up your blog-style website for you, for free.
PRICING: Plans start at $5.00 USD.
4. Wordfence
WordPress plugins play an important part in contributing to the success of your monetization. They add functionality to your site in many areas: SEO, sharing, loading speed; all the way to allowing you to create membership sites. And one of the most important areas is security – protecting your customers (and your site) against hackers and spammers and keeping your data safe.
Wordfence is one of three top security plugins, endorsed by authority bloggers, developers and WordPress experts. Includes its own firewall and endpoint scanner, plus you can block countries notorious for spawning hacking attempts. If you invest in the premium version, you also have two-point authentication to protect you against comment spam. The down side? A learning curve as you select and customize all the settings. (Before you sign up with any web host, check to see if they can or will do Wordfence set-up for you.)
PRICING: Free through WordPress.org. Premium version starts at $99.00 USD for a single key (an activation code for one website) – but the more keys you buy, the more you save. And you can use your keys at any time.
5. Sucuri
Sucuri-Scanner is the second of the top three WordPress Security plugins gathering rave reviews right now. It’s easy to install and configure, and if you want more detailed recommendations, instructions for each function it’s capable of performing are broken down right on its WordPress.org plugins page.
PRICING: Free. Install via “Add New” in your website dashboard plugins section.
6. iThemes Security
Our final WordPress security plugin top contender is also easy to install. In fact, although it has many bells and whistles, you can install it with just the default settings and experience strong protection. Its advantage for beginners is an installation wizard that walks you through everything, let you select what you want to learn more about – plus, you can choose to have iThemes configure it for you, if you wish.
PRICING: Free through WordPRess.org. Premium version available, starting at $80.00 annually (protects 2 sites).
7. Hootsuite
You will want to share the word about your landing pages and offers. Create social posts driving people to your sites and preschedule them with Hootsuite. It has one unique asset that most other content management schedulers don’t: It allows you to add your Instagram account to your Hootsuite dashboard and schedule Instagram posts too. So, if you are an Instagram user, this is definitely the content management scheduler for you.
PRICING: Free
8. MeetEdgar
This content management scheduler is so much more. It allows you to create an unlimited library archive of all your past content, and you can set conditions allowing it to intelligently reschedule these posts for you on each of the platforms you’ve selected. When you sign up, you get account setup assistance, as well as a social media strategy call.
It promises that Instagram integration is “coming soon” – but right now, if you have Zapier, you can actually do this through Zapier. (It also promises that Pinterest integration is coming soon too.)
PRICING: $49.00 USD monthly.
9. Buffer
Our third content management scheduling tool, Buffer just shines in the area of data collection and tracking. It’s easy to set up and use – and it provides detailed post performance analysis and presents the results in a format that’s even easier than Facebook’s Insights.
Plus… you can schedule to Instagram with it.
PRICING: Free for up to 3 social media accounts; Pro starts at $15.00 monthly. Business options start at $99.00 monthly for 25 social media accounts and 5 team members.
10. Leadpages®
Leadpages® has become the go-to for all top marketers, providing hundreds of free and paid templates you can easily customize and turn into sophisticated, beautiful and eye-catching landing pages, sales pages, video sales pages, thank you pages, and more. You can customize your landing pages with an array of options, all with the click of a mouse. Add count-down timers – even run webinars from Leadpages®. Integration with Zapier. Plus, you can create effective and powerful pop-ups with their Leadboxes® feature. (You don’t even need a pop-up plugin.)
PRICING: Plans start at $25.00 USD per month, paid annually; or $37.00 USD paid monthly. (You can drop that rate down to $17.00 USD per month if you sign up for their 2-year plan.)
11. Clickfunnels
An alternative to Leadpages®, with many of the same features, including drag-and-drop customization. Many entrepreneurs say they find it even easier than Leadpages.
PRICING: $97.00 USD monthly for a basic plan. 14-day free trial.
12. PopUpAlly
If you don’t have a CRM that includes popup creation, this WordPress plugin from AmbitionAlly may be your best alternative. Create and customize popups, as well as optin boxes.
PRICING: Free from WordPress.org. PopUpAlly Pro is $99.00 USD for a 1-year license.
13. Zapier
Zapier is a SaaS that allows you to integrate all your web apps, easily and seamlessly, without conflict. The result? Automated workflows that free you up to continue doing what you do best and ensure there are no conflicts to drive people out of your sales funnels.
Works particularly well with Leadpages® and Infusionsoft.
PRICING: Free version for basic personal automation and testing. Plans run on a sliding scale, based on your needs, but can start as low as $20.00 USD per month, if those needs are not overly complex. (I.E. you can grow into Zapier as your business and income grows.)
14. Infusionsoft
This full shopping cart SaaS offers affiliate management capability, full campaign management, email list management – and, of course, product sales set-up.
Entrepreneurs who use it all seem to swear by it, but the truth is, it’s too robust and most likely too expensive if you’re just starting out and selling your first products. You’ll be paying for features you don’t yet need; plus, there’s a fairly large learning curve. Best for businesses already in full swing. It’s well worth checking out – but do yourself a favor and hire an Infusionsoft-certified expert to set it up for you. (Besides, Infusionsoft-certified partners can often get you a better price – so explore their services before you commit.)
PRICING: Starts at $199.00 USD per month for 2.5K contacts (full features: $399.00 USD per month). Note there is also a $1,000 USD set-up fee up front.
15. Shopify
This Canadian-based online shopping-cart system is a wonderfully-inexpensive alternative to Infusionsoft. It’s especially good for online storefronts – plus you can sell on Facebook with Shopify. Create invoices, take credit cards, copy-paste and get selling straight away.
PRICING: Plans start at $29.00 per month. (Shopify Lite for Facebook is only $9.00 per month.)
16. Fyrebox
Create lead-generating and ideal customer-attracting visual quizzes and surveys with Fyrebox. Real-time statistics recording. Analyzes each respondent, allows you to create reports, and more. Quiz leads “enter your sales cycle automatically and start generating revenue”.
Integrates with “over 300 applications” – including Zapier and Shopify.
PRICING: Free for up to 5 leads per month. Paid plans with unlimited leads start at $29.00 USD per month.
17. Kissmetrics
Kissmetrics is the powerhouse tool for behavioral email and Facebook marketing campaigns. Offering “push-button” integration, targeted customer behavioral insights, sophisticated segmentation and campaign generation, it’s best used by those who already have strong platforms and products.
PRICING: Starts at $500.00 USD for up to 50,000 people tracked; $100.00 USD per 50,00 after that.
18. Clicky
A seriously inexpensive but top-rated tracking and analysis SaaS, Clicky monitors and analyzes website visitors in real-time. Boasts “best in the biz” bot blocking, downtime alerts, video analytics, Twitter analytics, heat maps, live visitor observation, and many more features.
PRICING: Free version available. Paid plans start at $9.99 monthly for 1,000,000 pages views. 14-day free trial with full features available.
19. MailChimp
Top-notch, easy-to-use Autoresponder – ideally suited to entrepreneurs, with powerful marketing-automation tools. Integrates with “all the major ecommerce providers”. Three advertising channels – Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns that work with Google remarketing ads to increase conversions.
PRICING: Free for up to 2,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails per month. Paid plans start at $10.00 USD per month.
20. Make images with transparent backgrounds
The remove background tool allows you to highlight the subject of your photo and create a transparent background to place your new image into a variety of new designs and destinations. Place it on a colored backdrop or add a new background to put your subject in a completely new environment.
PRICING: FREE
21. Email Your List Daily
Angela Wills teaches you how to start and grow a thriving email list. She calls her email ’letters’ from Angela as if you were writing to a friend. Angela makes email fun and knows how to get your subscribers engaged. I highly recommend her monthly Email Practice Club.
PRICING: $20.00 USD (per month)
Remember that the best tools are the ones you actually need. Don’t over complicate things by choosing too many at once. I hope this list will make it easier for you to make your best-informed choices right now and get started building your awesome business.