People often ask me what particular products and services I use to run my web business. This page is where I get to talk about my favorites. Some of these are free and some cost a little bit. I am an affiliate of some of these products so if you sign up to them after clicking my link I get a commission and this can only be a good thing for the Elbinger family. In fact, if you really like me, you will make sure to come back and click on these links again directly before signing up. This ensures that I get my small slice of the pie without costing you a penny!
For Beginners:
If you want to make money but:
- you are not technologically savvy
- you are new to web business
- you know nothing about setting up a website or marketing it
- you are not sure what your site should be about
then I recommend you sign up for SBI. It’s the only program that gives you all the tools you need, shows you how to use them and then actually holds your hand while you do it. I personally know several Orthodox Jewish men and women who have created web sites with SBI and are now earning real money (after a lot of hard work). In addition, the SBI folks are the most friendly, sincere and helpful people you could hope to meet (especially in the shark-infested waters of Internet Marketing)! This video tour of SBI says it all.
WordPress Websites:
While SBI is good for making money, it is limited in design and functionality and it won’t suit every business. Especially if you are technically oriented and you really want to learn how to do web marketing at a top-tier level, then these are the products and services I recommend:
WordPress - this is the Blogging software/Content Management System of choice for millions of people around the world, including me. It’s free!
Web Hosting: I’ve been using Hostgator for 2 years and their service is incredible. You can call or chat with them 24/6 and they will help you with your every question. Hint: If you are new to websites, you will have a lot of questions. Hosting with Hostgator starts at $8 month (to get your first month for 1 cent, use the coupon code 1 cent). Check out Hostgator
If you want something simpler and cheaper, I have heard good things about FatCow hosting, which costs only $56 a year and includes a domain name, but I have never tried them personally.
Whatever you choose, don’t use the free site-builder tools offered by most web hosts – they are terrible for SEO. Use WordPress!
Domain Registration: I use Name.com.
Free WordPress Theme: A Theme is a design/layout template for your blog/website. There are thousands of free WordPress themes available. The ones I recommend are Natty WP, if you are looking for something clean and simple, or Swift if you want something more customizable and are willing to fiddle a lot. There are many other good free themes.
Paid WordPress Themes: If you are looking for a super-customizable theme so that you can easily change the design and layout of your site , then I recommend Headway. Headway is the premium theme which I am using on this blog and a few other sites I have made. Headway also has the incredible SEO software built in. It’s a small one-time investment that is well worth it if you are the creative type who wants your site to look just right. Check out Headway.
Web Development/Design/Graphics: I have saved a lot of money by outsourcing these tasks through oDesk
. I’ve used Odesk to hire workers in the Phillipines, India, and Romania and in general my experience has been very good. However, you have to choose your contractors carefully and supervise their work very closely. Good English communication is a very important criteria, unless you happen to be fluent in Hindi. Outsourcing using oDesk
is the easiest and most affordable way to find professionals to do your work. Check out oDesk
Payment Processing: You should start with a PayPal business account, which is the cheapest, easiest way to start accepting credit cards online. Once your revenue really takes off, you will want to explore getting your own merchant account.
Marketing Tools I Use
Email Marketing: Every web-business should use email marketing to grow a loyal base of repeat visitors and customers. I’ve been using MadMimi because it is so very simple to use and their support could not be better (and they are based in Israel!). Great support is always important. MadMimi’s trial plan lets you send unlimited emails to up to 100 subscribers for free, so you can try it out at no risk. Check out MadMimi.
Email Opt-in Popup: If the goal of your website is to gather people’s email addresses or other details, then you have to use a popup. Otherwise your leads will just pass you by, never to be seen again. I use PopUp Domination because it has all the features and yet is inexpensive and so very easy to install – anyone can do it. Also it gives you a lot of flexibility about when the popup will show and how often, so you won’t annoy your visitors. If you aim to grow your email list, then PopUp Domination is one investment you need to make. I apologize for the very long and over-the-top video on the sales page. Just skip that and try the demo. Although the marketing tactics might make you want to hurl, this product comes with a 60-day money-back guarantee from Clickbank, so it’s totally secure. Check out PopUp Domination
SEO: I have recently started using the Scribe SEO plugin to help me optimize my writing. It makes it easy and quick to optimize my writing so that the search engines will like my content. See Scribe SEO In Action!
SEO Plugins: If you are not using a premium theme like Headway, you will need a good SEO plugin, like All-in-One-SEO. This plugin does not replace Scribe. They work together.
Live Chat: Live chat can be a great way to increase sales on an e-commerce site by making it easy for customers to talk to you. Zopim is a live chat software with free edition that is more than adequate for most small business. I use Zopim and there is no reason why you shouldn’t too.
There are lots more tools that I use, but those are the ones that I can think of for now. I’ll keep this page up-to-date.
Contact me if you have any questions!
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