Tools To Help You Succeed Online!
Here is a list of various tools that have either proven to be useful in the past or are currently in use. Yes, some of the links below are affiliate links. There is a big warning at the bottom for those of you who need bubble wrap to walk around in.
With each of these suggestions, take a look at the sites that they link to for further details. Each little investment you make in your toolbox needs to pay off.
Contents
Motivation, Mindset and Health
To start off with one thing that you need to understand is that taking the road to becoming an affiliate marketer requires tons of motivation and the proper mindset. You also need to take good care of your health.
Sitting behind a computer staring at the screen all day long, along with the stress that can come with the ups and downs that also come with the business can wear you out.
Audible: I highly recommend that you stop reading books on the computer, Kindle, or other devices. Get into using Audible which has a rich library of various books.
Yes, not all of them are on Audible, and I’m still a little upset because of at the time of this writing I still do not see an Audible version of Tim Ferris’s book Tools of Titans. However, there are plenty of other books available.
My Favorite Book: My favorite book, also as one of the longest titles. Okay, I hope you’re ready for it because here it is: Life Changing Secrets from the Three Masters of Success: Three Habits to Achieve Abundance in Your Finances, Your Relationships, Your Health, and Your Life.
Ok, so it is actually more than one book so that probably explains the title. These are three of the best books on both business and life. Any description I put here will pale against the power that this set of books can deliver.
I implore you to take a look at them. Contact me anytime if you want to know more about these books.
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life: For those of you that like a modern take on life and how to succeed, this is a good book for you. The previous suggestion is my favorite but this one has a modern approach.
Wim Hof Method: Out of anything that I’ve ever participated in when it comes to health, I find the program designed by Wim Hof to be utterly amazing. If you are not familiar with him, he is referred to as the Iceman and has some sort of superhuman will, strength, and endurance.
The program uses breathing techniques, yoga, and other tools along with the main tool which is the cold to help improve and maintain your health. The program is vital for me and I have even converted an ice chest freezer into a tool I use for freezing cold ice baths.
It might sound strange right now but if you get hooked you might end up doing the same.
Standup Desk: I read before or someone had come up with the expression “sitting is the new smoking”. Yes, that seems to be the case and having a standup desk can help to combat that. Pardon me, for being Captain Obvious.
My desks have all been do-it-yourself which helps to keep the price low. Of course, you can always order your own online.
Tools and Resources for Websites
Now into the items that you probably care about the most. There are people that do affiliate marketing without using their own website. You will probably find that having a website is a must-have.
Just to give you fair warning, make sure you do not overload your website with plug-ins if you’re running on WordPress. Having a good host does allow you to add more than a few.
Before going further, full disclosure FollowAPost runs on WPEngine. We also run our largest sites on WPEngine. There is a suggestion below for BlueHost with an explanation as to why.
Name Cheap – Domain Name Registration: Top notch service with an extremely simple interface. Always keep your hosting and domain name registration separate from each other.
WPEngine – Website Hosting: This is good for those of you who are starting out that can afford more expensive hosting. The reason why is due to a nearly failproof structure of backups and support. They make it extremely simple.
For those of you who are more experienced but do not like to hassle with your hosting, CDN and other functions, then this makes sense as well. I have a Pro Plan with them where I run my top ten websites.
BlueHost – Website Hosting: One of the most popular hosts for people just getting started out and are on a budget, or for those of you who run a large number of sites.
WordPress – Content Management System: Out of all the content management systems for building websites, WordPress has taken the internet by storm. It is easy to learn how to use and will soon become your best friend. If someone is telling you to use Squarespace or Wix, they are no friend of yours.
Genesis Framework by Studio Press – WordPress Framework: All of my websites are running on Genesis at the current moment. Their platform and themes are rock solid. The main reason for why you would want to use Genesis is due to how easy it is to use plus the ton of various plugins that people have created to extend the functions of Genesis.
This is extremely important as well for those that are just starting out. I looked into other themes/platforms like Genesis but have not actually tried them out. The Genesis framework and the child themes deliver when it comes to speed and reliability. You will read where Genesis is SEO ready, but I do not fully agree with that statement.
Adding in the Yoast plugin is a must-have in my experience. The good thing is the SEO functions in Genesis step aside and do not cause any interference at all when you use Yoast.
Wealthy Affiliate – Affiliate Training: This is one of the best programs for those who are just starting out in the affiliate marketing arena. There are other programs that are much more expensive while delivering less value. The good thing about Wealthy Affiliate the tremendous amount of support from the other members in the program. If you signup with this link all of us at Top Notch Affiliate will personally guide you through the program and answer any of your questions as soon as we can.
Marketing and Branding
Canva – Image Tool: You should learn how to use Canva and if you have virtual assistants get them used to it as well. Canva allows you to easily pump out images for social media, your website and other functions.
Aweber – Email List Automation and Maintenance: For larger lists and greater control than what you get with MailChimp.
MailChimp – Email List Automation and Maintenance: For smaller sites and those just beginning. It is powerful and works well but can get pricey as your list grows and does not have as many functions as what you get with AWeber.
Buffer – Social Media Automation: Buffer integrates to IFTT which is highly important. Yeah, yeah I have heard about MeetEdgar but I do not find them to have that many more functions beyond what you see in Buffer. You can find that here.
Envato Elements – Digital Assets for Projects: this is one of the best products from Envato that provides creatives with a massive and ever-expanding library of digital assets for a variety of projects. The images on this page are from Envato Elements and were easy enough to find.I
You need this is if you want access to a large collection of graphics, illustrations, fonts, HTML templates, and other content. If you need to speed up your marketing and development efforts, then Envato Elements could be just what you’re looking for.
WordPress Plugins
Optin Monster – Drive Email Signups: This is an excellent plugin for building your email list through conversion optimization & lead generation software. It has a lot of functions all in one system that can be used on multiple websites if you have the proper license. Yes, AppSumo also has as many functions and a few more but the price can get out of hand with having multiple sites.
Mail Chimp for WordPress – Sign up Form and Integration: This integrates with WPForms, Contact Form 7, and other plugins. This is done through a simple checkbox, which in turn helps you to build your list. It also provides a way to easily add signups on pages and widgets.
Be sure to add a signup to your list on the redirect page for people that leave comments. You can do this with the Yoast Comment Hack.
Yoast Comment Hack – Comments: A lot of cool functions to help engage with the commenters including a thank you page for first-time commentators. Could be nice as well since Disquis can slow things down.
Table of Contents Plus – Improve Article Readability: Do you see the table of contents at the top? That was created by TOC+. It automatically creates a context-specific index or table of contents for long pages and custom post types.
This is extremely easy to configure and setup. It can also output a sitemap listing the pages and categories across your site. One note is to learn about the setting for the “exclude headings” to remove things such as the related posts from the table of contents.
WP Insert – Legal Pages and Advertisements: This is an easier way to create the legal pages(Privacy Policy, Terms & Conditions, Disclaimer, Copyright) needed for your website. You can also insert ads, tracking codes, footer information and more.
Yuzo Related Post – Related Posts: YARPP is better than this plugin but YARPP is not allowed on some hosts so we use this one. Use this to increase the amount of time the readers stay on your site.
WP Rocket – Increase Website Speed: Excellent plugin for speeding up your sites. One of the main things I like about this is the integration to CloudFlare. The integration gives you an interface to make changes to CloudFlare without having to login.