When you are building a business presence online, it is easy to get overwhelmed by information overload as you try to determine where to start and what to do next. Below is a list of trusted sources that I have either used, or reputable sources that I feel good recommending to you because I know who they are. I have separated them into specific topics to make it easier for you to find what you are looking for. There are both paid and free sources listed below. Go through each one, and determine which sources are most useful to you.
Website Building:
All businesses, even brick and mortar ones, should have an online presence. One of the best ways to do this is with your own website. If you are just starting to develop an online presence for your existing offline business or you are starting solely an online business, this is where you need to start. You can either hire someone to build your website or you can do it yourself. In either case, make sure that it is built using WordPress.
(1.) Learn how to build your own website – WordPress is one of the best platforms with which to build your website, as it is easy to go behind the scenes and update your site. If you want to learn how to use WordPress to build your own website, this course will teach you that and much more.
(2.) Make a website in a weekend – This course doesn’t have everything that the one listed above has, but it is a bit less expensive and it may be all that you need to get started. Only you know how much help or support you may need. Compare the two, and see which one better fits your needs.
(3.) Free Webinar on how to make a living with wordpress – Give 45 minutes of your time to learn three ways to make money with WordPress.
(4.) Instabuilder Sales Pages – This is what I use to build my wordpress sales pages and sales funnels. You do not need to know any coding as it’s all drag and drop technology. You can even integrate this with selling platforms like JV Zoo. What is great is that you can export your templates so that once you create a template, you can use it over and over again for future products that you plan to sell.
(5.) Namecheap – This is the company that I use to buy my domain names for my websites.
(6.) Hostgator – This is who I use for my domain hosting. Use the following Coupon Code for $9.94 Discount: ToolsIUseDiscount
Updating Your Existing WordPress Website:
If your wordpress website already exists, but you do not know how to update it and do things behind the scenes, this can be very frustrating as you have to wait for someone else to have to do it for you. It can also get very expensive if you have to hire someone every time you need to make a minor change to your site. This is why it is important to know how to do some of the behind-the-scenes work yourself from time to time. The course listed below will teach you how to use wordpress.
(1.) Learn how to use wordpress – The creator of this product currently has no sales page, but I know this product contains around 10 videos (I bought it in November 2014) and will show you how to work within your WordPress dashboard to do things behind the scenes on your website. And because it was created in late 2014, the information is still current. I also believe it has transcripts for each video. (Note as of May 4/15: I’ve been in contact with the creator, and will add the names of all the videos in a few days so check back for that).
Choosing a Shopping Cart:
If you are selling products digitally on your site, you need to use a shopping cart that ensures that only those who have purchased the product get access. My suggestion is to find a shopping cart that also supports an affiliate program. You will find more below about setting up your affiliate program.
(1.) Amember (This is what I use on my sites; it acts as a shopping cart and has an affiliate program. You can also use it for membership sites.)
Learn about Amember under “Setting up your Affiliate Program” below. I also previously wrote a post about all the shopping carts that I have used.
Setting up your Affiliate Program:
Set up an affiliate program so that others will want to spread the word about your business and grow your business.
(1.) Course to teach you how to set up your affiliate program – Learn about affiliate programs and how to get people to promote you, including setting up resources for people to use to promote you.
(2.) Amember – As I mentioned above, Amember is the script I use as a “cart” to sell my digital products securely (i.e. prevents theft of your products by people who haven’t purchased your product) and to run my affiliate program. I also use Amember to deliver products that I sell on JV Zoo.com. You need to purchase the Amember script. They will install it for you on your domain, but then you need to set it all up yourself. I love everything that I can do with Amember, but the documentation for set-up is not very good.
Fortunately, there is a separate course that can be purchased that teaches you how to use Amember. Of course, you could always hire a Virtual Assistant to do all the set-up and then teach you how to use Amember, and that is certainly an option. No matter what though, you will want to know how to use Amember to some degree so that you don’t have to wait on someone else to make minor changes for you from time to time.
Here is a link to the Amember course that will teach you how to set it up and use it to add and sell your digital products securely. I own this course too, and it’s all broken up into bite-size videos showing you what to do.
(3.) 10 Ways to Recognize a Good Affiliate Program – Free Slideshare report that I wrote. This will give you ideas for affiliate programs you join, as well as what kind of affiliate program you want to set up.
Creating an Email List using Autoresponders:
You’ve probably heard that “the money is in the list.” Well, it’s true. You need to begin building a list sooner than later. There are a few options for autoresponders. If you decide to use Amember mentioned above, it has a built-in autoresponder service, and the Amember course teaches you how to set it up using SMTP (such as Mandrill). The advantage of this is that there can be much lower monthly costs.
My preference, however, is to use a paid autoresponder service as my list is important to me, and I don’t want to lose it. The two autoresponder options I have used and recommend are:
(1.) Get Response
(2.) Aweber
I find that Aweber has a nicer interface/dashboard within and is the one most people usually speak about, but Get Response has better prices (especially when growing your list to your first 1000 subscribers) and better hours (24/7 live chat). Compare both sites for prices, and ease of use before deciding which one you like better. Both Aweber and Get Response also integrate with the Amember script I discuss above.
(3.) Learn how to create your email list – So once you sign up to an autoresponder service above, you need to know how to use it so that you can grow your email list while profiting by giving your list information that they desire from you. This course will walk you through all of that. I also believe that this course refers to Aweber in particular, so you may want to consider that when deciding which autoresponder to sign up with.
Content for your Business –
Depending what type of business you have, you might need content for your website, your autoresponder emails, pamphlets, books that you are putting together for sale, videos that want to upload to You Tube to advertise your business, and so forth. If you do this all by yourself, it’s going to take A LOT of your time. You need a shortcut. The least expensive way to do this is to use private label rights (PLR) content.
(1.) PLR Providers – I have two PLR sites, Buy Health PLR and Best PLR Central
Here is a list of other quality PLR providers, with other topics that may not be on my site.
(2.) PLR to Profits course – Learn how to use PLR and monetize it to build your business.
(3.) Learn how to create a product to sell – In 42 days you’ll create a product and have it ready to sell – complete with a fully functional sales site, shopping cart, mailing list and affiliate program.
(4.) Plan your offer funnel – Learn how to match an offer to the specific needs of your unique target market in this course, as well as how to leverage content you already have and put it into your offer funnel and more.
(5.) Is your blog too quiet? – Learn about content curation to boost your blog’s visibility and get more traffic.
(6.) Information Product Creation – Read this interview I did with another PLR provider (free).
Graphics Creation:
(1.) Fiverr.com – If you need to have occasional graphics made, and it’s not a good use of your time to learn how to make your own graphics, then Fiverr is a good place to search for someone to hire to make graphics for you. It is free to join there. You just need to pay the contractor for the services you need. You can also find people on Odesk, Elance, and other freelancing sites.
(2.) How to Make your Own Graphics – If you need to make graphics quickly and don’t want to wait for someone else to do it all the time, then you may want to invest in a course to learn how to use Gimp (free software). This could also be useful if part of your plan is to earn a living creating graphics for others.
(3.) Pic Monkey – I use the free version of this program (it’s pretty easy to use). It also has some nice paid features, and the price is very reasonable if you do want to upgrade.
(4.) Canva – Again, this is another free program. You will only have to pay a small price ($1) if you want to use one of their stock images, but you don’t need to. Here is a brief video I did demonstrating Canva.
(5.) Image Monthly – This subscription provides you with monthly images and training on use of images for your business.
(6.) The Logo Creator – This is something else that I own, and it works really well. It is what I used to create my Itunes cover and my affiliate graphics. There are some people that make online businesses simply creating graphics for others using this software. It is not photoshop, but it also doesn’t come with the frustrations of learning photoshop.
(7.) Dough Boy Graphics – At only $5, this is a steal. I use these graphics all the time.
(8.) Product Creator Pro – I use this. Use this for professional-looking documents in minutes. No need to learn Photoshop! Great for all authors, including Kindle authors. You also get a free trial.
(9.) Ecover Creator – This is another tool useful for creating ebook covers, especially if you use PLR.
Full Packages
(1.) Everything you need to get started – If you don’t want to buy several courses separately, this might be your best option to get everything to get your online business off the ground. When I started out, the first thing I learned was how to make websites. Then I expanded into learning how to create an email list, make and and promote my products.
Screen Capture/Video Software:
If you buy PLR PowerPoint slides, this is a must to turn the PowerPoint into a video. It is also necessary if you plan to make videos of your computer screen for publishing on You Tube, etc.
(1.) Screencast-o-matic – Don’t waste your money on Camtasia. You can use the free version of Screencast-o-matic or get the premium version for only $15/year. I started with the free version, but now I use the premium version as I can then record longer videos, upload them directly to You Tube, make edits, and there is no Screencast-o-matic watermark logo on my videos, etc.
(2.) Jing – This is made by the makers of Camtasia. I have a free version of Jing installed on my computer, but I use it mainly for screenshots. You can also use it for recording your screen.
Check back soon as I will be adding more information over the coming weeks!
Are you looking for something that I have not included? Please contact me with your questions.