The Web Wrangler

These are some of the go-to resources and products I use in my own business. Some are free, but the ones that aren’t are worth the price.

Blogging & Content Management

Blogger – IM unpopular O, you can’t beat Blogger for a free blog or website. Unlike WordPress.com, which makes you pay for an upgrade if you want more than the very basic functionality, Blogger puts no limits on what you’re allowed to do. The new Template Designer provides dozens of customization options, and if you know HTML or CSS, you can create a totally custom template, completely free of Blogger buttons or branding. And for only $10 a year, you can even set it up on your own domain.

WordPress – not to be confused with WordPress.com, the self-hosted version of WordPress has evolved from a blog engine to a powerful Content Management System. With WordPress and an almost infinite selection of plugins and widgets, there’s almost nothing you can’t do with a WordPress site. And it’s still free.

WordPress Plugin Directory – This is the place to find the plugins that will extend the functionality of your self-hosted WordPress blog or web site.

WooThemes – These are some of the best and most versatile premium WordPress themes on the market. If you need more convincing, just read my post on why I’ll never go back to working with free themes if I can help it.

NattyWP Themes – NattyWP also offers some pretty great premium themes, and their prices can’t be beat. My own web site is built on NattyWP’s PLAY theme.

MailChimp – For managing subscribers and keeping in touch with my readers and clients, I use MailChimp. It’s the easiest and most trouble-free e-mail campaign management program I’ve used, and even better, it’s totally free if you have under 1,000 subscribers.

Wufoo Forms – Easy embeddable e-mail forms. From contact forms to surveys, you can use Wufoo to create web forms that you can include on web pages, in blog posts, in e-mails, etc. It also has built-in MailChimp integration. And it’s free for up to 3 forms.

HostSo – If you want a self-hosted WordPress site, you’ll need a web host. I use and highly recommend HostSo. Their prices are great, setup is easy, and their lightning fast customer service has never let me down.

Social Networking & Twitter

Hootsuite – This app is a lifesaver. You can read my long review here, but the short version is that it’s a dashboard for reading and posting to all of your social networks. It has automation settings to integrate your blog with your networks, and it allows you to draft Twitter and Facebook updates and schedule them for a later time. I don’t know how I managed before I discovered Hootsuite.

JustUnfollow and TwitCleaner – one of the keys to Twitter success is being selective about who you follow. These two apps help weed out deadbeats, spammers, and other types of questionable behavior to keep your Following list limited to quality Twitterers.

TweetAdder – If you want to build your following fast, TweetAdder is a great tool. It lets you automate everything, from searching for and following relevant Twitterers to following back those who follow you. It also lets you create Auto DMs, which are the bane of my existence, but I thought I’d mention it in case you’d like to set them up anyway.

Internet Business Courses

3DayMoney – A couple of months ago, I took advantage of a limited-time supersale to purchase a mega-package of over a dozen Internet business courses from some of the industry’s top gurus and speakers. 3DayMoney by David Risley was the first course I took, and so far it’s the only one… because Risley over-delivers to the point that I’m still going through the material. This course has changed my approach to earning an income through blogging, and helped me understand online marketing principles that I couldn’t quite grasp before. If you only take one class in blogging and Internet marketing, make it this one.

Productivity

Free Planners from Productive Flourishing – I have
ADD. As such, I have a VERY hard time finding a time organization and productivity system that works for me. I’ve been using Productive Flourishing’s Action Planners for over a month now, which I think is some kind of record for how long I’ve stuck with a single system–because it WORKS. It’s structured enough to organize my scattered thoughts into action steps, and flexible enough that I don’t feel locked in or trapped the way I tend to with other systems. Now I don’t think I could run my business effectively without these planners.