Blogger vs WordPress Blog

FREE DOWNLOAD: 21 Must-Have Online Business Tools

As an entrepreneur, blogger or freelancer, sometimes you are so eager to grow quickly, especially in the early years, that you tend to invest in too many online marketing tools, software and gadgets.

Worst yet, it's easy to get confused and you end up investing in the wrong tools altogether!

Today I am cleaning up the confusion. I've drilled down on my top recommended tools and resources for starting and running your online business.

Here's what you really need to move your business forward, even when you've got a tight budget! 

TRAFFIC BUILDING TOOLS

All-In-One SEO – "The most popular plugin for managing WordPress SEO and Open Graph social meta"

By far the most effective SEO tool in WordPress history, All in One SEO Pack Pro optimizes your WordPress website or blog for search engines and social media networks. All in One SEO Pack Pro is always one major version ahead of the free plugin which means it includes the latest features.

The Pro version includes various other functionality and modules such as advanced WooCommerce support, a Video SEO module (including Video XML Sitemaps), SEO for categories, tags, and custom taxonomies.

Ninja Outreach – "An all purpose influencer marketing tool"

This tool saved me a ton of time! The first time I used it, it was for a blog post that ended up getting input from almost 300 bloggers. The post got shared over 1,300 times and it was the first post on a new website with no email list. NinjaOutreach streamlined the process that helped me form hundreds of relationships with bloggers in my space.

If you're looking to save time, I highly recommend giving this a try. 

SEM Rush – "Benefit from your competitors!"

Launch global campaigns for your website and get all the necessary metrics regarding its competitors, keyword rankings, and on-page health from one place. Get insights into your competitors' strategies in display advertising, organic and paid search, and link building. Cross, combine, and visualize SEMrush data to compare competitive domains and estimate keyword difficulty with a few clicks.

EMAIL MARKETING & LIST BUILDING

Drip – "The best marketing automation platform, hands down"

If you don't already have one, you need an email service provider. This must-have tool allows you to communicate directly with your growing audience and develop relationships with your target market. There are a ton of email service providers out there, so I don't want you to get stuck in the weeds trying to research them all. Drip is an all-around good pick that will grow with you. I love their segmenting and funnel building capabilities the most! With Drip, you can start simple (for just $1!) and move into setting up more sophisticated funnels down the road.

LeadPages – "Get more leads and customers"

LeadPages is my go-to to solution for creating opt-in pages that grow my email list every single day. In fact, I use it to set up opt-ins for all of the freebies on this site. My favorite thing about LeadPages is their drag and drop templates. These make it easy to put together high-converting, designer-approved pages on the fly.

ConvertKit – "Email marketing for professional bloggers"

ConvertKit is my number one recommendation for email list management and building. ConvertKit makes managing your email list and setting up autoresponders so easy and user-friendly. Segmenting my email subscribers into groups so that they get content specific to their individual needs has never been more simple.

Wishpond – "Marketing tools designed to quickly and easily scale a business. No coding required."

This all-in-one marketing automation platform includes not only landing pages without need for coding, but it also has built-in email marketing automation and a host of assets you can use to build your email list in minutes.

OptinMonster – Lead Generation Software That Drives Huge Results, FAST!

This pop-up tool (plus more) converts website visitors into subscribers and customers.  You can create various types of lead generation forms such as lightbox popups, floating bars, slide-ins, and more.

Aweber – "All the tools you need to send emails the right way."

Email is perfect for keeping your brand top of mind and staying connected with those who make a purchase, read your blog or meet you in person. And when you join the community where email automation began, you get access to all features and a team that's 100% devoted to your success.

WEBSITE DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT

Studiopress – "THE INDUSTRY STANDARD FOR Premium WordPress Themes & Plugins"

As you may already know, one of the most flexible, powerful, and smart ways to publish content online is by using WordPress software. Nearly 200k customers trust StudioPress themes for WordPress to bring their content to the world. The main reasons? Built-in SEO, unrivaled site speed, mobile responsive themes, and flexible code…among MANY other advantages.

DIY Themes – "The Ultimate Design and Template Manager for WordPress"

Whether you're running a business website or a personal blog, Thesis is a perfect choice because it enables you to do what other WordPress themes can't. For the first time, you can control every last detail of your site and design with three revolutionary features you won't find in any other WordPress theme: Boxes, Skins and Site Tools.

Weebly – Websites, eCommerce & Marketing in one place. So you can focus on what you love.

Tell your story with a beautiful website, online store or blog. With Weebly's drag and drop website builder, integrated eCommerce platform and responsive themes you can build a professional website without any technical experience.

WishList Member – Unzip, upload, and within minutes you'll have your own membership site!

This online business tool is a powerful, yet easy to use membership software solution that can turn any WordPress site into a full-blown membership site. Just unzip and upload the plugin, and within minutes you'll have your own membership site up and running… complete with protected, members-only content, integrated payments, member management, and so much more!

Optimizepress – Marketing Site Creation, Made Easy…

What Can You Create With OptimizePress? Now you can create almost any kind of pages for your business inside WordPress Edit your pages with our 100% Live editor – meaning you see the changes you make to your content and layout live on the page.  No need to refresh, preview or reload… OptimizePress comes in WordPress Theme & Plugin formats, so is fully integrated with the WordPress CMS.  You can use the plugin version of OP with any other theme if you want to keep your main blog design.

 

CONVERSION TOOLS

Center – "Your marketing command center"

It sees what your customers are doing in ALL of your sales and marketing apps… and Automates Across All of Them! Studies have found that an average of 68% of e-commerce transactions are abandoned before they're completed. With Center, you can automatically send a reminder email to anyone who didn't complete their order. People are highly engaged with your product just after purchase, so it's an ideal time to present any upsell offers that could enhance their experience. You can add targeted upsell offers to your onboarding sequence with a simple rule in Center.

SamCart – "Pick a gorgeous template and start selling!"

I finally decided to try SamCart after dozens of my friends and peers in online marketing had huge success using the checkout page platform. So, I guess I shouldn't have been shocked that my sales increased almost instantly when I made the switch. Not to mention, I saved thousands of dollars in development fees.

Still, my favorite thing about SamCart is that it seamlessly integrates with all of my other tools. This allows me to launch my courses faster, with the confidence that all the pieces of my funnel will play nicely together.

Deadline Funnel – This will help you "sell more in less time."

Use: This will create deadlines for your leads and make them want to "take action now." It will help you increase your conversion rates and it can integrate with most email providers and web platforms.

DOMAINS & WEB HOSTING TOOLS

NameCheap – "Register Your Domains from $0.88"

You'll need a domain name if you don't have one already. Search for the one you want and purchase it at the click of a button, or transfer your domain to the most cost-effective provider on the web.

WP Engine – "THE WORLD'S MOST POWERFUL MANAGED WORDPRESS HOSTING"

Speed up WordPress with this hosting provider's baked in CDN, super fast servers and amazing up-time. WP Engine provides best-in-class customer service on top of innovation-driven technology. This is why over50,000 customers in 120 countries have chosen them for their mission critical WordPress hosting needs.

WireNine – Secure & reliable hosting optimized for fast page load times with CDN, SSL and DDoS protection!

WireNine has been providing reliable web hosting services for over 12 years to customers in over 65 countries. Our award winning hosting services combined with 24/7 friendly US-based support are the perfect platform for any kind of website – from small to medium sized wordpress blogs to large e-commerce based online stores, rest assured you're in good hands.

Bluehost – The Best Web Hosting Starting at $7.99 $3.95/month*

All of my niche websites are hosted on Bluehost. Why? Because they make it incredibly easy to get a new site up and running with their one-click automatic WordPress Blog installation. Even Unfunnel.com started on Bluehost's easy-to-use and extremely affordable hosting platform. You can use your Bluehost account to host multiple domains so there's no need to pay more for hosting when you're ready to start another website. Also, they provide outstanding customer service!

I highly recommend using Bluehost for your first website, and you can get started now at only $2.75/month, which is an exclusive Unfunnel Growth Labs member deal!

NOTE: I currently use or have used all of the resources on this page and I HIGHLY recommend all of them. Many of these links are affiliate links, which means I may get a commission if you purchase. However, none of the fees of these resources have been increased to compensate me.

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Source: 21 Must-Have Tools For Online Business Building in 2017