Essential Tools
Starting a business online can be a little daunting to say the least.
Having the right plan and strategy with some idea of where you want to get to is essential but what most folk want is some guidance as to “how to do stuff!”
- How do I set up a website?
- Should I have a blog as well?
- What’s a domain name and where do I get one?
- How do I accept money for my goods/services?
- Do I need a new computer?
- What about broadband, do I need that?
- How much is all of this going to cost?
- Where the heck do I start?
All good, valid questions and I’ll get to the answers, as best I can, in due course.
But first, this page is all about the tools – the stuff you might need for your business. Notice I say, “the stuff you might need”, depending on your business model you may not need everything here.
Here’s the Tool Kit
Roboform – a little bit of security software that sits on your PC and remembers all the passwords and login credentials to all the myriad of sites you’re a member of. Hugely timesaving and extremely secure.
At the time of writing I’ve got over 170 websites that require logins – I used to keep them all in a book, but Roboform is so much more effective at completing forms accurately and so much more efficient use of my time.
Aweber – probably the best known autoresponder service available.
Along with PayPal, this has to rank as a must.
You will be gathering prospect’s and customer’s email address and then you’ll be communicating with them. Aweber will manage this incredibly efficiently and any emails you send out through Aweber are more likely to actually get to your customer’s inbox than with any other autoresponder service I could mention.
PayPal – Maybe not the only way to accept payments but the market leader, especially for small, start-up internet businesses.
Get yourself a Premium or Business account now!
E-Junkie – A cheap and efficient way of having a shopping cart and safely distributing your products, whether digital or physical. I started out with e-junkie and can highly recommend them
DLGuard – I switched over to DLGuard because it became a cheaper option, and in my mind a better one for me. Whereas e-junkie is a small monthly payment (great for starting out), DLGuard is a one-off payment for the licence for the software, so in the long run DLGuard is so much cheaper and just as good.
Dreamhost – This is a hosting company. This is the company that’s going to store all the files that make up your websites and blogs.
They are a great starting point for web hosting as they’re low cost and easy to use.
Join now and get $20 off your first year’s hosting – my treat! Just enter ARMCHAIR when prompted for a discount code. I know, I’m great aren’t I. lol
Other option to consider: HostGator (actually preferred IF you’re installing DLGuard – it’s just easier)
Namecheap – This is where I suggest your buy your domain names from.
Once again, a competitive, low cost option that’s got good customer service and an easy-to-use website
Headway – By all accounts THE WordPress theme to have if you don’t like messing with html, CSS or you don’t understand what I just said!
Market Samurai – This keyword research tool is simply amazing. I really don’t know what I’d do without it. Actually, to use it just to research keywords would be to use a mere fraction of its capabilities. My favourite part so far (there’s loads of it I’m not using as yet!) is the competition analysis – but to see the full range of what it can do for you and your business, why not take it for a free trial
Well, that’s all for now. I’ll update with more goodies soon.
Peter
