Top Resources

As part of this blog, I want to share all the tools I use to make money online within niche markets.

Many of them are free, such as the blogging platform I use to create all my blogs (including this one), and some are paid tools that enhance or speed up the processes I use to create my income.

They’re more or less in the order you’ll need them, assuming you want to create niche blogs/sites.

Please Note: Some of the links below are affiliate links and I will earn a commission if you purchase through those links (at no extra cost to you). I have experience of all the tools I’ve listed below and I recommend them because I know that they can help you achieve similar results.  In most cases, you do not require them to be successful, they are simply an aid to increase your effectiveness.

Affiliate Marketing Course

I always suggest that if you want to make money online, you start out as an affiliate, making commission by promoting other people’s products. It’s quicker to get started and doesn’t require you to know about product creation or deal with any of the more intricate stuff… With the right mentor, you can be making money pretty quickly.

Mr Super Affiliate – There are very few people that I wholeheartedly recommend when it comes to learning how to make money online, but this guy is definitely one of the them. This course will show you the EXACT workings behind a Super Affiliate’s entire business.

Product Creation and Marketing Course

If you’re planning to build a long-term successful business online (and I’m guessing you are), then the fastest route is to find a system that works to make money and then replicate it. Creating your own products is the way in which most of the most successful marketers earn their money on the internet… And is doesn’t have to be difficult or complicated…

Instant Internet Lifestyle – My mentor Lee is currently giving you the chance to get access to his entire product creation course that was filmed live at a seminar in Manchester, UK. He’s trained some of the UK’s biggest and most successful marketers including James Watson, Daniel Wagner, Dean Holland and George Brown. I have a copy of this and I still refer to it today to improve my profits.

Niche Research

Market Samurai – This is a fantastic tool for researching your niche market quickly and easily. I created a Market Samurai review on my YouTube channel if you’d like to find out more.

Google Keyword Tool – This is part of the Google Adwords suite of tools, but you can access it even if you don’t have a Google Adwords account. If you’d like to find out how to use it, check out my video on How To Do Keyword Research.

SEO Book Keyword Tools – SEO Book provides a suite of excellent keyword tools (both free and paid) which are awesome for niche research.

Domains and Hosting

GoDaddy – This is where you can register your domain names (the address for your site), however I would avoid their hosting packages completely and instead use BlueHost (below).

BlueHost (Hosting Account Provider) – I made the mistake of not using BlueHost as my main hosting provider when I started out. I’m now transferring everything to BlueHost. It’s fast, it has great support and is easy-to-use.

Blog/Niche Site Setup

WordPress – Originally created as a blogging platform, this has become the most well-respected content management software (CMS) on the internet. It’s very search engine friendly and allows a huge amount of personalisation, both in terms of looks and functionality. It rocks.

WordPress Themes

WordPress’ Free Themes – These are the basic themes that WordPress offers. They allow you to customise the look of your site. The down side is that they’re widely used and are often not very professional-looking.

Solostream Themes – I’ve used Solostream themes for three of my affiliate sites and their stuff works very well. You can get free themes but they don’t have the same professional look and level of support as you get with Solostream.

Sales Site Setup

OptimizePress – This is one of my very favourite tools for WordPress. It makes setting up lead capture pages, sales pages and even membership sites incredibly easy. This is exactly what I use for all my opt-in pages and sales pages too. It rocks. Simple.

Website Graphics

99Designs -This is a very clever way of getting your graphics done. You submit a brief for a design, and 99 designers come up with their vision of it. You only pay for the design you like as the finished product!

Fiverr – This is one of my favourite sites and I’ve had literally hundreds of bits of work done by outsourcers for $5. Great for e-book cover graphics and social bookmarking.

Screen Capture Tools

Camtasia – This is by far the best tool to use to create excellent over-the-shoulder style tutorials (all my videos are made with this software). It also provides you with a suite of editing tools to make your videos easy-to-follow and truly professional looking. It’s relatively expensive but totally worth it.

CamStudio – This is a free tool and allows you to do basic screen captures. Don’t think it has much editing capability. I started out using this but quickly graduated to Camtasia (above).

Payment Processors

Clickbank – Perhaps the most well-known of the payment platforms in the world of internet marketing, Clickbank allows you to run your own affiliate program, with thousands of affiliates in hundreds of niches ready to promote your product. You can also join as an affiliate yourself and get paid to promote other people’s products.

Paypal- This site allows you to set up an account to take payments, including the ability to create Paypal payment buttons for your site. Also has the option to create donation buttons for charity causes.

Traffic Generation

Traffic Dashboard – When it comes to getting traffic (visitors) to your site, you need someone who’s created massive traffic and can teach you how to do the same thing. This masterclass from Kim Roach is brilliant and shows you only the methods that REALLY work.

Search Engine Optimisation

SEO Pressor – This is a brilliant plugin for your WordPress site that allows you to see exactly what you need to do to rank your blog posts in the search engines (particularly Google). It has a display that displays the effectiveness of your post as a percentage, making it easy to adjust your post to rank better, faster!

Backlinking

FastAttack Links – Building backlinks (literally ‘links back’) to your site from other reputable sites within your market is vital if you want the search engines to pay attention to you. They can also help make advertising on Google cheaper. This course shows you how to get 1000′s of quality backlinks for free. I have a copy and use it with all my sites.

Outsourcing Central

Elance – This allows you to post your job description and then have people bid to be the provider for it. You can set hourly or project fees and have access to thousands of outsourcers in minutes.

Odesk – Similar to Elance, this service has a unique selling point in that it allows you to remotely watch your outsourcer to ensure that they’re only doing the work you ask them to do, rather than wasting time on Facebook and then billing you for that too.

SpeechPad – A great transcription service. You send them the audio files you want transcribed, they send you back the transcript. Simples. Great for adding a PDF manual to audio products to provide more value and make more money.

Books To Help You Succeed Faster

A Bug Free Mind by Andy Shaw

The One Minute Millionaire by Mark Victor Hansen and Robert Allen

The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss

How I Made My First Million on the Internet… by Ewen Chia