Tools For You

Tools and Resources

The following are tools and resources that will help your business.  Everyone has a different approach that is unique to their personality so I wanted to list a few items that includes tools that I might not even use for myself but have been of great value to others that I know who use them.  So I wanted to make sure I list items that have a good reputation, are trustworthy, and that are recommended by either myself or others.

Tweet Adder

With Tweet Adder, you can arrange for a daily follow limit plus the program will locate people related to your  niche or topic that you can follow and you’ll never have to worry about getting slapped from Twitter. This allows you to spend time on the more important component of Twitter, which is interacting with your followers and developing that relationship of trust which is vital to the success of your business.  Tweet Adder does not require a monthly payment, but just a one time payment.  Should you sign up for a smaller plan, you will only be charged the difference in order to upgrade to a bigger plan.

EZS3

EZs3 is a media service for video/audio producers who have an Amazon S3 account(media hosting) and would like to spend the majority of their time creating their video/audio without spending so much time programming.  EZS3 will take the technical aspect out of it — which will allow you to efficiently upload your files, build video players, mp3 players, then publish your media on to your website.  They also have a full statistics program to inform you how many people clicked onto your video/audio, or read your pdf.

EZS3 allows  you to easily upload or download media files with a click, drag, and drop mechanism.   You could also quickly create folders and move files around.  Again, you’ll need an Amazon s3 hosting account of which EZs3 provide directions how to set up and connect eZs3 to your Amazon S3 account.  EZs3 requires a monthly subscription which is approximately $20/month but is a great option if you want a more professional appearance for your videos as opposed to using YouTube.

HostGator

HostGator has a great track record as a web host and is an ideal for those who need a dependable, affordable, easy-to-use service for their websites.  They provide shared plans, VPS plans, dedicated servers, and even reseller hosting.

They also have one of the 99.9% uptime guarantees should your website become low-level or unreachable for over an hour.  This means you have access to emailing them or using the 24/7 live phone/chat support .  Their packages also include video tutorials, add-ons, and forums.

Hostgator provides service to more than one million websites and lead as a host reseller to more than 20,000 accounts.  Their shared hosting plans start as low as about $4/month, but most customers that I know use the unlimited baby plan which will cost about $10/month.

Keyword Research

Google Keyword Tool – This tool is FREE to use and is probably the most commonly used tool out there for obvious reasons.  It is best to create a Google account so that you don’t have to keep typing the “Captcha” words every time you use the tool.  Just a side note, it’s best to use the “exact” words/phrase by clicking the little box next to the word “Exact” in the left side of your screen.  This way you can see more precisely what kind of competition your keyword/phrase really has and how much traffic it is drawing each month according to Google.

Market Samurai – This is a tool that is more commonly known for it’s detailed keyword research, but you can also use it to analyze your SEO competition, help with deciding on a keyword targeted domain name, and to build high authority backlinks to name a few things.  Probably the most popular paid tool out there.  It’s a one time fee for the tool that you can start with a free trial.  (Hint: If you’ve previously tried the trial version of Market Samurai, you can still get the promotional price of $97 by using a different email addy.  That way you don’t have to pay the normal $149.  Thought I’d help you save a few bucks there.  )

(This page is a work in progress. More to come)