Here are the tools that I use in my business. I also mention a few that I no longer use or that other people have recommended so that you can choose which ones to try yourself. I give my reasons why I don’t use them.
I also include some paid tools that I would not be without. Please use this table to jump to the resources you are interested in.
Table of Resources
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1. Product Creation
2. Screen Capture
3. Graphics
4. Website Creation
5. WordPress Plugins
6. Website Testing
7. Productivity
8. Converting File Types Tools
9. Social Media
Product Creation Tools
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Audacity – Audio recording software. I use this for all of my audio trainings. It is really easy to use and to edit if you need to.
Windows Movie Maker – This usually comes with your computer for free. It is a great video editing software. If you don’t have it then you can download it for free.
PDF Converter – You can use this free online tool to create a PDF and also to convert a PDF file into a word document (provided there aren’t too many images or the file size is too big).
Screen Capture
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Camstudio -I used to use this but an update made it unreliable on my computer so I no longer use it. However, it might be fine for you.
Screencapstudio -This is now the screen capture software that I use. In fact I find it is better than camstudio. Everything is nicely laid out as a step by step process to follow.
Jing – I use this mostly for capturing pictures on my screen rather than for video screen captures. However, you can use it for videos up to 5 minutes long.
Graphics
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Logomaker – You can use this site to create and design your own logos. I haven’t used it as I own some software that does a good job (Laughing Bird Software)
3d-pack – A really useful site for creating ebook covers that look great. Providing you have the graphics you can upload them and then an ecover produced for an ebook, CDs or DVDs.
The Science Behind Colors – This site gives some very useful information about colors and what they mean. It is a good place to go to find out the colors that will match your business niche.
Ecover design – A lot of marketers like this site for creating ecovers. However I found that it didn’t produce as good quality graphics as 3d-pack site does.
Canva Book Cover Templates – Great site for designing your own book covers and more. Just make sure that you get the license that will cover what you need.
Free Icons Web – A great site for downloading icon graphics that are free for you to use.
Paint.net – I use this a lot for creating my own designs and editing photos or pictures. I’ll be honest, it took me a while to get the hang of some of the more advanced features but the online help is very good.
PSD Paint.net Plugin – This is a plugin to add to your paint.net program that will enable you to open and edit photoshop (PSD) files.
Image Compressor – Use this online tool to optimize your images. You can upload images from your computer or you can add the url of images on your site.
Website Creation
Recommended WordPress Plugins
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https://wordpress.org/plugins/exclude-pages/ – An easy to use plugin that will prevent certain pages from being visible on your website. It will stop them from being part of your navigation.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/simply-exclude/ – Another easy to use plugin that will prevent certain pages from being visible on your website. I tend to use the one above more often.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordfence/ – A good security plugin that will scan your site and block know hackers and IP addresses. It will send you an email if there is anything suspicious or if any plugins need updating.
Website Testing Tools
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Website Speed
https://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/ – Free online tool that will test the speed of your website. I like this tool as it is easy to see quickly what might be slowing your site down. I like that it provides you with a score and how fast (or slow) your site is compared to others.
What’s Above The Fold
https://www.foldtester.com/ – This online tool will give you a view of your website as your visitors would. It let’s you analyse where your fold is and if you have the important parts of your website (opt in form) above the fold. This is good to know to make sure you are making the most of your content above the fold.
Checking Backlinks
https://ahrefs.com/site-explorer/ – An easy tool to sue to find out how many links you have to your site. You can also use it to analyse your competitions website as well. Although I don’t spend a lot of time looking at back links as I believe you can easily get caught up into the trap of trying to manipulate your rankings, this tool is useful to see if you are obtaining back links naturally.
Malware Scanner
https://sitecheck2.sucuri.net/ – This tool will scan your website for malware.
SEO Checker
https://freeseoscorecard.com – This is a neat little tool. You can 3 scores for free. You can edit the results to get a feel for how your score would change if you implemented the changes on your site.
Productivity Tools
7 sticky notes – This is a sticky note tool for a PC. It is much better than the windows 7 sticky note that you get for free. I love this free tool and also the note manager that comes with it. I have written more about it on my post: 7 Sticky Notes
Converting File Types Tools
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https://www.coolutils.com/ – This is a site that will convert files into different formats for you. Scroll down the page and you will see the free conversion tools. Here are some of them:
- Online Image Converter (jpeg, raw, psd, gif, ico, png, bmp)
- Online Audio Converter (wav, wma, ogg, mpc, mp4, flac, ape and amr to mp3)
- Online Movie Converter (All video files to flv, wmv, iPod and iPhone)
- Online eBook Converter (All eBook files to epub, mobi, fb2, pdf)
- Online AutoCAD Converter (AutoCAD and SVG to PDF, TIFF, JPEG, EMF, CGM, HPGL or SVG)
- Online PDF Converter (pdf to jpeg, gif, png)
- Online Word Converter (Word to PDF, HTML, Excel, Text, Jpeg, TIFF)
- Online HTML Converter (html to doc, xls, pdf, jpeg)
- Online Excel Converter (Excel to doc, txt, pdf, jpeg)
- Online Mail Converter (Mail to pdf, html, doc, txt, jpeg)
- Online Power Point Converter (Power Point to pdf, html, doc, txt, jpeg and tiff)
Social Media Tools
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TweetReach – This tool is for analyzing how far your tweets go. You type in your keyword, name, twitter ID or website address and you will get a report that shows you details about the exposure of your tweet.
TweetDeck – This is like a twitter organizer. I find it useful to find out which tweets get the most attention and when. It will save you time too.