Below you will find an up-to-date list of recommended resources, including promotions & sales of products and services.
Please note that some of the below links are affiliate links, so if you sign up through them, we will get a small commission with no additional cost to you. We only recommend services and products which we truly trust and find useful.
Domains & Hosting
- Promotion: Quality hosting & domains (1 domain free forever with hosting!): Dreamhost
- Other domain suffixes (called TLDs - Top Level Domains): GoDaddy
Starting an online business
- Shopify - start an e-commerce shop within minutes (hosting & great design included)
- Website design templates: OSWD.org (free themes, NOT WordPress-ready), WordPress Themes (free)
- E-Commerce solutions: WooCommerce for WordPress
- Check if your website looks good on all types of computers: BrowserShots
- Couriers: FedEx, DHL, UPS, GLS (Europe only)
- Online credit & debit card payments for your website: PayPal
- Selling files & information products online: ClickBank, E-Junkie
Expanding your online business
- Free stock photo & graphics: FreeImages.com, FreeDigitalPhotos.net, Flickr Creative Commons. Paid stock photo: iStockPhoto
- Website Analytics: Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, Real-Time Woopra Analytics (paid), Clicky (paid)
- Website's uptime monitoring: paid Pingdom service
- E-mail newsletter & autoresponder system - Aweber
- Newsletter subscription box for WordPress - OptInSkin
- E-commerce product price comparing: Google Shopping (formerly Google Product Search)
- Affiliate networks: Commission Junction, TradeDoubler
- Online auctions: eBay, Allegro (Eastern Europe only)
- Website Security: Sucuri (free security scan)
Outsourcing
- Freelancers for task & project outsourcing: Elance, Odesk
- Website & Logo design: 99designs
- Virtual Assistants: Virtual Staff Finder
- Making desktop screenshots of your external employees at random times: HiveDesk (thanks to AdSense Flippers)
- Online English test for job candidates (thanks to AdSense Flippers)
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
- Our free site analysis tool
- Promotion: Awesome keyword research & competition analysis tool - one week free (no obligations) & 35% off
- Content creation & copywriting: Fiverr, iWriter, TextBroker
- Article and link spinning & submission: Unique Article Wizard, The Best Spinner
Website Advertising & Website Monetization
- Pay Per Click Advertising: AdWords (advertising on Google), Microsoft AdCenter (advertising on Bing)
- Website Monetization: Google AdSense
Books
- Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity ($11) - a MUST READ! Solid tutorial on how to structure your tasks, documents and sheets without the BS. It has changed the lives of many of us and it will change yours
- Social Media Marketing: Strategies for Engaging in Facebook, Twitter & Other Social Media ($17) - solid book on the reality of social and blog marketing
- Google+ for Business: How Google's Social Network Changes Everything ($16) - a new book about a new social network. I haven't read it yet, although I went through a sample and table of contents and it looks legit (has solid social marketing examples)
Other useful tools
- Distraction free writing: OmmWriter (PC & Mac), WriteRoom (Mac), DarkRoom (PC)
- Recording your desktop on video: Camtasia (paid), Jing (free, up to 5 minutes of recording) CamStudio (free but requires encoding afterwards)
- Recording and editing sound (podcasting): Audacity (free, you will also need Lame MP3)
- Graphic editing (like Photoshop, but free): Gimp
- Screenshot making: Printscreen (free) for Windows
- Schedule breaks from using your computer: WorkRave (free)
- Google Documents & Spreadsheets (like Microsoft Office, but free)
- Free FTP Client - FileZilla
- Automated file & folder backups: Dropbox
- Free software for HTML & CSS code development and editing: Aptana Studio, Firebug for Firefox (use with color picker)
Podcasts
- Our Essentials Of The Online Business Podcast - vital news & tips for website owners
- Smart Passive Income - actionable online business tips & tricks
- Empire Flippers - buying, selling websites & online business talk
- Tropical MBA - inspiring and entertaining podcast about lifestyle & business
- Foolish Adventure (archives) - insanely inspiring podcast about running a business