Web Marketing Tools

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Web Marketing Tools for the “Average Joe”

Most of these tools are Free to use (and in the past year there have been some real winners added)…

However, one area that you do not want free is what I call the “Essentials” and Because of their importance, I list them first…

Why are they “Essentials” and why so important?

Because, having them is “owning” and building equity in your own piece of real-estate online (virtual real-estate) and just like like buying a “lot” of land with a physical address…you will be able to build a business on “your” virtual address that appreciates over time. You can then sell this “virtual real-estate” down the road or pass it on to your loved ones.

I’m an “open book” about my marketing so here is a disclaimer – most of the links lead to free stuff. If it is something that “costs” then it is something that I personally use and pay for myself. And if you use my link and make a purchase – you will be giving me an affiliate commission. It will cost you the same if you do not use the link and in many cases the link gives you a discount. That’s the beauty of online marketing and you can and should do the same with or without the disclaimer.)

HERE’S THE LIST:

1) ESSENTIALS = (YourDomain + YourHosting) = “Your Virtual Real-Estate” (+ Traffic = $$$)

I have used and use many hosting companies and domain registrars but in the end I put these at the top of the list for service and reliability. These are all paid services that I use and all great values.

GoDaddy – for domain names and they usually have a discount going – last seen was $7.49 for a .COM (if you are going to have 5 or more domains – buy them at the same time and they will give free private registration)

HostMonster – for hosting your domain, great service and a great price for unlimited domains.

HostGator – the other option for hosting your domain with great service and uptime. I like the “baby” with unlimited hosting.

One note on hosting – stick with “Linux” and do not use “Windows hosting” which refers to the type of “server” and is not related to your home computer windows)

AWeber – I include this in essentials because it is a critical part of traffic and AWeber is the best bang for the buck.

2) WEBSITE BUILDING:

Many will recommend paid services like “site-sell” which is very good…but in my opinion you are better off going FREE with the most versatile site building tool available…WordPress!

WordPress – Free software from wordpress.org to be built on your domain (not to be confused with wordpress.com which is a service that is free but you do not host and you do not own the domain and you can not use for selling stuff).

You will setup WordPress from inside your hosting account using “fantastico”. It’s easy and free tutorials are available. Put it in your “public” folder direct and not a sub-domain.

WP THEMES:

WooThemes – Very cool themes that cost but if you look around they usually have a couple for free download.

WordPress Free Themes – Group of themes made available through wordpress.org – read the TOS on each.

FAVORITE WP PLUGINS:

You can find more on WordPress add-ons here

3) YOUR BROWSER:

Mozilla Firefox – I use this 100% of the time and then also check my work in the other browsers. IE7 & IE8 are used more but once you use it with the free “Firefox Add-ons” listed…you’ll see why most Internet Marketers do as well.

4) WEB MASTER TOOLS:

FireFTP – a free “Firefox Add-on” – my all-time favorite program to load “files” (pages) to my sites.

FileZilla – a great stand alone free FTP program. My second choice.

Web Developer -  a free “Firefox Add-on” Adds a menu and a toolbar with various web developer tools.

NVU – Best FREE webpage editor “WYSIWYG”  – try it before spending $200+.  (not required for WP)

BrowserShots – Check Browser Compatibility, Cross Platform Browser Test – great tool!

VicMan’s Photo Editor - Free Photo Editor – refine digital photos, draw artwork, producing graphics for the web.

Cheat Sheets – Printable cheat sheets for most webmaster languages, such as “CSS” and “HTML”.

Color Picker – Online “color picker”.

5) SEO TOOLS:

SEO for Firefox – “Firefox Add-on” SEO tools – provides a ton of great info!

Rank Checker – “Firefox Add-on” Easily check your website rankings in Google , Yahoo, and Microsoft Live search.

IE View – “Firefox Add-on” Load pages in IE with a single right-click

Copyscape – Check the “dupe factor” of content.

6) KEYWORD TOOLS:

SEO Book Keyword Tool – Great tool(s) plus a lot of additional info on keyword selection,

SpyFoo – Spy on your competition. They have a paid version but for most the free is enough.

Word Tracker Free - Enter a starting keyword to generate up to 100 related keywords.

Keyword Questions – Find the questions that people are asking in your market – Instant Market Research!

Google Keyword Tools – Go to the source! This past year they have really opened the vaults!

Google Keyword Tool

Google Search-based Keyword Tool

Google Traffic Estimator

7) JUST COOL TOOLS:

Roboform – Not free – a huge time saver – remembers all of your passwords for you and encrypts them!

Bum Demon – Free software that let’s you enter a list of keywords, then check if available in Squidoo and Hubpages.

DNS Stuff helps you configure, monitor and fix problems with your domain and email.

Network-Tools Traceroute, Ping, Domain Name Server (DNS) Lookup, WHOIS, and DNS Records Lookup

The IP Report – Test for a duplicate Class C block or Class C subnet IP

Social Meter - scans Del.icio.us, Digg, Furl, Google, Jots, Linkroll, Netscape, Reddit, Shadows, Spurl, Technorati, and Yahoo My Web.

Google Translate – Translate text or webpages – very cool! I will make a post on how to get unique content with this.

8) ARTICLE RESOURCES:

Posting your own unique content on these sites will get you massive backlinks and search engine love.

You can submit to these or use them as content. You will make more money submitting!

I WILL BE ADDING TO THE LIST SO BOOKMARK AND CHECK BACK OFTEN!

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