On this page you will find list of resources split by categories that I personally use and found to be most beneficial to my blogging. Some generate cash flow, some save me time and some are simply must have tools if you are serious about your own online business. While I will do my best to provide free tools and free information – in some cases it simply isn’t possible or not worth the effort and a commercial products will be recommended.
Blog Mentoring
- Blog Mastermind:Yaro Starak’s blog coaching program, Blog Mastermind is a very serious mentoring program you should enroll if you are going to make money by blogging. The program is less than $100 a month to become a member, and you get direct access to your mentor Yaro Starak, plus all kinds of videos, podcasts, e-lessons to make you money online. I graduated from Yaro’s program, so I must admit that Blog Mastermind was a milestone in my pro-blogging career.
- Blogging In Action: Shaun Taylor’s Blogging In Action consists of a huge 260-page e-book that is current, accurate, and packed with insight. It’s been updated for WordPress 2.5 and WordPress 2.6. The book also comes with a keyword tools, four companion videos, three bonus administration videos, a 16-volume QuickStart video series, 10 Internet Basics videos, and several bonuses. Shaun delivered ideas, concepts and strategies at a pace that eventually made my head spin. This is the kind of program you can read over and over again and still pick up more and more jewels of priceless information.
- Problogger: Blog tips to help you make money blogging
- ProblogMentoring: Problogger tips, blogging guide, problogger mentoring
WordPress, Plugins, Themes
- Expert WordPress: WordPress has recently become blogger’s standard. You need to use WordPress perfectly well as a pro-blogger. If you can afford you should also enroll Alex Sysoef’s Expert WordPress program. The good thing about the program is that a custom script does the full blog configuration and customization based on a few answers you provide on web page and you got a clear winner. But you really must see the video that shows you entire process to understand just how simple it is. Watch the video Expert WordPress to see how anyone can create a blog in less than 4 minutes from Start to Publish.
Auto-Responder Services
- Aweber: An email list is one of the most powerful marketing tools you can have on the Internet. Your blog and your email list are the perfect combination for a successful online business. An email autoresponder is a software which helps you send emails to people automatically. With an autoresponder you set up a sequence of prewritten emails which are sent out to prospects on your email list at regular intervals. Aweber is quickly growing to be the standard . Darren Rowse, Yaro Starak, Chris Garret, Caroline Middlebrook prefer Aweber for their email marketing.
- GetResponse: Similar to Aweber, but not so popular.
- Free Email Auto-responders
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- SEO Elite: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a popular term in the Internet marketing world. SEO creates massive source of traffic for blogs and websites. If the major search engines, like Google and Yahoo, accept that your website provides a good answer to a specific keyword phrase that people regularly search for, then your site will receive tons of free traffic. If there is one software you should invest money for the sake of ranking well for specific keywords related to your niche, it is definitely SEO Elite. If you are new to SEO concept, you are so lucky! This software also teaches you how to optimize your website for search engines which in turn creates 100% free targeted traffic to your website. Well, what more can I expect from a SEO software?
- SEO Mindset: A problogger has to know SEO very well and follow the changes in search engine algorithms. This is essential for increasing the incoming traffic, and maximizing the profit. That is why I suggest you to read this excellent e-book written by SEO master Brad Callen.
- SEO Tools: There are so many free and paid SEO tools available in the market. You need to use at least one sound SEO tool to follow your incoming backlinks, keyword density, and the status of your competitors. You may start with SEO Elite.
Content & Article Marketing
- Content Boss: Caroline Middlebrook (Article Marketing For Blog Promotion) and Courtney Tuttle (Article Wizard Review) already stressed the importance of article marketing for bloggers. Duplicate content is a nightmare for many bloggers. The good thing about Content Boss is that it re-writes any article in just a few seconds. In the end you won’t believe your eyes, how fast and accurate this online tool is. It has a PLR database. You can find PLR articles (Private Label Rights articles, articles you can use as if they are yours) by simply typing the keyword you desire. It also has a auto-blogging feature. Monthly fee is $67.
- Unique Article Wizard: Caroline Middlebrook clearly explained how this awesome online article submission software works: Article Submission Guidelines & Tools.If you use it together with Content Boss you can easily submit your unique articles to thousands of blogs and article directories, and every time place up to two links to your blod. Imagine how easily you can increase your blog’s backlinks and PageRank. It is $67 per month, but it is worth spending your money.
Google Adsense
Other Useful Tools
- Google Adwords Keyword Tool: After you read the SEO Mindset, you will understand the importance of keywords better. Google Adwords Keyword Tool allows you to check the most popular keywords. Use these keywords in your blog posts, and guarantee high traffic.
- Twitter: Twitter is not a microblogging tool anymore. It is one of the most effective networking and sales tools for probloggers. Check this out Using Twitter Search to find Buyers in the ACT! and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter. If you haven’t customized your Twitter background yet, read this one How To Create A Custom Twitter Background.
