Some of the links below make me a commission if you click through and buy. This will not cost you anything extra. I don’t recommend things just for commissions, but because I have actually used and like them.
Our Top VPN Recommendation — NordVPN
Registration and Hosting — BlueHost
- I’ve tried over 100 different hosting companies and BlueHost Hosting is the best I’ve found in the areas that matter the most.
- You will find every feature that you need to make a good website there.
- Their support is top notch
Content Management System (CMS) — WordPress
Excellent WordPress Plugins:
- Contact Forms — Contact Form 7 (love this easy to use plugin)
- Security
- Sucuri Security — full service security
- WPS Hide Login — Simple hiding of the admin login URL
- Anti Spam — Akismet Anti-Spam OR Really Simple CAPTCHA (integrates with Contact Form 7)
- SSL Security Certificate Integration with WordPress — Really Simple SSL
- Speed
- W3 Total Cache (works with Content Delivery Networks — AKA CDN’s) — Can have compatibility issues with your hosting or theme, so backup your site before activating.
- Image Compression (improves speed) — Smush
- Backup Site — UpdraftPlus
Hopefully, you can see at this point why WordPress comes so highly recommended — there are many free or inexpensive plugins that allow you to do things that 15 years ago would have cost you thousands of dollars to hire a developer if you could’ve even done it at all!
- Less Popular CMS Alternatives: Joomla and Drupal
- These are both less user friendly and offer less free or inexpensive plugins
Email Marketing — Exact pick coming soon
- The Best Email marketing software I have used is Constant Contact, They have excellent support and are compatible with almost anything.
SEO Tools
- Traffic Tracking — Clicky
- Rank Tracking — Pro Rank Tracker
- Link Research
- Market Research
- Keyword Research
- Google and YouTube
- Keyword Revealer
