In this page, you will find out things that I have used and thus can recommend to you. The reason I created this is because I just don’t want to post a bunch of lists on my sidebars about products for you to guess on what the product is about. Instead of doing that and providing no value, why not create a page where I get to list my recommendations and at the same time describe each of them so you get to know if the product is for your or not. Here we go:
Domain Names and Hosting:
- Hostgator – Hostgator has been my host ever since moving away from Blogspot and that has been a long time ago already. Gator is THE most used web host for bloggers and marketers alike and that’s the case obviously for a good reason.
- Namecheap – Namecheap is a domain registrar for my business. I never had any problems in using it and never had an issue with this as well. (plus free whois!)
Blog Themes
- StudioPress Theme– This is the theme that I’m currently using and I can highly vouch for them. They offer great flexibility and their themes are coded very well for the best possible SEO benefits.
- Elegant Themes – A really really awesome theme service that costs $37 a year for an unlimited choice of themes. They have really sleek wordpress themes inside coupled with a very popular and helpful support forum.
- Woothemes – Have a good collection of themes with Web 2.0ish looks. If you’re into cutting edge unique designs, then WooThemes is for you.
List Building
- Aweber – Nothing beats Aweber for this one as its been used by millions of bloggers worldwide. From newbie, intermediate up to experts, Aweber delivers the best email newsletter services. Price starts at $1 for the first month.
Monetization Tools
- OIO Publisher – OIO automates advertising on your blog. It just doesn’t handle payments, its a fully-fledged software that basically handles everything for you, banner rotation, payments, geotargeting of ads and etc. No more wasting copying and pasting sponsor codes!
- BuySellAds – Buysellads is a huge network that brings advertisers and publishers together. If you don’t want to put that much work into finding advertisers for you, then you can certainly give them a try.
- E-junkie – If you’re selling eBooks and info products, then E-junkie is your best. This is useful especially for those who want to simplify selling of things. If you don’t need all those complexities that other programs offer then definitely check out e-junkie!
Tracking Tools
- Google Analytics – This does not need any introductions. If you want to analyze and see your visitors on a very basic level then Google Analytics is for you. Very easy to use.
- Crazy Egg – is pretty much like Google Analytics except for the fact that instead of seeing the numbers, you’re going to see how they are engaging and moving around your site. Pretty useful and sleek.
- Quantcast – Quantcast is a bigger web analytics in which it lets you track your demographics on a very in-depth level. The cool thing about this is that the tool will help you find out who your readers really are.
Videos Distribution/Hosting
- YouTube – has a massive following so if you’re looking to get out in front of millions of people in no time, then host your videos on YouTube
- Flowplayer – is a much more brandable player in which it allows you to do complex customizations that can match your brand. You can also have full control over the player and how it behaves and delivers your videos.
Miscellaneous Tools and plugins
- WP-GreetBox – This plugin shows you a customized, sleek-looking box that greets your readers according to the source they’re coming from. It allows you to give a good first impression for new visitors coming over to your blog.
- ShareBar – Another sleek tool which shows an aesthetically-awesome looking bar on each and every pages of your blog where readers can promote your articles to social networking sites.
- Comment-Luv – This plugin is useful since it encourages your readers to comment. When your readers leave comments , it gives them a link back to their latest post.
There ya go! This list will be here forever so just in case you want to run your blog like mine, feel free to use this page as a reference. Anyway, this list might get updated in the future since I’m still trying to see if I’ve listed everything that I’m using here.