Our Ultimate List of Home Business Tools and Tips for Internet Marketing Success!
Can we ask you a question? (I am going to assume you said heck yes Julie Syl, ask away.) So…
Is a bloggers job ever done? So what apps, services, resources & business tools do you use to run your business from anywhere i.e. training, time management, blog post creation, personal-development, tracking results etc.? Following our sister brand’s post on Travel Planning tools, we just had to share our Business Success tools too!
Ha we guess you’re saying what, isnt the blog enough? Well we understand all that, our aim is to share tools that get you working more efficiently and of course results from your blog. We realised we have an arsenal, a real treasure trove of resources, tools and apps that we know you too will find useful.
You could start by visiting our Products page for our staple highly recommended resources…But before you do, today check out our Ultimate resources and business tools we use to get creative and produce results. (Some are affiliate links and we may get a small commission if you decide to use them, but most are free to access on the web though may not be Zero-cost to you).
These tools allow us to travel the world and live the life we desire!
[bctt tweet=”without a plan, aka your roadmap, you are like a runaway train heading nowhere.”]
And talking about plans…without a plan, aka your road map, you are like a runaway train heading nowhere. You need to be rational about your plan based on your Vision or Dreams, which should be totally irrational. Your why. See a dream without a plan is just a dream a wish. A plan gives you actionable purpose, it steers your ship so to speak. And it’s what you can change if your vision seems askew So below are our…
Business Tools, Resources and Online Hacks we use for Business Success:
Never go anywhere without a Notepad or Diary and Pencil – even to bed lol. Ideas, new content, dreams, visions etc. all can be captured if you got these. Also great for sketching images and planning your daily to do list.
Swipes – If you are a digital nomad and pen and paper are not your thing, use this intuitive to-do list app.
Speedtest – best tool to quickly evaluate if the Wi-Fi we are using; private or public is fast enough for the task at hand! Great for testing public Wi-Fi. To be honest it’s great for testing your home Wi-Fi too if its running slow and you have no clue why! Chances are you will get a solution!
Egg timer – Simple and easy to use Online stop watch. Use it to keep you focused on the High Value tasks on your to do list. I set 65 min sessions with 3-5 mins energizer session and simply grab a cuppa!
RescueTime – This analytics software tracks everything you do on your pc with a productivity score. It highlights about what you accomplished during the day. It runs in the background on your PC or Android, block distracting websites by choosing an amount of time to focus and Rescue Time blocks those websites.
Evernote – a great resource we use to create blog posts on the fly, save our receipts, scan and take notes, save PDF’s, and our published posts as back up.
IFTTT – Where can I start? This Business tool is a treasure trove that we created a whole Post on how amazing it is Read it here and Go use it now.
Coach.me – organize and track your habits, set goals and find a coach to help you achieve your dreams.
(SAYING THIS IN KINDLY AUNT JULES VOICE…) Don’t reinvent the wheel, if technically challenged seek professional help in building your online empire. JWEB Solutions are here to help!
[bctt tweet=”seek professional help in building your online empire. JWEB Solutions are here to help! #businesstools” username=”Juleskalpauli”]
The Business Tools we use for Successful Communication.
Skype – free online software for instant messaging and video/audio calls, we use it as a team training tool, presentations, shares etc. esp. as we have a team, clients, partners and customers scattered across the globe.
Whatsapp – a mobile phone App that you can use for instant text messaging and calls. Great for free international calls.
Slack – messaging app for teams. Get focused on work and reduce email communication.
Facebook Messenger – every internet marketer should use this free Facebook software for instant messaging and video/audio calls. Great for connecting with new connections before you take the conversation to the phone or offline.
CheapVoip – While not free, it’s great for international calls for subscribers who do offer a phone number. It’s great for checking if the number is real and thus the integrity of the subscriber. We loaded it with $20 in 2014, have made over 3k calls and its still in credit by over $6 over a year later!
Calendly – a tool for scheduling meetings & appointments, we only just started using this a month ago. Once a subscriber expresses a desire to DIRECTLY WORK WITH US, we send them a link with our calendar so they can schedule a chat appointment that suits us both. They get access to our general calendar and can chose a date and time. We get a notification when they do & confirm.
Gmail – Is not just for email use, it’s a great FREE business resource packed full of tools. We use Gmail for personal email and making free calls while in the USA and Canada! We schedule with Google calendar, Use google docs to create documents and PDFs, We save our images with it too. Of course without a Gmail account you cannot access Google Analytics, Adwords, hangouts or Keyword planner. The list of uses is endless! And all these are accessed via Gmail.
Viber – Viber for Desktop lets you send free messages as well as make free calls to other Viber users, on any device and network, in any country! Of course there is an App for this too.
Zoom – This is an app we learnt recently that is used for web & video conferencing. And has an App too. Great for team meeting, tutorials, chats with new members etc.
Join.me – Free online meeting resource that we use for Small Webinars Max 10 people or unlimited for paid versions. Can screen-share, hold full tutorial or just an audio call, Great for sharing a biz opp or holding a quick presentation.
The Resources we use for Meditation & Focus:
YouTube is our go to resource for free meditation, NLP videos & audios.
Headspace – We recommend this app for anyone who wants to try meditation.
iTunes & Spotify – both have gazillions of free music and resources for different moods, you can get into the right head-space for maximum productivity all day.
StayFocusd – a Chrome add-on. It’s important to block out the noise online when you are working on your HVTs. So block distracting websites and limit your time of day on them. You can block Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat etc. any site that distracts you with notifications …Zone in!
OneTab – another Chrome add-on that blocks websites that you aren’t using so it helps speed up your pc too. (We have 3 PCs lol.)
Download A Complimentary Copy of this Whole Arsenal Below Now:
Business Success tools we use to Strategize, Generate Leads and Make more sales in our brand:
If you are not constantly learning new ways to grow and live a more full life, you are halfway dead! Always be learning new things. Most of the things that impact your life were not taught in school, so self-development is essential for your business growth. We have learnt and keep learning from the following resources:
Lead Generating System – More Leads, More Reps, More Money in YOUR Home based or Online Business Access Hundreds of Amazing resources on how to leverage social media and the internet to grow your business. Create your very own Leads Funnel and Watch your business & residual income grow. Try it for 10 days no obligation here. This Resource has hands down created the most successful marketers, home based business entrepreneurs & leaders online in the last 5 years alone! Helping you lead with value in Your Own business and positioning you as the go to person.
[bctt tweet=”Helping you lead with value in Your Own business and positioning you a leader” username=”Juleskalpauli”]
Udemy – Has thousands of courses on every imaginable subject, some are great some not so much!
TEDX – amazing and inspiring videos by highly inspiring and experienced people.
Slideshare – Learn lots about every imaginable subject in Slides/PPT, PDFs, and videos, share your videos, PDFs and Slides too, great for web traffic. (You can follow me on here.)
Skillshare – If you’re a creative or entrepreneur, find some high-quality courses right here, get started for free.
Digital Marketers Lab – A platform that teaches you how to build a business online in a very practical & interactive way. Get Smart, use the free resources!
Medium – Get connected with other awesome storytellers and readers with inspiring stories, ideas large or small!
Our Business Tools & Resources for Blogging and Website Design
Well we have so many it’s been a study in choosing which will have the most and best impact for you. So below are some of the best business success and social media management tools for you:
GoDaddy – A resource that offers domains names at a pittance oft times we buy one at $.99cts
WordPress – In our book, the blogging platform for you. Our blog is built on WordPress too, but you could use Blogger, Wix, Weebly, or whatever platform you like.
SiteGround – affordable and reliable hosting for your blog or small project. Has several more tools to keep your blog safe, backed up, running smoothly always on 99.9% uptime. With the Best Customer Service we have experienced thus far. Don’t go using your Uncle Joe for Hosting!
Grammarly – an amazing tool that helps edit your grammar and spelling and suggest instant fixes. Will definitely make you a better writer.
ThemeForest – Looking for different content management systems (CMS), like Drupal, WordPress, Shopify, blog themes etc. Want to Photoshop and use HTML templates? You are in the right place, we got our Blog Theme here and its lovely, don’t you agree!
UBB, Home Business Survival Kit – A full bodied step by step Video Resource, hands down the best modern day Blogging, Branding and Business Success toolkit you need to get Started or build on your brand/site online. Build your blog like a pro. Includes everything you need for SEO, to monetize your blog, Social media hacks, Weekly Mastermind and updates, Private Facebook Group packed full of tips. Get ready to attract 5-10+ leads daily with this resource!
Business Blog Mastery – Want Blog traffic, the RIGHT Traffic? The Right Traffic is that which BUYS from you.
CloudFlare – a content delivery network which makes your website load significantly faster, making you a google sweetie and getting closer to a Page rank!
Aweber – a CRM or email marketing software with A super easy interface and KIND ON THE POCKET AKA affordable.
MailChimp – a Free CRM. Good for smaller projects, an account with up to 2,000 subscribers is free.
Sumo – Currently Google approved analytics online software & plugin for growing your blog/website traffic and subscribers.
Creative Market – market for design resources like fonts, templates, themes and more.
SocialMonkee – A tool that allows us to build 25 free back links DAILY to our blog the legal way while promoting our content too.
Unsplash – Need high-quality free photos for your Business & personal projects, you got them!
Canva – this resource allows you to create optimized images for your website and social media shares for free, comes with a pro option. Don’t get nabbed for copyright when you can create amazing images with your own logo and/or watermark! I must say Buffer’s Pablo comes in real handy for that quick image, FREE!
[bctt tweet=”Buffer’s Free Pablo App comes in real handy for that quick blog image! #Businesstools” username=”Juleskalpauli”]
Some of Our Trusted Website Plugins:
Yoast SEO – In our view, this is the ultimate all-in-one SEO plugin.
WP Spam Shield – Yes Akismet works, but this plugin doesn’t simply clean out spam, it also stops spammers dead in their tracks.
Akismet – As mentioned above also blocks incoming spam to your blog.
Sumo – Replaced Google Analyticator for easy site analytics.
W3 Total Cache – This plugin will help optimize your Site Speed by caching pages, objects, databases. It also minifies and supports your CDN.
Search Meter – this plugin tracks what your readers are searching for on your blog.
WP External Links – open external links in a new window or tab, add “no follow”, set link icon, styling, SEO friendly options and more.
WP Smush – every little helps; reduce image file sizes within your WP editors and improve performance also boosts your SEO.
WP touch – this plugin optimizes your site for mobile users, essential for SEO!
[bctt tweet=”Our Business Tools for Online Admin & Utility Resources #businesstools” username=”Juleskalpauli”]
Our Business Tools for Online Admin & Utility Resources
Google Docs – This is a Free Gmail linked online tool that you can use to create and save your content. In fact it’s a great alternative to MSword and you can collaborate live with your team and create shareable links as oppose to emailing a whole document!
Gumroad – great online platform where you can sell anything
Dropbox – Great for storing your content esp. projects and large files and also safely sharing large files with your team members that you can’t email. Grab it Now its Free!
Evernote – Already mentioned before…! Create, store your articles, content; written presentations and audios. Has a monthly limit on free version.
Wufoo – great and safe online resource to Online Forms including Payment forms. Links to your bank or PayPal!
SurveyMonkey – a great tool for creating simple online surveys for your customers or audience.
The Audios & Podcasts we love to Tune in & Learn
Entrepreneur on Fire – This is the podcast that teaches you how to Create and Monetize your Podcast. John Lee Dumas also interviews awesome and successful entrepreneurs.
RayHigdon Podcast – MLM secrets and Network Marketing Tips and Hacks, One of our Favorite Mentors indeed.
The $100 MBA Show – Omah Zenhon gives you predominantly 10min bites of business lessons.
Your Power echoes with Juleskal – A show that gives you up to the minute tips on whats working now online and Inspire you to build a solid income online.
The Tim Ferriss Show – Tim author of “The 4 hour week” shares some whacky entrepreneurial tips, interviews other amazingly successful people not always business related.
AmyPorterfield Show – Online Marketing made easy, We learned how to use Instagram on her Podcast!
I love Entrepreneurship with Marquel Russel – Russel interviews Online Entrepreneurs and small business owners, very inspiring individuals. Check out Episode #154
The School of Greatness with Lewis Howes – Lewis interviews bestselling authors, top athletes, successful entrepreneurs and other inspiring individuals.
Pat Flynn Podcast – The Smart Passive Income Podcast where Pat Flynn interviews inspiring entrepreneurs and creatives, and also talks about marketing, entrepreneurship and motivation.
And as Podcasters ourselves…
Below are the resources we use and recommend to get you started!
SoundCloud – An awesome resource that you can use to discover new training, tips, budding musical artists, music, you can store your own audio files and listen to other podcasts of course.
Neewer Plug n Play Microphone – affordable USB microphone, quality is quite good if used it properly. It has a stylish retro-look and is ready to use right out of the box, plus it has an audio jack for your own headphones.
iTunes – Where every broadcaster and podcaster should be aiming to submit your podcasts. Tune in to your fav free and paid music, listen to internet radio, and discover new podcasts on your PC or Handheld.
Spreaker – An easy to use Podcasting resource you can star your show with, easily links to SoundCloud, Libsyn and iTunes. We originally started our show on spreaker, they do share your podcasts with the www which does get you generic listeners. Awesome.
Libsyn – professional audio editing resource for your podcasts and audio files including podcasts. Has Free and paid packages and also links into iTunes. You don’t need this if you use SoundCloud.
Our Best Social Media Management Tools:
Hasn’t Social media changed the way we interact with each other? It’s also become our online Market Place. We gotta track our actions vis the time we spend on there and above all, its how we make new connections and get discovered too. Below are some of our fav tools we use to automate, analyze, track, create and moderate our social presence. Yes there are lots of social media tools for business dig in.
MavSocial – we use this resource to automate our social media posts esp. Images and Videos. Try it its free.
Social Warfare Plugin – We don’t know what we would do without this social media manager tool. While we don’t normally pay for plugins, we highly recommend you use it for your social media shares and follow management. Including Twitter counts.
StumbleUpon – We use the Chrome browser extension to discover awesome content in various niche topics & re-share it. Great for finding curation content.
Quintly – analyze, measure and track your social media presence. This is a social media bench-marking and analytics solution that tracks and compares the performance of your social media marketing activities.
Buffer – this is one go to tool to schedule your social media updates for every successful Internet marketer. It also has a handy lil fun image creation tool called Pablo for optimized Social media images.
TweetJukeBox – easily schedule your tweets, share your blog posts numerous times over the week/months and see your twitter impressions, clicks and followers grow.
TweetDeck – We spoke about this in more detail, in a post on social media productivity tools. Manage multiple witter accounts in one place. So much more interactive than Hootsuite.
Cyfe – an all-in-one dashboard to monitor and analyze data in real time, across all your online services like; Aweber, Facebook, Twitter, Google Analytics, adsense, Salesforce, Amazon, Zendesk, etc from one single location. No more time wasted hoping from one site to another, save bags of time in tracking your data.
Business Tools for Handling your Funds or Payments Online
Scannable – Evernote’s baby, use this to scan and save receipts, documents business cards, etc. directly to Evernote.
Wufoo – great and safe online resource to create integrated Online Payment forms. Gives you 5 free forms.
PayPal – send money, get paid and pay for loads of resources and stuff online from anywhere in the world.
Wave Accounting – in our opinion, the best free invoicing and accounting software.
STP – Similar to PayPal and utilized by lots of affiliate and internet programs.
Our Business Success Tools For Visual & Video Inspiration
Trusty Android – that awesome Cell phone meets a heck of a lot of our visual & admin needs.
Camtasia for both PC & Mac users – A paid for screen capture software we use for video cutting, editing including screen casts. You can even record your presentations right in PowerPoint. Start with a 30 day Free trial!
Screen-cast-omatic – Similar to Camtasia above, allows you to record for Free up to 15 min videos.
Picmonkey – We use this Free online tool to create awesome text Overwrite on our images. Great for quotes, and adding watermark to images. Of course in addition to Canva mentioned above.
Instagram – a great source of inspiration, fun as well as a platform to share our offers, travels, and content.
Pinterest – upload images with text overlay to promote your content online. Great for bog traffic, Amazon, Etsy stores. Etc.
YouTube – want to grow your online presence, start cutting videos and upload them to this 3rd Largest Search engine. Find free online resources, tutorials, training, tools all illustrated in videos on YouTube. Listen to your fav music free as you work. And of course store your videos on there too. We suggest you use different accounts for you private videos.
Wistia – While it’s not completely free, Wistia is a great resource to back up and store your Videos esp. products you intend to offer for sale or private training. It’s also a backup just in case. So we recommend it highly!
Phew You still here..well Thats it for now…
Oh yes there are lots more and we are sure you too have lots of Business tools, resources and apps for business success and productivity. Wanna share below what you use to get creative and productive? We’d love to know your arsenal and toolbox contents too in a comment below or simply tweet us @juleskalpauli.
If you do happen to Love this post on our Ultimate Business tools for success; and our tutorials, do share with others & let us know in a comment below. We love knowing who’s loving our content the most and sharing with others. So feel free to share, like our posts, use the social share buttons either side or simply highlight a text and share away esp. on Facebook…
Want to know a secret? We plan to add or even remove from this Massive business tools list regularly. So do bookmark, Pin it and check back for more!
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Holy Moly This has got to be the Most comprehensive List of Tools to help us be a success in our business! Thank you Julie!
Thank you Tara,
We do our best and glad you find it comprehensive 🙂
Julie Syl~
Soo good must book mark and come back to explore some more Love the value thank you for sharing !!~~
Hi Sandra,
So glad you got value and feel free to bookmark & share 🙂
J&PK~
[ Smiles ] Great resources to utilize and thank you for bringing “Speedtest” to my attention!
Glad you got value Renard 🙂
Julie Syl~
wow what an awesome list of tools Julie… makes me think back when I started in the corporate business world 40+ years ago…hardly none of this existed… amazing and you gave such a value post here as always with your awesome lists have to book mark for future use… 🙂 thanks for sharing
Such a great resource which could be so helpful for everyone in business. I already use many of these, but few like RescueTime, CheapVoip & Zoom are very new for me, but pretty much sounds like the best to try out.
Go test them out and enjoy Lisa, glad you got some value 🙂
J&PK~
This is a very through and comprehensive list. Thank you for sharing. I’m gonna book mark this.
Glad you got value Kenny and thanx for your time 🙂
Julie Syl~
Wow, that is an awesome list of tools, thanks for sharing.
Yes it sure is Keith, and thats why we shared, coz our aim is to enrich other’s business so they are free to do more exciting stuff 🙂
J&PK~
Thank you for sharing these tools. I appreciate the list.
Glad you got value 🙂 thanks for stopping by Lee 🙂
J&PK~
What an exhaustive list of tools and resources. Thanks so much for sharing Jules! Will check them out.
You are most welcome Adewale, Thanks for stopping by 🙂
J&PK~
I use boostinsider until now it’s awesome and it so easy to work with their business.
Hi Nicole,
thanks for sharing, will definitely check Boostinsider out too 🙂 May add it to the list!
J&PK~
Soo many great tools i did not know about. Thanks Julie for sharing
Glad you got value Yemi 🙂 Go dive in & Ta for your time! 🙂
Julie Syl~
Ah, it’s been too long since I visited you here. Glad to be back.
I’m loving the resource you put out, I’m familiar with almost all of them but I still found some gems here. I’ll check them out whenever I get a chance, maybe they’ll improve my workflow.
I recently published my own collection of tools as well, it’s about 800 strong and divided across about 40 categories. Yea, it’s epic, I should turn it into a book :). you can check it out here. http://www.iaexperiment.com/tools-for-entrepreneurs/
Stay awesome
Daniel
OMG, when I hear tools that could improve my workflow I get excited Daniel bro, welcome back.
Yup we missed you too 🙂 Sometimes its essential to take time out and get other stuff done!
Lets go dive in to that treasure trove of 800+what? Fantastic….absolutely turn it into an e-book and self publish on Amazon! 😉
Julie Syl~
I’m not doing any business but still I think the tools are really crucial for a business people… The list should be awesomely useful for them!
Hi Kylie,
Thanks for your comment….You may have missed the point? These are Tools that help us automate the Online side of our business which is mostly around our blog 🙂 And as a blogger, you will find many do apply to you!
J&PK~
This is so resourceful! I am excited to check these out, thanks for sharing!
You are most welcome Agnes, Glad you are excited.l Go enjoy xoxo
Julie syl~
WHOA! That’s a lot of online tools and apps. I use some of those but not all, so thank you for the list and the descriptions of each one! I could really add more to what I’m using at the moment!
Hi Elizabeth,
In order to automate a system and get your brand on autopilot, you gotta use a good number of tools and resources.
Although you cant completely automate, you can get lots of things done online and free you up to do more fun stuff.
J&PK~
Great list of resources and tips Julie! As always, you rock! Thanks for sharing this valuable information.
Glad you found value Claudette, thanx fr your continued support!
Julie syl~
Great resources! I have heard of a lot of them but there were a couple that I need to go check out. I love hearing other people’s lists to see what works for them because you never know it could work for me, too!
Exactly Alison,
We share what works for us, because it can work for you too. No need to take the long route to success 🙂
Ta for stopping by!
J&PK~
Quite informative article. I use some of these tools. Will chekc the other ones too
Hi Monika,
Glad you are on the ball, ta for your time!
J&PK~
I’ll have to check these tools out! I already use some of them, so I was happy to see that!
Glad you got value Erica!
J&PK~
Thats great Erica, gla dyo have got some more tools to test out!
J&PK~
What a great list of resources!
Thanks for stopping by Kaley!
J&PK~
Glad you like Kaley 🙂
J&PK~
Great list Julie and thank you so much for sharing. I am saving this for future use.
Hi Mardene,
Glad you got some value 🙂
Julie Syl~
Glad you got value Mardene 🙂 and you are welcome!
J&PK~
This is a great list of tips for newbies and those of us who have been online for a while. I will have to check some of these tools out!
Hi Heather,
Glad you like and got value 🙂
Julie Syl~
Glad you got value Heather. 🙂
J&PK~
What a fantastic resource- I’m definitely pinning this!
Glad you found value Jessy 🙂
J&PK~
Hi jessy,
Go get em gal 🙂 ta for stopping by!
J&PK~