I thought it would be helpful to create a tools of the trade page that you can always come to for all of your internet marketing needs. I’ll add to it as I learn more and I will only share tools that I personally use and find that can be helpful. I recommend bookmarking it for your reference and convenience. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links to products that will earn me a commission.With that said, these are all tools and services that I have used myself and have experience with. I am only recommending because I believe them to be helpful and are worth your time and money. I am not recommending them because of the commissions that I may earn from you using these products, tools and/or services.

Easy Navigation

Blogging	Hosting	WordPress Plugins	File Sharing	Affiliate Networks	Keyword Research	Link Building	Blog Networks
Browser Add-ons	Advertising	Email Marketing	Analytics	Outsourcing	Screen Capture	Utilities	Books

Blogging

• WordPress – The #1 Blog Publishing Platform. Free and easily customizable with wonderful support. I run all of my sites using WordPress.
• WordPress Plugins – One of the best features of WordPress are the plugins you can use. Just like the iPhone wouldn’t be the same with all the cool Apps, WordPress wouldn’t be this great without Plugins.
• Windows Live Writer 2011 – The best solution for composing and managing your blog posts. Trust me, after you will write and post your first post using it, you will never go back to writing your content in WordPress admin section. You can also read my post about the great benefits of using the Windows Live Writer called – Create & Publish Your WordPress Posts Using Windows Live Writer.
• Thesis Theme – The Thesis Theme for WordPress is a premium template system designed to serve as the rock-solid foundation beneath any kind of website. Thesis is known for its airtight SEO, incredible design flexibility, and lightning-fast loading times.
• Thesis Awesome – The best thesis skins you can find and trust me, I searched for a long time. I am using the BlogSkin here on my blog and I love it.
• Elegant Themes – A collection of many premium WordPress themes for a very affordable price. Each WordPress theme comes expertly coded in valid XHTML and CSS, and all themes are compatible with the latest version of WordPress.

Hosting & Domain Registrar

• BlueHost - Best domain hosting I used for my smaller sites. Tried several and BlueHost is the clear winner for me and I host all of my affiliate sites with them.
• KnownHost - The VPS hosting solution I found to be the best for my bigger blog needs. Very affordable, scale-able and their support is simply AMAZING.
• MaxCDN – Loading speed is important, especially when your site gets bigger and this is where MaxCDN comes in for me. The MaxCDN Content Delivery Network (CDN) makes it easy and affordable to accelerate your website and it integrates with the great W3 Total Cache WordPress plugin which is great and makes it much easier to use and setup.
• GoDaddy – The world’s largest domain name registrar.
• NameCheap – Probably the second largest domain name registrar and you will usually get a cheaper prices and privacy is free for the first year.

WordPress Plugins

• WordPress SEO by Yoast – The best SEO plugin for WordPress and one that you must use in my opinion since it was created by one of the top WordPress experts and it is free. Here is a great tutorial on how to install and setup this plugin.
• W3 Total Cache – Loading speed is becoming more and more important and this caching plugin is a must in order to improve your sites loading time. It is free to use and packed with features so you will probably need this tutorial to figure out how to install and set it up.
• Pretty Link – Shrink, track and share any URL on the Internet from your WordPress website. This is the plugin I use to make my affiliate links look better and to track the clicks.
• SEO Smart Links – provides automatic on page SEO features. It can automatically link keywords and phrases in your posts and comments with corresponding posts, pages, categories and tags on your blog.
• BackupBuddy – Backing up WordPress is crucial and I learned that all the free plugins are not good enough once your blog gets bigger. BackupBuddy is the plugin I use for backing up my WordPress sites and you can learn more about by reading my BackupBuddy Review.
• WP Robot – The most powerful auto blogging WordPress plugin. Automatically post YouTube Videos, Amazon Products, eBay auctions, Clickbank ads, articles and much more to your blog. You can learn more about it on my WP Robot Review.
• Backup Creator – Since I’ve been building dozens of AdSense sites I really needed a great solution for cloning WordPress and Backup Creator is without a doubt the best WordPress Cloning plugin I found. It is so simple to use and saves me tons of time. If you are in the business of building plenty of new sites every month and you don’t yet have a good cloning solution than this plugin is a must have in my opinion. You can check out my Backup Creator Review to learn more about it.

File Sharing

• Amazon S3 – The Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3). Reliable internet storage, which is great for putting large files like podcasts and videos, so you don’t create bandwidth problems on your own website.
• Screencast – Free online storage and sharing. 2GB of storage and 2GB of bandwidth per month for free.
• Dropbox – Dropbox is the easiest way to store, sync, and share files online. There’s no complicated interface to learn. Dropbox works seamlessly with your operating system and automatically makes sure your files are up-to-date and you can access them from anywhere. It is also a great tool to use as an online backup and to share folders and files with outsources.
• Box.net – Another great solution for people who want to be able to access and share their content from anywhere. Free account will give you 5GB of space and you can also get 25GB of 500GB at ridiculous prices.

Affiliate Networks & Shopping Carts

• Clickbank – The most popular and biggest digital product retailer. Has a huge market place for digital products that you can promote as ana affiliate and you can also add your own products and have affiliates working for you.
• Commission Junction – Probably the biggest network for finding physical products that you can sell as an affiliate.
• Share a Sale – Affiliate network providing pay-per-sale, pay-per-lead, and pay-per-click programs for webmasters.
• E-Junkie -  A great shopping cart that is compatible with PayPal, Google Checkout, Authorize.net, TrialPay, Clickbank & 2CheckOut. Works great according to many and is very low priced to use. Comes with a decent affiliate program for your products.
• PayPal – Do I really need to say more about PayPal? You will need a PayPal account if you have any thoughts of creating an online business and that is too much power for them to have but not much to do about it.
• Plimus – Another great shopping cart and software registration service offering payment processing, subscription services, code, copy and fraud protection. Has built-in marketing, affiliate networking, payment and community features for both vendors and affiliates.
• Click2sell – Affiliate Network that connects vendors and affiliates who want to sell or promote products with the help of an Affiliate Marketing Network.

Keyword Research

• Google Keyword Tool – You can check to see the popularity of certain keywords and the competition for ads for those keywords as well.
• Market Samurai – The number one tool for niche research. The keyword research module is free for life and I also make daily use of the rank tracker, SEO competition and domains modules. You can read my Market Samurai Review to learn more and get a discount.
• Traffic Travis – If you can’t afford Market Samurai and you are looking for something more than just keyword research, than Traffic Travis could be the answer for you. You can read my Traffic Travis Review to learn more.
• SEO SpyGlass – The best tool for analyzing your competition and reverse engineering their links. Even with the free version you will get so much information you simply can’t get from any other tool.

Link Building

• Ultra Spinnable Articles – An amazing service from The Leading Articles and Vita Vee.  This services and the articles it provides are in the core of my SEO and link building campaigns. I strongly recommend you check this services out and you can learn more about it by reading my Ultra Spinnable Articles Review.
• SENuke X – SENuke X is the best all in one automated link building tool. SENuke X is all about helping you create various type of links and save tons of time doing it. You can learn more by reading my SENuke X Review.
• ScrapeBox – ScrapeBox is probably the most powerful tool I encountered. The level of automation and scraping or harvesting you can do with it is out of this world. Even thought most know this tool as a blog commenting spamming tool it is so much more than that. There are so many options to this amazing tool that I doubt if I will ever be able to master them all but I am defiantly going to try.  Usually priced at $97 but the above link will allow you to get it for only $57.
• Article Marketing Robot – Hands down, AMR is the best article submitter available. You can learn more about it by reading Article Marketing Robot Review.

Blog Networks

• Authority Link Network – ALN is the newest blog network on the block and it is quite different than the rest which also makes it one of the best. Learn exactly why by reading my Authority Link Network Review.
• ArticleRanks – Another great blog network that has proven to be better than the rest. I used it free for months and you can learn exactly how I did that and the results I got by reading my ArticleRanks Review.
• Unique Article Wizard – I have tried every blog network out there and Unique Article Wizard (UAW) is one of the best in my opinion. It had the biggest impact on rankings and the submissions are fast and of good quality. You can read my Unique Article Wizard Review to learn more about it and the results I got from using it.
• The Best spinner – If you are doing article marketing than you will need an article spinner. The Best Spinner by Jon Leger is indeed the best article spinning software you can find and you can learn more about it on my The Best Spinner Review
• Spinner Tools – In case you don’t have an article spinner here is a great online tool for getting your spun articles ready for submission to various services.

Browsers and Add-ons

• Firefox – You should be using this browser. Simply the best thanks to the large numbers of add-ons that makes life so much easier.
• SEO Toolbar – If you are into internet marketing and SEO you will need this great toolbar. All the information you need in one place and only a click away.
• SEOQuake – A powerful tool for Mozilla Firefox, aimed at helping web masters who deal with search engine optimization and internet promotion of web sites.
• Firebug – The most popular and powerful web development tool. Inspect HTML and modify style and layout in real-time.
• Xmarks – Offers bookmark and password synchronization between different computers and browsers.
• Leechblock – a simple productivity tool designed to block those time-wasting sites that can suck the life out of your working day. All you need to do is specify which sites to block and when to block them.

Advertising

• Google AdSense – Make money by placing relevant ads on your website that are generated by advertisers using Google AdWords. This is free to use, but you have to register for an account.
• Google AdWords – If you want to begin advertising on Google, you can select keywords and locations and you pay each time someone clicks on your advertisement.
• Facebook Ads – Allows you to reach over 750 million people where they connect and share their personal lives.
• Microsoft AdCenter – Advertising on both Yahoo and Bing which count for 30% of the search engine traffic so there is plenty of traffic here.

Email Marketing

• AWeber – The internet’s biggest and most powerful email marketing/broadcasting tool.
• GetResponse – Probably the second most commonly used auto responder service.
• Lucrative List Building Manifesto – Andre Chaperon is the an email marketing expert and the only one I learn email marketing from. This is a free email series in which Andre will show you how to go about building your email lists.
• Autoresponder Madness – The number one email marketing course, by far. I haven’t tried them all and I don’t think I need to. Autoresponder Madness 2.0 is delivered  by email and inside Andre will teach you how to make huge profits from tiny lists. Without any doubt, one of the best courses I ever bought. You can learn more on my Autoresponder Madness 2.0 Review.

Analytics & Tracking

• Google Analytics – Google’s free website tracking and analytical tool. A must have for anyone with any type of website.
• Get Clicky – Clicky Web Analytics is simply the best way to monitor, analyze, and react to your blog or web site’s traffic in real time. For those that are afraid of giving Google access to their blogs this is the best solution. I use it on this and other blogs of mine.

Outsourcing

• Odesk – A global marketplace that helps employers hire, manage, and pay remote freelancers or teams.
• Elance – Outsource to expert programmers, designers, writers, translators, marketers, researchers and admin contractors with tested skills.
• OnlineJobs.ph – Best place to find outsources from the Philippines.
• Fiverr – Fiverr is a true phenomenon. Everything is for only $5 and you won’t believe what you can find there. Great for outsourcing link building services, writing, social marketing and graphic design among many other things.
• 99designs – Best marketplace for graphic design with a great concept. You launch a design contest, dozens of designers will participate and submit their designs and you simply need to pick the one you love the most.

Screen Capture and Screen Casting

• Jing – Great tool for taking screen shots and screen casting. I use it all the time.
• Screencast-O-Matic – Online screen recorder for one-click recording on Windows, Mac, or Linux. It is free with some limitations but the PRO version is only $12 a year which is a joke for what you get.
• Camtasia Studio – The best screen recorder software available. Record anything you see on your PC screen, edit into a professional screencast you can share instantly. Comes with a 30 day free trial.

Utilities

• RoboForm – Password manager and form filler. I don’t think I can live without it. A must have, especially in the internet marketing world in which you create hundreds of accounts on various sites. All you need to do is to remember one password and let RoboForm remember everything else. LOVE IT and CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT IT.
• MindMeister – A free Online mind mapping software for innovative people and businesses. Mind mapping is the best way for brainstorming and organizing your ideas.
• Notepad ++ – A free source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages. Running in the MS Windows environment, its use is governed by GPL License. This is an amazing little tool that saves me tons of time and helps me stay organized. It is like Notepad on steroids.
• Recuse Time – a web-based time management and analytics tool for knowledge workers who want to be more efficient and productive. You can and should sign up for free and start becoming more productive and more efficient with your time.
• Time Doctor – This is the tool I use to track my working time and my outsources working time. I love it and it is free to use now.

Books

• The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss, Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich – Pretty much the most awesome book in the entire world. If you are looking to escape the 9-5 life than this book is a must.
• Do The Work! Overcome Resistance and get out of your own way – An amazing book by Steven Pressfield that will really help you understand what is stopping you from getting things done and doing the work.
• All Marketers Are Liars Tell Stories by Seth Godin – How marketing really works. It is all about telling stories. Loved this book.
• ReWork by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson – If Seth Godin says “Ignore this book at your own peril” than I can’t ignore it and neither should you.

To you success (and mine),