Website Design & Marketing Resources

These are products and resources which have helped me build an online business. They will help you build yours. They are listed here because I use them and benefit from them. Some of these resources have links to a full review. Click on those links for my full evaluation.

Online Website Builder

Site Build It

Site Build It is the ONLY online website builder I recommend. SBI is all about building a business - not just a website. Includes hosting, domain name and a range of traffic-generating tools.

Read my full review of Site Build It

Website Design Software

XSitePro

XSitePro is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) DIY website design program which takes the hard work out of building a successful online business. Not as powerful as Dreamweaver, but a whole lot easier to learn and use. Great for building multiple websites quickly.

Read my full review of XSitePro

Dreamweaver

Not recommended for beginners, but if you need to build a complex site Dreamweaver is the choice of professionals.

Keyword Research

The place to start for building a successful website is keyword research. Knowing what keywords are being searched for, how often they are searched, and what level of competition exists for those keywords, is essential for search engine success.

Wordtracker

Wordtracker is an online keyword research service. You gain access to Wordtracker via subscription, which can be for a week or for a whole year (which is what I do). There's also a free trial available.

Wordtracker is great for drilling right down to find those low competition keywords. The Keyword Universe tool allows you find related keywords i.e. search terms which relate to the keywords you are researching. This is essential for effective search engine optimization.

Search Engine Optimisation

The SEO Mindset

Written by SEO expert Brad Callen The SEO Mindset is a comprehensive guide to achieving long-term top rankings. Inexpensive, and one of the better guides around.

SEO Elite

SEO Elite is essentially link analysis software. Let your competitors show you the way to search engine success. With SEO Elite I can see EXACTLY what my competition is doing to rank so well for a specific keyword. Then, all I have to do is follow a step by step process to out-do them!

Click here for my full review of SEO Elite

Directory Submitter

One the keys to success in the search engines building a wide range of inbound links to your site. And one of the best ways to do that is to submit your site to various directories.

In the past, this was a tedious and time-consuming endeavor because there are literally thousands of online directories out there. How do you find them? Which are the better ones? How do you keep track of who you submitted to and when?

Search engine optimisation expert and software developer Brad Callen (creator of SEO Elite) has solved all those problems with a program called Directory Submitter. This neat little application has a database of hundreds of directories and allows you to easily submit to them. Importantly, it also allows you to vary the titles and descriptions for your listings.

The good news is it's totally free! I do however recommend you upgrade to the "Gold" version which extends the number of directories to around 1,800 (and growing) for a reasonable cost. The standard version has the same functionality as the Gold, just less directories.

Click here for my guide to Search Engine optimisation (SEO)

Search Engine Marketing

Google AdWords

Google AdWords is Google's pay-per-click search engine advertising system. When you do a search at Google you will sometimes see (depending on the search term) search results down the right side of the page under "Sponsored Links". These are ads that are ranked depending on how much the advertiser "bid" for those keywords, and the click-through rate of those ads.

You will also see AdWords ads on websites other than Google search results. This is where the webmaster is participating in Google Adsense, which displays content-targeted ads to visitors.

AdWords is a great way to drive targeted traffic to your site, but if not done correctly can end up being quite expensive. For that reason I strongly recommend you grab a copy of Perry Marshall's the Definitive Guide to Google AdWords. Perry is known as "Mr Adwords" and is an expert at getting the best returns on your campaigns.

Product Sourcing

OneSource

If you're looking for products to sell online, OneSource is without a doubt the best resource of its kind.

OneSource gives you access to:

• Drop Shippers (Drop Shipping allows you to source products without having to pay for warehousing, shipping or any of the other headaches associated with running an online store)
• Light Bulk wholesalers
• Instant Import Buys
• Liquidation Wholesalers
• Large Volume Wholesalers
• Daily Wholesaler Updates
• Instant Market Research

OneSource will show you how to get all of the wholesale products you'll ever need!

Content

Instant Article Wizard

An extremely useful application from a very talented programmer and marketer by the name of Jonathan Leger, is Instant Article Wizard. This program actually helps you create useful, original articles, and not junk which some other similar programs I've tried do.

Marketing Tools

Authority Black Book

Excellent guide to marketing with Web 2.0 by Web 2.0 marketing guru Jack Humphrey. Totally FREE!

Social Power Linking

Social Power Linking is a resource site which connects you with the exciting world of Web 2.0 and Social Marketing.

Read my full review of Social Power Linking on my Affiliate Marketing blog.

AWeber

AWeber is an automatic responder service. An autoresponder provides automatic email follow-ups, newsletter and mailing list management.

To use AWeber I simply place a subscribe form on my site which sends the subscriber info to my autoresponder address. AWeber then sends an email to the subscriber asking for confirmation. This is called "double opt-in" and ensures I can't be accused of spamming. Once that subscriber clicks on a confirmation link they are added to my list and sent an unlimited number of pre-written, timed responses.

AWeber is an extremely useful marketing tool. I wouldn't be without it!

Read my review of AWeber plus an article by AWeber president Tom Kulzer

Article Writing and Marketing with Christopher Knight

As the man behind EzineArticles.com Chris knows an awful lot about building traffic to your site using articles. And now Chris has put his years of experience to good use and produced an excellent resource on Article Marketing.

Learn how to use article writing to skyrocket your leads, links, traffic and sales.

Income Generation

Super Affiliate Handbook

Learn how to build a successful affiliate business. Rosalind Gardner earned $436,797 in one year with affiliate programs. This is a great book for the beginning affiliate marketer. I've read it several times over.

Read my full review of Super Affiliate Handbook

Auction Ads

Auction Ads allow you to display live eBay auctions on your site which are targeted to your content. Simply copy and past a few lines of code and you're away.