People often ask me about my favorite resources and online tools for websites, printing, and productivity so I’ve compiled the list below. I use ALL these products myself, and a few of them (marked with asterisks) are affiliate links.
Company | Description | Cost |
---|---|---|
Hosting & web set-up | ||
Green Geeks* | This is the company I use to host my websites. Their customer service is excellent, their pricing is competitive, and one domain is included in the hosting cost … plus most of their servers are powered by solar panels. | $4-7/mo |
WordPress | It’s free to install, great for SEO, incredibly versatile and easy for my clients to learn. | FREE |
Genesis framework* | I use the Genesis framework for all my own sites, as well as all my clients’ sites. It’s fast, mobile-responsive, easy to learn, and has lots of customizable features. | $59+ |
WordPress Plugins * almost all of these are included for my clients’ websites | ||
Back-up buddy | Backs up your website as often as you like. Never lose a post! | $79+ |
SeedProd Coming Soon | Create beautiful coming soon pages to collect e-mail addresses and share social media while your site is being built | $29+ |
Popup Ally* | An easy way to capture e-mail addresses without bugging people every time they visit your website | Free+ |
Testimonials Widget | Your customers have great things to say about you. Why not share their feedback with the world? | Free |
MailChimp integrated with MailChimp for WP | MailChimp is easy to learn and free for most businesses, and the integration into websites is seamless | Free+ | Image selection |
Shutterstock | My go-to site for stock images. It has everything you could possibly need (at a price) | $29+ |
Death to Stock Photo | Gorgeous, royalty-free images delivered to your inbox | Free |
Design Seeds | Looking for a color palette for your brand, your website, or even your living room? Get inspired here! | Free |
Communications | ||
Basecamp | I use Basecamp to keep all my client communication organized. It’s wonderful because I can check up on clients on my phone and I get e-mail notifications when I need them. | $20/mo+ |
Dropbox | Easily share files between users. This is especially useful for really large file sharing (for example, I send full book files to publishers through Dropbox). | Free+ |
Google Drive | Use Google docs & sheets to collaborate with team members and clients on text documents and spreadsheets. Use Google forms to collect information as a survey or contat form. | Free+ |
Productivity | ||
Evernote | A great way to write blog posts or keep lists that are accessible from my phone AND computer | Free |
The solution for having 30 tabs open all at once (which I am prone to doing) … save the link in Pocket and come back later to read that article. | Free | |
Quicktime | I screencast all my client tutorial videos on Quicktime. It’s much easier for me to show clients how to complete tasks than to try to write up lengthy tutorials! | Free (with Mac) | Printing |
UPrinting | Great quality, competitive pricing, huge product selection. | |
Moo | The gold standard for gorgeous business cards. | |
Scheduling & Time Management | ||
Google Calendar | I’ve been organizing my life with Google Calendar for over a decade and it has yet to disappoint. I’m not kidding when I say I have about 10 overlapping calendars to keep myself organize! | Free |
Schedule Once | Don’t you get tired of e-mailing back and forth to find a good time to chat with your customers? This provides them your availability and integrates seamlessly into your calendar. | $5/mo+ |
Doodle | Need to find a time for multiple people to get together? I use this for business and personal use. (My friends think I’m crazy for scheduling dinners this way, but it works!) | Free |
Do you have a favorite tool I should check out? Contact me to tell me about it!