Every now and then, I like to take a look at what tools I’m using on my blog and in my business.
Here’s what I’m currently using in 2016, along with a little about why I use them.
Domains
Table of Contents
Uniregistry – The best service for handling multiple domains at once. They also provide free privacy protection, which helps a ton when dealing with spam, annoying website design inquiries, etc. They have a lot of features that make it easy to do bulk renewal and big changes to several domains at once. If you haven’t heard about them, you should check them out.
IWantMyName.com – Simple, fast and helpful domain management. I really like the guys here. Timo and the gang are awesome. It does get hard to manage multiple domains with these guys though, so if you have more than 10, you might want to look elsewhere.
Hosting
Bluehost – I started with Bluehost and have a ton of sites with them. I think they’re the best host to start out with, and they provide a lot of functionality for almost nothing / month. Really worth getting started with them.
WPEngine – I use these guys for some of my higher traffic sites (500,000+ visits / month). Mostly because I have people constantly trying to hack them.
Blogging
WordPress – Really the only blogging software you should be using at this point (see my starter guide to setting up your blog here).
Genesis Framework – The best framework for WordPress. Has a ton of child themes and they are always coming out with more. I loved this so much, I built (and sold) an entire site around it.
Yoast SEO – The best way to “quick SEO” any site. The premium plugin is definitely worth it.
Gravity Forms – The one plugin I really pay for (besides Yoast) that’s 100% worth the money.
Genesis Tweaks – Justin is the man and helps me tweak a bunch of sites including IMPOSSIBLE, Impossible X and all my paleo sites as well.
Sucuri – Simple security plugin that helps bone up a lot of the security issues with WordPress.
Thirsty Affiliates – Simple, fast affiliate plugin that lets you make and track affiliate links.
ConvertKit – This is the best service for online entrepreneurs who need to do simple email marketing with good automation features (read my full review here).
Optin Monster – This is the best opt-in plugin out there. Tons of templates. Great functionality, and it just works. Period. If you’re all high and mighty about pop-ups, check yourself first.
Active Campaign (small list) – Really solid service for set it-and-forget it automation. That said, if you send out regular campaign blasts, use ConvertKit.
Landing Pages
Thrive Themes – I’ve used all of the Landing Page guys out there. LeadPages, ClickFunnels, Instapage, etc. There’s a lot of things I like about Thrive.
1) It has better templates and is faster to use than the other services out there.
2) They’re not trying to be EVERYTHING at once. It’s just being a good landing page builder which makes it a better landing page builder than the other guys out there.
3) It’s also a WordPress plugin, so you OWN it and it lives on your site – rather than making you beholden to some third party who has to make it’s investors happy.
4) Thrive is still cheaper AND a better deal (it has a yearly renewal license compared to a monthly fee) than other landing page builders. I’m going to be doing a full in-depth review on this here very soon – but it’s a great plugin.
Ecommerce
Stripe & Paypal + Gravity Forms.
SendOwl – Simple and straightforward way to take payments and deliver digital goods. George the founder is a good guy.
Help Desk / Customer Support
Help Scout – The best help desk / customer support system I’ve found to date. I run customer service for all my paleo businesses through this.
FastMail – I use this instead of Google Apps in an effort to move a little more off Google.
TeamWork
Slack – Simple team communications. We use the free plan and have no need for anything more.
Asana – Fast teamwork and task management.
DropBox – File sharing. Duh.
Social Media
Buffer (and Chrome add-on) – Easiest way to schedule interesting blog posts.
Facebook Live – I’ve been doing a LOT more on this lately. If you want in, make sure you’re checking out the pages.
Twitter – I know it’s always disappointing to investors, but I still love it. @joelrunyon / @impossiblehq / @impossibletv (here’s a fun way I got a Twitter handle for Paleo Meal Plans).
Instagram – Stuff is popping over here. Work, play and all the stuff in between. @JoelRunyon / @ImpossibleHeadquarters / @ImpossibleTV
SnapChat – When my phone isn’t stolen, I’m doing a lot on SnapChat. @JoelRunyon
Pocket – Easiest way to bookmark interesting posts for later.
That’s all folks!
What blogging tools are you using that I didn’t list? What other ones should I know about?
If you’re interested in more stuff like this, check out my new project Start a Blog TV where I dive in depth to a lot more stuff like this.
Great Stack. However a question here. Why are you using (IF) Yoast SEO with Genesis framework. Is it really required? Isn’t the SEO IN the Genesis framework enough?
Yoast gives quite a few more options.