Whenever I find someone doing what I’m doing — online business-wise –, I always like to understand what kind of resources are helping them on their journey.
If I’m that curious, chances are you are as well. And that’s a good thing, too. In light of that…
On this page, you’ll find the set of online marketing tools I’m currently using or have used and consider worth recommending to people pursuing similar goals to mine.
Acknowledge that some of the links presented here are affiliate links. This means I earn a commission — at no additional cost to you — if you follow one of those links and complete a purchase.
Understand that I have personally used and experimented all of the resources listed below. I only recommend what I honestly think can be useful and helful for your digital marketing or online business needs, regardless of how much I’ll get in commissions.
That being said, always think twice before buying something you don’t actually need; consider only getting the things that will really help you reach your goals.
Must-Have Tools
To play the affiliate marketing game and build niche and authority websites the way I do, these are the indispensable building blocks I use. It’s all about building a site that loads fast, targets the best keywords in your niche and is efficient at converting visitors into buyers.
I spend a considerable amount of time (probably way more than I should…) researching, and testing tools and services to add to my digital marketing tools arsenal.
Acknowledging that not all of these will suit everyone’s requirements or preferences and that what’s worked for me might not work for you, rest assured that I did my homework with the stuff I suggest and recommend here. 🙂
Namecheap –- As the name says, this registrar sells domain names for cheap. It also offers free domain name privacy, inexpensive hosting, CDNs, VPNs and all with almost no upsells (in fact, the few that exist are so non-obtrusive that you might even miss them).
I have all but one of my domains there (I just happened to find the .FM TLD for less money elsewhere — which is the exception to the rule here) and I like how their site is super easy to use and to the point.
Oh, and they occasionally run promotions that lower their prices even further!
Siteground –- When it comes to hosting your website without spending too much and having a great service, Siteground is the way to go. They offer free SSL certificate, free CDN (in conjunction with their CloudFlare integration) and super quick support. Their servers have a native caching system and are fully WordPress optimized.
For greater control I prefer hosting providers with cPanel — but SiteGround ended up positively surprising me by going above and beyond with an even cooler and more sophisticated control panel dubbed “Site Tools” that gives you everything you need to manage your hosting settings, security, email accounts, website, database, files and stuff of that nature.
Ahrefs — Simply put, Ahrefs is the best all-in-one SEO tool available. Be it keyword research, competitor analysis, generating content ideas, backlink reporting, rankings tracking, the amount and the quality of data that you get on Ahrefs is not only accurate, but also unmatched by similar tools.
Long Tail Pro — If you’re on a lower budget and keeping an Ahrefs monthly subscription is just too expensive, but still need a realiable keyword research tool, then Long Tail Pro is a great option, too. It’s super easy to use and fast to deliver results so you can find the best keywords. And you can also track your rankings with it.
Read my thorough Long Tail Pro Review to learn more.
Frase IO — Frase IO helps you drastically reduce the time spent on topic/competitor researching, writing, and optimizing; you’ll create more content more efficiently.
Its easy-to-use, fast and responsive interface lists all the sources you need to gather information and understand what angles to cover and points to discuss.
It helps you create outlines for your articles or briefs for your freelance writers much quicker and cheaper.
Frase’s question finder allows you to understand what answers your audience is looking for and gives you more article topic ideas.
Frase’s AI writer and (your own or community’s) templates — included in a separate add-on — allow you to speed up your writing process even more.
There’s also the Answer Assistant (Frase’s AI bot) that you can integrate into your website so your visitors can have their questions answered automatically.
The Frase IO team is quick to help their customers via email support or their Facebook group.
The developers behind Frase IO are committed to making their product the best of its kind, constantly adding new features and improving existing ones.
In one sentence: Frase IO gives you a competitive edge and everything you need to outrank your competitors in the SERPs.
Interested in seeing Frase IO working and judging for yourself? Give their free AI tools a try.
If you sign up through my free AI tools, you’ll get 60% off your first month. (It’s automatic; you don’t need to enter any coupon code. This discount offer is not available on their website, just through my link.)
New Special Frase Discount: For the remainder of August, there’s a special discount running: 20% OFF any monthly plan FOREVER.
Courses
Wealthy Affiliate — When my 4-year-old viral-videos website failed, I searched for alternative ways of making money online and rediscovered affiliate marketing. I was recommended Wealthy Affiliate and, regardless of the experience I already had, I went for it and that’s why this site exists today.
Especially geared towards total beginners (meaning, people who don’t know what WordPress or affiliate marketing really is), at Wealthy Affiliate you’ll find not only the lessons and the support from the course creators, but all the tools you need to get started taking action right away: step-by-step blueprints, real-life lessons/tasks you need to complete to move forward in building your niche website and in the course, a keyword research tool, in-house hosting service and a huge community of fellow students ready to help you along the way. All included in the membership fee.
If you’d like to learn more, check out my detailed Wealthy Affiliate review.
The Authority Site System — If you’re a bit more knowledgeable than a beginner, but not yet at an advanced level, you might find “The Authority Site System” a better option. The guys over at Authority Hacker have put together an awesome course that describes in great detail every step of building an affiliate niche website.
In their over-the-shoulders video lessons, you’ll see them actually build a niche site from scratch to generating traffic and making money. From market research and niche selection to keyword research and content planning, from picking a domain and creating a brand identity to designing the website, writing and publishing content to monetization, outsourcing and link building. It’s all there. Yes. Everything.
But it’s not just that. The course is entirelly updated from time to time (and a new case-study site is built before your eyes). And, as the Amazon Associates program seems less and less attractive by the day, they have addressed that concern and moved towards other, more reliable and profitable affiliate programs.
All that’s left for me to say is that I have really enjoyed watching the lessons and applying their tactics to my niche websites. It’s pretty cool!
Authority Hacker Pro — While “The Authority Site System” solely focuses on creating what Marc and Gäel call a “stage 1” site (I prefer calling it a “niche website”), the “Authority Hacker Pro” course teaches the final two stages in building a full-blown authority site — one that dominates the niche you’re in, brings in loads of visitors from multiple traffic sources and gets monetized through various income streams.
Also regularly updated (and only open to enrollment a few times a year), this specific course is for those who already have a niche website and want to take it to the next level. Sure enough, it’s not for everyone’s purse, nevertheless those who opt for “Authority Hacker Pro” also get “The Authority Site System” course. Two of the best affiliate training courses in an all-you-need-to-succeed kind of blundle.
Search Engine Optimization
Squirrly SEO — is a complete AI-powered SEO suite that does more than optimizing your website and content for the search engines. It has an in-built keyword research tool and a rank tracker, too. But that’s far from it.
With the “14 Days Journey Course” and “Next SEO Goals” daily checklist, not only will you improve your content and overall website to achieve better rankings and increase web traffic, but you’ll also learn valuable optimization techniques and fix repeated SEO mistakes.
Furthermore, with the “Focus Page” feature, the plugin runs a real-time SEO audit and offers simple and direct tips for you to apply immediately and improve your article’s SEO score.
Being super straightforward — which is great for beginner SEOs —, this tool also comes with advanced features that the more experienced SEOs will enjoy.
Despite the major interface overhaul it could surely use, the Squirrly SEO plugin is lighter than its better-known competitors and is constantly being updated (in great part due to customer feedback).
AI Writing Tools
AI writing assistants are exactly that, assistants. They are not meant to do all the writing work for you but, instead, to give you a helping hand in doing so.
As assistants, their job is to help people beat writer’s block by brainstorming ideas, suggesting new ways to structure your text or rewrite and improve old content. They are here to help us become better, more efficient, and faster writers.
These are the AI writing assistants that made it into my digital marketing tools list.
ClosersCopy — is my go-to artificial intelligence writing assistant for long-form content. It just keeps getting better. New features are added and existing ones are updated all the time. The result is simple: higher and higher quality output.
When I decided to look for a long-form content AI writing tool, I wasn’t too keen on having to pay for a (sometimes really expensive) monthly subscription. I found ClosersCopy and their great lifetime deal in the process.
This tool was created to be an AI copywriting tool, but it has evolved into something much bigger. That’s why I use it mainly to help me write long-form content for my niche and authority websites.
There’s a lifetime deal going on right now. You can get ClosersCopy for a one-time payment only and also enjoy a 20% off discount.
Just enter the promo code LTD-20 at checkout. Or, if that coupon code is no longer valid, enter LESS15% for 15% off.
There’s a 30-day money-back guarantee too. You’re safe to buy it, test it out, and return it in case you don’t like it or it doesn’t suit your needs.
Or, if you prefer, you can subscribe to a monthly/yearly plan, as well, by clicking here.
niches$$ — is an AI marketing and copywriting software and an all-time favorite for thousands of online marketers.
Its outstanding-quality output and, of course, very affordable price in a lifetime deal format is the reason why.
niches$$ allows you to create amazing blog intros, ad copy, and a whole bunch of other very impressive features that will you keep playing and having fun with the tool for a very long time.
You can still grab a niches$$ lifetime subscription on AppSumo.
Rytr — is an AI writing assistant that produces an impressively high-quality output that speeds up your content production and helps you write blog posts, emails, social media posts, and sales ads much faster.
Their unique selling proposition (i.e., what makes them stand out from their competitors) is the voice tone feature with dozens of different tones and use cases to choose from.
Rytr is running a lifetime deal on AppSumo right now.
Video & Image Editing
InVideo — is the best Vidnami alternative on the market presently.
As with the now-retired Vidnami, this online video creation tool allows you to take your video production to the next level in a quick and practical way.
Using it is as simple as choosing from over 4,000 templates, stock videos, and music that this tool offers.
The Text-to-Video feature is amazing and super useful. It turns your blog posts or scripts into videos instantly by automatically suggesting the most relevant video clips for each section of your text.
Add automatic voice-overs, record your own voice or upload an audio file from a freelance voice-over artist and your video is ready to go!
If you want to learn more, read my InVideo Review.
Email Marketing
MailChimp — MailChimp is one of the best autoresponder services on the market as they make things easier when it comes to starting, managing and succeeding at email marketing. Out of all the email marketing tools out there, I find Mailchimp the most accessible for beginners, in what regards pricing and ease of use. Plus you can start and keep things for free until you reach 2,000 subscribers.
Way too many bloggers say that one of their biggest mistakes was taking too long to start an email list, so why not give it a try sooner rather than later?