Smart Business Resources

Business Tools—mikecogh (Flickr.com)

The resources below are some useful tools and techniques that I’ve applied to my business. I only recommend tools that I have actually used and provide real-world results. If you have a recommended tool or resource, let me know and I’ll review it for this growing page of useful Smart Business Resources.

By the way, some of the links are affiliate links and if you purchase the product, I’ll make a few bucks off the purchase. I only list the tools I find that are useful and provide them for your own consideration.

Self Publishing with Amazon

Publish Your Book on Kindle by Cathy Presland – This course on Udemy is through, excellent and well thought out. Ms. Presland continues to augment the course with additional content that adds value.
Make a Killing on Kindle (Without Blogging, Facebook or Twitter) by Michael Alvear – An excellent and well thought out book that provides a realistic methodology for publishing, ranking and selling on Kindle
How to Publish a Best Seller on Amazon by Nicholas Black – I like this book because of all the case study data and real world examples from a real writer.
The Amazon Analytics Bible: How to use Analytics to Sell More Books On Amazon and Make Better Marketing Decisions by Tom Corson-Knowles provides a creative technique to monitor your Amazon Kindle product page and help determine visitors and improve conversion rates
Kindle Nonfiction Formatting Guide by Lis Sowerbutts provides an easy to understand resource to exit the various Kindle files created to help format your book EXACTLY the way you want it
ViewBook.at – A free link shortener for your Amazon book or ebook that works for all regions. Simply paste a your Amazon link and your visitors will be redirected to the correct Amazon store.

Business Books

Business Model You – A One Page Method for Reinventing your Career by Timothy Clark – A useful one-page business model that is adaptable to your own personal career and business goals

WordPress Resources

Themes

WooThemes – This site runs off Woothemes and of all the professional theme templates, I return to Woothemes for its flexibility and outstanding support

Recommended WordPress Plugins

Pushbutton SEO – If you are looking for a professional on-page SEO tool that not only analyzes your page for SEO factors but integrates content curation into one plugin, then give Pushbutton SEO a try.
ShortCodes Deluxe – Have you ever wanted to make great sales pages without the hassle of hiring a graphic artist? ShortCodes Deluxe makes it easy to create sales pages that convert with great graphics, buy buttons, etc

Website Hosting and Domain Tools

Hostgator – Hostgator continues to be my shared hosting platform of choice. Get an extra 20% off your hosting offer when you use the AMAKAR25OFF coupon code
GoDaddy – I use Hostgator for hosting but I use Godaddy for the domain name management. Consolidating all your domains under one control account makes renewal and management easy.

Search Engine Optimization Resources

Market Samurai – If you are looking to conduct market research in a particular niche, then give Market Samurai a try. With their free trial, the Keyword Research and Competition module will quickly identify keyword opportunities and the associated competition.
SEO Profiler – If SEO is your profession or your deep rooted passion, then you’ll like all the tools SEO Profiler provides. The tool intelligently compares your top ranking competition and provides recommendations on how your can break into the top 10 listing on the search engines.
SEO Day By Day by Jennifer Grappone

Web Graphic Creation Tools

Free Graphic Creator- Create graphic headline, buy now buttons, guarantee boxes, and belcher buttons.
Free Ecover Creator – Create your own ecovers out of images you upload, 4 different styles to choose from.
Free CTA Box Creator – Create your own ‘call to action’ boxes with or without bullet points, great for sales pages.
Free Banner Ad Creator – Create 2 different sizes of banners to use on blogs, websites, or product delivery pages.

Free Image Sources via Creative Commons

I like images. Better yet I like images that are free to use provided I attribute the source. The Creative Commons is a great concept that encourages artists to freely share their art with attribution.

http://www.iconfinder.com/
http://www.sxc.hu/
http://compfight.com/ – Check out compfight’s WordPress Plugin too!
Google Advanced Image Search

Royalty Free Image Sites

Everyone likes to make a buck. If you can’t find a quality image in the Creative Commons, you’ll sure to have success with these professional image sites that offer excellent photos at reasonable prices.