This is the stuff I use, I’ve split it into sections according to areas of interest. Please note that there are affiliate links below and I may be compensated if you purchase via these links. With that said, I won’t promote any crap. Believe me, I have bought enough to fill a website with links to all that rubbish! This is the good stuff.
Authors
KD Spy – Good for book keyword research on Amazon, works best in conjunction with Keyword Researcher (see below) in my opinion.
Scrivener – (Mac/Windows) Use the Scrivener coupon code NAISH20 for 20% off. (And it’s already dirt cheap!)
I used to write my books in Word, and I didn’t really have a problem with that as I didn’t know what I was missing. Having now used Scrivener I would never go back. It is seriously helpful in storing and arranging your work, you can do LOADS of stuff on it and I’m doing a terrible job of selling its benefits here, you have to experience it to believe it.
There’s a little bit of a learning curve, but that’s to be expected with anything new. I write everything in it now, you can plan out articles and email sequences just as easily as you can your manuscripts. Great to have everything you need in one place. (Including your research and images!)
Site Building & WordPress
Thesis Theme – This is probably the best WordPress theme on the market. Definitely not cheap, but the clean code helps your site load faster which in turn helps ranking. Lots of customization options. If you know a little about coding, this is a good option, but if you are into internet marketing and are less experienced with coding then Marketers Delight (below) is definitely a better (and cheaper) choice.
Marketers Delight Theme – Although Thesis is great, I gave this a shot because it is specifically for marketers, and takes away the need for lots of plugins (which helps keep your site fast) because it has so many things built in. This is the current theme on this site, any social links, popups, squeeze pages etc you see are all done with the built in functionality of this theme. It does too much to list here, take a look for yourself.
SiteGround Hosting – I’ve used quite a few hosts, these guys have beat out all the rest (including the alligator hosting company if you know who I mean?) for uptime and for sheer helpfulness when you are stuck. The price is competetive too.
WP Rocket – Site speed is important to Google, and your rankings. While I am familiar with a lot of what goes on in the back end of a WordPress site, I’m no coder. WP Rocket lets me get my site running quickly with minimum fuss.
Yeah, it costs you, (not much) but it beats messing around for hours with other site speed plugins. Hands down the easiest to use, and most powerful cache plugin for WordPress.
List Building
ActiveCampaign – Email marketing and automation. Very reasonably priced option for beginners, very easy to use and the support staff are responsive and helpful. At time of writing there is a free trial via the link above.
Images/Design
GetStencil – I use this to create all the images on my site, the site logo, the image on the “start here” page, the popups, etc are all from GetStencil and you can create them in literally a few minutes. It’s also free to use for up to 10 images a month which is plenty for the average user.
Keyword Research
Keyword Researcher – This is my favorite tool for finding longtail keywords from both Google and Amazon.
Long Tail Pro – This service is a bit more expensive, but since they have also added the online version of the tool it is worth its weight in gold.