Website Hosting
GoDaddy Web HostingYou have probably seen negative comments from people regarding GoDaddy. Not in my business. I have used GoDaddy for 8 years without any problems! This company has delivered fair value to me – in fact, more that I expected – thanks to them I have kept my website up. Here at RealMenRealStyle we get around 30,000 to 40,000 people per day and the fact that for this I pay only a few hundred dollars per year for hosting is amazing!
I like how simple they have made this – hosting, domain and security are all at one place. When I want to simply upgrade, I can call them and do that in minutes – in fact, I have done that multiple times and the team over at GoDaddy have walked me through it. Check Out My Unlisted Video On 5 Reasons I Use Go Daddy
Media Temple Web HostingIt’s a web host you can count on. It’s fast, reliable and easy to manage. I use this as a backup web host, so it is my secondary web host. They were bought by GoDaddy recently. This company and its service are fast, reliable and easy to manage. All around, it is a great alternative of GoDaddy that I also like to use. Go check them out if you are looking for website hosting.
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Email Marketing and Subscriptions
AWeberI used Aweber to grow my email list to 50,000 people. I was very satisfied using their services and highly recommend this company. I eventually migrated to Infusionsoft because I wanted more capabilities. Overall, I love AWeber because of their high-deliverability rate. As a bonus – they have a solid use of analytics available. Improve your email marketing with AWeber.
AW Pro ToolsOwned by my friend Jack Born – his team has put together an amazing set of tools that I was really satisfied with. In fact, have I found out about AW ProTools early enough, I probably would not have made the move to Infusionsoft as quickly. Why? Because this is a fantastic tool that really takes AWeber to a whole new level.
This is my current choice of a company to use for CRM and Email Marketing Management. What I love about it is that, not only it is set up for CRM, but I can also market with email, do broadcast and follow-up sequences, build out campaigns. I cannot stress enough how powerful Infusionsoft is.They are made to be built with e-commerce as well, so I use them as a platform to sell my products on.
If you are looking for a professional tool you need to check them out.
Pop Up Tools
I have used PopUp Domination to collect over 100,000 emails. In addition on a daily basis, I collect 200-300 emails using pop-ups. I know that some people don’t like them because they can be a bit annoying, but I absolutely love them because of what they have been able to do for my business and how I communicate with people. Take advantage of it and collect more emails than you could without.
Personal & Business Finance
This is a fantastic tool that I can’t go without. When you are business owner you need a picture of of your finance – all my banking accounts, currently 4 banking accounts and 10 different saving accounts are visible in Personal Capital and I can see them all in one place. In addition, I can see all my student loans, retirement funds and mortgage – all of this in one place, which makes Personal Capital invaluable to me, personally and for my business. Oh, and I should mention – this is a FREE tool!
I highly recommend Ramit’s Dream Job Program – personally, I have been his fan and student for around 7 years. I first picked up his book “I Will Teach You To Be Rich” and still follow a number of his teachings. The reason why this course is so good is because if you are looking for a job you need to understand the strategies and ways that the business is done. In addition, you need to know how to interview. Ramit relies on behavioral research and explains the mistakes people make along the way. The bottom line is this – if you want to know what can really work for you, go check out Ramit’s course on getting your dream job.
Click here to read my article in which I go into much more detail about why I think it is worth your time and money. In addition, you can watch my unlisted video, in which I provide you with an inside look into Ramit’s course.
Lead Capture Tool For WordPress
If you have no experience creating sales pages or even if you do – LeadPages is a great tool that will help you from start to finish. These guys work hard to really understand what converts visitors into customers. They have a ton of pre-made templates, which you can sort by conversion rate and pick those that you like the most.
After a quick set-up, you will find the integrated analytics invaluable. In addition, their podcast is fantastic if you want to learn about how you can create powerful lead pages. Create a lead page that converts!
WordPress Membership Site Tool
This is a powerful membership plugin that I use for my WordPress websites. It works seamlessly. I personally know Stu and Tracy, the founders of WishList Member and I have enjoyed their great customer service for years. They really care about this product and the service they provide – this is why WishList Member is my service of choice.
Premium WordPress Themes
StudioPress is what RealMenRealStyle.com is actually built off. If you are looking for a professional looking, as well as functional WordPress Themes you need to check them out. All their themes are powered by the Genesis Framework, so to ensure flawless functionality, security and performance.
Genesis Framework from StudioPress
Genesis is a the actual foundation of StudioPress that I use. It is the design, security and SEO behind my website. I am very satisfied with it because it helps with my ranking in Google searches, it is also built on HTML5, so it helps RealMenRealStyle.com look great visually. As a business owner, I am looking for simplicity and ease of use and that is what I am getting with Genesis. For example, changing the look of my website is quick and easy – I don’t need a designer or developer to do it. In other words, the design and functionality that you can manipulate would never damage the core of the website. Build your professional-looking website using Genesis.
Beautiful WordPress Forms To Collect Information
I really like using Woofu forms in all my courses. The setup is really easy and highly customizable. When you create a form you can take a simple HTML code and put the form on any WordPress website. The data you collect is then presented really conveniently and is easy to track.
How I Find People To Work For Me
Most of you probably know that most of my staff in my company are not from the USA. We don’t share the same physical location, but everyone works from their home. I have found that this works best for me and I have used Virtual Staff Finder to find the right type of people. Build the team you need using Virtual Staff Finder.
Video Education and Resources
A big part of the success of RealMenRealStyle has been my video channel. When it comes to videos the guys over at ReelSEO are my personal choice for video consulting. I make sure that I follow their content in order to know what is new and how to improve my videos. If you look at my videos from two years back you will see quite a difference – I owe it to ReelSEO.
Simple Video PressIf you are looking for a great video plugin for WordPress, look no further. This is really simple to use – you enter your YouTube Credentials and you are good to go. In one minute, it will gather all of your YouTube Videos and create individual posts for each video. At that point, you decide what you want to publish and you are done!
Not only will it bring all of your videos to your site, it will also bring all of the comments from YouTube. From that point going forward – every video you publish on YouTube will magically appear on your site! Every comment made on YouTube will also show up on your site as well! Even if the video gets a comment 2 weeks after you publish the post – in less than an hour that comment will also show up on your website! Go check out Simple Video Press!
Podcasting Education
Podcasters’ ParadiseJohn Lee Dumas is a personal friend and a business partner over at High Speed Low Drag. I really love what he has built over at Podcasters’ Paradise and that is the strongest podcasters’ community in the world. Regardless of your experience, there are over 200 video tutorials that guide you through the process of creating your Podcast from step 1 to launch, growing your audience and your business platform and monetizing your podcast and the audience you are building!
Pat Flynn’s Guide To Podcasting
My wife and I have used this to create a podcast and Pat’s help has definitely been crucial to making it successful. The best part is that it is free and Pat has really done a fantastic job helping podcasters and their businesses. The community is filled with passionate podcasters, video tutorials and so much more that will help you create, grow and monetize your podcast, regardless of whether you are a beginner or experienced podcaster. Click here for free access to Pat Flynn’s Guide To Podcasting.
Podcast Hosting
Once you start your podcasting you need to think about hosting it. Libsyn is my preferred service and the one I have personally used. If you are a beginner, this is a great solution. It has all the tools you will need in one place – publishing tools, media hosting, RSS for Itunes, website, stats and much more. Use this easy solution to podcast hosting.
Video Screencast Capture
Blueberry Online Video Screen Capture
This is my favourite product to use when creating a screencast, which I can then easily put on my YouTube Channel. What I love about it is that it is simple and it works flawlessly. Using Blueberry Online Software, you don’t need technical skills to be able to put together professional video and presentations. Make your presentation great with Blueberry Online Video Screen Capture.
Jing Online Video Screen Capture
I use this every single day – it has made communicating with my team easy and convenient. It is a free piece a software which allows you to record screencasts and host them on their server. As I have said it is great when you want to show something to your team quickly. It has definitely saved me a ton of time from writing lengthy emails. Try Jing free by clicking here.
Organizer/Scheduler Tools
This tool saves me a lot of time. Before, I was literally having to send three to four emails and get three to four back from a person over a three to four day period going back, trying to find an exact day that will work for both of our schedules. ScheduleOnce allows me to take the bull by the horns and send that person an email and basically say – “This is my scheduler, find a time that works for you and we’ll make it happen”. Then it automatically sends them an update and boom the meeting is happening and it’s just is a huge time saver when it comes to email. No time zone errors and it integrates with my calendar automatically. Schedule your meetings to work for you!
I do most of my work in Evernote. Why? Because it keeps me focused. I have found that it is an indispensable tool for me and my business. I have organised my work in a way that works for me and can easily keep track of progress on all my tasks and also develop new ideas. It has a fantastic synchronization between devices, so I use it on the go as well without any issues. If you want to gather important information – web articles, handwritten notes, pictures and keep the digital details of your projects with you at all times – this is the tool to use.
Backing Up Content And Image Organization
DropboxWhat I love about Dropbox because it allows me and my team to share documents easily. It sync automatically and uses a cloud storage, so when someone drops any kind of file into the folder on their computer, I can see it on my computer automatically as if they pasted it there. Make file sharing easy for your business too.
Business Training and Education
Amy PorterfieldI have met Amy in personal and can tell you that she is amazing. Amy really knows what she is talking about when it comes to social media. Her podcast is also quite useful and find it to be up to the point – you can really learn a lot just by listening to even a couple of episodes.
Entrepreneur On FireThis is John Lee Dumas’ personal podcast where he has interviewed hundreds of successful entrepreneurs. One thing that you will immediately pick up is his enthusiasm for business and learning from his guests. He was awarded Best Of iTunes in 2013 because of his dedication to serving and share incredible insights to help guide you on your Entrepreneurial journey.
Jon LoomerJon is a personal friend of mine – I have known him since I was 18 years old! Jon and I went to undergraduate education together and his focus is on Facebook Analytics. His professional experience with Facebook is more than five years long and I have applied a lot of what he teaches in my business. I highly recommend Jon because I know he can help you with revenues, brand awareness, conversions or whatever goal you are trying to reach.
When it comes to gaining traffic – this is the man you have to listen to. Rick is incredibly smart guy who will teach you Facebook ads strategy. I have used his services to attract leads from Facebook and this has led to more sales. In fact, Facebook is now among the top traffic sources for my business.
VideoTraffic AcademyThis is a solid product and company from which I have learned a lot about developing my YouTube Channels and in particular growing my traffic. When you come to think about it there are around 800 million monthly users over at YouTube and it is a platform that can really help your business if you know how to use it effectively. The guys over at Video Traffic Academy make it really easy to get started with YouTube and will set you on the right track.
If you want to learn how to use LinkedIn, there is no better course that you can take. I have personally gone through this myself and have learned quite a lot about how to use this platform in the best way possible. I highly recommend it if you want to take you LinkedIn game to the next level. What I have learned from this course is also what I have taught thousands of men – how to get their dream job, how to network successfully and stand out from the crowd. I highly recommend it to those of you who are looking for this information in one place. Take your LinkedIn game to the next level!
I owe a big part of my business success to what I have learned from Andrew’s interviews. He has interviewed more than a thousand entrepreneurs and his sessions are packed with solid advice from many different industries that any business owner will find invaluable. Best part is that his interviews are accessible for without a charge. Check out Mixergy – it’s still free.
Pat Flynn is a personal friend who has really influenced me in how I do my business. His “Ebooks The Smart Way” is what really got me on the right path. Pat’s blog is discussing all aspects of passive income and ways you can achieve more for yourself. I really like the wealth of useful information and podcasts that has helped me develop my business to what it is today.
Social TriggersI am really impressed with Derek over at Social Triggers – his website is a compilation if the best books, research and knowledge from experts around the world. When it comes down to it, as a business owner, you want to know what works… what you can use today and start seeing results from. Social Triggers will show you exactly that.
Visual Tools
If you use Photoshop and are looking for great images to help you demonstrate virtual products as real physical objects – I highly recommend Cover Actions Premium. They have a huge selection to choose from and all templates are made really professionally. Create realistic-looking products using Cover Actions Premium!
99DesignsYou don’t need to have a dedicated personnel for every job. Over at 99 Designs, you can find professionals in a variety of categories and their pricing is set up in a way that you pay for what you like. It is a simple service where you fill in a design brief and choose how much you’ll pay. Then designers submit their work and you choose the one you love most. I highly recommend them! Choose the design that you love!
Webinar Tools
This is my favourite tool for conferencing. Every time I host an online conference I use GoToMeeting because it is a reliable service and works flawlessly. Setup is really easy and you can easily engage with you audience, share your screen, files, etc. This is also my choice for team meetings – I simply provide my team with a link and they can easily join our weekly meeting. Set up your conferencing right using GoToMeeting.
This is a great and powerful WordPress plugin – when I want to create and host an online event, which can have unlimited attendees, I use Easy Webinar. This is pretty straightforward, but what’s more to it is that once people sign up for your webinar you can collect their emails and integrate any autoresponder program. So, if you’re an expert in your field – you should consider this tool as it can seriously increase your sales.