Tools Of The Trade
What tools I use and prefer and the ones you just can’t go without.
Just like any workshop or offline business work will grind to a halt without the correct tools. And for each business out there, there are common tools of the trade to very specialized tools you need for a very specific task. This is also the case for your online business. Your business won’t function without them.
Not only are these tools very effective in what they do some are essential to your success and yes they do cost money to own or use but a whole lot of them you can use from day one with a free plan and only when your business grows you can upgrade your plan accordingly.
Below are the tools of my trade, My business could simply not function without them so I stand by them and recommend to you as a good option to start with.
Just an important notification. Some or all of these products have an affiliate program. In an event of a sale, I may receive a small commission at absolutely no extra cost to you.
Hosting and Registration
NameHero Hosting
NameHero should be your absolute number one choice if you want to register a .com domain. They provide super fast reliable WordPress hosting with outstanding 24/7 customer support I can vouch for.
Unfortunately, they don’t register .co.za domains but if your blog is growing and need a suitable hosting to accommodate your growth I would migrate to NameHero without thinking twice.
They are running great hosting packages at the time of writing for R60.50!
That is true value.
Domains.co.za Hosting
Domains.co.za is a local hosting company perfectly well suited for anyone just starting out. They have reliable hosting with fast live support if you need them. They have well priced “starter” hosting packages for the guy who would like to start a site/blog for the local market.
Recommended web hosting packages start from R69.00 – R 245.00 a month. These include free domain registration.
Themes and Page builders
Divi by Elegant Themes
If you are wondering how do you create a website then the answer is with Divi! It is one of the most popular themes/page builders for new web designers to start using.
It is beautiful, fast and modern all in one package. You can literally set up a website in minutes with their ever-growing list of layouts and ready-made templates. A total of 1140 layouts to be exact.
You get all this and a ton more. You can literally start a web design business for only R1522
Brizy Page Builder
Same as Divi and just as powerful. You can build a website in minutes and organize and customize it the way you always dreamed about. It is super easy to use, fast and has beautiful design templates you can import for free and build from there.
Your website will look professional and your style and design options are only limited to your imagination.
Best of all, you can start designing for FREE.
To unlock all the benefits you can upgrade to a personal package for R873.00
Astra Theme
Astra is built for speed and fully optimized for performance out of the gate. Not only does Astra loads in less than a second it also boasts beautiful design functionality which also is fully customizable to your specifics and needs.
Add a page builder to Astra and you will be building websites like a pro without writing a line of code.
Best of all, you can start for FREE!
To unlock all the features of Astra you can upgrade to the pro version for R805.00
Divi Life
Divi Life is a software company run by Tim Strifler. They develop some awesome extensions and themes for Divi. You can look at these extensions as enhancers for your website.
I use in most of my sites and the overlays are my favourite way to capture email addresses.
They also have some awesome premium themes if your don’t like the themes or layouts from the Divi library.
Plugins start at R262.00 (At the time of writing) The USD is the highest it has ever been.
Productivity
Google Docs
Absolutely FREE and a true lifesaver. You can’t put a price on the value that Google Docs are bringing to your business. I and millions of other online entrepreneurs trust and use Google docs to capture their thoughts and write content.
You can sit in a cafe in Thailand writing a blog article and access it in South Africa at your grandmother’s house.
Everything is cloud-based. You also have access to Google Sheets (like MS Excel)
Try it today.
Grammarly
If you are starting a blog then you can not skip out on Grammarly. It does not matter if you are a seasoned writer or just starting to use a keyboard, Grammarly will help you out with spelling, grammar and punctuation.
It is seriously a lifesaver. I am not a natural writer at all and I won’t try it without Grammarly.
Try it for FREE today.
Emails
Mailerlite
There are 100s of email service providers and I have tried some and like most but I feel I get more out of Mailerlite than all of them.
You can start for free and what you get for free is pure value. You can run your business for a long time before you need to upgrade to a paid account.
Mailerlite will make capturing emails, sending bulk emails and everything you need to get your voice heard in your follower’s inbox a breeze.
Sign up and be honest with your application.