Connor BrookeSocial media and blogging has gone from being an activity you did for just fun and pleasure to serious business.
Social media used to be what teenagers and students did after dinner. Blogging was an online personal diary where you kept pictures of your dog, cat and travels.
If you mean business and and need to market and monetize your business, personal brand, website or blog to take advantage of the opportunities, then you need the right tools, resources and advice to guide you.
The explosion of websites, apps, tools and resources online is often confusing. These are some of the resources that I use and recommend that I have found helpful with blogging and social media marketing.
They include tools, links, books and courses and a whole range of resources that will:
- Get you started.
- Take your blog and social media marketing to the next level.
If there are other resources you would like listed, don’t hesitate to let me know and I will include them in the resources section of the blog.
Blogging
WordPress is what I use for this blog and is the #1 global blogging platform that offers flexibility, ease of use and a low cost starting point.
Selecting a WordPress theme is the quickest way to accelerate your blog design without starting from scratch.
Themefuse offers a wide range of WordPress themes that can get you up and running in a matter of minutes.
Prices start from $39
Hosting
WebHostingBuzz is the hosting power behind this blog and offers great price performance with excellent global customer service. I highly recommend using WebHosting Buzz for your first site and it will grow with you as your blog traffic increases.
Learn how to setup your first WordPress blog in 5 minutes.
Prices start from $4.95 per month
Social Media
Twitter is often unders estimated and you need to use tools to help you reach its potential.
Twitter Tools
Twitter needs tools to help you manage and control the tweets. These are the tools I use and also that I recommend.
- Socialoomph – Professional Edition: This allows me to do a range of tasks including scheduling, publishing recurring tweets and auto-follow back and that save me about 40 hours a week.
- Hootsuite: This is an essential tool for managing Twitter and other social networks by allowing you and your teams to efficiently track conversations and measure campaign results.
- Tweepi: This is the tool I use to help me build my Twitter followers.
- Twitterfeed: This tool allows me to share bloggers content I trust without having to manually tweet their latest blog posts. An awesome time saving tool that adds valuable content to my Twitter stream.
- TwitterCounter: Allows you to see at a glance how many Twitter followers you have added over the last month or even 6 months.
- TweetAdder: This enables you to do Twitter marketing and promotion that works within the rules of Twitter
Facebook s the largest social network on the planet. Here are some tools and resources to get you going places.
Facebook Tools
ShortStack: This “App” allows you to create custom Facebook pages without having to be a programmer.
Facebook Training
Facebook Influence by Amy Porterfield. I have learned a lot from her course and it is well structured with a multi-media format including video training, transcripts, summaries and a podcast.
Enpreneur Pinterest Services: Tehmina Zaman is the brains behind this Pinterest training. She has made a huge difference to my Pinterest page and knows her “pinning”
Blogging
ProBlogger: Darren Rowse has been one of the leaders in authentic blogging. Here are 6 Workbooks to get you going both for the beginner, intermediate and the advanced.
Email Tools and Resources
AWeber: Is the Email marketing and auto-responder that I use for this blog and has a large range of features that can be used by affiliate marketers, bloggers and website owners.
MailChimp: This is an easy to use email marketing platform that is cost effective and easy to get up and running fast.
Exact Target: They have many features for the email marketer for the more advanced user. Their platform(s) include not just email but social media marketing tools for Facebook.
Content Marketing
Content Marketing Institute: Joe Pulizzi has put together a focused resource and blog that will keep you on top of your content marketing needs
Hubspot: One of the original and still one of the best inbound marketing software providers and blogs on the planet. Their software helps over 9,000 marketers generate traffic leads and manage their online sales funnel. They were one of the primary inspirations for starting my blog.
Copywriting
Copyblogger: They have been a site that I have used for years and read often. The Copyblogger name says it all and it started as website and blog about copywriting. Today it is much more and is a great portal for content marketing, SEO copywriting, Email marketing, Keyword research and Internet marketing in general.
Search Engine Optimization Tools
Google Analytics: This free tool should be loaded onto every website/blog to measure what phrases that are currently driving traffic to your site.
Google Adwords Keywords Tool: This free tool from Google helps you determine what keywords potential customers are searching and the demand level for those words.
Resources
These two sites are where I go to on a regular basis to keep up to date on SEO.
Product Distribution
When you have created and packaged your online courses and ebooks you need to get some distribution apart from your own website.
Resources
- E-Junkie: They provide a shopping cart and secure system to let you sell your downloadable products such as an eBook or an online course.
- Clickbank: Helps you monetize your knowledge and audience and is one of the biggest on the planet
Outsourcing
Need help with blog or website design, development or other technical help? Neeed to design and format an eBook then these two sites provide the access to tens of thousand of contractors worldwide that are very cost effective.
Photos
On a visual web having striking images and photos are vital here are 3 sites that I use.
- Bigstock Photo: This is a paid service but has a huge library with many in high definition.
- Shutterstock: Again you will pay for their images but they have a library of millions of images and photos
- Flickr: This site is where I use to get access to free photos under the creative commons licence that allows you to use photos with attribution
Books
Here are some books that will provide some reading to inspire and educate you along the blogging business journey.
My book “Blogging the Smart Way – How to Create and Market a Killer Blog with Social Media” and available on Amazon in a Kindle format is a good place to start.
1. The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
Author: Tim Ferriss
I read this book by Tim Ferriss about 5 years ago when the future promise of the web was starting to become very real as social media took hold. Twitter was just starting and Facebook was getting traction. The book promises to take you from the drudgery of the day job to the dream of doing what you love doing and monetize it on the web.
This book inspired me to start my blog.
2. The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything
Author: Ken Robinson, PhD
This book by Ken Robinson I have read more than once. As I have been a teacher in a previous life, it resonated with me. It provides an inspiring insight into how when finding your passion and combining it with your innate abilities and talents can take a life from drudgery to a masterpiece. He calls this intersection “The Element”. Included are examples from famous people that have have found the element such as Paul McCartney, Richard Branson and Arianna Huffington.
Want to learn some of the secrets to take your life to another level?
3. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
Authors: Chip Heath and Dan Heath
This book by Chip Heath and Dan Heath is about ideas. If a book inspires you to write a blog post about it, then you know it has touched you. They outline the 6 Principles of “Sticky Ideas” that I now consider when writing or communicating. What are those six principles?
Simplicity, unexpectedness, concreteness,credibility, emotions and stories.
If you want to improve your communication skills and make your ideas memorable, then this book should not be ignored.
4. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Author: Stephen King
Stephen King is known more for fiction books than non-fiction. This book is part memoir (for the first 100 pages) and then he reveals in the last 200 pages the basic toolkit for becoming a good or even a great writer.
His passion for writing is obvious and compelling. His life journey is revealing. Three key messages impressed me…the importance of simplicity, starting and persistence. That is just the start of what you will find between its covers.
This book is not just about writing, it is about life.
5. Rework
Authors: Jason Fried and David Hansson
This book is written by Jason Fried and David Hansson who are the founders of 37 Signals which is a very successful software development company (ever heard of the software “Basecamp”). What you find is a lot of ideas to rework your business that they have discovered from personal experience. If you are living in the 21st century and want to know how business is being reinvented that works in a knowledge economy then it is worth reading.
Short punchy chapters packed full of cool ideas and inspiration.
6. Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
Author: Simon Sinek
Simon Sinek impressed me when I heard him speak. His core message is what makes leaders great and how that leads to companies that succeed and excel. He uses examples (stories) starting with the Wright Brothers, Martin Luther King and Steve Jobs.
Get the “Why” right and then the fun starts. It is also about the art of influence.
7. The New Rules of Marketing & PR “How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications, Blogs, News Releases, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly“
Author: David Meerman Scott
I must confess I read it more than twice and hence it has a lot of coffee stains. What I loved about this book was its revelations on how to communicate and market in a digital world. I was tired of the old ways of marketing and selling and David Meerman Scott opened up my eyes to a new paradigm. It is about being authentic and talking plainly. It is also social media 101.
This book preceded the launching of my blog but it is woven into its tapestry.
It should be sitting in your Kindle book list or parked on your shelf after it has been consumed and underlined.
8. The Millionaire Messenger: Make a Difference and a Fortune Sharing Your Advice
Author: Brendon Burchard
Brendon Burchard is like a “mini me” Tony Robbins. Don’t let that fool you. In this book he reveals how to monetise your knowledge ten different ways and have fun while doing so while adding value to people’s lives.
He provides a glimpse into what he has learned about presenting, writing a book, creating promotional partners (affiliates), promoting seminars, educating online and much more.
If you are a expert or thought leader and you don’t know how to package your ideas and knowledge and sell it, then read this book.
9. The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
Author: Steven Pressfield
If you want to learn more about the art, the challenges and the processes of the creative sphere then this book is packed full of insights. If you are an artist writer, musician, business person or you are breathing and have a pulse….doesn’t everything involve being creative?…then read this book.
It is about overcoming roadblocks and resistance in life. It is about “doing the work” that is congruent with your purpose and destiny.
10. Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers
Author: Seth Godin
Seth Godin is so visible in the marketing world that he is like a global beacon. I read this book while also reading The New Rules of Marketing and PR. This book flips the model of push marketing to attraction marketing. This book was also instrumental in starting my blogging journey. It is about people giving permission for you to sell to them. I thought that was a cool concept.
Want to see what is important about marketing in a web centric world. Then read this book.
What about you?
Have you used any of the above tools or resources? What are your favourites?
What tools, resources, online courses and training would you recommend?
Look forward to your insights and feedback in the comments below.
Learn how to market your blog and website with social media
My book – “Blogging the Smart Way – How to Create and Market a Killer Blog with Social Media” shows you how.
It is now available to download. I show you how to create and build a blog that rocks and grow tribes, fans and followers on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It also includes dozens of tips to create contagious content that begs to be shared and tempts people to link to your website and blog.
I also reveal the tactics I used to grow my Twitter followers to over 149,000.
Image by Shutterstock
This article was written for Business 2 Community by Connor Brooke.
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Thank you for sharing this awesome tools and resources. It gives me a heads up and more information to what tools to use for my blogs. Appreciate this much.
Right now Envoke is producing a very unique custom SEO analysis tool that provides real time analysis of traffic and search engine rankings. Its going to be a very powerful tool for people in the SEO industry. More info can be found here : http://envokedesign.com/
This is just awesome, one stop post. I better bookmark it. Thanks for the share.
Thank you for sharing this article. It has so many tips to use for my business that I know will help.
Great list of tools. I’m a huge fan of Google analytics, Pinterest, Search Engine land, Search Engine Journal. I love tools that make my life easier and my workflow more efficient.
Thanks alot for sharing these amazing points. I just loved the points you mentioned. And of course the tools pointed in your discussion is actually very useful. I have personally worked on a Pininterest and it has indeed brought my traffic visits gone up.
Very fascinating, especially for the business people like us for are more into social media aspects.Thank you so much Jeff for sharing such as amazing and useful information with us. Its not less than an asset for the business who are into social media activities or are somehow connected to it.
Great post, interesting to see what products you tipped, as we are developping a Social Media platform.
This is a great article, thanks for sharing!!
These are great tools to have. Some if not all are free too. I’m looking at ShortStack myself.
Thanks for the list of tools. Analytics is my fav :)
Another excellent article. The information is so very helpful. Thank you for sharing.