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Resources I Love

Tools I use + happily recommend

Here it is! A list of tools I use in my business — for myself and my clients — which I happily and whole-heartedly recommend.

Just so there are no surprises…

Some of the links I share are affiliate links. This means at no extra cost to you if you click on one and make a purchase I may receive a small commission or free month or two to a subscription I love.

g suite

I use Google’s G Suite mostly for my emails. For years I had dramas with deliverability, downtime and most-annoyingly big headaches trying to send emails from my phone while out and about. It’s also best practice NOT to host your emails and website in the same place. With G Suite I’ve solved both of these issues and I’ve never looked back!

PS. If you’d like a sneaky discount code, shoot me an email and I’ll send you one back.

 

trello

This project management system helps you crush your goals and keep track of all your ongoing tasks in one place. I use it to keep myself organised, collaborate with my VA, as well as for managing client projects (you can copy the board I use to gather content from clients here).

 

LastPass

Having weak passwords or sharing them insecurely is a big no-no in the web world! LastPass helps me store hard-to-guess and auto-generated passwords easily. I have separate folders for my biz, personal, and clients, which makes logging into a bazillion websites each day both secure and a total breeze.

 

REVEAL IT

This nifty web app is an easy-as-pie way to send login details or any other sensitive information securely. Feel free to steal my Reveal It Email Template here for when you use it with clients.

 

activecampaign

ActiveCampaign is like the Beyoncé of email marketing tools. I use it to send out my weekly newsletter, course launch emails, build sales funnels and nurture my students with regular check-in emails. You can easily integrate it with your website opt-in form, manage your list with tags, and more. This is for legit entrepreneurs!

 

Legal123

Having professional website privacy and T&C docs is more important now than ever and you shouldn’t be creating websites for your clients without them. Legal123 is where I purchase all the legal pages required for my Australian clients’ websites. Think: legit privacy policy, disclaimer, and website T&Cs.

 

The Contract Shop

This is where I purchase website legal pages (privacy policy, disclaimer, and website T&Cs) for many overseas and international clients.

 

Elegant Themes (Divi)

Home to the theme and page builder I couldn’t run my business without… Divi! Divi makes building websites a breeze, allowing designers like us to build WordPress websites ourselves WITHOUT CODE. Check out my live Divi run-through to see how easy it is.

 

Divi Life

Divi life is home to a bunch of my favourite Divi plugins including Divi Bars which I used to create the cookie policy bar on this website and Divi Overlays which is awesome for popups using the Divi Builder. See it in action here (click on the roadmap button). I now have an All Access Pass and use their plugins on nearly all my websites.

SiteGround

SiteGround is one of my most preferred WordPress host. I host pretty much all my clients’ websites with them. They also have amazing affiliate and reseller programs for designers. Definitely worth checking out!

 

Raw Pixel

A great stock photo website with both free and paid plans.

 

Unsplash

My absolute favourite and 100% free stock photo website.

 

learn dash

LearnDash is a leading WordPress LMS (Learning Management System) plugin, which I use to build all my eCourses. It’s easy for my students to use and it creates a structured and super professional-looking learning portal.

 

woocommerce

WooCommerce is an open-source e-commerce plugin for WordPress. I use Woo for my selling my courses, products, summit tickets, etc. as well as on my clients’ websites who sell both physical and digital products. Oh and you can use it for free for life! But if you want some extra features there are heaps of awesome paid add-ons.

 

stripe

Although I think it’s important to offer PayPal as a payment option on your websites (as many people trust PayPal more than others),  Stripe actually my preferred payment processor. It’s super easy to set up, automatically transfers fund into your nominated bank account and you can easily set up one-off or recurring payments, like monthly payments for ongoing web maintenance or your other packages.

 

dropbox

Since using Dropbox I rarely take a time machine backup of my Mac. That’s because ALL of my files are automatically backed up and stored securely in the cloud with Dropbox. It gives me peace of mind knowing everything is safely stored. I can also easily share files with my clients via a unique link.

 

Fluent Forms

When you start using this beautiful, effortless WP forms plugin you’ll immediately think “where have you been all my life?” At least that’s what I did. A long-term Gravity Forms loyal, I jumped ship when I saw how pretty Fluent forms were out of the box. No CSS required. Plus you can create conversational forms easily (like TypeForm).

There are both free and pro versions. Obviously I have the paid version but you can always start with free and upgrade if you ever wish to. I can’t recommend this plugin enough. 

 

Want more?

Here are even more tools & plugins I LOVE…