Looking for the tools, products, apps, and services I use? Then, keep reading…
I personally use or test each of the resources for managing my niche websites and other activities. I’ll keep adding to this list as I learn more and become aware of other tools.
Bookmark the page for your convenience.
☞ Click the Headings Below to See Details For Each Section
Affiliate Sites + Tools + Courses
The first section is informational based and the second section covers tools and apps that may be helpful.
How-To Resources
Amazon Affiliate Marketing Niche Site Process – My guide on creating a niche site and I apply my project management skills to add a process around the whole process. That way you know what to work on, and when.
Multi Profit Site – My course on creating multiple streams of income including Amazon Associate and display ads using a PROVEN framework.
Pinterest Traffic Avalanche – A course to take you from 0 to 10,000 visitors per month from Pinterest for free. Perfect for beginners. Created by Alex and Lauren of Create and Go.
SEO Simplified – A comprehensive course by my friend Sam McRoberts. He’s an epic SEO and has worked with Pat Flynn to audit Smart Passive Income. Again, this is beginner friendly.
Hiring Writers – It can be tough to find good writers for your niche site. Perhaps you haven’t hired freelancers before and you don’t know what to expect. It turns out you can find great writers for a fair rate, but you have to go about it in the right way.
WordPress Themes for Niche Sites – I wrote a guide about themes. Most people push affiliate offers hard, but I take the opposite approach. I’m actually trying to not sell you on a theme that I get a fat commission for.
Tools, Apps, and More for Affiliate Sites
Done-For-You Sites by Human Proof Designs — I’m doing a case study right now (Summer 2019) with an aged site. So keep an eye out for that and the results.
AmaLinks Pro (Top Pick) — The newest plugin on the scene with tons of flexibility and power. The main focuses are ease of use and following the Amazon Operating Agreement. You can do everything all within the WordPress dashboard. The have the most sophisticated table builder as well. You can do all the normal things you’d expect:
- Insert Text Links, Image Links, Call-to-action Buttons, and Product Showcases with ease
- Insert Product Comparison Tables with the “Table Builder Add-on”
Super easy-to-use and intuitive table editor - Use with the Classic Editor or with the ‘Gutenberg’ Block Editor
- Search for products on Amazon, then select, from right within your WordPress dashboard
- Increase visitor “stickiness” with beautiful Product Showcases and Comparison Tables
Prosociate — Another great plugin that uses the Amazon API to look up items, get images, add affiliate links. And you’re able to use the eBay affiliate program too, which can be great for certain niches where there are a lot of products on eBay. It also updates out of stock items. There are over 23,000 downloads so it’s well used, tested, and supported.
Genius Link — The best way to route your visitors to the right Amazon store. What do I mean? If you have traffic going to your Amazon site from the UK and Canada, then you’re missing out on commissions. If you can send them to the right Amazon store based on where they are from, then you can earn more commissions. It pays for itself. They have a 14 day free trial so check it out.
KWFinder — It’s my favorite keyword research tool at this time. It’s modern, fast, and makes it much easier to find keyword golden ratio terms. SAVE 10% by using my promo code, “nichesiteproject”. See my demos here and here on YouTube.
Keyword Keg — It’s the keyword research tool I used for a long time — I didn’t get a freebie account or any sort of deal. Heck, they don’t even have an affiliate program. I started using it because it was fast, reliable, and cheap. I try to use tools that beginners use and this is one of them.
Keywords Everywhere — The best free option for keyword research, and I end up using K.E. just as much as any paid tool. It integrates with a whole mess of other tools and content research tools, including but not limited to:
- Google.com – the data is shown right under the search textbox
- Google Search Console – the data is shown in the Search Analytics page
- Google Analytics – data shown in the Organic and Search Engine Optimization -> Queries pages
- Google Trends – data shown in the queries widget
- Google Search – data shown under main keyword as well as related searches
- YouTube – data shown under the searchbox
- Amazon – data shown under the searchbox
- eBay – data shown under the searchbox
- AnswerThePublic.com – data shown in popup on each spoke of the wheel, data also shown in the alphabetic listings
Long Tail Pro — It’s a decent tool for keyword research, but it’s really showing it’s age. It is faster for extensive keyword research, like when you’re starting a new niche site.
Ahrefs — Suite of SEO tools. I use it for its VAST backlink database.
Majestic — Suite of SEO tools. I use it for its VAST backlink database.
SERP Lab — This is the app that I use to track my rankings. It’s reliable and cheap – there’s even a free version.
Images
Where to get images for your sites.
Flickr Creative Commons – Use images for free if you attribute them.
Startup Stock Photos – Office images
Magdeleine – Free images to use, some are public domain and others require attribution.
Pexels – Free stock photos.
Unsplash – Free stock photos.
ISO Republic – Mostly free stock photos and some premium ones too.
MMT – Free stock photos.
Hosting, Domains, CDN
SiteGround – I host my niche sites here because of the excellent customer service. I can also auto-scale the resources to deal with traffic surges over the holidays.
Bluehost – I host one site here, using the WP Optimized service. I started on the shared hosting and moved up.
MDD Hosting – I host Niche Site Project here. It’s a smaller company, stable, and I’ve been hosted there for years.
Max CDN – I use a CDN to help my sites load faster. Learn about optimizing for speed here.
Namecheap – My preferred registrar.
ManageWP – Where I back up my sites. You DO have an off-site backup, RIGHT?? It comes free with the WP Optimized plan at Bluehost. The backups go straight to my Google Drive daily.
Thesis Theme – It’s the theme I use on NSP. It’s fast and clean.
Project Management
Trello – I use Trello as a task and project management tool. It’s great for individuals and small teams. It’s free.
Asana – I use Asana too, but less often. Asana is great for bigger teams and organizations. It’s a lot like Basecamp but free.
Google Apps and Sheets – Project Management tools should NOT be complicated. Simple is best and easiest to teach your team. To me, one of the main jobs of a PM tool is to stay out of the way so the work can be done. Also free!
What other entrepreneurs use for project management – Here’s a round up post about PM Tools.
My Podcasts
The Doug.Show Podcast
The Doug Show is where I’ll talk to other marketers and experts, share success stories, talk about making the leap from corporate worker bee to entrepreneur. It’s hard being a freckled, bald man so that’s bound to come up too.
And I’ll share random stories like moving from Atlanta, Georgia to Bozeman, Montana, visiting all 50 states, and beer stories.
Subscribe below:
Survive the 9 to 5 Podcast
My wife and I have a podcast where we talk about corporate life and working called, Survive the 9 to 5. Check it out on:
Software and Tools for NSP
Screenflow – I use this for screen captures and video editing.
Aweber – I use Aweber for Niche Site Project. Great service, stable, and a fair price.
Optin Monster – I use this for some sites for list building.
Moz Bar – It’s a Chrome Extension that I use to research the competition and get an idea about the authority of a website.
SEO Quake – Another great Chrome Extension I use to get tons of info for competitive analysis.
Boomerang – Great for getting a handle on your inbox and send delayed emails.
Books
This site is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.
Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
Better Faster Smarter by Charles Duhigg
Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss
Four Hour Chef by Tim Ferriss