Landing Page and Sales Funnel Creator

I have tried lots (ad lots) of landing page and funnel creators. The big names are ClickFunnels, LeadPages, and InstaPage. A lot of ESPs also allow you to build landing pages.

But the only Landing page and sales funnel creator software that I use and love: Convertri.

It's fast, flexible, and intuitive. Did I mention it's fast? Pages load with almost instantly. Google counts page speed in its ranking. I build my website on Convertri to capitalize on the speed and drag and drop simplicty.

Convertri also seamlessly integrates with all ESPs and lets me add my blog to my website.

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Monitoring and Checking the Competition:

If you are ready to ethically "spy" on your competition, these sites will help you get an inside look at your competitors keywords, web traffic, ads and more. The Google sites are free and contain a wealth of information - but you might need to spend a bit more time sorting through results. The other sites will give you a free trial to check out their capabilities.

Google Alerts: Yup. Google is great at monitoring. Set up the alert on your name, website, social accounts – whatever you want. Fine tune it to hear the news you need to hear. Free.

Google AdWords. Want to find keywords around your product or service? Google AdWords has a Keyword Planner that lets you search for words and key phrases. Since Google owns about 90% of search traffic, this is a very valuable resource. Free.

Google Trends: Find trending topics from Google search. View trends in various industries, by country, or search for the topic of your choice. Free.

Semrush. Want to see the keywords your competition is ranking for? Links? Ads? Semrush will let you peek under the hood. You can get a 7-day free trial.

SpyFu has a lot of the same info as Semrush. The free search bar on the main page gives you the “big picture” results. You can get a free 30-day trial and you can take advantage of special pricing.

SimilarWeb lets you deep dive into any website and see where they get their traffic, rank, competitors, and more. You can get a free trial. This is one of the most comprehensive tools out there.

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Social Media Scheduling

Buffer. Easy to use. Integrates via plugin so it’s really easy to add content to your social accounts. Up to 3 social media accounts are free. Buffer integrates with nearly all social platforms to make it easy to connect to your accounts. Pricing is pay-per-channel.

HootSuite. I like the card setup of the dashboard. Pinterest not available without a third-party app. Integrates with the big social platforms. You have a choice of a free 30-day trial or 20% off your plan. 

Hubspot Social Media Scheduling Template. Easy to use and forces you to write and plan your social media posts. Excel spreadsheet with tabs for each platform. If you're not ready to sign on with a paid scheduler, this scheduler can help organize your campaign.

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Free Stock Photos:

You know you'll need high-quality images for your creative efforts, but copy-pasted from a Google search is just asking for trouble for copyright infringement. These sites have a variety of free images that you can use. Pay attention to the attribution and usage requirements. While most are pretty generous, do your research and read their terms of use before you use the images.

These sites are the best of what I have found.

Pixabay Images that you can use anywhere – even for business – and no copyright issues. I am finding some images that are AI generated, which may or may not be a positive for you. Also has a good selection of videos, sound effects, and illustrations.

Pexels  I have to admit that this is my favorite site. Seems to be less “stock image” than other sites.  You can sort by “trending” or “new." Great diverse, selection of people.

Stocksnap I like their search function and their “trending” sort. I try to find images that aren’t trending – who wants to use what everyone else is using? Tends to lean more to things and landscapes than stock photos of people.

Unsplash seems to have a little different selection than other sites – heavier on the landscape and architecture. Great if you are creating quote of the day images for Pinterest or Instagram.

Burst sorts into categories like Fitness, Fashion, Business, Music that make is easier to quickly find what you are looking for – and discover related images. Hosted by Shopify.

Freestocks feels more authentic than a lot of sites - sort of like an IG photo that your friend shot. Sorts by category and tags. Nice selection of food and animals but they have a broad collection in general.

FoodiesFeed is perfect for food-based blogs. Lots of nicely lit food shots (which will probably beat your "I snapped my lunch just before eating it." Not as large in absolute numbers – but very well curated.

New Old Stock I love this site! New Old Stock are public archive historic photos. Scroll and discover or search (not intuitive – little magnifying glass in upper right). I like stumbling across random photos of people to spice up my blog posts.

Kaboompics emphasizes product shots, interiors, architecture, and abstract work. Their photos are ofen available as part of a collection - so you might see 5-8 photos using the same setting so you can pick just the right shot.

PikWizard has lots of gorgeous food and landscape shots as well as some not-run-of-the-mill people shots doing things besides sitting around tables looking at charts.

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Email Service Providers (ESP) for Email Lists

If you are going to start an email list (and you absolutely should) then you need an ESP. Sending bulk emails from your personal email account will probably get you banned. You need a service that will help you manage your list and automate your emails.

My two favorites are GetResponse and BirdSend.

GetResponse: If you are new to email list building, you might want to check out GetResponse. It has a ton of learning videos and great, responsive customer service. My readers get a free 30-day account to try before you buy.

BirdSend: If you are experienced with emailing, BirdSend is a great choice. It is reasonably priced, wtih lots of features. They assume that you have some experience and have a thinner customer service department and knowledgebase. My readers get 500 free contacts for their account.

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Graphics Creation:

Canva. Quick, intuitive, and flexible. Dead simple to download. Tons of built-in templates for social, eBooks, graphics, and general publishing. Free tier has a lot of what you need. Pro tier adds a lot of functions such as resize and AI and additional templates and graphics.

Lunacy. Lots of languages supported. Great for creating mockups. Some limititations on file types, file sizes, and imports. Free.

GIMP. The closest Photoshop replacement you can find. It has all the pros including lots of powerful featurers -  and the con of having a steep learning curve. If you are already familiar with Photoshop, you will love this. Free.

Adobe Express. A little like Canva with pre-made templates. They have made changes to the editor (out with the style-wheel and in with a blank canvas-type editor) that make it more user-friendly. Free and paid tiers.

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