This page is periodically updates, so keep checking back for new tools and resources.
Team UpwardAction® uses a variety of FREE and paid online tools that automatic our systems and make the magic happen on our websites and in our online communities. We’re spilling the beans so you can propser too! Keep reading …
LEGAL & ACCOUNTING TOOLS
Freshbooks: This is our favorite accounting software. It's a cloud-based program that's easy to use. We use Freshbooks to tracks expenses, manages invoicing, prepare estimates and monitor the time of multiple contractors. Click here for a free 30 day trial.
LegalZoom: This is our go to resource to file quick and easy incorporation documents and trademark applications. While we always recommend consulting a small business attorney to assist with your business needs, if you've already done this and just need to get something done quickly – Legal Zoom may be able help. Again … consult an experienced attorney first, then use LegalZoom as a tool. Click here to learn more.
AutoWebLaw: This resource has a solid collection of legal templates for web-based businesses. Privacy agreements, terms of service, earnings disclaimers, newsletter disclosures and copyright documents are just a few of things you'll find within the site. Click here to learn more about joining.
WEBSITE TOOLS
GoDaddy: This is our preferred domain registrar and hosting company. The 24-hour customer care line has been a huge benefit way to many times to count. Click here to learn more.
WordPress.org: All websites for UpwardAction® brands and our clients use the WordPress.org platform. In our opinion, it's the best website development tool for building and maintaining a professional website, regardless of if you are running a large or small firm. WordPress makes it super easy to manage content, attract organic traffic as well as change the look and feel of your website without being a techie. Click here to learn more.
Optimize Press: This is our favorite tool for create attractive and effective landing pages and sales pages for our various brands. Click here to get started.
Elegant Themes: In our opinion, Elegant Themes has created some of the most attractive and yet still SEO optimized and conversion ready themes on the market. Best of all, these themes are relatively easy to customize. Click here to learn more about what we think are fantastic designs.
Askimet: If you want to severely limit the number of spammy comments on your website, you'll want to install Askimet right away. It's free for personal sites and required a relatively small fee for multi-site businesses. Click here to learn more.
ManageWP: Monitoring and managing multiple WordPress websites is made easy with ManageWP, even with a super small team that can be as small as one person. ManageWP is one of the most important tools in our business (second to only InfusionSoft). We use it every single day Click here to try it for yourself.
KEYWORD RESEARCH
Market Samauri: Effective keyword research is the life blood for generating organic search engine results for your website and social media platforms. Market Samauri is one of the most robust keyword tools available. In our opinion, it's the best tool for detailed keyword research, competitive analysis, searching valuable domain names and tracking the rankings of websites. We use this tool several times a weeks and on some week we use it every day. Click here to check it out.
Google Keyword Planner: This is a free tool that is more than adequate for most small businesses. If you only need basic keyword research capabilities, the Google Keyword Planner may be all that you need. Use this tool to discover new keywords and get estimates for how their performance. Click here to learn more and get started.
EMAIL MARKETING
InfusionSoft: InfusionSoft is our contact management and eCommerce solution of choice. We use the tool in our business and often recommend it to businesses that are ready for a 360 website marketing solution. This tool is pricy, however, it is well worth the investment when you leverage it's power to manage multiple aspects of your online business. Click here to learn more.
Constant Contact: This is a great email marketing management tool for businesses that have fairly standard email marketing needs. It's effective, relatively inexpensive and pretty easy to use. We recommend it to members of our community quite often. Click here to learn more and get started!
SOCIAL MEDIA
Hootsuite: This is one of the most important tools in our resource box. Our entire team uses this tool on a daily, and sometimes hourly, basis to monitor and manage our online empire. This tool has been a game changer in our business. We love it. There's a free and pro version (we use the pro). Click here for a 30-day trial of the pro version.
OnlyWire: Social bookmarking continues to be a useful way to generate organic traffic. OnlyWire is one of our favorite social bookmarking tools and continues to be an important part of our business. We especially appreciate the plugins that make it easy to integrate with WordPress (which is our favorite platform for building websites). Click here to learn more and get started.
RebelMouse: This is one of our favorite social curation tools. RebelMouse makes it easy to monitor your postings on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Google+ from one dashboard. Interested in what UpwardAction® CEO – TC Cooper is up to on social networks? Visit the RebelMouse UpwardAction® page at www.RebelMouse.com/UpwardAction.
AUDIO, VIDEO, PHOTOS & TELEPHONE CONFERENCING
iStock: iStock is our go-to resource for high quality images. This is an inexpensive way to avoid copyright violations that occur from using the photos of others without permission, which can lead to expensive legal fees.
Flickr Creative Commons: This is one of our favorite places to find photos for the many blog posts on our websites. Best of all, the photos are free to use so long as you follow the rules – which most often require attribute and some limited use. If you find yourself needing lots of photos for your web properties, Flickr will fast become one of your best friends. Click here to learn more and get started.
Free Conference Pro: This is our preferred free telephone conference line. A few useful features include the ability to customize your welcome greeting (at no cost), record telephone call, schedule conference call and hold impromptu conference calls for up to 200 people. Cool! Click here to learn more and get started.
Audio Acrobat: This tool makes it easy to publish online audio products, programs & videos on your website. It also makes submitting your audio podcast to iTunes easier than you can imagine.
LogoCreator: We use this tool to create basic logos and cover designs for new products, programs and services. It has lots of attractive logo templates from which to choose and is very easy to use. Click here to learn more and get started.
CoolText: CoolText is a free graphics generator that makes it easy to create simple letter based graphics using a large variety of colors, fonts, backgrounds and design elements. Host your newly created images on their site, or download them to your own computer. Whichever you chose, it's both easy and fun. Click here to learn more and get started.
XHeader: This is a free tool that makes it easy to create your own website headers. Use it to create headers for your sales pages, squeeze pages and special pages for each of your programs, products and services. Click here to learn more.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Basecamp (via 37 Signals): We use Basecamp to manage our programs and projects. Our team finds this tool to be an efficient and highly effective way to keep up with tasks and also make sure everyone says on the same page.
DropBox: This is our preferred home in the “cloud.” Dropbox is a secure cloud-based storage that makes it possible for the folks on our team to have access to documents, images and audio files whenever they need them regardless of where they are or how they are accessing the Internet. We use this resource to archive all important company documents so that they are easily accessible when needed. Click here to learn more.
Evernote: We use this tool to share notes, articles, web clippings and audio files by topic. Information stored in Evernote can be encrypted on your local hard drive, which is super important for sensitive information. Evernote is especially useful because it can be accessed by computers, tablets and smart phones alike. If you have a mobile device and an Internet connection, you can access and use this tool. We absolutely love it. Click here to learn more.
AFFILIATE MARKETING
AdSense: Google's AdSense program is the fastest and easiest way to get started with making money by leveraging other people's stuff (aka “affiliate marketing”). Simply sign-up for the program (click here), then add a bit of code to your website, and get ready to start making money from your website visitors. Here's how it works … when you add the Google code to your website, Google will place ads on your website that are related to the content that is on your webpage. When you visitors click the ads that are on your website, you get paid. Click here to learn more.
Commission Junction: This is a huge network of all sorts of affiliate marketing opportunities that range from small companies to well established brands. We love it! In fact, adding an affiliate link to your electronic newsletter or auto-responder can be a great way to provide useful resources to your list while simultaneously monetizing your list.
OUTSOURCED SUPPORT
oDesk: This is by far our favorite place to find help for a variety of projects. We love the contractors we've found on oDesk, several of which have become important members of our team. While you have to be careful when using a outsourcing resource like oDesk (for example – only use contractors who have a lot of oDesk hours and high marks), it can become a real gem in your business. Click here to learn more.
Fiverr: Fiverr is a great place to find inexpensive help for small, stand-alone projects. Now, while all Fiverr contractors are good (in fact many are pretty bad), we've found that you'll often find the help that you need when you have a stand-along project, clear instructions and you stick to contractors who have lots of positive referrals. Click here to learn more.
PRODUCTIVITY
Action Enforcer: This is one of our favorite productivity tools. It's an effective way to sharpen your focus in timed segments! When implementing your “ideal” work day, we suggest that you focus for 45 minutes, rest 15 minutes and then start again. Click here to learn more and check it out.
CLIENT CARE
SendOutCards: This resource makes it possible to send printed cards with custom messages and even custom images (like group photos) from the comfort of your computer. At UpwardAction®, we use it to send welcome messages to new clients, thank you messages to repeat customers, marketing messages to prospective clients & customers, and a variety of messages to JV partners, affiliates and our raving fans. Click here to learn more.
URL CLOAKING
PrettyLink: This is a WordPress plugin that enables you to shorten, mask, track, organize and share links to various websites. Best of all, the shortened links will contain your domain name (which is important for increase exposure to your brand). Click here to learn more.
Disclosure: Please note that some of the links on this page are affiliate links. This means that, at no additional cost will earn a commission if you decide to make a purchase. Please understand that we have experience with all of the companies contained on this page and we recommend them because they are helpful – not because of any commission that we may receive if you decide to make a purchase. Before investing your money on anything contained on this page, consider whether the program, product or service of interest will help you achieve our goals.