Internet marketing tools are essential in online business. It doesn’t matter if they are free or paid, there are tasks you have to complete to get your sites out there and you cannot do that without tools.
On this page I will list the Internet marketing tools I’m using and I’ll keep it updated as the tools change. I am using them successfully every day, and hopefully it will give you some ideas if you have something missing in your own arsenal.
Market Samurai
First up is keyword research. And besides the Google’s External Keyword tool, I find Market Samurai to be the best tool for my keyword research needs and then some. It also includes modules for writing content, finding backlink opportunities, finding offers to promote on your site, etc. As an alternative, you can also check out Keyword Elite.- HostGator
Web hosting is the number one service you will use in your online business. There’s no doubt how crucial it is, you can do everything else right but do this wrong and you will be screwed. Your website must be up 24/7 and load fast, otherwise you’re not in business. I’m recommending HostGator here because it’s what I use to run all of my sites. I’ve been using them for the past 6 years and I’m completely satisfied with the service. 
WordPress
When it comes to building your site, WordPress is the software to use. And not accidentally, Google’s own Matt Cutts has made a presentation in Wordcamp 2009 about how to use WordPress for best SEO. The abundance of plugins and easiness to use make it number one on its own level. And oh yes, your site doesn’t have to be a blog at all with WP, but a format of a blog makes search engine optimization so much easier.- Flippa
It’s not a tool per se but a marketplace of websites being sold. However Flippa can be used as a great market research tool. You get detailed insight into every website listed for sale, including traffic analytics, income data, monetization methods, promotion methods and so on. Not only it’s a great source of ideas but also a source of data to verify your own research. 
The Content Authority
When it comes to creating website content there’s no cutting corners. You can’t just slap up some random PLR articles or duplicate articles from some directory. Your content has to be top quality content that users like, want to read, want to share and want to come back to your site. Otherwise there’s no point in creating a website at all. If you hate writing as much as I do, though, the answer is outsourcing it. The Content Authority are great at this. They offer top quality writing services at very affordable rates.- Ultra Spinnable Minis
All backlink building requires you to write a lot of content, which is really time consuming. Ultra Spinnable Minis is a great source for articles that are provided in a ready to spin syntaxt. You get 20 articles per month for a membership fee and you can re-use those articles many times over as every article can be spun into thousands of variations. You will not use it as original content (since other members get the same articles too) but it’s great to use to get backlinks from article directories, blog networks, etc., and it’s cheap. 
RegisterCompass
There are two ways to start a website – register a new domain or buy an old domain in the after market. There are many advantages in buying an old domain name (such as age, links, PR) and to find buying opportunities I use RegisterCompass.- Open Site Explorer
To check backlinks and other domain ratings I use this tool. The free version of it gives enough data to determine the main metrics. It’s especially useful when evaluating an old domain you’re looking to buy.
Those are the tools and services I use every day. I’ll keep this list updated when and if I start using any other Internet marketing tools (or when I stop using any of the current ones).
Using Internet Marketing Tools
So those are the tools, but a tool is useless if you don’t know how to use it. I realize that to many readers all those titles can mean little if they don’t know how exactly they can help their business. That’s why I’m gonna go through a possible process of website creation and marketing to show you where and how these tools come into play.
- The first step would be to browse Flippa and see if I can find any good website ideas, or to confirm an idea that I already have in mind. I would look through Google Analytics provided with the listings, see what kind of traffic it is possible to get, what kind of keywords, what kind of monetization methods are possible and how much work there is involved. Basically the goal here is to see what works and apply it yourself on your new or old websites.
- Once I have an idea for a website, I check the keywords in Market Samurai. I check the competition, traffic volumes, other related keywords and make a keyword profile for my new website. At this point I will know what kind of content I will need to create for my website, how to structure it and what keywords to go after in SEO.
- Now is the time to get a domain name. I will always try to find an old domain with RegisterCompass, because it gives me a great head start. I try to find a domain name that has already had a similar website before but if none is available I look for a name that is closely related to my niche as possible. Other metrics such as PR, backlinks and age are of course just as important. I use Open Site Explorer to check and verify those metrics.
- The fourth step is the actual website creation. I use WordPress exclusively these days because there’s simply nothing that this CMS can’t do. If there’s some unique functionality that your website needs to have and there is no plug-in already available, it’s easy to hire someone to create a plug-in or a theme for you and it would cost a lot less than developing a complete website from scratch. For most websites, standard WordPress with a few free plus-ins is more than enough. I host my websites with HostGator.
- Next, we have to fill up our new website with content. This is where I use The Content Authority service, because as I said, I hate writing, and even if I was willing to write it myself, most of the time I’d have not enough knowledge about a particular niche to create quality content myself.
- Once the website is all up and running with all the content, it’s time to promote it. I have not listed any SEO tools, services or methods simply because they change so often, but almost always there will be a use for Ultra Spinnable Minis in acquiring backlinks.
Those are the main steps and I hope you can see how all the tools fit it. Every tool performs a very important task which would be very difficult to do if done manually.