Powerful Yet Simple Tools For Your Business Success
Getting a business up and running is challenging. So is deciding a set of the best tools to use in driving the traffic to your website, planning the contents generating sales, optimizing your website and managing the finance.
At EasySocio we understand this process and we wish you to have a smooth experience in deciding the tools for your online business.
Hence, we have compiled a list of the effective tools we use in our business with the hope of making it easier for you to decide the right software for your business.
Just a simple disclaimer:
This list contains most of the tools we literally use to run our business, and they have been pretty effective so far. Some of the links in this article may contain affiliate links, meaning we get a small commission at no additional cost to you if you decide to make a purchase. We recommend products based on our experience and testing. As the saying goes, we do not guarantee that you will obtain the same results we have – which we hope you do – but be certain, if done properly they will work incredibly in the long run.
With that said, let’s get down to business!
Freshbooks – Best Invoicing and Accounting Software (Online)
Let us begin with the finances, as it is one of those areas that most people overlook and later struggle to catch up with. We recommend that you use one of the most reputed financial management software to manage your business finances.
Meet Freshbooks an all-in-one small business invoicing and accounting software. They offer Customizable Invoices, Payment Reminders, Recurring Invoices, Automatic Later Fees, Accept Credit Cards, Multi-Currency Billing, Deposits, Multi-Language Invoices and many more.
Begin with an easy-to-use no-frills accounting software.
Stencil – Best Online Graphic Design Tool
If you want your website to have those stunning images people always look at and wonder how they were taken, this is the tool for you. Stencil is an incredible tool for making your site’s homepage, article, Pinterest, and social media images.
It is very user-friendly, which is why we prefer it, and also packed with tons of features for getting the job done.
For WordPress lovers, the Stencil WordPress plugin helps you create beautiful designs right from your WordPress dashboard.
By the way:
We love their Chrome extension, it makes image editing from the web so quick and easy. Just right-click an image from your browser and create a stunning design as you can see in the video below:
The good news is you can get started right away without investing a dime.
Stencil offers a free plan that is limited to 10 images per month. But, if you want to experience the full package, you can subscribe to either their Pro plan which costs $9 per month or their unlimited plan which costs $12 a month.
ShortPixel – Best Image Optimization Plugin For WordPress
If you want your site to rank higher, you definitely have to optimize it. Part of this involves compressing your images which is where this tool comes in.
ShortPixel guarantees to compress your images by up to 85% which will make your site load faster and; hence rank higher.
Don’t worry; the image quality will remain the same. Almost every image we use on this website is optimized using ShortPixel. We just love the simplicity and ease of use of the plugin.
They have a free plan that allows up to 100 images a month. Also, you can upgrade to compressing up to 5,000 images a month for just $4.99, 12,000 images for $9.99, or 55,000 images for $29.99.
WpRocket – Best Caching Plugin For WordPress
WpRocket is another impressive tool that we use to speed up our site. It works by activating our site’s cache, compressing our site’s static files, and tweaking our site to display images only as our visitors scroll down the pages. All these features combine to increase the loading speed and also improve SEO.
Unfortunately, they do not have a free plan. Their basic plan sells at $49 a year for one website. They also have a Plus plan that costs $99 a year for 3 websites and an Infinite plan that costs $249 a year for an unlimited number of websites.
WpRocket is one of our best investments, Try the speed booster and you will love it too.
KwFinder/ Ahrefs – Best Keyword Research Tools.
SEO is everything when it comes to generating organic traffic; an area you would want to spend most of your energy when generating content. We use KwFinder to research keywords that give us ideas on which articles to write and the titles to use. It is free to use.
Ahrefs, on the other hand, uses it to check backlinks, keyword research, Google rank tracking, and monitor our organic search results. Its basic plan starts at $99 which is very expensive but definitely worth it.
OceansWP / GeneratePress – Best Lightweight WordPress Themes.
These two sites are the best when it comes to getting lightweight WordPress themes. They both have tons of beautiful themes for any niche you would like to dive in. Not only this, but their prices are also fair and transferring the theme to WordPress is pretty straightforward for everyone. It will take you just minutes to get it done.
SEOPress – Best Alternative To Yoast SEO Plugin.
SEOPress is one of the best plugins for optimizing your WordPress site. We use it to optimize all our titles and metas, XML sitemaps, social sharing, Google Analytics, monitoring Google loading speed, and other tens of features.
It is simply amazing! Works really great and is very easy to use. They have a free plan and a pro plan that costs $39 a year.
FastComet / SiteGround – Best WordPress Shared Web Hosting.
Both of these tools are incredible for hosting your site. We prefer these two especially because of the speedy load times, reliable 24/7 customer support, and superbly high uptimes. They are also relatively cheap and offer a load of extra features such as free domains.
Spaceship/ Namecheap – Best Domain Registrars.
If you are looking for a domain name; Spaceship.com and Namecheap.com are the two sites to visit. They are extremely cheap, easy to work with when it comes to registration and renewals, and very secure. They also have extra features that come in handy when handling domains down the line.
MailerLite – Best Emai Marketing Tool To Replace MailChimp.
Collecting emails from your site’s visitors and sending them emails is a necessary step for every website. To achieve this, we use Mailer Lite which allows us to send bulk emails to our visitors.
It allows us to create amazing email marketing campaigns in the form of newsletters, landing pages, and embedded forms among others. Additionally, it is very easy to use especially due to its drag-and-drop editing features; hence requires a very small amount of time to set up.
They have a free plan that you can take advantage of if you have less than 1,000 email subscribers. The premium plans start at $10 upwards depending on the number of subscribers you have on your email list.
Grammarly – Best Free Writing Assistant Ever.
Last but not least, is our beloved editor Grammarly. Grammarly is the best Grammar assistant for any work whether academic or articles.
Well, nobody is perfect, which is why we pass all our content through Grammarly to get rid of tiny grammar mistakes such as skipped commas, typos, and even wrong word combinations. It is a very handy tool and one I would recommend every website owner to use.
They have a free plan that allows you to check basic errors and a premium plan whose price varies depending on whether you pay monthly, quarterly, or annually. The premium option gives you access to all features, including a plagiarism checker.
Here is an interesting article with essential tips
InVideo – Best Online Video Creator.
InVideo is an easy-to-use video editing tool that allows creating all types of videos such as storytelling videos, promo videos, Instagram stories, video ads, and listicles.
This amazing online tool allows you to convert your blog articles to videos using stunning templates. One thing we link in particular is their constantly updated template library – Halloween, Thanksgiving – all sorted.
If you are looking to craft videos for online or social media, look no further, check InVideo and create amazing videos in under 10 minutes.
Final Words
It would be great if you used all these tools on your website too. However, it is not a must. Just pick the most important ones if you are low on cash after which you can upgrade to the rest later when you start making money.
I would suggest you go with the SEO optimizing tools first as they are the most important and you really need them. But, if you can afford all of them, just go ahead and try them out one after the other.
We wish you all the best.
Easysocio Team