The Tools, Applications, and Platforms I Use

In my line of work, I use many tools (and I test even more!)  In this page, I am going to record the ones I use the most and have helped me to do my work better.

I would like to note that in the concept of tools, I also include books, courses, services, and applications. I recorded them here, hoping that not only would help you focus on the things matter but also would shape your thoughts and practices for YOU to select what is suitable for your personal and business needs.

Furthermore, I’d like to point out that my personal working philosophy includes a seamless integration of thinking and doing (a continuum of thinking, pro-acting, and acting intentionally and on purpose),  I needed to customize many of these tools to my own needs. I think you should do the same!

Note: Many of the tools described here are affiliate links. This means that for every subscription or purchase of that item I get a small commission (without extra additional cost to you). Besides that, every tool I have listed here, it is something I currently using (or I have used in the past), I have appreciated the benefits it provides to my work and, for this reason. I recommend them and not for the commission I will get if you decide to purchase it from the link I provide. In any case, the decision is yours.

Automation Tools

The people reading my blog for a long time, know that I am a big supporter of automation. Here are some of the tools I use daily!

  • IFTTT. IFTTT has developed as an essential (and missing at the time) component for the interconnection and automation of web applications. It permits you to develop connections and automatic workflows among various web applications (like posting images, store them in specific online folders, post in social media after announcing one, and much more other!).
  • Microsoft Flow. A tool for automation of your workflow between different applications and services.
  • Zappier. Zappier is another, excellent, automation software you can use for automating various repetitive tasks related to web applications and data!

Blogging

Blogging is a vital part of my work since helping me to reach my audience and disseminate my thoughts and ideas around. It is a core activity for me for this reason I use it in a business fashion. This is the reason I use various tools and platforms to provide the best possible experience for my audience from my blog. You can find more information about what I do here and for blogging & writing in particular here.

  • FeedBurner. A Google service focused on RSS distribution and delivery. Even there are more valuable ones, FeedBurner is the only free service you can really trust.
  • GetNoticed Theme for WordPress (WordPress Theme). It is the theme I use for this site. It is an elegant theme, highly customizable, flexible, and easy to use.
  • JetPack. A unique plugin for your WordPress with many tools, help you design, grow, secure, and manage your WordPress site.
  • WP Rocket. One of the most powerful caching plugin by WordPress. I use it with success for some time now and I am very satisfied with its performance!
  • WordPress. WordPress is a content management system powering 21% of the web. It is flexible, easy, and expendable in more ways than one. I use it for all my sites.

Business Systems and Management

Simple systems and procedures are always important for any entrepreneur, small business owner, or freelancer. I use different systems for different operations and I try to test for a long time and customize to my own needs any system I use. Here the ones I have found of value and I use them, almost, daily!

  • Asana. Top solution for project management, and collaboration.
  • Nozbe. One of the best project management tools around!
  • process.st – process.st is a process and workflow management application capable of helping you document and verify the processes of your business.
  • SalesFlare. An intelligent CRM platform for startups and modern age companies.
  • Trello. A versatile project management tool for solopreneurs, entrepreneurs, and teams alike. Excellent tool!
  • Wrike. One of the best project and team management tools around.

Content Development and Media Hosting

Content, media, and communities are 3 of the most important elements for any online business today! Here are the tools and platforms that help me develop my content, manage my media, and grow my community!

  • Camtasia. One of the best screen recorder and video editing applications in the market.  It provides all the necessary tools you need to record on-screen activity, edit your content, and share in high-quality to viewers anywhere. An indispensable tool when you doing a lot of video clips.
  • Canva. An online graphics and illustration application can cover all your needs with quality images and graphics.
  • DIY Book Covers. One of the best applications for developing 3D mockups for book covers and products.
  • Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920. One of the best web cameras around and my weapon of choice for everything has to do with course development, video conference, and video consulting. It is an excellent camera, versatile, and can be used in many ways.
  • Logogenie. An easy to use logo maker!
  • LogoJoy. An excellent logo maker app for all your small business needs.
  • Logo Maker.  A free logo maker tool for all your logo related activities.
  • PicMonkey. An online photo processing application with many features and capabilities. You should take a look at it!
  • Venngage. A free Infographic maker to help you develop a convincing infographic with ease.
  • Wistia. One of the best video hosting services around.

Collaboration Tools

In this section, I have included the collaboration tools I use to contact and cooperate with my partners and associates. As always, a tool is as best as much time you have invested in it to customize it and tweak it to your own needs.

  • Google Docs. A suite of tools that provide access to office applications and online storage.
  • Microsoft Office Online. A cloud-based collaboration platform, providing access, collaboration, and share of various office documents.
  • SocialCast. A company social platform that connects people of a company to the resources needed for their collaboration.

Communication Tools & Webinar Platforms

Here are some of the communication tools I use to communicate with my audience, cooperate with my associates, and provide distance help! In this section, I have also included the webinar platforms I have used and tested in the past, and the ones I am using today. Webinars are core businesses today and when used properly can propel the success of your company or agency or of your training.

  • 24sessions. One of the best tools I ever used for 1:1 communications with your clients, peers,  and associates. It provides video meetings, scheduling, and review services to facilitate every interaction between you and your peers.
  • Intermedia AnyMeeting®. Intermedia AnyMeeting™ is a powerful online meeting solution built for businesses of all sizes. Our easy to use meeting experience is available on desktop and mobile devices so that you can have reliable, stress-free meetings anywhere, anytime.
  • Blackboard Collaborate.A simple and reliable virtual classroom solution to power your online teaching and web conferencing needs.
  • CallPage. An advanced communication and marketing platform for your website. You can gain 75% more sales calls from your website visitors.
  • Cisco WebEx Meetings. A free platform for video conferencing, online meetings, and webinars. It supports HD video & audio and high-speed screen sharing. One of the best platforms around!
  • EasyWebminar. An easy-to-use platform that makes high converting webinars a reality. an excellent solution for live learning.
  • Google Meet. Effortless video meetings: no uninvited guests, no plug-ins, just great video meetings. Free reliable video meetings help you stay connected without losing a connection. Secure Meetings. Tiled Layout for Calls. Low-Light Mode. Noise Cancellation.
  • Saba meeting. Deliver an engaging, interactive learning experience with SABA’s virtual learning solution. With Saba Meeting, you can ensure high-quality virtual training and well-connected team interactions with your own employees as well as your extended workforce.
  • Skype. One of the best and widespread applications for live communication and collaboration around. I used them all the time for interviews, coaching, and consulting.
  • WebinarNinja. Run better webinars with no worries with the best webinar software ever. Create a live and evergreen webinars in 10 seconds. WebinarNinja is one of the best platforms for webinars around and my personal choice for delivering virtual training.
  • Zoom. One of the best solutions for providing video chat and conferences, online meetings, and live webinars.  I also use it all the time.

Course Development and eLearning Platforms

In this section, I have included the tools and platforms I use for developing courses and implement e-learning operations.  Even though the selection of any tool is a matter of flavor, e-learning and instructional design have too many restrictions and degrees of freedom which leads you to select the ones that can be proved the most effective in the long run.

  • CreativeLive.  CreativeLive is an excellent course delivery platform with many courses in various demanding areas.
  • CourseCraft. CourseCraft provides everything you need to build superbly designed self-paced online courses. It is an excellent platform I highly recommend to start to deliver your own online courses.
  • CourseSites by Blackboard. An excellent online teaching platform from Blackboard. A must see!
  • FutureLearn. Find online courses and degrees from leading universities or organizations and start learning online today.
  • LearnWorlds. LearnWorlds is the top all-in-one platform for creating and selling online courses.
  • Moodle – Open-source learning platform. Moodle is a Learning Platform or course management system (CMS) – a free Open Source software package designed to help educators create effective online courses based on sound pedagogical principles. You can download and use it on any computer you have handy (including web hosts), yet it can scale from a single-teacher site to a 200,000-student University. Moodle has a large and diverse user community with over 100,000 sites registered worldwide speaking over 140 languages in every country there is.
  • Saba (Intelligent Talent Management System – Unified Learning Platforms – LMS). An integrated solution for human capital developments and learning. A must platform for the corporate world and widely distributed companies.
  • Skillshare. Skillshare is a learning platform with online classes taught by the world’s best practitioners.
  • Teachable. Teachable is an integrated learning and marketing platform for creating and selling online courses with over 4 million students worldwide.
  • TeachinGuide. Software that allows users to get the data and insights they need to build a successful online course
  • Thinkific. Thinkific is the all-in-one platform for independent experts and entrepreneurs to create, market, and sell online courses.
  • Udemy (Online Courses Anytime, Anywhere)
  • WP Courseware for WordPress. WP Courseware is a learning management system for WordPress that allows you to publish a course in a matter of minutes.

Fundraising & Crowdfunding Platforms

Funds are an important element in every business. Luckily enough, the last years have been developed financial concepts, platforms, and tools that can help you raise the required capital for your own type of business. Take a look!

  • Crowdfunder. A UK based crowdfunding service for raising money and capital for your projects.
  • Crowdrise. A social fundraising platform for non-profit organizations, personal causes, and charity.
  • EasyStarter. A global fundraising site, which helps individuals, businesses, and non-profits raise money online. Its objective is to make any idea a reality through crowdfunding.
  • GoGetFunding. One of the biggest crowdfunding websites for personal causes! Worth a good look!
  • Indiegogo. One of the best crowdfunding platforms and marketplace for new entrepreneurs and business owners.
  • Kickbooster. Typically nor a crowdfunding platform but a marketing one. It helps crowdfunding project creators to promote their projects and create hype! A must look platform for any crowdfunding project.
  • Kickstarter. One of the best crowdfunding services for creators and artists to help them make their ideas a reality.
  • Patreon. A platform for providing ongoing fund support for creators, musicians, artists, bloggers, etc.  One of the best sources for finding a steady income as a new creator.
  • RocketHub. Not your typical crowdfunding service! It is more a social network for entrepreneurs, but it has a very strong funding module to help you raise capital.

Hosting, Website, and Email Marketing Services

Here are the services I have tested and used on a daily basis. In this section, I have included various and different services ranging from hosting and web management to WordPress, analytics, and email marketing services.

  • Bing Webmaster Tools. For administrative tasks and search visibility activities.
  • Bit.ly. An URL shortener with extended capabilities for analyzing the performance of the links you share
  • Bluehost. One of the top hosting providers, ideal for WordPress hosting! Excellent performance and support, ease of use! Perfect to start your site or start up your online business.
  • CloudFlare. It is the largest and free provider of CDN (Content Delivery Network) services. I use it for having the best security and delivery results for my sites.
  • Drip by Leadpages. A quick & easy email marketing automation software you can use for all your business needs, either you are an entrepreneur, a freelancer, a blogger, or a small business owner.
  • GoDaddy. GoDaddy is my hosting provider. I host many of my sites at GoDaddy.
  • Google Analytics. One of the best (and free) tools for monitoring your traffic, who’s visited your site, etc. Indispensable for every blog and site owner as well as for every marketer and growth hacker.
  • Hostinger. One of the cheapest and fastest web hosting services around. Highly recommendable!
  • InfusionSoft. One of the best marketing automation platforms for your small business. Highly commendable!
  • Google Webmaster Tools. For site administrative tasks and visibility.
  • MailChimp. The Email Marketing Service I use for marketing campaigns and email subscriptions.
  • Mautic. An open-source marketing automation platform with many features and advantages.
  • Moosend. One of the best marketing and automation marketing platforms around. An alternative marketing solution you should check out!
  • Pressable. One of the most reliable solutions for Managed WordPress Hosting.
  • SendFox by AppSumo. SendFox is an email marketing tool designed specifically for content creators that lets you compose and send unlimited customized emails. It is an excellent tool, I use all the time!

Landing / Sale Pages & Opt-In Forms

Here you will find the tools can help you develop the best landing pages around and convert effectively your audience to loyal friends and customers. They are essential parts of any successful marketing campaign and sales process.

  • LandingPage Monkey. An excellent tool for landing page development.
  • Leadpages. One of the best platforms around for connecting with your audience, collect leads, and close sales.  You can easily build websites, landing pages, pop-ups, alert bars, and many more which can help you grow your business. Highly recommendable!
  • OptimizePress. A highly recommended tool for developing landing and sales pages, membership sites, opt-in boxes, and many more features for your online business.
  • Thrive Leads by Thrive Themes. One of the best tools for rapid list building. with Thrive Leads you can develop highly flexible, robust, and effective opt-in forms for anything you want to promote.

Online Shops & eCommerce

There are many valuable online shops these days that can help you select the best resources around along to the shops you can use for distributing your products. In this section I have included the ones I use more often, these days, either to buy or to distribute assets and products!

  • AppSumo. An excellent online shop for applications and tools can make a difference for the new entrepreneurs. Just check it out!
  • ClickBank. One of the best known and trustworthy online marketplaces.
  • E-Junkie. One of the best online shops for buying and selling digital assets.
  • Envato. Envato is the leading marketplace for creative assets and creative people. You can find many resources here for your projects and your business.
  • Flippa. The #1 marketplace for Buying and Selling Websites, Domains, and Apps. Worth seeing it!
  • FastSpring. A digital commerce platform can cover all your needs.
  • Gumroad. An all-in-one solution to sell your work and grow your audience.
  • JVZoo. An integrated platform for sales and affiliation management. A must see!
  • Lead Marketing Store. A new venture of mine trying to explore the drop-shipping model (more information about the drop-shipping model you can find here). It is a place focusing on bringing together top products and items from lead e-Shops like Amazon, AliExpress, eBay, Best Buy, and WalMart. It is also a place in which I collect my top preferences, products, and things I found useful for my job and life. The store is a work in progress, it is updating frequently with new products and contains affiliate links! I hope it will help you decide and buy the best products for achieving your goals.
  • Payhip. A platform to sell and promote your ebooks, memberships, software, design assets, music, or any type of digital products directly to your customers.
  • Rakuten Marketing. An integrated marketing solution for increasing your digital marketing efforts with affiliate, display, and search campaigns.
  • SamCart. SamCart is a web-based check out platform with many features! It is a solution to be considered when you need an integrated sales process.
  • ShareASale. One of the most trustworthy affiliate marketing networks with many features for the promotion of products, sales, and development of affiliation networks.

Outsource Services

Outsourcing is a vital function today for any entrepreneur or a small business owner since you cannot do everything by your own (even though you would like!) Here are some of the best services I use.

  • 99Designs. One of the best sites for getting your graphics resources.
  • AirTasker. Airtasker is a trusted community platform that connects people who need to outsource tasks and find local services, with people who are looking to earn money and ready to work.
  • Belay. Virtual assistance and outsourcing agency providing many services you can outsource with limited cost.
  • Clipping Path Asia. Provides fast, cheap, and excellent Photo editing services like Clipping Path Service, Background Removal, Image Enhancement, Image Masking, Image Manipulation, Photo Retouching.
  • DesignerHire. A platform matches companies with the right designers for their projects. Excellent and innovative service.
  • Fiverr. A marketplace of services for outsourcing many tasks and activities related to your business. Excellent site to commission specific things for your business.
  • TaskRabbit. The most convenient and affordable way to perform many of the tasks required in your business.
  • The Content Authority. One of the top agencies for outsourcing writing services.
  • UpWork. One of the best outsourcing marketplaces around! Highly recommended!
  • Virtual Staff Finder. Virtual assistance agencies can help you perform better and quicker in your daily tasks.
  • Virtual Valey. Virtual assistance agency located in the Philippines.
  • Workify. A service marketplace for outsourcing various business services.
  • Work From Home Jobs. An excellent remote jobs aggregator.

Podcasting

I have start podcasting back in 2016 and I have developed a small series of podcasting interviews with some of the best entrepreneurs, consultants, and business owners around. Even though I am not regular in my podcasting schedule Leadership Execution has drawn too much attention. Podcasting is something I am still doing it on and off and that’s why I use various tools to have the best possible result (for more information related to the tools I use, please see here).

Productivity Tools

In this section, I have gathered some of the best productivity tools I use to focus on what’s important to me. Please review them and select the ones matching your requirements and your way of work!

  • Drag (Google Chrome). Drag is a Chrome plugin to help you organize your inbox. Excellent productivity booster.
  • DropBox. Cross-platform (for online storage, collaboration, distribution, etc.)
  • Evernote. Cross-platform (for note-taking, planning scheduling, idea captures, storage, etc.)
  • Excel. One of my favorite programs for numbers and data crunching. I try to do much of my admin and monitoring work in Excel.
  • easy PDF. A free online PDF suite for all your needs!
  • Free PDF to Word Converter Online. An online tool for converting PDF files to Word.
  • Free PDF Tools & Resources. A repository of free PDF tools, mobile PDF apps, and productivity resources.
  • TextExpander (Mac OS X).  For all your text automation tasks.
  • PDF Convert Free. An online tool for managing all your PRF related tasks (PDF merge, split, convert to Word, etc.)
  • PhraseExpress (Windows). For auto text functionality, indispensable when you have a lot of texts to write.
  • PowerPoint. PowerPoint is one of my favorite tools for quick design, presentation, and course development. If you know how to use it well it is not just bullets but much much more!
  • Templates. Various templates I use to perform my daily tasks. Some I have found online but the most I have developed myself according to my requirements.
  • Workflowy. Workflowy is one of the best outliners around and the best way to organize your ideas, thoughts, and work process. Must see!

SEO Tools

Here you will find many SEO-SEM tools that can help you rank better in search engines and boost your digital marketing campaigns.

  • Google Keyword Planner. Google Keyword Planner is a tool permit you to see how many people are searching relevant terms
  • Long Tail Pro. An extremely useful tool for all your keyword search requirements.
  • SEMrush. All-in-one Traffic Analyzer and Content Marketing Toolkit for digital marketing professionals. I strongly recommend it.
  • SEO PowerSuite. It is a one-of-a-kind SEO software that consists of 4 best of breed tools covering every aspect of your SEO workflow. No matter what you need to do – technical audit, on-page optimization, keyword research, backlink audit, or link building – SEO PowerSuite has you covered. Just delegate all your SEO activities to the software and watch your rankings and sales grow exponentially. All our tools are constantly updated with new features reducing the amount of manual work almost to zero.
  • Serpstat. All-in-One SEO platform. One of the best marketing and SEO platform around and one of the most efficient keyword research tools in the business.

Social Media & Marketing Tools

I use a lot of different platforms and applications for social media and marketing and usually, I am in the process of testing the new best one. Here are some of the platforms I have found trustworthy over time and I rely on for my marketing efforts.

  • Buffer. An excellent tool for schedule and deliver useful content in your social media. It has excellent features to help you manage all your social media accounts and develop an effective social media campaign. Did I mention it is free?
  • Commun.it. A tool to drive traffic, grow followers/likes, and save time on social media.
  • Facebook Ads. One of the best tools for promoting your products and services. If you are on Facebook and have a business you need to give it a try.
  • HootSuite. HootSuite is an integrated social media management platform with many features for handling your social networks. It provides an integrated dashboard, from which you can handle more than 90% of your everyday communication and interaction with your social networks
  • Grow Sumo. One of the best influencers platforms around. Excellent for promoting your messages and products around.
  • Interact Quiz Builder. An innovative marketing platform to generate leads and drive sales using quizzes. The platform is also wonderful for building giveaways and polls. Must see!
  • Missinglettr. Missinglettr turns each of your blog posts into a 12-month social campaign, which is then dripped out to your social channels. Each campaign is designed to engage with your audience and drive traffic back to your site. Indispensable tools for bloggers and marketers.
  • NinjaOutreach. One of the best tools around for finding influencers and automating outreach. Highly recommendable.
  • Snip.ly – Snip.ly is an application for content sharing and traffic generation.
  • Snovio. Snovio is one of the best cold outreach automation applications around. It has many tools (as domain email search, email verifier, email drip campaigns, etc.) to help you facilitate the lead generation process for your business. A must see!
  • SocialPilot. Social media marketing and scheduling tools for marketing professionals.
  • SumAll. An application for integrated management of all your online data & profiles.
  • TubeBuddy. A unique tool to optimize your videos on YouTube. Mast have if you work with videos.

Suites

In this section, you will find many of the suites I found indispensable in modern business. I use them on various platforms and places to process the bulk of my work.

  • Google Applications & Tools – Cross-platform (Google Chrome, Gmail, Tasks, Calendar, Docs, Reader and search in everyday basis for mail, information searching, scheduling, task management, storage, reading, etc.)
  • Microsoft applications in Windows  (typically Outlook [for mail, scheduling, task management, agendas planning, etc], Word, PowerPoint, and Excel for carrying out the most of my workload) and the counterpart, LibreOffice in Mac and Ubuntu.

Writing

Here are some tools related specifically to writing tasks. I strongly recommend them for enhancing your writing experience and improve the final outcome.

  • Grammarly.  A free grammar checker instantly eliminates grammatical errors and enhances your writing.  It is available as a WordPress Plugin, Windows application, Microsoft Word add-in, or as a web application. It is, literally, a tool that has changed my writing workflow and help to avoid any spelling errors.
  • Hemingway Editor. An excellent editor to help you make your writing better.
  • Microsoft Word. One of the best writing tools available today.  It has a ton of features you can utilize for better writing experience and an improved final product.
  • Scrivener. Scrivener is a specialized word processor designed for authors. It provides a management system for documents, notes, and metadata making the organization of your writing tasks much easier. If you are an author this is something you should check.