Having published dozens of books, and hundreds of websites over the last 18 years – you can say we’ve battle tested a fair few products and services. The ones we use in our business and fully endorse, are below.
This site is powered by WordPress using the incredibly stunning & fast Thesis + Focus premium theme (for our Blog), the incredibly simple Optimize Press Landing Page builder (for our homepage), Wishlist Member to secure our member’s area – and hosted on the blazing fast, quality-crafted, SiteGround cloud hosting service.
Writing Tools
- Ulysses –– My main writing app. Beats Scrivener for its simplicity and cloud syncing across all devices.
- The Archive –– If you’ve never heard of a Zettelkasten – you need learn about how it’s the antidote to note taking chaos. Improve your note taking and personal knowledge management with this excellent app.
- ProwritngAid –– Grammar checker, style editor, and writing mentor in one package. Beats Grammarly if you want to improve your writing long-term. Good for long texts. Chrome extension available, too.
- Hemingway Editor –– Improve readability and complex sentence structures quickly and easily. Free app, too.
Productivity & Organisation
- Evernote –– Keeps my business organised. Great for business receipts, and web clippings.
- Sync –– File storage you can sync to all devices. Beats Dropbox and Google drive for its security, privacy and end-to-end encryption. It just plain works better, too. Plus, you get 5GB free.
- Brain.fm –– Functional music to maintain writing focus. Works for me. I can’t stand silence, though.
- Pocket –– Organize your bookmarks with tags and read offline. Allows you to add highlights & notes to content.
- Workflowy –– Great for mind maps and visualising book projects.
- Moleskine Notebook –– Love ’em for simple note taking and to-do lists that I can take anywhere.
Book Formatting & Editing
- eBook Launch –– Professional ebook formatting service.
- Amazon Guide –– Do it yourself Kindle formatting step by step.
- Kindle Previewer –– Preview how your Kindle books will look.
Book Cover Designers
- Damonza –– The pros at book cover design. Use coupon code: PUBALT10 to save 10%.
- 99designs –– Get designers to compete. You pay for the best design.
- Fiverr –– Quick, cheap & dirty, but hit and miss.
- Upwork –– Search out professional freelancers.
Self Publishing Education
- Get 10k Readers –– Get your first 10k readers – step-by-step.
- Expert Secrets –– For non-fiction authors looking to scale.
- Audiobooks Made Easy –– Turn your books into audiobooks.
- Hooks for Books –– Writing compelling hooks and titles.
Security & Backup
- LastPass –– The best there is to store’s passwords for use on “all” devices – ultra secure, too. Multiple lockdown options.
- Backup Buddy –– Schedule backups for your WordPress website automatically. Restore is super simple, too.
- WP Security –– Great WordPress security plugin to protect from hackers. Don’t get caught out. This plugin is 100% free, too.
Everything Email
- Convertkit –– Tried all the email providers, Convertkit wins hands down for its simplicity and powerful automations.
- Instant Author Emails –– My email templates and swipe files to grow your book sales. Never be lost for words again.
- Autoresponder Madness –– Using the art of story-driven email marketing to connect, to matter, and to influence the people you seek to serve.
Payments
- ThriveCart –– Incredible cart system. So easy to use & ultra-powerful integrations. One time payment, too.
- Stripe –– Merchant account – quick, painless acceptance.
- PayPal –– Gold standard to pay and get paid.
Analytics & Tracking
- Clickmagick –– Advanced tracking to monitor ROI on advertising spend, complete with a/b testing and so much more. Ultra powerful.
- Hotjar –– Visitor feedback, insights & surveys.
- Google Analytics –– It’s free.
Website Builders & Hosting
- Thesis + Focus Theme – This is the theme for this blog. It’s ultra lightweight, blazing fast, and stunning. Lot’s of customizations.
- Optimize Press –– The first, and best landing page builder for WP there is in my opinion. OP3 – their recent release for Sept 2019 – is so powerful and simple to use. I’d be lost without it.
- Clickfunnels –– Fastest way to test sales funnels, landing pages, optin pages. Expensive though. Not recommended if you’re new.
- Siteground –– Incredible hosting. Tried a bunch. Let down by most. Siteground outperforms them all.
