Tools & Services We Use

Page last updated: October 1st, 2023

This site is powered by WordPress using the incredibly stunning, lightweight & ultra fast GeneratePress Premium theme (for our Blog and homepage), the incredibly simple Optimize Press Landing Page builder (for our members area), Wishlist Member to secure our paying members – and hosted on the blazing fast, quality-crafted, SiteGround cloud hosting service.

Writing Tools & PKM

• Ulysses – My main writing app. Switched back to Ulysses—from Bear (“again”)—in 2022. Simple, powerful, distraction-free writing. It Beats Scrivener for its simplicity and cloud syncing across all devices.
• Notion – My main PKM ‘knowledge management system.’ Switched to Notion, from Obsidian, in Oct 2023. Wish I’d dived into this earlier — yet didn’t want the learning curve. Big mistake. It is ultra-powerful, and will make me at least twice as productive. Has embedded AI, too.
• Jasper AI – The premier AI writing tool. Great for writer’s block. So much fun, too, to watch what he writes when you’re stuck on how to start or finish a sentence. I’m often left speechless by his creativity. If you use ghostwriters, fire them; save money.
• ProWritingAid – Grammar checker, style editor, and writing mentor in one package. It Beats Grammarly if you want to improve your writing long-term. Good for long texts. A Chrome extension is available, too.
• Grammarly – Unlike ProWritingAid, I don’t like the interface. I use Grammarly for their Chrome extension, which will highlight errors in my writing on all sites. Useful for social media posting, support messages and emails I write.
• Hemingway Editor – Improve readability and complex sentence structures quickly and easily. Free app, too.

Productivity & Organisation

• ChatGPT (AI) – A true “game changer” for productivity as a creative of any kind. I use it as a brainstorming partner, gaining deep insights (empathy) into my target readers, predictive modelling, analyzing competitors, writing comprehensive outlines, creative writing ideas, inspiration, stories, and so much more. Learn more about AI & ChatGPT in my free course here.
• 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, and you get 5GB free.
• Brain.fm – Functional music to maintain writing focus. Works for me. I can’t stand silence, though.
• Workflowy – Great for simple text-based mind mapping and visualising projects, books and content structures.
• Moleskine Notebook – Love ’em for simple note-taking and to-do lists I can take anywhere.

Want to take a deep-dive into productivity?

Book Cover Designers

• 100 Covers – The pros at book cover design for just $100. Use coupon code: KDSPY10 to save 10%.
• 99designs – Expensive. But you can get designers to compete for your job. You pay for the best design.

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.

Publishing & Writing Education

• 30 Day Book Writing Challenge — Joshua Sprague’s results for new authors speaks for itself. His 30-day walkthrough emails are great if you have the “focus” but lack the “roadmap.“
• Ship 30 for 30 – Nicolas Cole has had over 100m views on 3000+ articles across Quora & Medium, with a follower audience of over 98k readers. He teaches ‘attention-grabbing’ digital writing in his course Ship 30 for 30. I participated in Oct 2022. It’s in my top three best course investments.
• Hooks for Books – Writing compelling titles & hooks.
• Audiobooks Made Easy– Turn your books into audiobooks.

Security

• LastPass – The best there is to store passwords for use on “all” devices – ultra secure, too. Multiple lockdown options.
• WP Security – Great WordPress security plugin to protect from hackers. Don’t get caught out. It’s 100% free, too.

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.

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 – Tracking to monitor ROI on advertising spend, complete with a/b testing and so much more.
• Hotjar – Visitor feedback, insights & surveys.
• Google Analytics – It’s free.

Website Builders & Hosting

• GeneratePress Premium – This is the theme for this blog. It’s ultra-lightweight, blazing fast, and stunning.
• Optimize Press – The first and best landing page builder for WP there is, in my opinion. OP3 – their latest Sept 2019 release – is powerful and simple to use. I’d be lost without it.
• Siteground – Incredible hosting. Tried a bunch. Let down by most. Siteground outperforms them all.
• WP Rocket – Awesome WordPress plugin to speed up sites. I use this on KDSPY and KDROI web pages. Every 1-second delay results in a 12% reduction in conversion (sales). If you sell anything online, this will put money back in your pocket.