Tools for Building Your Online Business

The right tools can make building an online business considerably easier. The wrong ones can leave you with unnecessary expense, overlapping subscriptions and yet another piece of software to learn.

You don’t need a huge collection of tools. What you need are reliable ways to carry out the essential jobs in your business — building your website, communicating with your audience, creating content, generating leads and understanding what is working.

On this page I’ll explain the main types of tools you may need, what each one is for, when you are likely to need it, and the tools I use or recommend.

Where there is a useful free or lower-cost option, I’ll point that out too. A paid tool is only worth having if it provides something you genuinely need or saves enough time to justify the cost.

Before buying another tool, ask yourself: What job do I need this to do — and can something I already have do it?

Domain Names

Your domain name is your permanent address on the internet and, for most online businesses, it is one of the first things worth putting in place.

A domain gives you an address you control, such as yourbusiness.com, and allows you to create professional email addresses based on that domain. Even if you aren’t ready to build your website immediately, securing the right domain early can be sensible.

Choosing a Domain Name

Keep it as simple as possible. Ideally, it should be easy to remember, easy to spell and not so restrictive that it prevents your business developing in a slightly different direction later.

Before registering one, check that the name doesn’t obviously conflict with an established business or brand.

You Don’t Need a Collection of Domains

It’s very easy to buy domain names for ideas you might develop one day. I know from experience how tempting that can be!

Each one costs relatively little, but a collection of unused domains soon becomes another recurring expense. Register a domain when you have a genuine purpose for it.

Where Should You Register It?

I have registered domains with several companies over the years, including GoDaddy, Namecheap and D9 Hosting. My current preference is D9.

I use D9 for both domain registration and web hosting, including for this website. One of the main reasons I continue to use them is their support. In my experience, their helpdesk is responsive, helpful and particularly useful when something technical needs sorting out.

Keeping your domain registration and hosting with the same company isn’t essential, but for someone starting out it can make managing everything a little simpler.

Website and Hosting

Your website is the part of your online business that you control. Social media, marketplaces and other platforms can be useful, but their rules can change. Your own website gives your business a permanent home.

Choosing Your Hosting

Web hosting is simply the service that provides the space and technology needed to make your website available online. For most people starting an online business, there’s no need for an expensive or complicated hosting package.

What matters more is that the hosting is reliable, reasonably priced and — particularly when you’re starting out — that good support is available when something goes wrong.

What I Use

I use D9 Hosting for this website and for other websites I manage. As mentioned above, my experience of their support has been particularly good. When I’ve needed help, I’ve found their helpdesk responsive and willing to help resolve problems rather than simply point me towards a technical document.

For me, that quality of support is an important part of choosing a hosting company.

What About WordPress?

WordPress is the system I use to build and manage my websites, including this one. It provides the framework for creating pages, publishing articles and managing the content of a website without having to write computer code.

Cost: WordPress itself is free. You will normally need to pay for your domain and hosting, and you may choose to pay for a premium theme or additional plugins.

Themes and Page Builders

A theme controls much of the overall appearance and layout of a WordPress website. A page builder provides additional tools for designing individual pages, often using a visual drag-and-drop approach.

You don’t necessarily need an elaborate page builder. WordPress’s own block editor has become increasingly capable, and a good lightweight theme can provide much of what is needed for a straightforward business website.

What I Use

This website uses GeneratePress together with the standard WordPress block editor. I’ve found this combination gives me plenty of control while keeping the underlying setup relatively simple.

For some of my other projects I also use OptimizePress, particularly where I need landing pages, sales pages or funnels. I’ll return to that when we look at landing-page and funnel tools later on this page.

Business Email & Email Marketing

Email plays two quite different roles in an online business, and it’s useful to understand the distinction.

Your business email is the address you use for normal correspondence — ideally something based on your own domain rather than a personal Gmail or similar address.

Email marketing, on the other hand, allows people to subscribe to your list so that you can send newsletters, follow-up messages, promotions and automated email sequences. For that, you need a specialist email marketing service.

Business Email

A domain-based address such as name@yourbusiness.com looks more professional and keeps your business correspondence separate from your personal email.

You don’t necessarily need an expensive system. The important thing is that your email is reliable, easy to access and properly connected to your domain.

Building an Email List

An email list is one of the few audiences in an online business that you can build and maintain without depending entirely on another platform.

An email marketing service allows you to collect subscribers through forms or landing pages, organise them into lists or groups, send broadcasts and create automated follow-up sequences.

What I Use

I use AWeber for email marketing. It provides the list-management and autoresponder functions I need, but it also includes landing-page building tools, so it can perform more than one job in an online business.

Although AWeber includes its own landing-page builder, I generally prefer to use LeadsLeap for creating my opt-in pages and connect them to AWeber for managing the subscribers and follow-up emails.

Landing Pages & Funnels

What Is a Landing Page?

A landing page is simply a page created for a particular purpose. Unlike a normal website page, it usually removes unnecessary distractions and concentrates attention on one main action.

That might be:

• joining an email list;
• downloading a free resource;
• registering for an event or webinar;
• learning more about a product; or
• clicking through to an offer.

From a Landing Page to a Funnel

A funnel connects several of these steps together. For example, someone might see an advert, visit a landing page, join your email list and then receive a series of useful follow-up emails before being introduced to an appropriate offer.

A funnel doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, when you’re starting out, simpler is usually better.

What I Use

I use several tools capable of creating landing pages, including WordPress, OptimizePress, AWeber and LeadsLeap. They overlap considerably, which is a good example of why you shouldn’t automatically buy another page builder simply because somebody recommends one.

LeadsLeap is particularly useful for creating standalone landing and promotional pages, and I use it regularly. I find its page builder easier to work with than AWeber’s, and I normally connect my LeadsLeap opt-in pages to AWeber so that AWeber handles the subscribers and follow-up emails.

LeadsLeap also provides useful media storage and makes it easy to incorporate videos hosted on YouTube or Vimeo into the pages I create.

I use OptimizePress when I want more extensive control over WordPress-based landing pages, sales pages and funnels.

Content Creation

Content is what gives people a reason to visit your website, join your list and come back. It might be an article, an email, a guide, an image, a presentation or a video — but it should always have a purpose.

You don’t need sophisticated software to create useful content. In many cases, simple tools used well are more than enough.

Writing and Documents

For everyday writing and document creation, familiar tools such as Microsoft Word or Google Docs may be all you need.

The important thing isn’t which word processor you use. It’s being able to create, edit and organise your material easily, then move it into your website, emails or other publishing tools.

Graphics and Images

Images can make websites, emails, social posts and downloadable material more attractive and easier to understand.

I increasingly use ChatGPT to create illustrations and graphics specifically for the job I have in mind, rather than searching through libraries of stock photographs. I can describe the subject, style and dimensions I need and then refine the result until it is suitable for the page or project.

ChatGPT can also edit existing images, which is useful when an image is almost right but needs something added, removed or changed.

For simple jobs such as cropping, resizing, background removal and other basic adjustments, I generally use the Microsoft Photos app on my computer.

This combination works well for me and is another example of not needing specialist software simply because it exists. For many everyday graphics jobs, I can create what I need with ChatGPT and make any simple final adjustments on my computer.

Do You Need Specialist Graphics Software?

Not necessarily. Services such as Canva and professional graphics packages can be very useful, but there’s little point paying for or learning another application unless you actually need what it provides.

Video

Video can be extremely useful, but you don’t need a studio or expensive equipment to get started. Screen recordings, presentations with narration and straightforward instructional videos can all work well.

The tool you choose depends very much on what sort of video you want to create. As with other areas of an online business, it’s easy to accumulate video software that looks exciting but rarely gets used.

Start with what you want to create. Then choose the simplest tool that will let you create it well.

AI Tools

Artificial intelligence has become one of the most useful additions to my online business toolkit. I don’t regard it as a replacement for experience, judgement or original ideas. I use it as a practical assistant that helps me research, plan, write, create and solve problems more efficiently.

How I Use AI

I use ChatGPT regularly for a wide range of tasks, including:

• developing and testing ideas;
• researching subjects and explaining unfamiliar topics;
• planning websites and individual pages;
• drafting and improving written content;
• creating illustrations and graphics;
• reviewing and editing material I’ve already written;
• working through technical problems; and
• helping organise larger projects into manageable steps.
• This website itself is a good example. I’ve used ChatGPT while planning its structure, developing the content, creating illustrations and working through some of the practical decisions involved in building it.

Much of this website has been developed with the assistance of ChatGPT — from planning the structure and drafting and refining content to creating illustrations and helping me work through WordPress decisions. I still make the final decisions about what appears on the site.

AI Works Best as an Assistant

AI can produce an impressive answer very quickly, but that doesn’t mean the answer is necessarily correct or appropriate.

I find it most useful as a collaborator rather than an autopilot. I provide the direction, question the results, make the final decisions and change things when they don’t sound like me or don’t fit what I’m trying to achieve.

That human judgement remains important, particularly when accuracy matters.

You Probably Don’t Need Lots of AI Subscriptions

There are now specialist AI tools for writing, images, video, research, presentations, marketing and almost everything else.

Some are excellent. But before paying for another one, check whether the AI service you already use can do the job. The capabilities of the major AI systems are expanding rapidly, so a separate subscription that was useful a year ago may no longer be necessary.

Use AI to extend what you can do — not to remove yourself from the process

Traffic, Links & Tracking

Creating a website and useful content is only part of the job. People still need to find it — and you need some way of understanding where those visitors came from and what they did when they arrived.

It’s easy to become obsessed with generating more traffic. But the number of visitors matters less than whether they are the right visitors and whether your pages give them a useful next step.

Generating Traffic

Traffic can come from many different sources, including search engines, social media, email, advertising, referrals and links from other websites.

You don’t need to use every possible source. It’s usually better to concentrate on one or two methods, learn what works and expand from there.

Tracking Your Links

Tracking links can help you understand which emails, advertisements, pages or traffic sources are actually producing clicks and results.

Rather than guessing whether something is working, you can compare different sources and concentrate your effort on those producing worthwhile results.

Tracking and Promotion Tools

I use LeadsLeap for some promotional activities, including creating Pro Ads to promote some of my opt-in and promotional pages, but tracking and traffic generation aren’t actually the main reasons I use the service.

My main use of LeadsLeap is its page builder, particularly for creating opt-in and promotional pages. I find its page builder easier to work with than AWeber’s, so I often build the page in LeadsLeap and connect the opt-in form to AWeber, where I prefer to manage my email lists and follow-up.

LeadsLeap also provides useful media storage, and I particularly like being able to incorporate videos hosted on YouTube or Vimeo into the pages I create.

LeadsLeap has its own autoresponder service, SendSteed, which I have used in the past. However, I now prefer to keep AWeber as my main email marketing system rather than maintaining subscriber lists in different services.

Traffic is only useful when it brings the right people to the right page. Rather than concentrating simply on visitor numbers, try to understand which sources are producing useful results.

Putting Your Toolkit Together

By this stage it should be clear that you don’t need a separate piece of software for every part of your online business. Many tools overlap, and the combination that suits you will depend on what you’re actually trying to do.

My own toolkit has developed over time. Some tools perform several jobs, while in other cases I deliberately use different services together because I prefer the way each one handles a particular task.

A Sensible Starter Toolkit

If you’re starting from scratch, I would concentrate on having:

• a domain name;
• reliable web hosting;
• a straightforward website;
• professional business email;
• an email marketing service when you’re ready to build a list;
• a simple way to create landing or opt-in pages;
• basic tools for creating written and visual content; and
• some way of measuring what is working.

You can add more specialised tools when your business gives you a reason to need them.

My Current Approach

Over the years I’ve tried many different tools and services. Today I increasingly prefer to use fewer tools more effectively, rather than continually adding new subscriptions.

For example, I use D9 for domains and hosting, WordPress for my websites, AWeber for email marketing, LeadsLeap for many of my opt-in and promotional pages, and ChatGPT for a growing range of research, writing, planning and creative tasks.

#fffce6Other tools come into the picture when a particular project needs them, but they don’t all need to become permanent monthly expenses.