The big list of digital entrepreneur (and content creator) resources

The world can be so overwhelming – loads of content, loads of software and even more things you can do. But collating and finding the things that might benefit you can be challenging. For this reason, I have put together this list of digital entrepreneur (and content creator) resources – to help you find things that you need.

Enjoy this list and let me know if I missed anything!

Ideas and exploration

• Google Trends – Find out what is trending in online search
• Product Hunt – find products and feedback on them/yours

Name generators

• Naminum – helps you discover the perfect company name.
• Namify – Use AI to generate possible company names
• Namelix: Use AI to suggests creative names for your product, domain, or product.
• Business Name Generator – as the name states

Testing and ideas

• CrazyEgg – A/B Testing, heatmaps, screen recordings (Paid)
• WordPress Title Experiments – Do AB testing on WordPress landing page titles
• Nelio A/B Testing – WordPress split testing and conversion optimization
• Medium Article – a field guide for rapid experimentation

Strategy and business plans

• PlanBuildr – free online business plan builder
• FormSwift Business Plan Generator
• Bplans – free business plan samples.

Design and websites

Website and content management systems

• WordPress – blogging platform with lots of plugins and extensions to build anything from member- to learning management systems. Free and easy to use for non-coders
• Joomla – a more complicated content management system, but works well with custom development
• Wix – Build a free website – note that add-ons cost more money

Domains and hosting

• Impossibility: “The best domain name generator ever.”
• Domainr: a free domain name search.
• Afrihost – hosting and domain search.
• Xneelo – previously known as Hetzner. Excellent quality premium hosting

Graphic/Web design, wireframes and mockups

• Canva Logo Creator – Create logos online quickly
• Canva – create beautiful designs without the price tag
• Gimp – free open source alternative to Photoshop
• Pixlr – Online software to assist with small quick designs for people that feel Canva is not advanced enough
• Photoshop – The industry standard in photo editing and design (Paid)

Image sourcing / Stock photos (Free)

• StockSnap – lots of free photos, fairly high quality
• Canva – some free and some paid for photos
• Freepik – free open-source images, icons and vectors
• Unsplash – freely-usable images
• Pixabay – free images and royalty free stock

Video and audio

• Davinci Resolve – advanced video and sound editing software
• Hitfilm Express – Pay what you feel like video editing software
• Audacity – Open-source sound editing software
• Adobe After Effects – Paid video editing software, but the niche is adding special effects
• Adobe Premiere Pro – Paid video editing
• Filmora – Paid for video editing software

Online business development, sales & marketing (BDSM)

Social media and online advertising

I am including this for reference to social media marketing, content marketing, online communities and connections that can be made to further your online business

• Twitter – microblogging site allowing for posts/tweets of up to 160 characters. Images and videos can also be posted.
• Facebook – the biggest and most active users. Having groups,
• YouTube – Video social media site with channels where subscribers can like and comment
• Instagram – Video and photo-sharing site – users can like and comment, or do live chats.
• TikTok – video content app, generally 60 second videos where filters can be added to make it look amazing.
• Reddit – submit questions, links, images and discuss/vote them up or down.
• LinkedIn – Social media network for professional connections. Posts, videos, images and articles can be shared.
• Pinterest – create photos and pin them to a Pinterest board. This tends to work well for crafts, art and recipes.
• Medium – an online publishing platform where users can create and publish articles.
• Google Ads – Search ads and display ads (banner and adsense ads)

Growth Hacking

Growth hacking is the process of looking at the whole process of your business, resolving the bottlenecks and optimising the customer journey.

• Pay with a Tweet – Give your customers discounts if they share a tweet
• Zapier – connect different apps with each other on the internet, e.g. your accounting software and your CRM
• Crystal Knows – Get an assessment of a potential client or employee. It looks at their social profiles and online presence
• Fiverr – Get design, copywriting and other services at a good price

Emails

• MailerLite – mass mailer, free for up to 1000 contacts
• MailChimp – mass mailer
• SendGrid – single mail sender with excellent API for code integration. Also, the first 100 emails per day are free.
• BirdSend – competitively priced mass mailer

Online sales funnels and landing pages

• Active Campaign – Atomate marketing with processes and workflows
• Ontraport – Build, automate and scale sales funnels and processes

ECommerce and content subscription

• WooComerce – WordPress plugin for adding eCommerce. Free, but needs some configuration
• Shopify – Paid for online shop software, with paid add-ons for extra functionality
• Gumroad – Get paid for the content you create
• OnlyFans – Content subscription service (tutorials, tips, content, videos, etc.). Note this is more popular in the adult and fitness industry.

Small business admin

• Dropbox – free cloud storage that you can share.
• Google Drive – integrate storage with your Google Account
• Google Workspaces – Paid monthly subscription to a professional email and cloud-based word/spreadsheet processing and meeting software.
• Office365 – Paid monthly subscription to Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams

Funding

There are lots of places where you can find funding, including friends and family. There are also other options such as crowdfunding and specific government funds and venture capitalists/angel investors that can fund your startup or idea. Here are some articles on funding, followed by links to where to find funding:

• FrugalLocal – Starting a business with no or little money
• Effectify – Funding for a small business startup – an introduction
• FrugalLocal – How do I get funding for my business or side hustle?

Crowdfunding

• Kickstarter – find funding online from other people that might want your product or service, generally creative projects.
• DreamFunded – crowdsourced startup funding
• GoFundMe – Raise funding online for a cause
• Indiegogo – a crowdfunding site that funds almost anything.

Funding in South Africa

• Support Programme for Industrial Innovation (SPII Grant) – government funding for innovation
• Small Enterprise Finance Agency (SEFA) – Funding for small businesses
• National Empowerment Fund (NEF) – Funding for black-owned businesses. Also see the link www.nefbusinessplanner.co.za
•  Small Enterprise Development Agency – Funding for small enterprises

Monitoring and measuring

• Google Analytics – track clicks, page views and geographical location of users visiting your website
• HotJar – see where the user clicks, moves the mouse and interacts with your website.
• Buffer – Social media analytics (Free for 3 channels and 10 posts, Analytics is paid)
• Databox – Free dashboards and daily emails with goals and objectives
• Hootsuite – Paid for service with reports, scheduling and plugins that can be added
• TweetDeck – manage your tweets better.

Search engine optimization / marketing

• Google Keyword planner – Explore keywords that you want to rank for
• Internet Marketing Ninjas – Keyword density analysis tool
• Google page speed insights – Get a free report on page speeds and issues that might affect SEO.
• WooRank – Analytics tool and core web vitals needed for SEO (Paid)
• HotJar – see where the user clicks, moves the mouse and interacts with your website.
• SEMRush – advanced SEO/PPC keyword research tool
• Neil Patel – SEO related tools, articles and content

Cloud and code resources

• Github – free/open-source code to use in your projects
• Azure – Hosting and cloud services: 12 months free on popular services for first time sign up
• AWS – Hosting and cloud services: 12 months free on popular services for first time sign up
• Cloudflare – Free SSL certificates, DDoS attack mitigation and fast DNS updates.

Payments, stock management and invoicing

• Yoco – Accept online payments in South Africa
• Payfast – Accept online payments in South Africa
• Sage Accounting – manage accounting, invoicing and admin for your small business
• ATUM Inventory Management for WooCommerce
• Shopify – manage stock levels through your online shop.

Project management

Customer relationship management

• Nimble – A CRM that connects all our social media, GSuite, Office365 etc. to give you a single view.
• Zoho – Free CRM with all the basics you need
• Hubspot – Basic CRM is free, add ons are paid.

Productivity

• Asana – Project management tool, the basic is free
• Trello – Kanban board that can be used for tasks or lists. Cards have checklists, images, labels and descriptions. Free.
• IFTTT – Tool to do automation from tweets to turning wifi on and off.
• Zoom – online meetings
• Slack – chat programmer where you can create “rooms” or DM directly
• Calendly – sync your calendar with Calendly to avoid double bookings and supply a booking link to customers.

Conclusion

Wow, this is quite a list! We have covered social media, growth hacking, productivity, advertising online, SEO and even eCommerce/stock management.

I would like to expand the big list of digital entrepreneur (and content creator) resources, so if you have more links to tools, resources and content that might help people, please send me a message through the contact me page.

Happy investing!