Recommended Tools


Welcome to our Resource section, a curated list of all the best  tools and websites that I strongly recommend.

These are the most significant tools for establishing and optimizing an online business successfully.

I personally use every recommendation on this post.


Apart from the ones listed below, also check out our page on best YouTube/Podcasting/Productivity gear I use for my channel and the best Finance Apps/tools i use and recommend.

Mytool

Before moving forward with this list, an important disclosure:

Some of the links mentioned below are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a small commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you, rather even if you decide to make the purchase by directly going to these product's websites, you will pay the same amount. You must understand, that I have experience with all of these companies, and I personally recommend them because they have been extremely helpful and useful in building my business, not because of the small commission I make in case you decide to buy something. Do not spend your money on these products, unless you feel you need them or that they will help you achieve your goal.

The Essential Tools (Must Haves)

#1 Website Hosting For Beginners

If you are starting your first website then HostGator should be your perfect first choice. After trying and testing almost all hosting companies over the period of 8 years, be it Godaddy, Bluehost, etc., the real satisfaction and smile on my face came when I shifted majority of my starter sites to HostGator.


AnkurAggarwal special offer: If you purchase a hosting through our affiliate link then you are eligible for all these free bonuses at no extra cost to you. Check more details on this page.


Benefits include: Make your site lightning fast, Host multiple sites on a single account , FREE SSL, $200 in Google AdWords and Yahoo! Credits, Free caching plugin, Cloudflare configuration and daily backups, and much more. Check my complete hostgator review for more details.

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This is my secret weapon to dominate any niche. Without Semrush, you are an incomplete Digital Marketer. Today, I drive millions of visitors each month on my portfolio of sites, and Semrush is the reason behind that.


No doubt, it is the best SEO tool in the market. Driving free organic traffic will become 100 times easier for you with this tool.


Get complete competitor analysis in minutes: Steal their keywords, their ad copies, their backlinks and much more. Click the button to get free 7 day trial (exclusive link only for Ankuraggarwal audience)


Benefits include: Find thousands of profitable keywords, Save many hours everyday, FREE content analysis add-on and so much more.

#1 For Conversion Focused Themes And Plugins

Although the logo says "themes" but this membership is much more than that. This is another most cost-effective investment of my company.


You get the benefit of many amazing and useful plugins and themes at the cost of one membership. Another must have for every new online business owner.


My entire website is made by using this membership. I use Rise theme, Thrive Architect for creating these beautiful looking pages, and Thrive Leads for email capturing. Also, buy  WP Rocket for extreme loading speed of your site.


Benefits include: Cost effective option if you go with this single membership.

#1 For Making Your Site Ultrafast

If you want to speed up your WordPress website, installing a caching plugin is one of the best ways to improve its loading times. Trimming even a few milliseconds off your loading times could have a positive impact on conversion rates and search engine rankings.


WP Rocket is a must for every WordPress site owner to make your site lightning fast and give your visitors an amazing website experiences.


Benefits include: High performance, Easy to use, Great support.

Get Lifetime Deals on Marketing Tools

This is one of my favorite sites to buy expensive marketing software on dirt cheap prices. I spend hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars each month on this platform. Click on the image below to check my purchase history (just being authentic).

A must have website for every digital marketer to save thousands of dollars in your lifetime. I visit the site routinely to find great deals that can help me in growing my business.


Benefits include: Lifetime deals for expensive marketing software, stacking option to buy multiple codes according to your needs, buy a pro account to get 10% off on every purchase.

Fastest VPN Service

Having a reliable VPN is important for every Digital Marketer.


Be it spying on your competitors, or accessing the ad creatives from a different country IP address, you will need a high speed VPN with multiple geographies.


Yes! there are free options available, but nothing is free in this world, with free VPN, you have security risks as you don't know what information might be compromised. 


I use ExpressVPN for all my digital marketing needs.


I use the same plan on my mobile, tablet, and my two laptops. So, I get all the benefits with just one subscription.


Try this tool for 30 days to access the risk free VPN services


Benefits include: High speed, Secure & Anonymous VPN service.

Hosting & Registrars

#1 Affordable WordPress Hosting

Hostinger is becoming well-known name in the WordPress hosting industry. They offer affordable hosting, 24/7 live chat support, and a robust platform to host your website.


Hostinger comes with automatic 1-click WordPress install, managed automatic updates, enhanced security, free CDN, WordPress speed acceleration, and free site migration. They also offer choice of 7 data centers in USA, Europe, Asia, and South America.


Hostinger serves over 29 million users in 178 countries. On top of all this, they have a special 80% discount for ankuraggarwal readers combined with free SSL and a free domain name. check our complete hostinger review here.


Benefits include: Great customer support, 1-click WordPress install, Free Domain and Free SSL, Multiple Datacenters

#1 Premium WordPress Hosting

Kinsta is the best “high end” managed WordPress service. It is hosting this site and all our major sites are hosted on it. Kinsta uses the best Google cloud servers available to ensure high speed and up time for your sites.


It’s the most expensive among HostGator, WPX and others. But the high price is justified because of premium services offered. Recommended only for experienced bloggers.


AnkurAggarwal special offer: If you purchase a hosting through our affiliate link then you are eligible for all these free bonuses at no extra cost to you. Check more details on this page.


Benefits include: Fully managed, Free migrations, Google cloud platform, Daily backups, Ultimate Speed. 

Website Hosting For Experienced Bloggers

WPX Hosting

If first-class website performance and stability are high on your priorities list, WPX is the way to go as long as you don’t mind the price.


Apart from Kinsta hosting, I use WPX for hosting all my money-making sites which are driving significant traffic.


AnkurAggarwal special offer: If you purchase a hosting through our affiliate link then you are eligible for all these free bonuses at no extra cost to you. Check more details on this page.


Benefits include: 30 Second average live chat response time 24/7/365 High-Speed custom CDN With 26 global edge locations Unlimited site migrations to WPX* Unlimited SSLs Staging areas Manual backups  30 Day Money-Back

Content Writing Services

#1 Premium Content Writing Service

Wordagents

Content is one of the biggest expenses for any affiliate website owner. I have spent over $500,000 till now on content and I can tell you from my experience, finding a good content company is difficult since there are too many scammers out there.


If you are not writing your content yourself or don't want the hassle of keeping in-house writers and editors, then you can give WordAgents a try.


Benefits include: Engage your readers & keep the search engines happy with SEO content. Your go-to provider of revenue-boosting content delivered in 7 days. 100% All American writers. Search-optimized content. Speedy seven day delivery. Revenue-boosting content.

Affiliate marketing is complicated and you need content that is SEO optimized to get the maximum ROI of your investment.

Niche website builders offer all services related to affiliate marketers, be it perfectly optimized articles, backlink outreach service cess or aged domains.


If you dont want to create, train, and manage a team for your affiliate marketing site, then hiring Niche Website Builders is a no brainer.


SPECIAL OFFER FOR Ankur Aggarwala's Audience: Use our link to get 10% extra content


Benefits include: Experienced affiliate marketers, Many years of experience, Multiple services: Backlinks, Keyword research etc

Another content writing company is Contentrefined. You can give them a try as well for your content requirements.


Benefits include: A complete end-to-end service for content marketing,  a project manager as a single point of contact, optional service to handle your keyword research

Communities to Join

Best Affiliate Marketing Community

If affiliate marketing is what interests you the most, then you must join the world’s largest affiliate community: STM Forum. All of the biggest affiliate marketers hangout in STM Forum and share their knowledge and help each other


Learn, network and grow with the best in the industry.


Benefits include: Get free case studies & video training when you join, get access to STM-only tools & events, and the best part is to get feedback from the best affiliate marketers.

If you are into SEO then you know the term "It Depends". Since SEO is no exact science and depends on hundreds of factors, thus you need to keep yourself updated with the latest knowledge.


This is where Traffic Think Tank comes into play. After doing SEO for over 8+ years, I can proudly say that Traffic Think Tank is one of the best paid SEO communities on the internet. A must have for anyone thinking of becoming better in SEO.


Learn, connect, and level up with the best SEOs on the planet.


Benefits include: Find 200+ hours of training, Make real connections with the best of the best in the industry, Very active community. 

My Favorite Paid Courses

MUST have SEO Tools

This is my secret weapon to dominate any niche. Without SEMrush, you are an incomplete Digital Marketer. Today, I drive millions of visitors each month on my portfolio of sites, and SEMrush is the reason behind that.


No doubt, it is the best SEO tool in the market. Driving free organic traffic will become 100 times easier for you with this tool.


Get complete competitor analysis in minutes: Steal their keywords, their ad copies, their backlinks and much more. Click the button to get free 14 day trial (exclusive link only for Ankur Aggarwal's audience)


Benefits include: Find thousands of profitable keywords, Save many hours everyday, FREE content analysis add-on and so much more.

Best Aged Domain Platform

Odys.global

Odys.Global

Kickstart your online business with an aged niche domain from ODYS. Invest in sites that grow in value, with built-in SEO to help you get seen.

Why should you trust them?

High authority: Gain a head start over the competition and save years of building authority.

Analyses you can trust: Receive a comprehensive authority analysis.

DFY affiliate sites: Add a done for you affiliate site package to help you grow and get seen.

#1 SEO Plugin For WordPress

rankmath

RankMath

RankMath

Rank Math helps you rank higher in Search engine results pages, by making your content more SEO friendly.


Benefits include:  Simple User Interface, Personal AI Assistant , Google Index Status, Built-In Advanced SEO Analytics Module, Rank Tracker, Most Advanced Schema Generator.

Best Email Finder

Email is vital for the success of your online business. Be it SEO, when you need to find email ids of thousands of websites to outreach them for building backlinks, or for cold emails/sales emails. Hunter.io is the most trusted and popular tool for finding the correct email ids in just few clicks. You will save a huge amount of time once you start using this tool.


This tool will surely become your goto software once you start seeing the benefit it offers.


Benefits include: Free plan available for the first 50 requests. Extensive database, responsive customer support, and tons of API.

#1 For SEO Content Optimization

When you are spending thousands of dollars on your content, tech, and finding freelancers for your blog or your affiliate site, then you think of maximum ROI.


Surfer SEO helps you write SEO optimized content which automatically helps you stand out from the competition. Write outstanding content that people search for – so you can strengthen your brand and watch your organic traffic grow like crazy!

A must-have tool

Benefits include: Works in any language, Keyword Research, Content Editor and Planner, SERP Analyzer feature

Graphic Design Services

Best Unlimited Graphics Designing Service

Canva is great, but when you want to stand out or need to outsource the design work then Design Pickle is perfect for you.


It offers unlimited graphic design requests.


Benefits include: Delegate all your graphic design tasks to a reliable team of designers, flat rate pricing, trusted by the top marketing teams and agencies in the world, 24-48 hour turnaround time, no complicated hiring, no contracts, quality design talent.

Unlimited Graphic Design

Just like Design Pickle, Penji can help you complete all your graphic design needs. 


Use Code "PENDING" for extra discount on your first month membership.


Benefits include: On-demand graphic design | 24hr turnaround | Top 2% of designers | No hiring. No contracts. Cancel anytime | Trusted by 10000+ marketers, agencies, & SMB.

Premium Design Service

99designs

I use 99designs for all branding and logo design requirements. Yes, you can get this done from DesignPickle and Penji as well, but if you are looking for a more professional and quality work then 99designs is the perfect option.


Benefits include: Established brand, excellent customer support, competitive pricing, advanced email automation features at very competitive pricing, extensive integrations

Want to save money on hiring graphic designers and design agencies, then Canva is perfect for you. I have been using Canva for over 5 years now and trust me its awesome.



Benefits include: Delegate & Collaborate with team, Video ads, One stop solution for all your design needs, Save money on expensive designers

Freelancers Hiring Related tools

#1 For Freelancing And Outsourcing Work

Delegation is the key to success. As a business owner, you can’t do everything yourself. Fiverr is my go-to choice to find experts for any task which I can’t do myself and want outsourced.


Whatever be the job, you can easily find a freelancer to help you on this platform.


Benefits include: Quality work, protected payments, 24/7 support, high quality services at every price point.

For Hiring Philippines Freelancers

I hire a lot of freelancers for my business. I tried many websites be it Upwork (high quality but expensive) or freelancer.com etc. But finally, I settled for OnlineJobs.ph.


Today almost 10-15 freelancers are consistently working for me from this site. Also, this website has helped me to find many great employees who are working full time for my company.


Benefits include: Find high quality Philippine talent in almost all digital marketing related jobs, very cheap compared to many other alternatives, hire as many people without paying extra.

#1 Time Tracking & Productivity Tool

We have over 20+ freelancers working for us. Since we pay hourly, you need a reliable tool to track the time. We have been using Hubstaff for over 3 years now without any complaints.


If you have a team of freelancers, then Hubstaff is a must have for you to save money and increase productivity.


Benefits include: All-in-one employee time tracking software, timesheets, payroll, productivity monitoring, simple yet powerful employee work time tracker with screenshots, timesheets, & more. Timesheets & budgeting. Trusted by 34,000+ teams. Website and app tracking.

Blogging Related Tools 

#1 For Affiliate Link Management

We use thirsty affiliate on Ankuraggarwal and all our non-Amazon affiliate sites. 


Its the most popular plugin for affiliate link managements, detailed statistics, link cloaking and more. A must have for every affiliate marketer.


Benefits include: Comprehensive reporting of link clicks, Time saving, very cheap.

Lightweight Wordpress Blogging Theme

A widely popular theme which is lightweight, easy to use, and not too heavy on your wallet.


I was using GeneratePress earlier for many of my affiliate websites. I trust them and still use them for few of my starter sites.


Benefits include: Established brand, excellent customer support, competitive pricing, advanced email automation features at very competitive pricing, extensive integrations

Amazon Affiliate Related Tools

Make 20% more money from your affiliate website

A must have for every Amazon affiliate website owner. AAWP helps you create conversion optimized tables, product boxes, bestseller lists and other widgets.


Increase click-through rate and revenues. By just adding this plugin to your Amazon affiliate site, you can increase your earnings.


Benefits include: Increase the value of your affiliate page and your earned commissions! Get started now with a 30-Day Money Back Guarantee. Automated data updates, no theme dependency, customizable design, prepared templates, responsive.

Image Compression on Autopilot

An easy-to-use plugin to compress all your website images and make your website load faster. No need to compress your images separately; just press one button and it automatically compress all your images.


Benefits include: Speed up your websites, Compress your images by 90%, No quality loss, Use the WP plugin, ShortPixel improves website performance by reducing the image size.

Internal Linking On Autopilot

A must have for every WordPress website owner. Internal linking is the easiest way to increase your article rankings for your target keywords and to overall increase your SEO traffic.


Benefits include: Plugin to speed up the process of internal linking & help you rank better. Quietly & quickly “whispers” contextual internal link suggestions to improve your SEO! Remove broken links, link stats dashboard, in-depth link reporting.

Best For Schema Markups

Creating a schema markup is no longer a task! With a simple click and selecting an interface, you can set up a markup in minutes. All the markup configurations you will set are automatically applied to all selected pages & posts.


Benefits include: Automate schema markup of hundreds & thousands of pages in minutes.

Email Marketing Tools

My Favorite Email Marketing Company

Another great tool for email marketing. If you are looking for more advanced features and crazy automations then  ActiveCampaign is perfect for you.


I personally love Activecampaign for its pricing and the features it offers. Especially good for ecommerce businesses. 


Benefits include: Great customer support, free trial, advanced email automation features at very competitive pricing, extensive integrations

Good For Small Email List

ConvertKit is the most popular email marketing tool among online entrepreneurs.


Simple to use and easy to manage. If you want to create an email list or create an email business then ConvertKit should be your #1 choice.


Benefits include: Established brand, excellent customer support, automation, integrations, sell digital products, create landing pages and more.

Landing Page Builder Tool

Landing pages are crucial for every online business be it product based or services. 


If you are not using the free landing page builder in thrive membership, then you can spend a little extra and invest in a perfectly optimized landing page builder at Instapages. 


You will easily make back the money invested by seeing an increase in conversions.


Benefits include: An end-to-end solution for deploying personalized post-click experiences at scale, lower CPC costs, increase advertising ROI, increase conversions, get to market faster, 1:1 personalization, landing pages, visual collaboration.

FREE Newsletters I Recommend

This is by far my favorite email of the day, EVERYDAY. Daily, business and tech news in 5 minutes or less. 

THE MARKETER'S #1 DAILY NEWSLETTER. Carefully curated digital marketing news, tech, and actionable advice

Other Helpful Tools:

  • Google WorkspaceA service by Google to create custom email addresses in the name of your company. For example: yourname@yourcompanyname.com
  • NiftyOne of the best project management tools. Although there are many alternatives like Basecamp,  Asana, Monday.com, etc., I use and prefer Nifty as it is cost effective.
  • Mega.nz: In the remote work environment, you have to send and receive many large size files as well. Google drive cant be used everytime and this is where mega.nz comes to the rescue. We store all our video editing raw, final render files on mega and my entire video editing team collaborates using this.
  • Iubenda: Creating proper legal documents for your site like Terms of service, Disclaimer, cookie policy etc is vital. If you dont want to spend thousands of dollars on lawyers and want to prevent your site from any legal action then you can use iubenda to generate all your required pages.
  • Google Search Console (free)Check the health of your website from the eyes of Google. A must have for every website owner. Also, its free.
  • Google Analytics (free)Check everything about your website visitors, their demographics, behavior and much more. A must have for every website owner. Again, it’s free.
  • Yoast SEO (free)Most popular SEO plugin for WordPress.
  • Slack (free)Communicating with your team will become 10 times easier with slack. Also, its free for small teams (with some restrictions)
  • Integrately :  A must-have service for every online business owner/digital marketer to help in communication between various online softwares. Its the best high quality and cost effective zapier alternative. (use my link for extra 500 tasks/month)
  • Microsoft To-Do (free): My most important app (both desktop and mobile) for checking my daily task and reminding me about my entire day and task priority.

Final Words

I understand that many of them might be out of your budget to start with. However, the power of the premium tools listed above cannot be ignored.

These tools have accelerated the growth of my business manifolds.

I personally use every tool listed above and usage of these tools had proved a lot more advantageous for me.

If you have any questions about any of the tool listed above then please reach out to me here. I will definitely be responsive to all.

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