Internet Marketing Tools

After testing countless internet marketing tools, we've finally made our way through the clutter! Here, you will find some tools that have helped our online businesses generate more traffic and revenue. Scroll down to discover our favorite internet marketing tools and tips that you can use to gain success for your online business as well!

Types of Internet Marketing

Internet marketing (a.k.a. iMarketing or eMarketing) is the method of using the internet to communicate, advertise, promote, sell and/or distribute products and/or services. Although there are many internet marketing methods, here are the 3 types of internet marketing we use most often in our online businesses:

Affiliate internet marketing - a person agrees to promote and sell another person's products/services for a share of the online revenue. Commission is based upon performance measures in the form of sales, clicks, or registrations.
Email newsletter marketing - using mass email to communicate, promote, and sell to online consumers.
Search engine marketing - using the processes of keyword research and search engine optimization (SEO) to gian higher traffic and search engine rankings for your website/page.

Why Use Internet Marketing Tools?

Efficient, trustworthy internet marketing tools can help your online businesses gain popularity and sales. With internet marketing tools, you will have a greater ability to monetize your website, increase traffic, and overcome competitors in search engines. Based on the 3 types of internet marketing above, here is a list of our favorite internet marketing tools:

1. Affiliate Internet Marketing Tools

As noted above, you can make money by advertising and selling another's products/services on your website or blog. This is known as affiliate internet marketing, and is a great way to make money online - even when you're away from the computer! Some of our favorite affiliate programs are:

eBay: Monetize your site by advertising and selling eBay products to visitors.
Amazon: Make money through marketing and selling Amazon products.
ClickBank: Use ClickBank to promote and sell other people's digital products.

WordPress Plugins

If WordPress is your platform, WordPress (WP) plugins are a must-have. These plugins are computer programs that interact with the underlying software of WordPress. Often, plugins provide affiliate marketing material such as affiliate links, banners, and other extra functions that are not available in the default form of WordPress.

There are many types of WP plugins available, but here are some of our favorites:

phpBay Pro is by far one of our most profitable and trustworthy WP plugins. In being an eBay WP plugin, PhpBay Pro allows you to insert and display high-quality eBay listings on a post or page. Then, when a visitor clicks on your eBay listings and makes a purchase, you get a percentage of commission! Click on the link above to learn more!
All In One SEO WordPress is a plugin that allows you to optimize your page titles, meta tags, keywords and descriptions. Overall, this plugin is a great way to optimize your WordPress page for search engines.
The Ozh' Admin Dropdown Menu plugin is a great way to simplify, organize and section out your admin menu. This plugin converts the vertical admin menu to a horizontal one with "drop down" options - making it quick and easy to get to any admin page!
Ever made a page and realized it was actually supposed to be a post? With the P2P Converter plugin can easily convert a post to a page, or vice versa, with the click of a button! This free WordPress plugin places an extra column in the main table where all your posts and pages listed, with a 'convert to post!' or a 'convert to page!' option. You can also click a 'convert' button while editing a post or page to convert your content before you publish it.
WordPress.com Stats is a must-have plugin that can track post/page views, referrers, and click-throughs. This plugin is similar to Google Analytics, but you can view it on your WordPress admin! Also, it's less overwhelming because it simply highlights the important stats of your site - making it easy to understand your stats and use them to make you site more effective.

WordPress Themes

If you want to give your WordPress site or blog a professional and up-to-date appearance, WordPress themes are the solution. With these themes, you can have a creative and unique web design that's easy to set up and use.

If your website is just starting out, and not in high demand, free WordPress themes are the way to go. This way you can get familiar with installing and running WP themes before making an investment in something you know nothing about.
After getting your sites underway, it's necessary to update with more high quality WordPress Themes. We enjoy WooThemes, because the site offers a huge variety of themes for affordable prices ($10 - $100 depending on your needs). Even better, you can join their club and have access to every one of their premium themes for $120 dollars. This is great if your site requires more than one theme!

2. Email Newsletter Marketing Tools

Email marketing reqires internet marketing tools that are developed specifically for use in mass email newsletter campaigns. Check out our Email Newsletter Marketing Software and Tips post to learn even more about email newsletter marketing!

AWeber

As one of the most popular email newsletter marketing programs of today, AWeber helps online business build customer loyalty, drive traffic, and develop long-term sales. With AWeber, you will be able to:

deliver a weekly and/or monthly email marketing newsletter
create as many newsletters as you like
schedule your newsletters to be delivered immediately or at a later time (automatically)
place an email newsletter sign-up form on your website
store all email campaign data on AWeber's server
control all email campaigns from any location with online access
manage email campaigns with easy-to-use navigation

3. Search Engine Marketing Tools

By using the processes of keyword research and search engine optimization (SEO), your website or page can gain higher traffic results and ranking higher search engines. Click on the link above to learn more about keyword research and how to do search engine optimization for you online business. Scroll down, to learn about our favorite search engine marketing tools!

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a web analytics solution that gives you statistics on website traffic. By knowing your traffic data, you will be able to better optimize your site to get more targeted traffic. Google Analytics tells you:

Where your traffic is coming from.
How much traffic you're actually receiving!
What search terms can bring the traffic to your site.

Google Keyword Tool

The Google Keyword Tool also gives you the ability to further optimize and strengthen your marketing initiatives! The Google Keyword Tool tells you:

What keywords and keyword phrases to target in search engines.
What keywords and phrases relate to your category
The number of people who are searching for each keyword and keyword phrase.

Yahoo Site Explorer

Yahoo Site Explorer shows you where your site or page back links are currently coming from, and how many you have.

Even through we found that it's not extremely accurate, the tool still gives a close enough estimate of back links. Plus, you can get information on competitors' back links to get an idea of more efficient back links to use!