When it comes to running an online business or website, your knowledge doesn't get you anywhere unless you have the right tools. Particularly, the right online business software.
We at Triple Agent Digital Media believe in systems that save us hard-earned time and money so that we have more freedom to concentrate on carrying out our services - especially our specialty, Search Engine Marketing.
The thing is... in fields such as domain names and web hosting, there are so many options to choose from that it can be overwhelming and time-consuming, whether you're new or experienced, to research and find the perfect tool that serves your needs in the best way possible.
The good news is, we've been through weeks and months of research and trial-and-error and we've been misled into dealing with bad companies... so that you don't have to.
It's for this reason that we've compiled for you this list of "partners" - meaning service providers who have added (and are actively adding at this very moment) immense value to our business with their high-quality products and customer support.
*DISCLAIMER: We have affiliate relationships with some of the companies listed. When you purchase a product or service through the links in this post, the company/companies you purchase from will pay us a commission. This is a gesture of appreciation for our efforts to spread awareness of what we've tested and proven to be great tools for online business owners (in our active niches - such as affiliate marketing, digital/social marketing, SEO, content creation, web hosting, reputation management, e-commerce, etc.) and website developers, based on our real experience.
We aren't just here to make money by promoting some random crap we haven't even used. We've tested numerous products/tools/services to arrive at our final recommendations, and we are SERIOUS about who we endorse. Long story short - we DO NOT place affiliate links for anyone here unless we've actually used their products/services.
Namecheap
Your first technical step when building a website is always choosing a domain name, which is essentially the name that belongs to your website as it appears in the URL bar on your browser.
Namecheap was recommended to us by a colleague. Now, as a happy Namecheap customer of 3+ years, we in turn happily recommend them to you.
Namecheap stands out from the crowd in the sheer value they provide for their .com domains. This is important, because the hallowed .com is one of the top-level domains (TLDs) that have the most positive weight on website SEO quality compared to others.
So What Is Namecheap KingCom?
In fact, every September to December, Namecheap runs the "KingCom" campaign, where .com domains can be had for an irresistible $8.88 USD a piece*...
...not to mention that their interface is extremely intuitive!
One of the best perks about Namecheap's .com domains is that you can get Whois domain privacy for FREE, which keeps your name, street address, phone number and email address safe from the hands of malicious attackers, which is extremely important! Experience the benefits of Namecheap domains today.
(*PLEASE NOTE: While Namecheap may display domain prices in your local currency - CAD, for instance, if you're in Canada - you will still be charged in US dollars when you make a purchase. Just be aware of that.)
GoDaddy
GoDaddy is the household name of domain registration. While Namecheap is their competition, we give GoDaddy a shoutout for good reason: both GoDaddy and Namecheap complement each other with their respective advantages (even though Namecheap is our favourite overall!), the former catering specially to Canadian customers with their superior deals on .ca domains (which, by the way, are required by federal law to include domain privacy at no charge).
A con about GoDaddy is that for .com domains, Whois privacy comes at additional cost - we prefer Namecheap on that front. That's why we recommend GoDaddy for when you're shopping for .ca domains. They're certainly hard to beat when you're a Canadian business like us and you serve customers and clients within the country! (We highly recommend that when you buy a .ca domain, ACQUIRE a .com as well.)
When we first became a GoDaddy customer, their site was undergoing technical difficulties; luckily, that same night, we spoke with a friendly support agent who set up our account and helped us purchase a domain in no time - all over the phone. That's great support right there.
Oh, and as for hosting your website... that's not exactly GoDaddy's specialty. However, we DO have a dedicated webhost that, after nearly a year of research and testing, we can give our highest recommendation...
SiteGround Web Hosting
We tried HostGator. We tried InMotion. We tried Bluehost. First two highly praised by online reviewers... neither delivered the performance, support quality or features that we expected for the money.
Then, following the suggestion of an authority in our SEO community, we switched to SiteGround, and we've never turned back.
To say the least, the treatment we've been receiving from SiteGround has been absolutely royal, and they provide superior value for the money. We're elated to spread the word about them. The benefits of being a SiteGround client are too many to list... but some of the most essential ones include:
- Top-notch, hassle-free support. A friendly, responsive, extremely knowledgeable team that you'll have a FIELD DAY chatting with, be it by chat or email (plus - NO long queues in any of the chat conversations we've experienced - more than we could say for InMotion!)
- Shared server plans that absolutely ANNIHILATE InMotion's way more expensive VPS servers in terms of loading speed. Shocking, but true, as we'll elaborate in a future post! This is a huge key feature, as Google considers user experience factors like site speed when ranking search results - not to mention that Google just rolled out mobile-first indexing, and loading speed is of special importance to the user in mobile browsing.
- Idiot-proof features, such as effortless auto-renewing Let's Encrypt SSL - a very important feature!
There's many more different ways in which we could sing the praises of SiteGround, but needless to say, we think they're the best web host of 2018 (for our purposes, at least), and we are sure to remain their loyal client for years to come. If you want to be amazed, then click here to become a client too.
Airtable
If there was a productivity and project management app to end all productivity and project management apps (including the slow-syncing and unreliable Microsoft OneNote), then Airtable would surely be it.
Airtable is a true sleeper among cloud services, and it's sort of like Excel's cool mutant offspring. You can use its spreadsheet-like workflow to create flexible databases, create interactive checklists, attach any type of file into a cell, link spreadsheets to one another, and even format spreadsheets so that individual rows can be seen in a decidedly idiot-proof, non-spreadsheet-type grid-style view... the latter especially making it a near-perfect tool for us to actively write and edit blog posts (and, in fact, we wrote and edited this very blog post SOLELY using Airtable before pasting it into the WordPress editor and doing all the final formatting!)
The possibilities are really endless. Actually, some possibilities are more endless than others, so to see for yourself how endless the possibilities of Airtable truly are, click here to give the free plan a go.
Seriously - we're surprised we didn't discover it earlier!
GrooveFunnels
When you're selling products online, a proven way to convert strangers into paying customers is using what's called a "sales funnel"... a series of webpages carefully crafted to guide prospects through the buying process and increase conversion rates. GrooveFunnels is the new industry standard for that sort of thing. Plus we will provide you with DFY Authority Media Coverages at no charge when you upgrade to a paid plan and launch your service and/or your product. And there's more to come...with free courses thrown in.
Actually, it's more than that. The full version is practically a drop-in replacement for every marketing tool you currently have - featuring an SEO-friendly (and very lightweight and fast-loading) page builder, an email marketing software with autoresponder features, an LMS/member's area system for your online courses & coaching programs (think Teachable/Thinkific), video marketing, and many other applications that are constantly being added to the toolkit.
We've tried ClickFunnels, we've tried Kartra -- and neither is as satisfying as GrooveFunnels for our online marketing purposes.
GrooveFunnels has built its community of users up to 100,000+ in a few short months, simply because it is backed by millions of dollars of ongoing, never-ending research & development to listen to users' feedback and make the platform better and better. It's also a one-time investment - pay $1397 (or multiple instalments) and never pay a monthly fee again.
In Summary...
We truly believe you'll find all these tools as useful as we do.
One last note: this list is subject to change and additions. As more tools and services come into play and actively benefit our business operations, we will add them to this post and include the appropriate affiliate links where they are applicable.
Very Best,
The TADM Team
