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Updated: January 5, 2024

11 Comments

Recommended Resources

Our top picks for online business builders

I’ve been earning a full-time living online since 2010.

Below are the best tools and resources I’ve come across for building and running an online business.

Most of them I’ve used personally, and we continue to use many here at eBiz Facts.

Web Hosting  |  Email Marketing  |  Courses  | Remote Job BoardsProductivity  |  Admin  |  Travel  |  Books  |  Podcasts  |  Miscellaneous

Quick disclaimer: please do your own research and due diligence before using or purchasing any of the resources listed below. Just because something has worked well for others doesn’t mean it will work well for you.

💻 Web Hosting

As a site owner and long-time web designer, I’ve had experience with several web hosts over the years.

Before I give you my recommendations, keep this in mind: no web host is perfect. Google around long enough and you’ll find positive and negative comments about every one of them.

That said, some are definitely better than others…

Dreamhost

This is the host I have the most experience with. I’ve been a paying customer since 2011 and have never run into any major problems. Their chat support has always been good to me.

I currently have several sites hosted on a Dreamhost VPS, but if you’re just getting started I recommend going with their Shared Unlimited hosting.

Pay for one year of Unlimited and you’ll have secure hosting, one free domain, and a bunch of handy extras all for less than $100.

SiteGround

If you don’t like Dreamhost for whatever reason, give SiteGround a look. 

I’ve never used them myself, but they’re recommended by people I trust and they also have an official recommendation from WordPress.org.

SiteGround’s plans work out a bit more expensive than the equivalent on Dreamhost, but they tend to score a bit better in terms of speed.

Kinsta

eBiz Facts is currently hosted on Kinsta, a premium WordPress hosting provider. They’ve been solid for us, but I’d only recommend them if you have a bigger budget and need more powerful and robust hosting.

If you’re just starting out with a new website, stick with Dreamhost or SiteGround.

📬 Email Marketing

Beehiiv

This is what we use for email marketing here at eBiz Facts (subscribe to our newsletter).

Beehiiv is growth focused and has fixed pricing, so it doesn’t get super-expensive as you add more subscribers.

Plus, they have a free plan, so you can play around with it without paying a penny up to 2,500 subs.

Sendy

This is what we originally used for email marketing here at eBiz Facts.

Sendy is probably the cheapest setup you can have. We paid $69 one time for a Sendy license, and then $1 per 10,000 emails sent through Amazon SES.

If your email list is <30,000 subscribers, this is probably the cheapest setup you can have.

However, Sendy does have some notable drawbacks. The biggest is that you need to be fairly technical to handle setup and maintenance – it’s self-hosted software – and it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of something like Beehiiv.

I’d recommend it for tech-savvy bootstrappers, but that’s about it.

If none of the above sound right for you, check out Starter Story’s comprehensive list of email marketing services.

🎓 Courses

Here at eBiz Facts we review courses related to making money online, and pride ourselves on producing the most helpful, in-depth and objective reviews on the internet.

Here are the best courses we’ve reviewed to date…

The Authority Site System by Authority Hacker

The Authority Site System – Key Points
  About

An impressive affiliate marketing course that teaches you how to build authority websites and (eventually) earn passive income.

💰  Price

$1499 regular price (more info, get $900 discount now)

😍  Pros

Many student success stories, helpful private community, relatively low cost with the 60% discount, excellent refund guarantee, comprehensive training, regularly updated, created by trusted industry veterans, tons of bonuses.

😩  Cons

Can be challenging for newbies.

  Verdict

The best affiliate marketing training we’ve seen. Highly recommended.

Overall Rating
4.8/5

Read our full Authority Hacker review »

Proven Amazon Course

Proven Amazon Course – Key Points
  About

A broad ecommerce course that aims to teach you several strategies for selling on Amazon.

💰  Price

$39/mo membership plan or lifetime access for $999 (join now, discount info)

😍  Pros

Lots of positive student testimonials, covers many strategies, 30-day money-back guarantee.

😩  Cons

Some of the core training becoming outdated, overuse of powerpoint-style videos, coaching complaints.

  Verdict

Good value training if you’re new to ecommerce and want to explore many different strategies for selling on Amazon.

Overall Rating
4.6/5

Read our full Proven Amazon Course review »

Write Your Way to Your First $1k

Write To $1K – Key Points
  About

Elna Cain’s freelance writing training for beginners.

💰  Price

$195 or three payments of $75 (use code EBIZ10 for 10% discount, more info)

😍  Pros

Comprehensive training, good refund policy, reasonable price, many student testimonials and success stories.

😩  Cons

Mostly for beginners, not so many recent testimonials, so much content it can be overwhelming.

  Verdict

One of the best freelance writing courses, especially for beginners.

Overall Rating
4.4/5

Read our full Write To $1K review »

See our all our reviews here »

🏆 Best Udemy Courses 🏆

The best Udemy courses related to online business that we’ve personally reviewed:

👩‍💻 Remote Job Boards

We’ve spent 100+ hours researching and reviewing the best remote job boards.

If you want to find a great remote job fast, these sites are your best bet…

🏆 Best Remote Job Boards 🏆

Best overall

FlexJobs

Best for US-based

Virtual Vocations

Best for anywhere

Dynamite Jobs

Best for corporate jobs

FlexJobs

Best for startup jobs

AngelList

Our top 5 remote jobs sites:

Website Rating Review
FlexJobs
4.7/5
FlexJobs review
Dynamite Jobs
4.6/5
Dynamite Jobs review
Virtual Vocations
4.6/5
Virtual Vocations review
AngelList
4.4/5
AngelList review
Remote.co
4.2/5
Remote.co review
See all the remote jobs websites we've reviewed »

✔︎ Productivity

ClickUp

This is the tool we use for project management here at eBiz Facts. As a small team, it’s great for keeping all our tasks and communication in one place.

They have a free version available, so you can give it a good test run before you buy.

TIPP10

If you’re going to work online, learning to type quickly and efficiently is a must.

TIPP10 is the free software I used to learn touch typing at the ripe old age of 30. Before that I was just pecking at the keyboard, and it really slowed me down.

I set aside 30 minutes per day to practice with TIPP10, and within a couple of weeks I was comfortably typing 50 words per minute, and nowadays type ~65 wpm.

aText

aText helps speed up your typing.

For example, I have it set so every time I type em1 my full email address appears instead, saving me from having to type out the whole thing.

You can set up a bunch of shortcuts like that with aText.

It costs $5 and you can use it for Mac or Windows.

(One limitation of aText is that it looks like it’s built and maintained by one person. If you’re looking for more robust software that does pretty much the same thing, you can try TextExpander, but you’ll have to pay a monthly subscription.)

Hubstaff

Hubstaff is a game changer for team productivity.

Hubstaff’s weekly reports and activity rates provide accurate benchmarks, while the dashboard offers a holistic view of your team’s efficiency. Monitor productivity trends, set budgets, and seamlessly integrate tasks with Hubstaff Tasks. 

With customizable privacy settings, over 30 integrations, and a focus on mental health, Hubstaff is the go-to solution for 95,000 businesses. Try it for free and elevate your team’s performance. 

⚙️ Admin

Virtual Post Mail

This service allows me to receive old-fashioned mail in the USA without having a physical address there. 

They scan any mail received and email it to me, and can also forward along any important documents to another address I specify, anywhere in the world.

Copycall

This service gives me a US phone number so I can receive voicemail and texts via email. I researched a bunch of companies like this but Copycall delivers the best bang for the buck.

🛫 Travel

If you’re a digital nomad, you might be interested to check out our Travel Hacker’s Toolkit.

It’s a list of recommended resources for folks building an online business while traveling the world.

Highlights include…

SafetyWing

The travel insurance provider which costs me about $35/month yet covered my $4000 hospital bill in Indonesia. 

Cruise Sheet

The best site we’ve found for cheap cruises. You’ll often find cruises on there for less than $50/day. Great value for meals + transport + accommodation.

Timeshifter Jet Lag App

Put in your flight details and it creates a custom plan telling you when to sleep, when to wake up, when to drink coffee, when to stop, when to avoid bright light, etc.

For more travel-related tools and resources…

📚 Books

These are the top 3 books I recommend every online entrepreneur to read…

🎙 Podcasts

My 3 favorite business podcasts…

🗂 Miscellaneous

SERanking

This is my favorite SEO software. 

It replaced a couple of tools I used previously while costing me half as much 🥳

I mainly use it for…

  • Keyword research
  • Competitor analysis
  • Auditing articles to improve rankings
  • Finding and fixing broken links
  • SERP analysis

Google around for SE Ranking reviews and you’ll see it has very good ratings on all the big review sites 🤩

Zoom

Zoom is video-conferencing software, like an advanced version of Skype.

We use it for monthly group calls with members of Freedom Business Builder, our private community here at eBiz Facts.

What’s your #1 tool or resource for building an online business?

One rule here: please don’t recommend a tool if you’re involved in creating or marketing it.

Other than that, I’d love to hear your recommendations in the comments below.

About The Author
Niall Doherty – Founder and Lead Editor of eBiz Facts Born and raised in Ireland, Niall has been making a living from his laptop since quitting his office job in 2010. He's fond of basketball, once spent 44 months traveling around the world without flying, and has been featured in such publications as The Irish Times and Huffington Post. Read more...

11 thoughts on “Recommended Resources”

  1. Hi Niall.

    I took Writing in Flair course by Shani Raja from Udemy that you recommended, Hope u receive commission… Haha.

    Then, I checked the course 6 Figure Freelancer ,but it is has been taken down. Do you know who the creator is, so that I can get updated from his YouTube channel as you told here.

    Reply
  2. Hi Niall,
    I love your blog and hope you won’t stop anytime soon! Anyways, there’s been an influx of people recommending lead gen. businesses and Amazon FBA lately. Are both of these industries viable? Also, Amazon FBA is always an industry that I was interested in starting a business in. What is your personal recommendation regarding Kevin David and the ASM (Amazing Selling Machine) program? I know you briefly mentioned the latter in your review of Stefan James’s course but am curious about what you think!
    Cheers!

    Reply
    • Hey Rohan,

      Thanks for the comment, and the kind words.

      Lead gen is viable but I’d be wary of people selling lead gen courses who make it sound like easy money. Like any business, it takes work to make a success of it.

      Amazon FBA is also legit but also takes work, and I suspect the competition is very tough.

      I’m wary of Kevin David based on the videos Coffeezilla made about him and Kevin’s (aggressive) response.

      As for Amazing Selling Machine, I can’t really comment on that since I haven’t looked into it much at all.

      Reply
  3. Hey man, I am a huge fan of your blog. I wanna thank you and your team for all your time, effort and work that you put on this content. I just want to tell you that I miss a lot your finance tracking. I do not know for what reason you took it off from the website. I do miss it. I think you are the most credible person I have found in internet, showing your finances just adds up to that credibility.
    Again, Thank you !
    cheers,
    Santiago

    Reply
  4. Loved this, thank you for taking the time to write this Niall.

    One that might be of help is Otter, voice to text recognition which is then searchable.
    Video Speed Controller – don’t video so that you can cross this morning from nation in a shorter period of time.

    Reply

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