Must Have Resources

On this page, you'll find a number of recommended tools and resources that can help you with various aspects of your business, career and personal growth.

Perhaps you'd like to conduct more effective job searches. Maybe you want to write better cover letters and resumes. Possibly you want to start up a website like this one and start your own online empire!

Check out the resources on this page that I use and confidently recommend. Some of these resources are free and some are paid ones that will earn me a commission if you purchase them but in each case these are resources that I use and like.

Career Resources

Recruiter Secrets Revealed: Recruiter Secrets Revealed is the first ebook that I wrote that discusses everything I learned as a recruiter and how you can utilize these learning points in your job searches and in your career.

Amazing Resume Creator: Do you find it difficult to write a resume that gets results? You're not alone. Jimmy Sweeney has created an application to handle the difficulty of writing a solid resume that gets interviews which is of course the whole purpose of a resume in the first place.

Amazing Cover Letter Creator: In my experience as a recruiter, most people fail miserably when writing a cover letter and probably don't even know it. Amazing Cover Letter Creator automates the cover letter wiring process and take the work out of your hands while delivering the results you desire, namely job interviews.

The Job Interview Secret: OK, so you've got the cover letter and the resume...now you need the job offer. If you're getting job interviews but no job offers, you're most likely failing in the job interview which is where jobs tend to get won and lost. You need to find out why.

Elevate Your IT Skills! TranscenderCert exam simulations are consistently named "Best Practice Exams" by IT Professionals. If you're considering IT certification, use TranscenderCert to be certain you are prepared to pass the exam. Whether you are interested in CompTIA, Oracle, Microsoft, Sun, Cisco or PMI exams, Transcender can help. Coming from an IT recruitment background, I can tell you that certifications can help you get a better IT job.

Blogging

WordPress: This is the most popular blog platform and is the one I used to build this website. It's free to use and comes with numerous (also free) plugins that make it easy to add virtually anything to your blog whether you have programming experience or not.

WordPress Plugins: This is a page where you can search for the aforementioned WordPress plugins. Often, I've found the plugins I use by first observing what others are using on their websites.

Thesis: The Thesis theme for WordPress is one of the most popular and well-regarded themes you'll find and for good reason. It's very customizable even for non-techies. I used it to build my BailoutMyCareer.com site and love it. You don't have to touch code if you don't want to and can rely on the numerous widgets and plugins to customize your site just the way you like it.

WooThemes: I used a WooTheme template (Gazette Edition) for this website and have found it easy to customize elements to my own needs. The first time I set up a website using WordPress I used custom graphics that created a lot more work but after having used WooThemes this time around, I've found the results much better.

Hosting

Bluehost: I use Bluehost as my host for several of my websites including this one. I've found them reliable, reasonably priced (you get unlimited domain hosting for one price) and they're also one of the hosts that WordPress recommends.

Building A Website Yourself

Market Samurai: Market Samurai is a market analysis tool that enables website builders to research keywords to figure out which ones are worth targeting and which ones are simply too competitive. You can get a 12 day free trial just like I did to start with. This is the tool I use to build all of my websites now.

SBI: I built my first 4 websites using SBI (SiteBuildIt) from SiteSell. If you have no programming experience and don't know what HTML stands for let alone how to use it, SBI is a great option to build your first website. In a nutshell, SBI includes your domain name, hosting, a block by block website builder and a tonne of other features...all at one low price. SBI is all about building quality content and their block by block interface ensures you achieve this.

SiteSell Services: OK, so you want a website but you just don't want to build one yourself. Maybe you don't think you have the skills, maybe you don't just don't have the time. Either way, SBI has pros who can build you a website that works.

Headers, Covers, Banners and Other Website Graphics

Killer Covers: Vaughan Davidson's Killer Covers is a company that I've been using since I first started working online in 2004. He has produced great headers, footers and other graphics for me and I wouldn't use anyone else. He can also produce entire website design elements for your site including ezine covers and Twitter backgrounds.

Gimp: Bring out the Gimp! The Pulp Fiction reference aside, Gimp is a free to use image retouching and editing tool that I've used to resize headers and photos among other things. I know of people who've created their own headers with Gimp too.

Affiliate Programs

Clickbank: Clickbank is the very first Internet affiliate program I started working with back in 2004. I started selling my own digital products with Clickbank around this time and if you're interested in selling your own products online, Clickbank is a great option.

ShareASale.com: ShareASale is an affiliate network that provides pay-per-sale, pay-per-lead, and pay-per-click programs for webmasters. I've been promoting products for them (and buying a few from them too!) for several years now.

Your Home Office

MyFax: I've used MyFax for several years now to send and receive faxes by email using my computer so I don't even need an actual fax machine! Buy 2 months get the 3rd FREE.