What’s In My Niche Site Toolkit?

I’m often asked about which hosting I use, how I check for plagiarism, and where I source my content writers. So, I’ve created this resources page so you can peek inside my niche site toolkit.

Not every tool is paid. Some are FREE. Isn’t that wonderful? 

Some links are affiliate links which means I'll earn a small commission if you happen to make a purchase. If you do, thanks a million because it helps to cover the time involved in running this site, newsletter and YouTube channel.

What’s In My Niche Site Toolkit?

Courses

  • Authority Hacker – The Authority Site System (TASS) – for beginners & intermediates, this training covers the A-Z of creating an authority site. The niche selection module alone is incredible.
  • Authority Hacker Pro – for intermediates & advanced – take your existing site to the next level with this training that includes effective link building, hiring writers, scaling up your content team, HR stuff, email list building, sales funnels, selling sites, and so much more.
  • Niche Site Profits (from Jon Dykstra, aka Fat Stacks) – a super course for keyword research, scaling your content production, and more.
  • Topical Maps Unlocked – Learn how to build topical maps, the right way. An essential starting point for any niche or authority website. Highly recommended.
  • Affiliate Lab (Matt Diggity) – a solid framework for building a social moat and good backlink profile.

Team & Project Management

  • Trello – The tool that my VA & I use to manage my writers and assign articles.
  • Slack (FREE) – Messaging tool for my team.
  • Google Sheets (FREE)

Domain Names

Hosting etc.

  • Cloudways – Ultra Fast, reliable, with great support. Intermediate Level. (I use Vultr HF option.)
  • Iridium Hosting – managed hosting at its best.
  • Siteground – Decent Speed, reliable. Good for getting started. I’ve used them for years.
  • CloudFlare – CDN, extra privacy & bot protection. FREE – you probably don’t need the $20 per month option.

CMS / Blogging Platform

  • WordPress (FREE) – Don’t even consider using another CMS. WordPress is all you need.

WordPress Themes

  • Kadence WP Theme – Very fast theme and looks great too. I think this theme gives my sites a more professional look. The free version is decent, but the paid version adds much more functionality.
  • GeneratePress Theme – One of the most popular and fastest themes. The free version doesn’t allow much customization, so I recommend the paid upgrade if you don’t want your site to look too “Generate Pressy”
  • Popcorn Theme – Another nice theme focused on speed. If you want a “set and forget” type of theme, this might be the one for you. I like to customize things a little bit more under the hood which is why I mostly use the above two themes.

Conversion Rate Optimization

  • Optinly – Excellent opt-in popups (used on this site)
  • ConvertBox -Excellent opt-in popups (used on my niche sites)

Plugins

  • RankMath – The only SEO plugin you’ll need. The pro version allows additional schema to help you rank.
  • LinkWhisper – Build internal links quickly and easily.

Affiliate Tables

  • Lasso – the Rolls Royce of affiliate plugins. The “Auto Amazon” mode is incredible because it takes the manual work out of ensuring your affiliate tags are correct and that you’re not accidently leaking commission earnings to other affiliates! (I was, and this plugin fixed it for me automagically).
  • Affiliatable – excellent affiliate comparison tables.
  • Affi.ai – superb affiliate comparison tables.

Keyword Research

  • Semrush (FREE 7-Day Trial) – Market-leading keyword research tool, content gap, and more.
  • Ahrefs – Decent keyword research tool, site audits, content gap, and more.
  • LowFruits – Great keyword research tool with smart filters that make sense and save time.
  • Keyword Chef – Find keywords quickly. The easy keywords are highlighted to save you lots of time.
  • SearchResponse.io – Excellent for finding secondary keywords to include in your content.

Writers / Content Agencies

Graphics / Stock Photography

  • Canva Pro – Simply the best graphics creation tool out there. It’s incredible. Pro is better than free!
  • DepositPhotos – My favorite source of licensed images. Everything I need is there. It’s great.

AI Assistants

  • KoalaWriter – superb AI-writer, this tool has revolutionized by business.
  • ZimmWriter – another great, feature rich AI writing tool.
  • ChatGPT – Amazing for brainstorming, assistance with content writing, coding, keyword ideas, topical mapping and so much more.

Newsletter

  • ConvertKit – One of the best email newsletter providers out there. Are you on my newsletter? Get it here.

Monetization – Display Ads

  • Monumetric – I use them on my starter sites
  • Mediavine – for when my sites get more traffic

Other Monetization Tools

  • EasyWins.io – A large collection of easy wins to improve the earnings of your website.

Legal

  • Iubenda – Easily create legally-compliant privacy and terms & conditions pages.