The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Update - Timothy Ferriss [78]
Both Weebly and WordPress.com host your site for you, so additional hosting setup isn’t required.
If you choose to use www.wordpress.org (not.com) for greater customizability, I suggest using a hosting service with one-click WordPress installation like www.bluehost.com. The Shopp plug-in (http://shopplugin.net/) or Market Theme plug-in (http://www.markettheme.com/) can then be used to add e-commerce capabilities. Shopify.com (discussed later) is another good all-in-one alternative.
Create Forms in Seconds for Testing Checkout with or Without Payment
Wufoo (www.wufoo.com)
Wufoo does not offer a full-featured shopping cart, but it provides the cleanest, easiest-to-use forms on the web. Create a checkout page that connects to PayPal and you can (1) link to this checkout page from your site on Weebly, WordPress.com, or elsewhere, or (2) drop the code into your own website and have it hosted there. Wufoo is appropriate for testing and selling single products, as people can’t add multiple items to a shopping cart or otherwise customize the order à la Amazon. For those additional options, which are often desirable after successful testing, you will want to use an “end-to-end site solutions” listed later in these resources.
Cost-Effective Trademark Filing and Company Formation (LLC, C-Corp, etc.)
Though I also have a C-Corporation (often used to issue common and preferred stock to investors), created through the second option below, LLCs and S-Corps are generally favored by small businesses. Consult your accountant to determine the best entity form.
LegalZoom (www.legalzoom.com)
Company formation, trademarks, and nearly all legal documents. I know one founder who used this service to incorporate his tech start-up, which is now worth more than $200 million.
Corporate Creations (www.corporatecreations.com)
Domestic and overseas company formation.
Services for Selling Downloadable Products (e-books, videos, audio, etc., in descending order of reader preference)
E-Junkie (www.e-junkie.com)
Lulu (www.lulu.com)
Lulu will also do print-on-demand and other forms of manufacture and fulfillment. Like Lightning Source (www.lightningsource.com), it offers distribution through Amazon, Barnes & Noble online, and other major outlets.
CreateSpace (www.createspace.com)
A subsidiary of Amazon.com that offers inventory-free, physical distribution of books, CD and DVDs on Demand, as well as video downloads through Amazon Video On Demand(tm).
Clickbank (www.clickbank.com)
Provides integrated access to affiliates willing to sell your product for a percentage of sales.
Introduction to Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising and Testing
Google Adwords (www.google.com/adwords)
Market Sizing and Keyword Suggestion Tools
Brainstorm additional PPC search terms and determine the number of people who are searching for them.
Google Adwords Keyword Tool (http://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal)
Enter the potential search terms to find search volume and alternative terms with more search traffic. Click on the “Approx Avg Search Volume” column to sort results from most to least searched.
SEOBook Keyword Tool, SEO for Firefox Extension (http://tools.seobook.com/)
Outstanding resource page with searches powered by Wordtracker (www.wordtracker.com).
Low-Cost Domain Registration
Domains in Seconds (www.domainsinseconds.com) I have registered more than 100 domains through this service.
Joker (www.joker.com)
GoDaddy (www.godaddy.com)
Inexpensive but Dependable Hosting Services
Shared hosting solutions, where your site is hosted alongside other sites on a single server, are so cheap that I recommend using two providers, one as a primary and one as a backup. Put your site pages on each host and sign up with www.no-ip.com, which can redirect traffic (DNS) to the backup in five minutes instead of the usual 24 to 48 hours.
1and1 (www.1and1.com)
BlueHost (www.bluehost.com)
RackSpace