Tried and tested resources for business experts and novices to kick-start your hustle
These tried, tested and true resources include a wide range of self-service and automation tools that can help you map out your digital footprint on the internet. Run your online business, without the need to ever touch a line of code.
“You'll never know what you're capable of if you never take the first step and try.” — Ikish Mullens
Our original, unique, and exclusive research, gives comprehensive information on simple resources and tools packed with powerful features to help you succeed. We have used the tools, resources, and software in this article with our clients and/or as a business at the ecosystem of ThExtraordinariOnly.
Recommended: For a successful marketing strategy, start building your email list from scratch. Use this super simple how-to guide to turbocharge your email subscribers’ creative genius. Seize it now!
Thesaurus Definition of ‘Tried’
Just to be clear on what we mean by tried and tested resources or tools at ThExtraordinariOnly, the following is the definition that binds us:
Adj.
1. tried – tested and proved useful or correct; “a tested method”
tested, well-tried
proved, proven – established beyond doubt
2. tried – tested and proved to be reliable
time-tested tried and true, tested
dependable, reliable – worthy of reliance or trust; “a reliable source of information”
But first, what values matter to you most as you carry out a personal or professional audit to be an excellent version of yourself?
Now that we have that out of the way, what types of resources and tools have we tested and tried?
Let us find out!
Types of Tested and Tried Resources that Increase Productivity
Most resources sprawling all over the internet marketing space are either free, 1-day trial, 7- day trial, 1d- day trial, 30-day trial, 60-day trial, or paid.
Thus, the list you find herein includes resources and tools that save money, save time, and increase revenue with a bias for startup and small business, though large established businesses and conglomerates benefit also.
Quick question(s)?
- Aren’t most businesses not domiciled at a Gmail email address?
- Which business is not on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook, and probably LinkedIn?
Regardless of your niche, audience, focus, and goals, these resources and tools give you the insight you need to improve your digital map and competitive strategy.
We cover growth hacking, strategic management, social media engagement, writerpreneurship, fintech, personal growth, and development, among others.
FTC Disclosure: This blog post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase something that has an affiliate link, we will get a commission from it at no additional cost to you at all. Not all items recommended on our website are affiliate links. We have tested, tried, and used what is recommended here on anywhere else on our blog posts. Read our disclosure.
How to Receive an Updated List of Tried Tested True Resources plus Tools
Developing a valuable list like this one is time-consuming. We endeavor to update the list as often as possible.
Be sure to subscribe to our email notification so that you do not miss out on any updates.
At your email address, you will receive a verification message once you submit the form on the pop-up.
How is a Resource or Tool Declared Tested and Tried at ThExtraordinariOnly?
- A product owner of a tool or creator of a resource reaches out to us to test and try it
- We research time-saving resources and tools then try and test them at ThExtraordinariOnly
- In our group coaching, one-on-one consulting, social media audits, and ghost-writing services and adventures, we discover a resource and tool that can benefit our clientele. We try it, test it, then recommend it.
- A client proposes a resource or a tool – we check it out, try, test, and give feedback.
- When offered free access in exchange for a review or collaboration, sponsorship and ad requests – and if we see that there are in line with our terms and services, they join the list.
For any affiliate related resource or tool, preference is for those that are +12 months in operation . The only exception is tried and tested resources recommended by a close-knit VIP network of disruptive leading brands, startups, and small businesses that we are members of.
Ever testing
It is our desire at ThExtraordinariOnly to keep researching tools and resources that help a startup or small business to increase in revenue while keeping costs at a bare minimum.
We have tried and tested some of the automation resources and tools at ThExtraordinariOnly and others on our clientele’s platforms.
Some are affiliate links but we have included 100% free (no “freemiums,” no free trials, no BS tools) tools that help your small business and startup achieve an internet liftoff.
You unlock more functionality and features when you upgrade. Click on the plan that suits your needs today.
Choose and discover your own favorites from the different options of these resources.
If you are a novice, kick start your digital mapping on the internet with these proven, tried, and tested resources that startup and small business experts like successful content marketing strategists have found reliable.
Do you want to achieve success, regardless of your industry? Then you cannot afford to miss out on these resources and tools.
Tools and Resources for Tear-Jerking Results from Your Digital Marketing Strategy
A sound digital marketing plan and strategy is imperative from the day you start your business.
It leverages the power of social media, uses search engine optimization to drive traffic, and makes good use of the media marketing advancements that are out there.
Are you looking for a competitive edge and strategies to ensure your hustle, startup, and small business is not among the 80% of businesses that fail within the first 18 months?
The No.1 Resource
You can not afford to ignore the internet.
Stand out from the crowd using these tools and resources to push your business forward, save time, and work in a more efficient manner.
Subsequently, boost sales, revenue, and profit in the days, weeks, and months ahead and generate more income.
You do not have to look far to find what you need to succeed.
Some tools may be familiar, others may be new to you. Compare your options and settle on the best tools that work for your business.
Make a final decision on which ones can help you reach your goals. Incorporate them in your solid and water-tight business plan.
If you give people tools, and they use their natural abilities and their curiosity, they will develop things in ways that will surprise you very much beyond what you might have expected.
– Bill Gates
Favorite list of free and paid tools to succeed in your internet business today
Google Search Console
Does your business own a website? We recently made an extraordinary discovery that could save you dollars when you make this downplayed tool, ‘Google Search Console’ – formally Webmaster Tools – your best friend.
There are other tools sold all over the internet that do what Google Search Console does, but in this short description of our favorite tried and tested resources, we will show you why you are better off using this business tool over the others.
Apart from the obvious overview and performance of your website, its vital to check how each of your url (what Google Search Console calls ‘property’) independently. Your audience makes an initial contact with your website either by searching a naked url on Google or starting with https-, http-, https://www.-, http://www.-, etc.
For example, the following is our naked url, i.e,, thextraordinarionly.com. From the content on the ‘PAGES’ tab below, this url shows our content that we own as displayed on online by Google.
But on doing further checks, because we had been told our website was compromised, we decided to check all other properties (urls) and unearthed a very shocking revelation.
Save money when you use Google Search Console
Do a Google search online right now using ‘https://www.thextraordinariony.com.’ Do you notice it redirects to ‘https://thextraordinarionly.com/’ and thus displays our content on the internet?
But on Google Search Console, someone else is using this url, because the content revealed from the ‘PAGE’ below does not belong to us. So far, we have been told, ‘It is recommended to confirm the stats from Google are accurate.’
So, Google Search Console is a tool that can, not only, help you fix crawl errors, find broken links, but also, save you tons of money, because it shows your website data in real time from all your related urls.
Start by selecting property type and tell us what you discover. Thus, this is a tool that we have fallen in love with.
Discover new ideas to try from a constant source of inspiration on Pinterest. Design your life and business from this visual discovery engine.
Save what inspires you and shop to make them yours. Share what you love. Explore billions of recommended or trending images.
Get travel inspiration or read new recipes and creative food ideas for your next dinner party. Get you next home decor idea, next look outfit, green thumb idea too from Pinterest.
Calendly
Calendly is a business tool that improves your customer experience. If you have +2,000,000 meetings, use Calendly to streamline things. It simplifies the scheduling of meetings, both professionally and efficiently.
Eliminate the hassle of replying to emails back-and-forth so that you can save time and get back to doing the work that gives better ROIs.
Create your free account. No credit card required.
Calibre
“Calibre” is an ebook management system that you can use to build your own ebook library. It is a free open source program available for Mac, Windows PC, and Linux.
In case of the remote possibility that Kindle is wiped clean due to an unspecified violation of Amazon’s terms and service, Calibre is very good insurance because you can build your own ebook library, save, and have a backup.
Easily convert and read an epub file on any device with the tools the program offers. You can also work with and convert many different ebook file types.
Readers and writers, this is a must-have reliable epub to Kindle Mobi converter all your ebooks, including any non-Amazon ebooks you want to read on your Kindle. Use this tool to convert, edit, save, backup, and protect all your ebook files.
Be on the lookout for a quick tutorial on how to use Calibre!
MixMax
Mixmax prides itself as the #1 Sales Engagement Platform for Gmail.
Do you want to supercharge your email productivity? Track emails, engage with customers, set up meetings in an instant, save time with email templates, schedule emails to be sent later, conduct surveys all in one unified platform
You can choose to get started for free or request a demo and see if everything you do today on the web will not be possible in any email.
Hemingway App
“Hemmingway App” highlights and corrects grammar, fluency, and sentence structure in order to help your writing to read and look better. Are you new to the world of writing software? You may not be aware of what’s available for you.
Make your writing bold and clear with this tool that uses proprietary algorithms to suggest corrections for simpler, clearer writing. It’s like having the master at your side while you write.
Named after the literature prodigy, Ernest Hemingway, the free or paid versions of the Hemingway App is not a grammar checker. It is a simple writing style checker. The focus is on only very elementary elements in the writing process. That is:
- Long sentences
- Adverbs
- The passive voice
The only article writing tool that has stood the test of time
Hemingway judges the “grade level” of your text using the Automated Readability Index. With this app by your side, you easily see how “readable” your articles are and adjust them as needed. The user interface is extremely simple and easy to use.
The Hemingway Editor is that it so clearly highlights the potential improvements you can make to your writing. It provides you with a lot of useful information, and you can use the Hemingway app as a simple distraction-free word processor.
When writing a book or using the tool frequently, you might want to purchase the desktop app, available for Mac and Windows. The app allows you to import your writing to Hemingway, perform edits, and then export to text, PDF, or Word.
Loom
Employees today prefer hybrid work places. Because of the increased remote work vs in-person work, it is impossible to personally connect with people without having to do different one-on-one calls. This is where Loom comes in.
When calendars won’t line up, Loom has a cool way to send quick videos. Your coworkers can view your Loom videos. You need not create the time to type a wall of text, huh.
Get Loom for free.
Mouseflow
If you want to know how your customers interact with your website or see how they react when you modify something on a common page like the homepage, Mouseflow is your go-to analytical tool. It is a faster, cheaper, and much easier customer experience tool for multiple analytical cases.
It offers standard session recordings, heat maps, form analytics, and surveys to collect information from visitors’ pain points, what frustrates them, increase conversion rates on certain pages, and quantify your online engagement Learn how visitors navigate on your site and how information reaches your target audience. See where your website visitors’ dropout, hesitate and convert.
The most common use cases including tracking a check-out process, sign-ups, or similar. I love the funnel data that is updated in real-time. Oh boy, you learn about your users in a very short time. There is no need to wait before a report is ready.
See the flexible plans and choose that which meets your needs. Mouseflow also has several plugins and integrations,
To start, just add a small snippet of JavaScript before the closing body tag on your website.
You may want to set the “autoStart” configuration to false if you for some reason don’t want Mouseflow to start recording immediately a user enters a page on the website. You can always revert back to the mouseflow.start() call as need be.
ClickUp
To manage your projects in one place, the ClickUp app has 1,000+ integrations and you no longer have to use separate apps.
ClickUp is more than a task management tool because it is a customizable productivity platform for all users in all departments of an organization.
Get started today with a free forever option and upgrade to unlock all features.
Success Center
Social media is quickly becoming one of the most important aspects of digital marketing. It provides incredible benefits that help reach millions of customers worldwide.
Your small business needs to be on social media. If you aren’t, you’re missing out on cheap and effective marketing tools.
Did you know that your first goal of B2B social media marketing needs to be branding, not leads? While your inner-marketer might be telling you social media is all about selling products, that’s far from reality. Most people are on social media to be entertained and kill some time. Your social media content needs to appeal to that.
That is where the Success Center comes into play.
Social media marketing is top-of-mind for most every marketing department. What about content marketing? This is a (relatively) new term, and a new practice for many.
Content marketing system that never sleeps
At the Success Center, both social media marketing and content marketing are interrelated as part of marketing’s ongoing evolution. They are not isolated options.
Join today and build your brand, business, or community as we have. Start using this content marketing system, to build social relationships and brand influence. I love how their listing is promoted in social engines and social media.
The premium membership allows you to post classified ads like real estate or job listings. You can also add videos from YouTube feed or Vimeo, add audio files and products with your Paypal buy button.
When you create your SuccessCENTER with a business profile, and link to your website or blog, your articles, press releases, and events appear in search results – FREE.
HoneyBook
Why do thousands of small business owners choose HoneyBook to help manage their business? HoneyBook makes the most tedious part of your work easy by mapping out your business processes and optimizing them.
Your clients love it when they get fast turn around times. Get faster and better bookings when you start your free trial.
Group Tweet
Do you want to maintain full control of your Twitter account but still let others help you Tweet?
Group Tweet allows anyone to help send regular Tweets from your Twitter account via the GroupTweet dashboard upon signing up with your Twitter account and approving it to use the service.
According to Convince and Convert social media research study, 42 percent of consumers expect a 60-minute response time on social media, even over the weekends
The Social Habit found out 32 percent of social media users expect a brand to respond to them within 30 minutes and 42 percent expect them to respond within 60 minutes.
How do you respond quickly and naturally to customers, as you would in person or over the phone? Retweet, like, and follow
Doesn’t it feel good when people take a moment to retweet and like your tweets or follow you on Twitter?
How do you then return the favor and keep your followers happy?
To automatically retweet a specific Twitter user or list of Twitter users when they send a Tweet containing any of your defined hashtags, keywords, phrases, or emoji just set the trigger using the GroupTweet platform.
Unlock unlimited accounts with an upgrade
It is time-saving to at times have the help of an auto-retweet of any Twitter user your account is FOLLOWING when they send a Tweet containing any of your defined hashtags, keywords, phrases, or emoji triggers.
Imagine this.
You send your loyal fans – who you choose as contributors – your dashboard’s URL and they can log in with their own email or their personal Twitter accounts. These contributors help reply to your incoming mentions or even help you by following other Twitter users from your Twitter account.
You can also set up the auto Retweet functionality through settings or by clicking the “Add Retweet Accounts” button within the Group Tweet Dashboard.
Upgrade today to enjoy unlimited accounts to retweet, unlimited retweets per month, unlimited retweet triggers, promotional tweets, and support for your account.
UNICEF, TEDX, ESPN, Stanford Univesity, and Boston Police are currently enjoying this versatile tool.
What I love about GroupTweet is the customized plans to suit your needs. There is a plan to activate multiple accounts with GroupTweet. If you need a custom priced plan, just ask for it.
GroupTweet offers educational discounts for schools & teachers.
Intellifluence
There are times that when as a business you want to seize the moment and create a proper buzz of your products or services via an active campaign.
Are you a brand looking get:
- ✍ Social Share: Get creators to amplify an existing social media post (Retweet, share, etc.)
- High Social Engagement: Get talent to engage with an existing social media post of yours (Comment, like, etc.)✍
- ✍ Social: Target a unique review of your product or service from influencers
- Blog Reviews: Perfect for quality reviews from our bloggers ✍
- ✍ Video: Target an in-depth video review from vloggers, YouTube personalities, etc.
- Marketplace: Get reviewed in marketplaces such as Amazon, iOS, Google Play, etc.✍
- ✍ Custom Campaign: Select this option if your campaign goal doesn’t fit neatly into the options above.
Over 100k influencers are only one click away from your active campaign.
Apply the coupon code friend for a 50% off for the first month while the offer still lasts.
Best of the tried and tested resources for ingenious influencers
Do you long to get paid for your online influence as a thought leader even if you are an introvert or only have 1 follower on a social media platform?
Are you a blogger looking for brands to collaborate with you?
Register as an influencer today and set up a strong profile.
Yout
Social media Trends for 2020 affirm the creation of viral content from memes, GIFs, and short videos sky-rocketed analytics by huge margins when compared to text.
Zenith’s Online Video Forecasts 2018 predicts that worldwide online video consumption is estimated to grow 9 minutes/day by the year 202
Each content creator is searching for and testing video content tactics and trends that are generating real results for branding like champions.
1. Marketing is Storytelling
Yout, created by Jonathan Nader, offers you the opportunity to tell stories with humor. It has a sleek layout and a clean design of a minimal site.
For example, to create a meme, click on the three lines at the extreme top right and select ‘Meme.’
You have the option to choose from the template or upload your own image.
Scroll down the Yout dashboard to edit your top text and bottom text. you can adjust the text size with the adjacent slide bars.
Once done, click generate at the bottom to save your .png image to your favorite folder, ready for upload on your blog (like we have done below) or social media pages.
How easy was that?
2. How to Record Videos Using Yout
What do you use to record YouTube videos to mp3 (audio), mp4 (video) or gif (image)?
Yout helps you make personal recordings of publicly available media for later use.
Want to start recording videos in mp3 or mp4 formats using Yout.com?
It is very simple to use this internet’s DVR (Digital Video Recorder)
There is a clear step by step guideline from the following interface, depending on the site from which you want to record the video. The disclaimer right on the ‘About Us’ page.
Yout.com boasts to accept different websites. All you have to do is choose the website you want to record from even if it’s Youtube mp3, Youtube music, Youtube mp4, Soundcloud, Vimeo, Twitch, Twitter, VK, YT, Instagram, SoundCloud or Facebook link.
‘If the website is not on our list we may be working to add it’ as per a statement on their website.
3. Yout Pro
An upgrade to Yout Pro for a day pass, monthly, annual, or a lifetime allows you to;
- Make GIFs for free
- Cut out parts of videos and audios that you do not want to share
- Have a timeline to post things you like
See the store for the beautiful Youtilising and Yout stickers that you can stick anywhere. The Yout and Cojudo hats will always remind you how cool your content creation is.
Samcart
Your audience is now online. How do you execute your marketing strategy? SamCart is a direct to customer easy way to sell online with checkout pages proven and tested for sales and conversions.
Looking for instant conversions, easy subscriptions and recurring membership? SamCart is a web-based checkout software that allows you to create professional shopping cart pages. Their 1-page funnels boasts very high conversion rates because they are effective.
Integrate with other apps and service providers like MailChimp, PayPal, and WordPress. Enjoy the conversion-optimized checkout templates along with one-click upsell, order bump, subscription, and payment plans when you try the 1-page simple sales funnel, FREE.
OneSignal
OneSignal is a leading push notification service used by companies like Uber, Adobe, Conde Nast, Skyscanner. Are you planning to send both web and mobile push notifications through mobile apps?
OneSignal is the ideas solution even for in-app notifications, as well as email notifications. It creates a direct line of communication to the user which could prove to be invaluable for stronger retention rates.
There is a free version plus paid support options if you need more support. The data your notifications provide to OneSignal, like Google or Facebook, are the reason it’s free to use.
We love OneSignal because it even engaged non-subscribed users and won’t send ads to your audience.
Combin
Do you know how to make a living off Instagram as a successful affiliate marketer? Combin is the tried and tested resource to turn Instagram into an effective and efficient lit lead generation machine for your business.
Use the link below for a how-to guide on using Combin to grow and manage your Instagram account.
Further reading: How Very Short Half-Life Span of Post on Twitter Platform Dictates Unique Ideas to Tweet Same Content W/O Being Spammy
Try it now and see how you’ll attract your loyal target audience easily.
What Are The Benefits of Using These Tried and Tested Resources?
Now it’s time to use these “freemiums.”
No free trial signups are required.
These are ‘no restricted-use tools’ (at times completely free of charge) to help your startup, small business, or hustle:
- Find the way to success
- Drive traffic to your site
- Get extreme engagement and massive social media exposure
- Realize your targets
- Increase your revenue
Bootstrapping tried and tested resources for startups
Many small businesses and startups begin with an idea but lack deep financial resources. The reluctance to spend money on anything that isn’t absolutely necessary is a common trend. The resolve is to accomplish a task for free.
Sounds like your approach?
Did you know that Google now restricts access to their Keyword Planner, which used to be the go-to choice for bootstrapped site owners? It is only accessible to users running AdWords campaigns.
True, it is technically free to use, but not available to budget-conscious marketers who aren’t ready or willing to invest in an ad campaign on the platform.
Standing out in the deluge is harder than ever. Even for established publishers it’s tough. For beginners … it’s a nightmare.
This article is published as an Evergreen content on the tried and tested resources to help startups and small businesses realize their goals. We update this list regularly to reflect changing trends and technology to benefit you.
Thanks for reading!
Recommend other must-have tried tested resources for startup and small business
I’m probably leaving out some tools and resources that help startups or small businesses, their owners, founders, entrepreneurs, and CEOs regardless of niche, audience, focus, and goals.
- Do you have others that you can provide that also aid you in better social media engagement with your loyal fan base and community? Contribute by adding a comment using the comments section below. I will respond straight back to you.
- Did you find this article valuable and you want to show your appreciation? Spread the word on what we call our tried and tested resources to grow businesses with these ready-made tweets!
If you give people tools, and they use their natural abilities and their curiosity, they will develop things in ways that will surprise you very much beyond what you might have expected. Bill Gates http://bit.ly/39KRAVH… Click To Tweet
Tried and tested resources: Self-service and automation tools that help you run your online business, without the need to ever touch a line of code. http://bit.ly/39KRAVH #thextraordinarionly #toolsandresources Click To Tweet
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