I hear it from almost every client – you know blogging is important, but where do you find the time to write up the content? I’m not a copywriter, so I was super excited to find Blog Hands. Bonus points if you pass the content on to your VA for scheduling. The ultimate stress-free blog plan!

Why it’s awesome:

• Choose a length from 400 to 2,000 words
• Their writers are certified – you know the content will be good
• You get a project manager to learn your unique needs and audience
• You aren’t locked into one writer – whoever is most qualified will work on your project
• Each month you get the content you need with no effort!

Price: Varies, based on your needs

Acuity has been invaluable in my efforts to connect with clients, and I’ve seen my growth double since I introduced it.

How I use it:

• Share consultation call link in social posts
• Create social ads which link to my scheduler
• Create private (paid or free) webinars with exclusivity
• Sell one-time project packages (Through social posts!)
• Streamline connecting with clients

Free, with paid upgrades

AppSumo is my go-to choice for amazing tools at a discount. They often have lifetime deals for business where you pay one fee and have access to services that are usually subscription only.

Some amazing deals they’ve offered:

• 100 images at Deposit Photos for $49
• 3k Leadfuze leads
• Lifetime access to Webinar Ninja
• Lifetime access to StockUnlimited
• Lifetime access LawTrades contract library

Price: Varies, based on deals

Scheduling (finally) made simple. Recur Post allows me to schedule my own content and my clients’. Plus, it stores your library of content and recycles the posts. 

How I use it:

• Schedule social posts in advance on Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin
• Store and reuse your content so you never miss a day
• Schedule one-time-only content for promotions and holidays
• Auto-schedule content for best performance
• Create custom “libraries” of content to group similar types or long vs short posts

Free, with paid upgrades

Harvest is how I track my time in my business. It also allows me to generate invoices directly based on that time, which is amazing. Since I started using Harvest, I’ve noticed trends in both how I use my time and what tasks took longer than I thought. It’s also highly customizable (setting fiscal year start and interface color, for example)

How I use it:

• Track time for each project with each client
• Budget time on projects to ensure I’m not going over
• View reports with detail to look for areas of improvement
• Integrated with my browsers and project managers so tracking time is effortless
• Track expenses related to projects

Free, with paid upgrades

ViralWoot is an efficient way to schedule pins and find new influencers — or get found. I’ve been a user since nearly the beginning of their existence, and their growth continues to impress me. It’s my go-to for managing both my own Pinterest account, and my clients’!

How I use it:

• Upload and schedule new pins to drive traffic
• Easily and quickly find repins & pins to like
• Automatically find relevant boards and pinners to follow
• Easy to interpret analytics
• Promote pins, boards, and profiles

Free, with paid upgrades

If you’re looking for an alternative to YouTube, this is it. You can upload and share videos, but that’s just the beginning, and the branding is much less intrusive!

How I use it and features I love:

• Password protect videos right within Vimeo
• Fast, easy statistics (including most played vs most finished!)
• Sell access to your videos with Vimeo On Demand
• Video School with all of the tips and tricks you could ever want – free
• Paid upgrade gives you fully customizable site to personalize, and you can remove the Vimeo branding altogether!

Free, with paid upgrades

Udemy is for life-long learners. If there’s something you want to learn, odds are someone is teaching it on there. You can see reviews before you buy, most have guarantees, and there are often coupons.

How I use it:

• Learn about new trends in marketing, or tried-and-true methods
• Learn new computer languages/skills
• Learn new business methods and tips
• Keep up on design trends and learn new styles
• They even have workout programs!

Price: Varies by course

PicMonkey is an amazing free-to-low-cost option for creating fun, beautiful graphics. You don’t need to be tech savvy to make great images with this!

See my how-to post for this great resource!

Some of what you can do with it:

• Crop, resize, and all the essential color adjustments
• Basic touch ups
• Filters and effects
• Add overlays, textures, and frames
• Use your fonts or theirs

Price: Free, with paid upgrades

If you’re wondering what this has to do with social media, you might be in for a surprise. Say you publish a post on your blog. You can set MailChimp to automatically send it (in part or entirety) to your email list… and post that email to your social accounts at the same time! this can grow your mailing list and increase your blog traffic in one go.

How I use it:

• Automatically share blog posts and promotions to social media
• Connect with my subscribers on their social accounts, and send emails based on what platforms they’re on (paid upgrade)
• Add signup form to Facebook
• Reinforce social presence with social links in every email
• Integrate social proof within emails

Free, with paid upgrades

Layers is, hands down, my favorite WordPress theme. I use it almost exclusively for my web designs, and you know I love it when I use it for my own site! It’s very comparable to Divi, but more user friendly (in my opinion). 

How I use it:

• Create fast, flexible site layouts that are easily updated
• See changes in real time, exactly as visitors would see
• Mobile-ready, WooCommerce ready, and SEO friendly
• One of the most versatile themes available (replicate those fancy landing pages in minutes!)
• Easily customize with CSS, right from the front end

Free with paid upgrades & extensions (so worth it!)

Wishlist Member is an industry standard in membership sites, and there’s a good reason for that. While the setup isn’t intuitive for most (I offer that service here), it’s probably the most robust, flexible, powerful solution out there. For that reason, it’s my go-to option for folks wanting an all-in-one membership or education site.

How I use it:

• Create e-courses, both live and evergreen
• Release content at set intervals to paying members
• Protect paid content from viewing by non-members
• Free membership levels to build email lists and funnel into paid

Price: $197 for single site, $297 for multiple sites (with bonus resources)

Obviously, with what I do, security is important. If my computer gets compromised, it’s not just my information on the line. I’ve tried quite a few antivirus options, and this one has performed the best.

It’s anti-virus, you know how I use it, so here are features:

• Anti-virus and anti-malware
• Spam email protection
• Firewall to stop hackers
• Safely open questionable apps files in a “sandbox” to protect your system
• Browser cleanup
• One of the lowest impacts on your system in the industry

Price: Varies by product ($19.99-$69.99)

How many passwords do you have? On how many sites do you have an account with a password? If those two numbers are different, please start using a password manager, like LastPass, to create secure passwords. Yes, a different one for each site! Imagine what would happen if a spammer guessed the password for your social account, and started sending spam from your business?

How I use it:

• Create strong, secure passwords
• Audit existing passwords for strength
• Receive and share passwords securely
• Sync my passwords across all of my devices (paid feature)
• Keep my brain from exploding by only needing to remember ONE password

Free, with paid upgrades

This is the one tool I don’t think I could run my business without! While Trello is something of a digital whiteboard, it can do a million other things.

How I use it:

• Task/appointment reminders with due dates
• Lists of content to share, broken into categories
• Collaboration with clients and other VA’s
• Create content calendars
• Store links, graphics, and other resources I’ll use repeatedly

Have a look at my sample board here!

Free, with paid upgrades

Dropbox is, hands-down, my favorite way to store and share files. While GoogleDrive has some benefits, I love Dropbox’s ease of use and endless integrations.

How I use it:

• Share folders and files with clients
• Share downloadable files and images
• Comment on and request shared files
• Store form submission data in dedicated folders
• Automatically backup websites to dedicated folders

Free, with paid upgrades

I may save everything to Dropbox, but I assure you I also back up my machine to my external WD drive. The last computer I had died unexpectedly – the number of fonts I would have lost was huge, which would have meant a serious re-investment!

How I use it:

• Create daily backups of my laptop
• Safely store my personal files I don’t want weighing down my machine or DropBox
• Being able to use other computers for my work
• Restoring files I accidentally delete on my machine or DropBox
• Shared storage with hubby for his photography

Price: varies

IFTTT lets you connect your various social, devices, and other apps to create one smart network of tools that do the heavy lifting for you.

How I use it:

• Create Trello cards automatically (for recurring events, new shareable content, or appointments)
• Save new contact info from social to a spreadsheet
• Automatically share my Instagram posts to Pinterest (or any other social combo!)
• Backup social posts to spreadsheets for later reuse
• Get email alerts for hot leads based on social searches

Completely free!