There are a lot of great, low-cost resources

that you can use in your creative business.

...But how do you choose which ones to use?

This is a list of my favorites. At every opportunity, I use free or low-cost resources since I’m a
bootstrapper-type.

What do you think of this list? Do you have any resources that you feel should be on here? We all
love lists… and ones like this are by their very nature always evolving. So please drop me a line
here with your input.

This first section is for you time-crunched individuals who just want the essentials. OK, I’ll cut
to the chase... here are my top five favorite ones.

(P.S... If you use the links in this document or my website at mikeroy.co that are marked with an
asterisk (*), I do get a commission if you purchase with these links, but rest assured that I have
either used these things myself, or I know and trust the producer’s content. I value your trust as
well, and hope that you find this little guide helpful.)
 My Top Five Favorite Resources for Artists
and Designers

1. Bluehost
(Web hosting platorm, as low as 3.99 / month)

You need a self-hosted website for your creative business… at the very least, you need a secure
online place that you can point clients and potential employers. Think of this as your own secure
piece of online real estate for not just your gallery, but your entire business.

Join Bluehost Here*

2. Dropbox
(Cloud Based Storage Service...Free for Basic Storage Plan)

Dropbox syncs files to multiple places, including online, to your computer, and to your mobile
device. You get five free GB of storage when you sign on, and the service and apps are free. You
may choose to pay more for more storage down the road, but the free 5 GB are fine for starting
out. Use it right now to back up your most important documents safely and securely, if you aren’t
currently using a backup solution.

Download Dropbox FREE Here*

3. Evernote

(Note Taking App for Desktop and Mobile...Free)

Evernote is a fantastic, free note-taking app for your computer and mobile device. It’s really
shortchanging it to call it a ‘note taking app’… It’s very robust and has a lot of useful features that
can help you organize your entire business. I like to use it for blog posts, business planning, and
for storing ideas and snapshots.

Download Evernote FREE Here

4. Adobe Creative Cloud
(Online Software Subscription, free trial, as low as $20/month)

The “Creative Cloud” is worth every penny if you need to stay current on graphics and media
applications. If you freelance for agencies or companies, it’s an absolute must.

Look At Creative Cloud Plans Here

5. LG Wireless Bluetooth Headset

(Wireless Headphones, around $60 - $70 depending on the model)

Ah, the lone piece of hardware on this list. I love this thing. It allows me to listen to music, re-
cord audio notes, make and take calls with the press of a single button. Since it’s bluetooth it
connects to my laptop or my mobile device, giving me total freedom to move around the studio
and use both hands.

Check out the headset on Amazon.com (different models available)*

Now, on to the itemized list of great resources you can use.

These are organized by category, I tried to group them together in logical fashion.

creative Business Training

Mikeroy.co - (That’s me!)... Actionable advice from an experienced creative to help you be the
best creative person you can be. I offer a free membership, quality courses and customized
coaching just for you, the hypercreative leader.

Unconventional Guides (from Chris Guillebeau, the author of The Art of Nonconformity and
The $100 Startup)
Designed to Sell* – Turn your creativity into a career!
Become a Freelance Writer: Get Published and Get Paid*

Chris Wilson’s Art Launch Blueprint

CreativeLive – Free online classes

Self-Hosted, Do-It-Yourself Websites (Make one of these first!)

Bluehost*
Premium Website Wordpress Themes
Elegant Themes* (I personally use these)

Themeforest*

WooThemes

Premium Custom hosted platforms

Rainmaker (StudioPress Themes on a robust platform. It’s where I host mikeroy.co.)*

Hosted Portfolio Sites

Behance – part of Adobe’s Creative Cloud subscription

Carbonmade

Dribbble

Stock Footage and media

Envato Marketplaces:

GraphicRiver* – Stock Graphics, Vectors

AudioJungle* – Stock Music and Sound

3DOcean* – 3D Models, Scripts, Shaders, and Textures

PhotoDune* – Stock Photos

VideoHive* – Stock Video and Motion Graphics Footage

Shutterstock* (expensive, but a large easy-to-search selection, high quality)

BigstockPhoto

Flickr Creative Commons Search – Free to use images, be sure to look at the license. The au-
thor may want attribution, or non-commercial use.

Compfight – A really handy online tool for searching Flickr creative commons images.

Wikimedia Commons – Another free source of images online

art and design Training

Lynda.com – Lynda’s been around a long time, they have a wide range of courses on just about
any topic. Here are some links:

Get 7 days of free unlimited access to lynda.com*

Photoshop Tutorials on Lynda.com*

Illustrator Tutorials on Lynda.com*

 Graphic Design training on Lynda.com*

Business Training on Lynda.com*

Udemy – Great deals on a huge variety of self-made courses. If you would like to make a course,
this is the place to start.

Discover the best design courses on Udemy!*

Discover the best photography courses on Udemy!*

Discover Udemy’s top courses!*

Chris Oatley’s Magic Box Digital Painting Course

Digital Tutors – Lots of courses geared towards 3D, animation, and motion graphics

Tuts Plus – A wide range of websites for the digital content creator.

Internet Marketing for Smart People – free course from Copyblogger on blogging and content
creation.

Books and ebooks

(* All ebook links are affiliate links through Amazon.com)

Seth Godin:

Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us

The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?

The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

Stephen King:

On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft – (Even if you’re not a writer, how this master ap-
proaches his craft and his take on creativity is fascinating.)
Alyson Stanfield

I’d Rather Be In The Studio! The Artist’s No-Excuse Guide to Self-Promotion

Dan Miller:

48 Days to the Work You Love - find the career you’re passionate about

Steven Pressfield:

The War of Art

Turning Pro: Tap Your Inner Power and Create Your Life’s Work

Steven Covey:

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change (25th Anni-
versary Edition)

Elizabeth Hyde Stevens:

Make Art Make Money: Lessons from Jim Henson on Fueling Your Creative Career

Chris Guillebeau:

The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a
New Future

Brian Tracy:

Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time

Robert Kiyosaki:

Rich Dad Poor Dad: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and
Middle Class Do Not!

Michael Gerber:

The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It
Podcasts
48 Days to the Work You Love – Dan Miller (Careers)

The Fizzle Show – (Small Business)

Online Marketing Made Easy – Amy Porterfield (Marketing, particularly Facebook)

Art Marketing Action Tips – Alyson B. Stanfield (Art Marketing)

Creative Insurgents - Cory Huff and Melissa Dinwiddie (Art / Creative Career)

The Lede from Copyblogger (Blogging / Writing)

Internet Business Mastery (Freedom Business)

The Accidental Creative (Creativity)

The Smart Passive Income Podcast – Pat Flynn (Small Business)

The EntreLeadership Podcast – Dave Ramsey (Business, Leadership)

Useful Software and Apps

Apple Podcasts app – automatically download your favorite podcasts to your mobile device and
listen on the go.

Kindle app – automatically download your Kindle ebooks on your computer or mobile device

Evernote app – superb note-taking and idea capture tool for Computer and Mobile

Google Chrome – the fastest and bestest browser of the interwebs

Dropbox – Online sync and storage solution

Lastpass – The best password management solution… no more remembering and forgetting
passwords!

Skype – Make free phone calls over the internet

Graphic software
Photoshop (in Adobe Creative Cloud) – Image editing software

Illustrator (in Adobe Creative Cloud) – Vector graphics tool, great for layouts and logos

Cinema 4D – 3D animation software by Maxon, popular with motion designers

Gimp – Free multi-platform alternative to Photoshop

Inkscape – Free multi-platform vector alternative to Illustrator

Blender – Popular free 3D / animation software

crowdfunding

GoFundMe

Patreon

Kickstarter

self-publishing

Createspace

Lulu

SmashWords

Writing Software
Scrivener (An excellent writing program for Mac or PC that helps you organize, plan, outline,
and write your book.)
Video Software
VLC – Open source video player that will play just about any video you throw at it

Quicktime Pro – Extends the functionality of Quicktime to save and compress movies

Screenflow from Telestream- Excellent, robust, full-featured screen capture program for the
mac. (This is what I use to capture my courses).

Jing from TechSmith- A basic, widely used FREE screen cast tool.

Wistia.com (Online Video Hosting Platform) – Youtube is fine for free promotional videos, but
it you’re selling video you need a service like Wistia. You get a free account for up to three videos
with 5GB of bandwidth, enough to give it a try.
Premiere from Adobe (Part of Creative Cloud subscription.) Excellent video editing software.

After Effects from Adobe (Also creative cloud) Superb motion graphics and effects software for
video, lots of great plugins are available.

Audio Software
GarageBand (for Mac only) – free Audio editing and music creation tool for the Mac, also for
iPhone / iPad

Audacity – free basic Audio editing for Mac OSX and Windows

Audition from Adobe (part of Creative Cloud) – Very good audio editing software used by
many podcasters

Font Resources
DaFont – Great free fonts, good search functionality

FontSquirrel – More great free fonts

Google Fonts – Lots of open source web friendly fonts you can embed in your web pages or
download and use

Social Media Software

Hootsuite – Put all your social media in this online tool and schedule your postings (free for
basic version)

Buffer – Queue up a bunch of Social Media posts and automatically send them throughout the
day (free for basic version)

SocialPilot – Another newer social media tool I’ve used, I like it and it’s very inexpensive.

Promotional Materials
Vistaprint – Print on various forms of media… free basic business cards (you pay shipping)
Send Out Cards – Excellent premium card service, great for sending clients pictures of your
work and thank you notes.

Outsourcing
OnlineJobs.ph – Virtual Assistants based in the Philippines to help with your creative business!
I’ve personally used them to hire a few VA’s for graphic work it was a very positive experience.

Fiverr.com – I’ve used this site a lot, they have a great system of finding just the work you’re
looking for. I had an entire coloring book created by an artist from here.

Blogging / Internet Marketing

Copyblogger.com – Lots of great free training on internet marketing article writing, headlines,
and content creation.

Boostblogtraffic.com – John Morrows’s excellent blogging site, lots of great info

Michael Hyatt - Training on creating your content marketing platform

Mailchimp – Free email marketing tool for up to 2000 subscribers

Akismet – Free wordpress plugin for preventing spam comments on your blog

WordPress.com – Info about WordPress, the free cms most blogs are built on, they have free
plugin called Jetpack for your site.

Google analytics – Essential for finding out what traffic you’re getting to your website

Financial resources
Mint – Free online personal finance software, can link to your bank accounts and give you a
snapshot of your finances.

Quickbooks – Accounting software for business

Credit Karma – Free online tool to keep track of your credit score and gives recommendations
on improving it
 what did i miss?

Have any other great ideas for resources? Do you have any
feedback on the resources you found here?

Let me know at mike@mikeroy.co.

thanks for reading!

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