Hey there!

Thanks for reading this eBook! I hope it will be a helpful

resource that will save you both time and money as you
choose the tools to create websites, optimize your work low,
and run your business.

There is literally millions of dollars worth of knowledge and

experience behind the curation of these tools. I’m obviously
not implying that using the same tools as me will provide you
with the same results. But, they certainly won’t get in your way
of your growth, and in many ways will assist you by allowing
you to focus less on the software, and more on the actual
project and goal.

If you’re reading this, it means you have watched the entirety

of my webinar, “How to Create Better Websites More
E iciently.” And by now you have learned that the secret to
creating better websites more e iciently is a combination of
the right process and the right tools. I hope you’re joining me
for the full course and program, so you can maximize how to
use these tools to create goal focused websites as e iciently
as possible (and make the most money possible too).

-Tim Stri ler

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General Web

Domains:
GoDaddy

GoDaddy is a fantastic domain registrar. Their control panel is

modern, and they have super fast DNS propagation which is
very helpful! I don’t recommend their other tools though.

Hosting:
WP Engine (get 20% o !)

I HIGHLY recommend WP Engine. I switched to WP Engine

from cheap crappy shared hosting after I got hacked twice.
I’ve been with WP Engine for over 7 years now. You pay a bit
more than the cheap hosting, but you get so much more in
return. From the speed, security, reliability, service, and more,
it’s worth every penny. I can’t recommend WP Engine enough.
And the link above gets you a big discount too!
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WordPress/Divi

Forms:
Gravity Forms

I’ve been using Gravity Forms for well over a decade now. It
was one of the irst “premium” WordPress plugins that I
invested in. Here’s the thing: you have at least one contact
form on EVERY website you build. So having an extremely
robust and dependable form solution that you can rely on is
not just helpful but a necessity as you grow your business.

Theme:
Divi (Elegant Themes)

Chances are you are already using (and loving) the Divi Theme
by Elegant Themes. If not, I HIGHLY recommend you grab the
membership. Divi is powerful enough for professionals, but
user-friendly enough for beginners. This means, it will grow
with you as your skills and experience increase. Divi will allow
you to build complex sites with a lot of highly customized
design and functionality. But you can also build awesome
simple sites too with almost no knowledge or experience.
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WordPress/Divi

LMS (Learning Management System):

LifterLMS

LifterLMS is an incredible plugin for creating e ective online

courses. Chances are you or a client will need to create a
website for an online course. LifterLMS is incredibly easy to
use and set up and it integrates nicely with Divi. The base
plugin is free, and you pay for the add-on extensions (just like
WooCommerce).

Cloud Storage for Layouts:

Divi Cloud

One of the methods for speeding up development time

(working more e iciently) is to have all of your pre-designed
layouts at your ingertips, right on the site you’re building. This
allows you to streamline development and not design from
scratch every time. Since Divi Cloud is made by Divi, it’s
integrated directly into Divi with no added plugins to install.
All you have to do is login to your account, and you instantly
have access to all of your saved layouts!
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WordPress/Divi

Popups:
Divi Overlays

If you were paying attention during my webinar, then you

watched as we uncovered the super simple strategy that is at
the core of many fast growing companies making billions. The
strategy is nothing more than driving tra ic to a website then
greeting the visitor with a popup and an email subscribe form.
This simple method of using popups to grow an email list (and
ultimately grow a business) is highly e ective and works in
ANY industry (assuming the product or service itself is actually
good of course). Divi Overlays is the original popup solution
for Divi and the irst EVER page builder powered popup
solution. It’s the most powerful and most popular popup
solution for Divi allowing you to create gorgeous popups.

Mega Menus:
Divi Mega Pro

Mega Menus are a super popular way to show more content to

the visitor in an elegant way. You can see gorgeous mega
menus across the internet including on websites from big
brands like Stripe, Bose, and so many more. The best way to
create mega menus is to use Divi Mega Pro, which will allow
you to use the page builder and all of Divi’s awesome design
tools and modules to craft the perfect mega menu. Plus, you
can have di erent mega menus for mobile too!
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 WordPress/Divi

Client Dashboard:
Divi Dashboard

There’s nothing worse than handing over a website to a client

and having WordPress branded “help content” all over the
backend Dashboard that isn’t even helpful for their speci ic
website. This is where Divi Dashboard comes in. It lets you
create a fully custom Dashboard using Divi, and it will display
that for your client or users instead. You can use this to create
customized help content, branded upsells for other services,
or anything else you can think of. Plus, you can create a global
dashboard and add it to all of your client sites. And when you
make changes, it updates to all of them automatically!

Modules:
Divi Modules Pro

One of the ways we recommend increasing the time a visitor

spends on the site, is to add in interactive elements. The best
way to add interactive elements is with Divi Modules Pro. You
can add lip boxes, hover boxes, carousels, content toggles,
image hotspots, and so much more. Increased time on site
means increased conversions!
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WordPress/Divi

Divi Customizations:
Divi Hacks

If you’re looking to take Divi further, then Divi Hacks is the

perfect tool for you. It adds 89 di erent customization ‘hacks’
that you can easily turn on and o with a toggle. You can
customize your mobile menus, add custom reveals, closable
elements, and so much more. Plus, the plugin contains admin
hacks that will make building with Divi more enjoyable.

Divi Layouts:
Divi Bricks

As mentioned previously (and on the webinar), designing from

scratch is NOT e icient and is only good for your ego. Instead,
start with pre-designed elements that you can customize. For
this, we recommend Divi Bricks. Divi Bricks includes dozens of
layouts for every part of your website (with more on the way).
Now you can build your website faster than ever. And, Divi
Bricks is fully Divi Cloud ready too!
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 WordPress/Divi

Speed Optimization:
WP Rocket

Every website you build needs to be properly optimized so it

can load as quickly as possible. This is crucial for not only user
experience, but also SEO. Google hates slow loading
websites. The best tool for optimizing your WordPress website
is WP Rocket (I’ve tried them all!). WP Rocket is not only
powerful but it’s super simple to use, and they have great
documentation integrated throughout. Plus, they are
constantly enhancing the product with new features to speed
up your website even more. Pair this with WP Engine hosting
(20% o ), and your website will be screaming fast!

Image Optimization:
Imagify

Images are the most important part of any website. But they’re
also the heaviest when it comes to page load. It’s extremely
important to optimize your images as much as possible. For
this, I recommend using Imagify. It’s made by WP Rocket, and
it integrates perfectly with it. It will not only compress your
images (with no quality degradation) but it will also resize
them for you and convert your images to the latest image
type: webp, for even more speed boosting bene its.
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 WordPress/Divi

Analytics:
Monster Insights

Every website needs analytics added to it so you can where

your tra ic is coming from and what is actually working. You
can add Google analytics without using a plugin, but the
plugin makes it so much easier. Plus, if you’re building an
eCommerce website or something that you need to track
conversions for, Monster Insights will do all the custom
conversion tracking parameters for you automatically!

SEO:
Yoast SEO

Just like analytics, every website needs an SEO plugin in order

properly add SEO title tags and meta descriptions. The most
reliable solution is Yoast. I’ve been using it for a decade
without issues. By no means does the SEO plugin you choose
determine whether you will actually rank. But, you do need an
SEO plugin, and it does pay to choose one that is tried and
true and works without issues or con licts.
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 Creative Apps

Adobe Apps:
Adobe Creative Cloud

I de initely think you can get away without paying for

professional design apps like Photoshop. However, Adobe
creative cloud is very cost e ective, and you get ALL the apps.
Not only does this get you the popular apps like Photoshop,
Illustrator, AdobeXD, etc. But it also gets you additional tools
like Adobe Sign, which is what I recommend for easily getting
contracts signed by clients.

Video:
Screen low

I’ve been using Screen low for years to create videos. It has
screen recording features, plus a super user friendly editing
interface. I tried using higher end editing tools, but the
complexity just wasn’t worth it. Screen low has everything you
need for creating simple videos. Whether you’re creating
tutorials or help videos, or promotional videos, it can handle it
all.
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 Creative Apps

Livestreaming:
eCamm Live

I use Ecamm Live to live stream to Facebook/YouTube. It’s

extremely powerful software that is also super easy to use. I
also use it when I want to create a simply video without having
to do any editing. They let you record without streaming
anywhere which is perfect for simple one-take videos.

Development/FTP:
Nova

For FTP and code editing, I recommend using Nova by Panic.

It’s a great tool for connecting to your server and making
changes to iles. I previously used Coda by Panic which was
excellent. They discontinued Coda and released Nova which is
di erent but still very very good. The FTP and code editing is
built together which makes things very easy for editing iles
on your server.

Local Development:
Local by Flywheel

Local is the best tool for building websites locally! Learn more
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Business Management Apps/Services

Communication:
Slack

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last decade,
you’ve probably heard of Slack. It’s the ultimate messaging
tool for teams. If you have any type of team, then Slack is a
gamechanger. I’ve been using it to communicate with my
team since the beginning, and we live in Slack.

Video Conferencing:
Zoom

Zoom is my tool of choice for video calling and webinars. They

have an extremely reliable product that is simple to use and
does the job. There’s nothing more to it than that.

Project Management:
Asana

Asana is what I use for project management. It’s perfect for

teams as well as solopreneurs. Even if you just need to keep
yourself on track with proper task management, it’s a great
tool. And when it comes to managing and collaborating with a
team, it’s second to none!
 Business Management Apps/Services

Notes:
Evernote

My brain lives in Evernote. I use to start every project, every

blog post, every new product, every new course, etc. It’s
where I start and plan everything I do professionally. They
have an amazing mobile app and desktop app, so continuing
where you left o is super seamless on whatever device you’re
using.

File Storage:
Dropbox

I store every single ile on my computer inside of Dropbox.

Dropbox has a great feature where anything inside of the
“Dropbox” folder on my computer will automatically sync with
the cloud. So I just save everything inside of that folder, which
means everything is backed up to the Cloud automatically,
and accessible from everywhere. It makes working on
di erent devices (including mobile) very seamless. And I
never have to worry about losing anything important if my
computer crashes.
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 Business Management Apps/Services

Email:
Gsuite

Google is the best when it comes to Email, hands down. The

email is reliable, and the app (Gmail) is incredibly powerful
and easy to use. I don’t recommend ever hosting your own
email or your client’s email. Instead I recommend hosting all
email with Google.

Email Client:
Shift App

Since I host all my email accounts on Google, I have A LOT of

di erent Gmail inboxes. This can be cumbersome when using
the browser app. Instead, I use a Gmail email client called
Shift. It allows you to sign into multiple Gmail/Gsuite accounts
at once, while keeping your browser clutter free. And, it’s
simply Gmail’s app within the Shift app. So you still get all of
the power and convenience of Gmail without having to learn a
new tool. It honestly is the best of both worlds: a bunch of
Gmail inboxes but without the clutter.
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Business Management Apps/Services

Invoices/Bookkeeping:
Quickbooks Online

Invoices and bookkeeping isn’t fun, but getting paid and

having money de initely is. Quickbooks Online is by far my
favorite invoicing and bookkeeping tool (I’ve tried a bunch of
them). What I love about it is everything is all in one place. It
will do invoicing, bookkeeping, inancial reports, time
tracking, payroll, etc. And it’s in the cloud so you can access
the data anywhere. Plus, you can give your CPA or tax
professional special access so they can easily get what they
need without bothering you. Lastly, getting your clients to pay
you via credit card or PayPal is incredibly e icient for
everyone. And Quickbooks invoicing makes it easy.

Contracts:
Adobe Sign

There’s nothing fun about contracts, but they are incredibly

important. But you don’t want to have to get the contract
signed in person when an e-signature is more than su icient
(if you can buy a house with e-signature then you can book a
web design client with it too). Adobe Sign is a great tool, and
it’s included with the Adobe Creative Cloud membership.
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