Hello everyone. I know you can find these by looking around the forum, and there's a treasure trove thread, but nothing that was strictly Tools, and free ones at that. So, here's some of the best tools that affiliate marketing newbies should use, and they're at no cost. I know a lot of us started on a tight budget too.
CMS, Websites, and E-Commerce Software
WordPress › Blog Tool and Publishing Platform - Wordpress. Blog software that's expanded into one powerful CMS. Easy to use, easy to edit and change, tons of free themes.
Joomla! - Joomla. Powerful CMS, very extendable, and some well-supported plugins (many moreso than Wordpress). A little more complex, and maybe not as many free themes available.
drupal.org | Community plumbing - Drupal. Another CMS option. Harder to use, but many people prefer it to the others. Not as many free templates and plugins available, but ripe for developers.
ecommerce shopping cart software by Zen Cart ecommerce solution - Zen-Cart. Free shopping cart software, based on OSCommerce. Lots of plugins, tons of free themes.
osCommerce, Open Source Online Shop E-Commerce Solutions - OSCommerce. Free shopping cart software. Again, lots of plugins and free themes. For many people, OSCommerce vs Zen Cart is like Wordpress vs Joomla. Lots of personal preference
Magento - Home - eCommerce Software for Growth - Magento. More up and coming free cart software, very "web 2.0". Not many free themes available yet, lots of good paid ones at TemplateMonster.
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Tracking
Prosper202 Self Hosted Apps - Prosper202. The standard for tracking clicks in affiliate marketing. Powerful tools, self hosted, and free.
ClickHeat | Clicks heatmap - Clickheat. Lets you see where people are clicking on your sites with heat maps. I use it on all of my LPs so I can improve CTRs.
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Keywords and Traffic
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal - Google Keyword Tool. Shows search volume, advertiser competition, and even suggests other keywords for you.
Compete | Compete - Compete. Free version lets you see a decent amount of site statistics.
Google Trends - Google Trends. Lets you see trends of what's being searched for.
Site Explorer - Yahoo! Site Explorer - Yahoo! Site Explorer. Check backlinks to your site.
Seo Book Keyword Suggestion Tool - SEOBook Keyword Suggestor. Just like it sounds, recommends keywords. Requires a free account.
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Other
Open Source | SugarCRM - Commercial Open Source CRM - SugarCRM Open Source edition. Free customer relations management software.
GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program - GIMP. Can't pay for Photoshop but need to do photo editing and basic graphics? Here you go.
OpenOffice.org - The Free and Open Productivity Suite - Open Office (or Google Docs) for spreadsheet software and light data analysis.
Offhand that's what I can think of. Have any more? Go ahead and post them, this was a spur of the moment thread to help people on a budget.
CMS, Websites, and E-Commerce Software
WordPress › Blog Tool and Publishing Platform - Wordpress. Blog software that's expanded into one powerful CMS. Easy to use, easy to edit and change, tons of free themes.
Joomla! - Joomla. Powerful CMS, very extendable, and some well-supported plugins (many moreso than Wordpress). A little more complex, and maybe not as many free themes available.
drupal.org | Community plumbing - Drupal. Another CMS option. Harder to use, but many people prefer it to the others. Not as many free templates and plugins available, but ripe for developers.
ecommerce shopping cart software by Zen Cart ecommerce solution - Zen-Cart. Free shopping cart software, based on OSCommerce. Lots of plugins, tons of free themes.
osCommerce, Open Source Online Shop E-Commerce Solutions - OSCommerce. Free shopping cart software. Again, lots of plugins and free themes. For many people, OSCommerce vs Zen Cart is like Wordpress vs Joomla. Lots of personal preference
Magento - Home - eCommerce Software for Growth - Magento. More up and coming free cart software, very "web 2.0". Not many free themes available yet, lots of good paid ones at TemplateMonster.
------------------------------------------
Tracking
Prosper202 Self Hosted Apps - Prosper202. The standard for tracking clicks in affiliate marketing. Powerful tools, self hosted, and free.
ClickHeat | Clicks heatmap - Clickheat. Lets you see where people are clicking on your sites with heat maps. I use it on all of my LPs so I can improve CTRs.
------------------------------------------
Keywords and Traffic
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal - Google Keyword Tool. Shows search volume, advertiser competition, and even suggests other keywords for you.
Compete | Compete - Compete. Free version lets you see a decent amount of site statistics.
Google Trends - Google Trends. Lets you see trends of what's being searched for.
Site Explorer - Yahoo! Site Explorer - Yahoo! Site Explorer. Check backlinks to your site.
Seo Book Keyword Suggestion Tool - SEOBook Keyword Suggestor. Just like it sounds, recommends keywords. Requires a free account.
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Other
Open Source | SugarCRM - Commercial Open Source CRM - SugarCRM Open Source edition. Free customer relations management software.
GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program - GIMP. Can't pay for Photoshop but need to do photo editing and basic graphics? Here you go.
OpenOffice.org - The Free and Open Productivity Suite - Open Office (or Google Docs) for spreadsheet software and light data analysis.
Offhand that's what I can think of. Have any more? Go ahead and post them, this was a spur of the moment thread to help people on a budget.
