Hey attorney hackers welcome to this Week’s podcast episode in this week’s Episode mark and i are going to be Sharing 10 of our favorite tools of 2021 How we use them and how you can take Advantage of them one thing we’re going To be talking a lot about also is how to Manage your subscriptions for the tools So that you don’t spend too much money Hey don’t end up stacking too many Subscriptions which is really quite Annoying when you’re buying im tools Because you end up stacking a lot of Them so if you’re excited to discover New tools and discover how you can get More bang for your buck buying tools i Suggest you get comfortable and enjoy This episode let’s get started [Music] Hey everyone welcome back to the atari Hacker podcast today i am back with mark We are going to be doing an episode on Our favorite tools of 2021 because there Has been a bunch of new interesting Tools and i know you guys love tools i Wanted to go over them and what makes Them good what makes them bad maybe what They replaced in our tool stack as well Because i think that obviously is going To be retiring some other tools and just Overall how we feel about them but Before we go on and talk about Interesting tools we’re going to talk About something even more interesting
And that’s how mark is doing because i Know you had an exciting week mark what Happened I was just about to say i have nothing Exciting to share I’ve literally not been doing very much I was i was down in oxford but it was Nothing interesting just taking my wife There for some Um course she was doing but uh yeah your Wife disagrees uh but anyway okay well Then let’s just jump on to the tools Sorry guys i really tried to make it Exciting but mark Wasn’t very into it i just don’t have That interesting of a life i’m sorry Yeah i think people people fantasize our Lives quite quite often when i talk to People they imagine that it’s like amazing and stuff It’s like i think i think the most Exciting thing we’re doing is like this Podcast right now you know otherwise It’s just didn’t you Didn’t you start playing golf or Something No i haven’t played golf because i uh i Twisted my ankle last week so i couldn’t Go for like that now that’s interesting I want to hear about that Well i always had really bad ankle Support uh and i’ve always been a very Flexible person like when i was a kid i Was a gymnastics i could do a full split
You know like literally like i was like I could just completely really flex my Arms behind my back etc like crazy stuff And so like that has translated into Poor ankle support in my adult life and That means that when i go hiking after a Few hours usually my ankles get tired And lose people and i twist in my ankle Unfortunately so my week also hasn’t Been very interesting because most of it Was just spent at home letting the ankle Heal But i guess the more interesting times i Was a flexible kid when i was a kid so Here you go here’s the thing You should start a podcast with me Asking you how it’s going and says It’s just like it’s just You can’t you can’t think of a way to Tie something interesting to your life It’s like i’m sure you could do it but I’ll teach you one day but anyway you Know what you could do probably is you Could probably use the first tool we’re Going to mention in the list to come up With a better idea of what you could say When i ask you how it’s going because it Actually has a creative story mode in There what is that toolmark that tool is Jarvis.ai Which they’ve actually renamed Themselves recently uh up until a couple Months ago they were called Conversion.ai
Now they are a very interesting tool I’ve actually done a separate youtube Video which will be coming out um It’s been going on for so long that They’ve gone through a full rebrand and Changed their name so i had to refilm The video But there we go that that will be out Soon if it’s not already on the Authority hacker youtube channel make Sure you subscribe uh to see that uh Anyway this is an ai content generator Tool now Back when we first started doing seo in Sort of 2009-2010 a big part of what we did back Then was article spinning Uh if anyone remembers from from back in The day you would take an article Usually someone else’s and then you Would um change using a tool Would generate like different Permutations of various words instead of Up You may have the word above or something Like that instead so it would it would This tool would do that for every single Word every single phrase in there and You would end up with thousands or Millions of permutations of of different Combinations of things And it would be terrible like illegible Horrible stuff but that was impo it Didn’t matter that was what uh the basis
For a lot of link building tools like The automated stuff back in 2010 was Like Uh so when jarvis came along And this is based on the Gpt3 algorithm you’ve probably heard About that over the last year or so very Interesting kind of natural language Content generation Algorithm that’s been developed and Jarvis and there’s other tools out there That use that Um to facilitate kind of like content Creation But the idea is that you can input Something and it really can be like just A small phrase or something to get going To get the tool going and then it will Understand what’s in there and then from What i understand it looks on google Looks on Other articles ranking for these these Kind of terms and what else it can find Online related to The inputs you’ve given it and then it Will actually construct something Unique um so it’s not just spinning Stuff it will actually write something And it’s it’s very legible When we did the test uh which which will Be on the youtube video as well You found it i believe quite difficult To tell what was human and what was it Well the video was basically we picked
Three topics three keywords and one was A review one was a technical topic and One was like a general article something Like this and it’s like we ordered the Same article from a text broker uh like The cheapest text broker And And then uh on the other side you did One quickly with this tool basically and It’s like my goal was try to find which One is ai and we’re saying which one i Like the best which sometimes was the Same thing by the way i believe um but Overall yeah it’s like i thought it Would be easier to figure it out so the Way i was trying to like spot the ai was Trying to see how much reference there Is too much earlier content in the Content because i don’t believe ai will Like re-read its content and be like as I said earlier etc i think it’s more Going to be like sequential per Paragraph and so that was kind of my way To try and spot it but actually overall One thing that i found is interesting Especially i believe that i liked the Intros the most from the ai much better Than writers inside like a big debate we Have internally on some of the sites We’re working on is like we find most of Our writers really intros and it’s Very difficult to make them write Introductions that are not terrible Whereas ai does follow usually this kind
Of pattern was like they asked a Question like are you looking to do this And it’s like then they kind of like Roll it out it flows quite nicely and Overall i find like i’m pretty sure i Could replace replace introductions at Least On many articles that on our sites with The ai ones and i think the ai will be Better so overall Quite impressed that that kind of brings Me into like more about how we’ve been Using the tool and what we’ve been what We’ve been doing with it because While it does have a mode where you can Write a full article Uh with it we’re not quite i mean we’re Still quite some way away from inputting A keyword and getting out a human Quality Uh article without any kind of Intervention or or any further work so It works better in smaller cases where You just want to write the intro or you Want to Um answer a specific question or it can Do like blog post outlines uh it can do Bios if you ever need that for your Linkedin or tinder or whatever um and it Can do like social media headlines uh Email Subject lines uh ads is very good for For doing stuff like that i use it for That i use it for ads
Like for yeah subject lines on emails But i think what i’ve heard about Creating loan content is that people Don’t use it to come up with content From scratch they use the rewrite module To basically spin off people’s articles So they just go online they find an Article for the topic and they just Essentially like there is a rewrite Option like kind of like reward it type Option and they just take articles that Are already written by humans and now Well structured et cetera and they’ll Take the section and just tell it to be Right and it’s basically a spinner that That spins content that Uh You know that you can rank with and i Think I think it is interesting if you like if Your ethical sense is uh questionable There is a lot of opportunities in terms Of seo uh in terms of like Phishing for seeing like what you could Rank and then eventually maybe you write It properly et cetera but like just be Like okay let’s try to rewrite the Completed article see where i land do i Have a shot at this keyword or not based On what google does with this uh i think It’s it’s interesting to like test the Ground etcetera so i think Where this fits in is It’s not going to
Beat a human writer for writing for you Know a high difficulty Keyword which has like a lot of Competition and people are really trying To make good articles it’s nowhere near That but there are a lot of keywords out There that have little or even no Human writers competing against i’m Talking about the stuff that you know Has zero volume in all the search tools So you may actually only get like five Five people searching for a month or Something Um if the cost of producing an article Is zero or almost zero and you can scale That production through Automating the rewrites and You know automating the publishing as Well Then you can potentially put output Hundreds of thousands of articles for Free Uh with zero marginal cost and then you Can just target every single keyword That you could ever come across Um and then uh there is one website uh Boardgametips.com has actually done they Produced 500 000 articles they’re dr3 And they have in over the course of the Last two months gotten one million Uh monthly visitors according to ahrefs So it’s probably even more than that how Do you know these sites what did you Someone posted this in the authority
Hacker pro facebook group and said it Was they knew someone who said it was Dumb done by a ai i think Did you verify that Uh no but uh so there’s no way to know If it’s done by ai or not unless the Person I look through the content and yeah i Would be very surprised if this was Written by humans let’s put it that way All right i might look into this for Like uh an upcoming newsletter or Something like i tend to do this kind of Like by the way if you’re not a Newsletter i’ll do these kind of like Investors investigative newsletter that Have been quite popular so if you’re not An email list go on toyhaka.com sign up On the homepage you will get to the free Training world then you join the Newsletter so I believe you can also go to Authorityhacker.com subscribe as well to Get on there really um Some good content uh coming out every Week from gail and you will be able to See in action sometimes uh email subject Lines written by jarvis Yeah actually yeah i’ll test some of Them sometimes yeah so we run a b tests On the headline right we run like we Test like last week i tested three Birthdays between two and five Usually per email and then we see it’s
And you know what it’s always the Trashiest headline that wins by the way It’s always like it’s like It’s like something and some people Don’t reply like oh your headlines are Really like uh kind of like clickbait Etc i’m like I don’t know it’s just where people Click on like i write some much more Moderate headlines and it’s like nobody Ever clicks on them so it’s like if you Guys want me to write less clickbaity Headlines don’t click on the clickbaity Ones so i i don’t see ai content as Replacing humans i see it as like very Much something covering like a different End of the market and also being used by Human writers to kind of augment them And get things done faster get their Intros out Faster Etc so i don’t think we’re the machines Are taking over yet i think it’s going To be like that the other mass effect Ending where like humanity and ai Integrates yeah i think it’s like the Comparison i was giving to people when i Was mentioning it is like it’s more like An exoskeleton like you know it’s like People who just wear these suits and They become like big robots and they Have all these strengths etc More like that than it is like a full Robot that does everything for you and i
Think that’s the way you need to look at It right now it isn’t a human Empowering tool more than like a fully Automated thing that you can use and It’s something that i’m really looking Into as well as like you know having People train people at using ai writing Tools to create larger volumes of Content for these kind of tiny keywords Etc but one thing i wanted to mention Though you say it doesn’t replace humans I think one part why it doesn’t replace Humans very well at all right now is Converting people it’s making people Like trust you click on the link buy Something etc so i think for info Content that’s monetized with us i could See the use case already in terms of Creating content and i would see where The money would come back to me Whereas if you were trying to do like Affiliate reviews with ai et cetera i Think that’d be quite and i think The review would be too shitty to Convince anyone and You would get some money but like you’d Be leaving a lot of money on the table However using it to test Where your site might rank and might not Rank like you know get an ai article in Like 30 minutes Post it index it in webmasters console And then look at where you’re landing in Google if you have like your software
Keywords et cetera they have a software Integration actually It’s quite interesting like if you’re if You’re landing like bottom of page one Or someone page two etc i’m like oh okay Maybe i will alter that from my actual Human writer and uh and actually try to Uh actually rank for that keyboard with Rezzy fabric you know page seven we you Know it happens in seo right sometimes You think that you can rank but you just Write your article and you’re like on Page nine and you never see the call of Page one so that kind of a like nice Test for that uh anything else to say on Javascript ai or should we jump on the Next one yes if you go to Authorityhacker.com forward slash Recommends forward slash jarvis You can get 10 000 free words on your Jarvis account if you you sign up that’s Our affiliate link yeah well it’s not That if you get some free stuff as well It’s not bad to use it um let’s talk About the next one and that one mark You’re not going to like it that much Because it is a mac only tool and i know You’re like a mech hater But you can’t deny How much notes i’ve been taking since I’ve been using this and how much Content i’ve been creating so that and That tool is called craft notes it’s not Really an seo tool but rather just a
Note tool that is really really nice to Use and because it’s nice to use it made Me use it more so it feels like a bit Like notion you have blocks etc but it Has a desktop app that’s native as well So you know when you use web apps you Have that kind of like half a second Delay when you drag something etc and It’s like yes it’s usable yes it’s fine Etc but it’s not nearly as nice as as Using a desktop i know you use like one Note from microsoft on your microsoft on Your computer probably also because it Is a desktop app and you get that kind Of like more responsive feeling when you Use the app and it’s kind of the same Here except like it does feel like these Cool new web apps with blocks but at the Same time you get the native feeling of That and i’ve been using it a lot to Write content brief content you can do Like unlimited bullets like you would do On dynalist for example uh it connects On all like the photos i take etc like The screenshots like all my screenshots Are just with like one slash away and Putting them in my content et cetera and Overall i’ve been enjoying using this Art i’m not gonna spend a lot of time But go and check it out there is a free Version so you don’t have to pay for it If you’re an apple user go check it out I just want to say i think with these Kinds of uh you know personal notes
Organization Tools Um as you said you’ve used it held a lot More and you’re a lot more productive Using it i can’t use it because i’m not On not on mac um you know i tried using Evernote before it didn’t particularly Just not the same i told you i think I think with these things though It’s good to just like use whatever you Personally want to use yeah rather than Try and enforce that on the whole Company and kind of get everyone you Know Productive by by doing it that way yeah I’m fine with that like i’m i i’m happy To work on it on my own level and then If people want to join in they can if They don’t want they still share links i Can still share the content i make what It’s called is it makes kind of like a Mini site because you can kind of have Like multiple level of pages and for Example when i was working on the co Vital blueprint like i made Like all my notes were kind of like Organized like the final course like you Could go through the sub pages etc and For the video editor and for the people Who are creating the notes etc that was Really really useful because they just Had like that one url they could go to Is like they could find everything that They need to build and i think that
Got us higher quality content in the end Uh for the blueprint so that was quite Helpful uh check it out it’s cool and It’s free trial so i think you can have A thousand bucks for free and then you Have to pay for it but that’s the same Most note-taking tool although i know One note is free completely i think Uh as long as you have microsoft or one Whatever storage uh left whatever the Name one drive One drive exactly all right let’s jump On to the next one which is going to be Applied to more people which is why i Didn’t want to spend too much time on This one and that’s going to be the new Generate press And generate blocks together and this Has been Quite a big deal for me because as most People know i used to be the guy who Really really was into page builders Mostly because they were extremely Convenient and they allowed you to focus On the content rather than focusing on Like how you’re gonna do things which For most people is their main problem is They don’t have enough content they Can’t uh and then it’s not that their Site is not like the fastest site in the World etc it’s more like that they can’t Get stuff enough stuff together to get Enough traffic to build a business and So
The answer with page builder was quite Interesting because you could just drag And drop and build your pages etc but as Many people know the drawbacks of page Builders is they’re heavy on your site They take a lot of resources they know The most optimized output code as well Which means that you know when things Like vitals come up et cetera you don’t End up with very good scores and it can When you get to a higher level it does Count um when you when you have made it Past this point of like making like Starting you to build your initial Business and getting to like job Replacement income now so i have no Problem still recommending the elemental Setup to test members because you’re not At that point yet you know but when you Get to that point where you’re making Like five six seven eight nine k per Month then it’s like well okay like i Might be leaving a little bit of money On the table by having a two slow site Less up to my site etc but still i was Willing to go through that and prove so The proof is that attorney hacker is Still on elementor right now i was Totally willing to go through that Because of the faster output of content But now generate press 3.0 and generate Blocks brings pretty much everything That was very interesting in page Builders which is custom customizing
Your theme like every area the header The footer etc And also uh being able to build pretty Much any design like the color vital Sales page for example i wanted it to Plus code vitals it was part of like This launch for me it was quite Important i hate when people like don’t Do what they say so it’s like i couldn’t Get the whole authority hacker side to Bus cover vitals because it was Uh it was too much work and it’s we’re Still working on it uh but getting at Least the sales page to pass career Vitals when you sell the training on Career vitals i think that’s the minimum So we’ve done that we’re and it’s it’s Worked perfectly and i’ve built a pretty Complex sales page just using the new General press and generate block and it Can replace a page builder and what i Like mostly it’s like a lot of people Will be like oh but there’s also this Cadence team right so cadence team is Kind of like the main contender to Generate press right now and i would say It’s even more popular reading the Conversations online etc uh it does seem More popular but now i’m at this point Where i have quite a bit of experience Building sites and and just throwing Away a bunch of technologies that we we Stopped using strife themes uh going for Elementor uh and then elementor b itself
Became quite bloated uh it’s not too bad Still but like they were working on it But you can see they’re kind of like Struggling a little bit And then now there’s like basically is That generate press and cadence would be The two that people would be going for If they want a fast site and to be Honest they’re toe-to-toe in terms of Page speed calls right now it’s not like Um what are you laughing at i’m just Thinking it’s the direction of this like In five years time where you’re going to Be coding like stuff in notepad and just Uploading raw html in craft notes in Craft notes yeah they will be like hey There’s a code module in there if you Want to try it um but it’s not that it’s Like The thing is like most companies start And their marketing their startup Marketing is like oh we have a fast Technology right and then eventually People are like oh but we want Accordions and we want our like Gradients on this and all this stuff etc And they keep adding it because people Are asking for it etc and they tend to While they were lean at the beginning Become bloated eventually and the reason You went for them initially just doesn’t Stand anymore several years later right And and that’s the problem and the Reason that i love generatepress is
Because devops has been around for a Long time they’ve been around I can’t remember but i think it’s like I would say 2013 2014 was probably what They when they started and they’ve never Bloated their theme they’ve always kept It very lean very minimal some people Eventually caught up to them but then There is the new version and they kind Of like push the envelope more in terms Of being lightweight and and speed Rather than adding features and they’re Not afraid on their support forum to be Like okay here’s the piece of css you Had in your custom css rather than Building another feature that’s loading For everyone on their theme etc and to Be frank cadence right now is Competitive with generators but because We don’t have this Uh experience with that company i can’t Say for sure that they’re not going to Fall into the same trap of keeping Adding stuff that people ask to their Theme and not be in that situation in Three four five years where we’ll be Like okay this seems still bloated like Oh there’s this new theme that we need To change to like now my goal is to Really like change technology as little As possible because it’s a massive cost Especially on big sites And I can’t say for sure generate price is
Going to do a good job but i can say That from history we can tell that Generatepress has been able to hold that Line and not bloat their themes and just Like just add what was necessary and They literally write code for you in the Support forum if you need to have Functions that are not built in rather Than You know building something in the Actual call team etc and that’s why i Quite like it because now you get to Build things within gutenberg which so It’s going to be evolving with wordpress And you get to be able to edit your Header your footer etc in a decently Easy way it’s not as good as elementor But it’s decent uh while having really Really good performances And the company that has With like with time shown that they are Willing to not blow their product which Has been the problem with most of these Companies it’s not when they come out The problem it’s more like three four Five years down the line when they’ve Added a bunch of stuff so i’m hoping They hold their line But if they do then I hope we don’t have to Like hop on to something else and a lot Of site builders do that right but i Hope we don’t have to build into Something else in a few years that’s
Really my hope on that and yeah that’s Basically it anything else to say on uh Anything you want to send generate press Uh no i just think that would generate Blocks just because they have like four Options uh it’s only four blocks For blocks for elements that you and you Can do you know most stuff you need With those Um You know It it’s pretty good pretty good idea Yeah because it loads less code there’s Still stuff that you kind of like it’s Like i we still use some like custom Custom stuff now because we use generate Blocks more like for example styling Images like you can within the wordpress Image block you can actually build the Styles there’s like a shitty one with Rounded corners in the initial one but You can build custom ones like we’ve Built some on a toy hacker etc it’s not Very hard with a front-end developer so We tend to Pay some people per hour to add these Styles within wordpress but it blows the Site a lot less basically so i would Yeah it’s i maybe that’s because of our Own evolution as well in terms of being Comfortable with the tech as well um for Beginners it’s still going to be quite Intimidating because it’s not as Intuitive you don’t see the output in
The front end of the site when you’re Building something you just have to kind Of like abstract it in your head and Understand the wheels of the page and Things like that which is why for Absolute beginners a lot of people who Are going through the auto inside system Etc It’s like i’m not sure they’re 100 ready Um i i will probably make like a youtube Tutorial that is like an alternative Build for that or something like showing How i would build a site on generate Press but in general You shouldn’t be afraid to go for Elementor and page builders when you are Building your first site But then later on when you are making Good money it’s also something that you Might want to look at moving on from and That’s why for example in the authority Side system we tell people to build Their content in gutenberg even though They’re using a page builder because Then if they switch there’s nothing to Migrate you know it’s just like you just Changed your team basically And uh and that is a pretty good Compromise so that’s basically generate Price really really like it really enjoy Building teams building sites with it Rather and uh and so far so good fingers Crossed we don’t have to Uh hop on to something else at some
Point uh do you want to talk about the Next tool yeah the next tool is frame Dot io so we’ve been producing video for Authority hacker for uh well actually For about six years if you include our Our courses uh public facing video like This podcast and the other videos on our Youtube channel um for around what a Year and a half now yeah uh yeah Something like this it’s difficult to Edit it with a remote team Uh When you want to give feedback On a on a video and you have to say well On this version of the file at 0 minutes And 57 seconds move this this box over To the right Like that’s difficult to do and To write down you often have to record a Screencast and talk about it and all That stuff well there’s a tool called Frame.io which makes that super easy It’s basically like a collaborative Feedback system Uh Kind of like what you have on google Docs but for video and it works Collaboratively it’s just it’s really Really good We use that to give feedback to our Editor and other people Throughout the publishing process and Get videos looking more like we want Them to
Uh so i would recommend it if you’re Doing any kind of video for your your Authority site if you’re doing a podcast If you have a youtube channel if you’re Making uh info products like uh video Training courses as well yeah one thing That you forgot to mention that i think Is a big deal as well is if you’re Paying a video editor well you’re paying Per hour usually like the freelancers And the comments that you drop into um Into friend.io they don’t have to go on The website and read it and then go back Because actually it appears on their Timeline inside whatever tool they use Whether they use Adobe premiere davinci resolve or final Cut pro it’s going to show directly on The timeline so they get to resolve the Comments As they’re editing they don’t have to Like go on the browser read something And go back on the timeline find the Right time etc it’s going to show Exactly what they need to do stuff And what that means is that if you are Paying someone per hour to edit your Video content you are going to be saving Quite a bit of money because they are Going to spend less time finding what They want in terms of your comments and So you will pay them less hours and so The price of the tool is a free plan for 2gb of storage and it’s 15 per user per
Month for 250 Gb of storage which is pretty good 2gb Of storage you could literally work on Like some videos uh you could maybe do One video at a time or something i think It’s probably to try like one video uh Small just to try it out really yeah but It’s it’s not expensive either way Yeah but like i think 15 bucks per user Per month so let’s say it’s you on your Video editor so it’s 30 dollars Um You can save that in time into just by Uh how much time they save on like going To find your feedback going back to the Timeline et cetera and i think that’s Something that people who have never Edited video will not understand Necessarily but just know your video Editor is going to be more productive With that tool and it’s probably worth Buying it just for that actually Um Anything else no All right let’s jump onto the next one Which is also going to concern a lot of People listening to this podcast and That’s after the table so after the Table is and there’s a lot of tools like That it’s a tool that builds affiliate Tables or product features a bit like You would see like on the wire cutter on Other affiliate sites on your site and So the good thing with that tool is that
It’s not a wordpress plugin i know People don’t want to install wordpress Plugins to keep their sites fast But the good news for you is it’s not a WordPress plugin you do need to add like One piece of javascript on your site but Uh it’s not heavy i’ve actually Literally opened the javascript file and Like read everything that was in there Etc it’s quite small like i wouldn’t Panic over that file it’s like if you Want to load any kind of design and have This kind of like buttons features etc It’s you need to do that um but what you Do is you log in on their site you Create your table and they give you the Code and you put it in like a block in Gutenberg and boom you have a very well Designed high conversion comparison Table or product feature that you can Put on your blog post that looks nice With your brand colors with your Affiliate links and all of that And and it’s really quite easy and also I’ve checked the The file they load on your site and you Actually load it through bunnycdn which Is a really good cdn i’ve talked to them And so A is going to be fast you will get fast Well designed high conversion product Tables and on top of that you can buy it Lifetime which means that you can maybe Try it for months there’s actually a
Free version so try it for the free Version you can connect your amazon api To it which means that you can retrieve Like amazon products directly from the Builder tool as well so you save a bunch Of time It catches the image and everything and Can you do pricing like legally According to their terms of service with That as well I can’t remember but i think you might Be able to yes I think i can’t remember exactly If you can do that so uh go and check That but overall it is cool and if you Like it you can actually pay lifetime so You don’t have you know These things just add up it ends up Being a bunch of subscriptions it’s Quite nice when tools you just pay one Off and you don’t have to pay again in That case for a single site you could be Paying 199 Never have to pay again uh and Yeah so it’s nice it’s still quite cheap Even if you are using it two years it’s Less than ten bucks per per month uh It’s much cheaper than many other Alternatives that you will find on the Market and uh it’s pretty well featured So i would recommend you check that out Okay so let’s jump on to the next tool Which is figma Now a while ago maybe three four months
Ago i was creating a free tool for Authority hacker pro members it was a Very very very basic um tool what was it Again actually we were doing the title Tag tester yeah that’s the one for your On-page seo blueprint And Basically our We cut it up and you know it did did What i needed to do but it looked like so i went on upwork i found a ux Designer and Um within a couple days they had Produced what something which looked Amazing like it was so so much better Than Um Than the the undesigned version i’ll put A link to it below this video if you’re An h pro member you can go check it out And see what it looks like But during that process he used a tool Called figma to Show us uh what it was going to look Like and i was leaving comments on there Giving feedback it’s basically a Collaborative design tool it’s like Google docs meets photoshop specifically For like web design so it’s not as it’s Actually more than that i don’t think You have realized but what it does as Well is it writes the css so that the Front-end designer can go and grab the Css of the way things look etc so you
Can just copy paste so the front-end Developer as well ends up spending a lot Less time Implementing the design in real life and That’s why it’s really powerful actually Yeah um During the design process though the the Collaborative nature of it it works in Real time so The designers i can only watch them Build it and then i can Change something like i can change the Text if they put the the text wrong Rather than having to give them some Feedback and say oh change this to this Change this to this um and i can also Leave comments and they can they can see It and multiple people can can do that It’s just really really good we’re Actually redesigning not not totally Redesigning but just like changing Changing some layouts of some pages on Authority hacker at the moment And it’s been really useful to to have That tool so when we hired the designer To help us do that one of the things we Put on the job ad was we’d prefer if you Could use a tool such as figma To make collaboration online much much Easier i think it brings brings it Closer to A situation where like you’re kind of in The same room as someone and you can Talk about it the design is not not all
The way there but it’s it’s much closer Than Here think it feels like google docs for Design basically to be it’s like the way You at google docs for design and also Kind of like deduplicating work so like You know the designer figures out the Design and then the front-end developers Doesn’t have to go and like oh how do i Make this look like this on the side or Something like all the measurements et Cetera are still here you can take all The margin numbers all of that and they Just like they can import it and it’s Much much faster so you end up spending Less money on your Front-end dev um but that is a bit more Of an advanced tool like most people Don’t need to hire designers to start Their first site so this is more for Like again when you’re like on a higher Level with your brands etc Then it kind of starts making sense to Do all these migrations kick out the Page builder work out with a front-end Dev and do all these other things that Are like essentially like translating to A more serious business and more like Traditional way of building websites Rather than just the full diy Uh setup but it’s pretty good in that Way and you can also work on many other Things if you want to make an app or if You want to make anything like that
A member area as well and things like That you can work on figma you can also Work on figma to make diagrams like i Was using it to plan some Site maps for example i was testing it For that the other it’s pretty okay as Well so overall pretty good tool i think There’s a free version that you can use And do some stuff with without paying For it i don’t think if you’re doing Small things you don’t need to pay for It The thing as well is most likely if you Hire a freelance designer they will have A subscription and so you don’t need to Pay for it um that’s what’s happening in Our case for example Um let’s jump onto the next tool and the Next tool is going to be bunnycdn Bonecdn as its name says is a cdn cdn Means content delivery network Essentially they take essentially Someone takes a shot or something um They take your biggest file so like Usually your javascript files uh maybe Your css style sheets and your images And they’re going to duplicate them on Servers across the world so that Physically the files are closer to your Visitors than if it was served from your Original server so if someone is Visiting authority hacker from singapore But the server is in new york maybe we Have a duplicate server in hong kong or
Something and it’s like much faster for That big image file to look with our Face on the home page or something and So that helps the site load faster Bunnycdn is great because it’s fast it Has an image optimization service that Allows you to resize images on the fly So let’s say you know if i load uh an Image on my 4k screen and at the biggest Resolution because it’s like high-res But if i load it on my phone i don’t Need A 4k image i need like just an image That fits the size of my screen it does All of that automatically with one of The services this thing is called bunny Optimizer they actually have something Called a full duplication service that Duplicates all your files on their Servers permanently as well which allows Your site to be quite a bit faster They can also host videos if you want to Do that and we do that Through a plugin a wordpress plugin Called presto player right now and that Works pretty well and most importantly It’s cheap Yeah most of our like you know affiliate Sites stuff like that they cost like a Few bucks per month to optimize and the Speed increase is pretty significant we Use it in conjunction with wp rocket And they work perfectly fine together as A normal cdn and so on most of the new
Sites that we are building right now and Even when we are done with the redesign For toyhaka We will be Moving it to that service right now it’s Running on nitro pack um but bunnycdn Plus that other setup is actually better Faster and much cheaper Therefore we are going to be moving All our size to that if they’re not Moved already and we really enjoy it and They’ve been really good and it’s really Cheap so there’s not much else to say Like as i said i don’t like to spend a Lot on subscriptions etc and the more i Can cut that cost and get good value the Better it is for me and talking about Good value i think the next tool is like 100 free so yeah so the next tool is Called slab and it’s a team wiki Software um and we actually signed up to It Probably yeah it was paid yeah and the End of last year and it was a paid uh Tool then Uh they charged i think it was like five Bucks per user or something but they’ve Rejigged their payment um their pricing Plans So for up to 10 users to do most of what You’d realistically need to to do it’s Totally free which i think is awesome um And i would highly recommend yeah if You’re planning on having some kind of
Company wiki for example to do uh sops Uh this is what’s come come in really Useful and Uh You know you may have a you may think oh Why can’t i just use google docs well You can And we’ve tried that in the past and It’s just it’s messy area it’s not it’s It’s messier because like docs can blend In with other like No you know non-sop or Dots It’s just like having all of them in one Place in a very nicely Like Nice ui it looks good it’s easy to use Easy to share even with externally yeah It’s It’s kind of like If if apple were to make an sop system This would be it Uh and and that it kind of comes across And it’s free in the way unlike most of Apple stuff yeah um yeah so When we when we started using it um i Noticed that gail especially who’s very Someone who’s very difficult to get to Like do an sop or document anything but You know he he is now arguably the sop Champion in our business you know he’s He’s writing it uh i think if we look at The usage statistics he’s created more Than anyone else um in in slab so you
Know it’s if you can get someone like Gail on board with with sops and Document and things then it’s maybe Worth thinking about in using your team As well especially as i said because It’s free uh you can also if you have More like we have more than 10 writers For example but we don’t give them all Access to it but you can share documents Without giving access as well like you Can make a link for it and share it with Someone they can read it but you only Invite people who write you know Yeah and that’s how that’s how it works Which means even if you have more more Than 10 people on your team as as long As there’s less than 10 people creating Sops then you know have at it yeah uh And i think that it’s a debate to open i Think it’s like uh i i was at least i Was watching a video from this guy you Probably know it like this uk doctor Called ali abdel he’s kind of like a Productivity yeah he’s really cool Um And it’s like he was talking about this Delight of using an application or a Tool or something it just makes you use It more it makes you like care more About the output that it looks better Etc i think a lot of these tools like The ones i selected at least they They match that a lot like there are Many other tools than craft notes for
Example there are many and the next ones Are going to be very much like that too Um but what it does like when i enjoy These tools i actually get more stuff Done i’m willing to walk after 8 p.m on That tool and do something that instead Of like going to watch some stupid tv Shows or something like that and like Building that environment that you enjoy Working in especially when it doesn’t Cost you more like i care also about the Cost i’m not always willing to throw a Bunch of money at tools just because They’re nicer i think it’s more Important than many people will give it Credit for and if you even if you don’t Care people who work with you might care And you might get more out of them if You give them the tools they actually Enjoy using and slab is definitely one Of those where it’s like ah nice fine we Have this on google docs why do we need This Try it try to get some people use it Just the way like you write your sop It’s very nice the way the headlines Look etc it looks like you did something Cool and it just like just that makes You want to do it more so Highly recommended and really caring About that delay of use is very Interesting and the next one i’m going To talk about is very much like that Again it’s going to be a mac exclusive
I’m sorry mark you are excluded Well it’s up to you you can just you Could just get i am one magma now They’re very cheap uh and uh they’re Very good actually but anyway the next One i’m going to be mentioning is Pixelmatopro so we have mentioned canva In the past um but Again i’m kind of like with Subscriptions and while canva is really Cool because what it does it gives you a Lot of stock images um and i think a lot Of people have been paying for stock Images subscriptions etc i think Replacing that with canva makes sense But if you’re not paying for a stock Image uh subscription and you want Something that is a little bit closer to Photoshop but a lot easier to use like Really a lot easier to use with this Kind of like delight of using really Really nice ui You know i get like paulina my fiance She uses that for a lot of the stuff she Works for on with us for example it has Some very interesting tools for example Has a tool that does ai rescaling And what it is is like it takes like a Low-res image and it’s like let’s say You have an image that’s like 500 pixel Wide typical when we have a guest on the Podcast right people have Terrible photos please stay if you want To be on podcast take good photos
Otherwise i’m gonna get mad at you um But anyway people send you this really Really low rise photo that was taken on The phone from eight years ago it’s Terrible and you want to put it on a High-res thumbnail and you stretch the Image and literally the eyes are like Pixels you know and it’s terrible Well this tool actually has this thing Where you can say oh i want this 500 Pixel wide image to be a 2000 pixel wide Image And it does we say i come up with new Pixels and kind of like repopulate the Image so that it does look a lot less Pixelated it’s not perfect like it’s but It does a really quite a good job at This kind of stuff and it’s quite useful When you want to put let’s say product Images from manufacturers that have low Res images and things like that um and So that is quite cool they also have ai Image optimization um so like they did You know analyze the color the white Balance et cetera it’s been particularly Good it’s something that we’ve done on a Recent project again with paulina uh Retouching stock photos so they look a Lot less like like stock photos so it Tries to give you a more natural look to It so it changes the white balance the Saturation and all of that literally With the click of two or three buttons Uh and that’s pretty cool actually so
That tool does that it has optimized web Exports as well you can export in wordp And things like that so for web Designers web developers etc it’s pretty Good For most people who are not professional Designers they can do everything Photoshop can do and there’s no Subscription and it’s 39.99 for your Entire life i’ve been i’ve been using it For like four years or something and it Costs you 40 bucks which is like the Price of like three months of photoshop If you buy the subscription or something Um so anytime i need to do anything That’s designed for marketing I don’t really use canva unless i really Want their bank of images I know the team uses canva but Personally i just opened that tool and It’s really really good it’s one of the Tools that would make it very difficult For me to move away from a mac actually It’s like this and final cut and Screenflow the tool that i use for um Screen capture it’s like they’re like so Nice that i would not want to give that Up i don’t mind windows but i definitely Mind the alternative to these tools and Windows you know i don’t want to open The whole mac versus Those debates Let’s open that can Um what goes through a product owner’s
Mind when they’re like we’re gonna make An app just for just for mac uh now i Understand maybe they do that to begin With like apple users tend to have more Money and stuff but You know craft for example eventually Yeah on their notes On their on their um you know it’s it’s A reasonable size now but on their Support they’re like no we have no plans To make a windows version And i’m like Why i agree i don’t think I know i know it’s like i mean as a user That’s why i wouldn’t want to swap but i Agree that they should open up to Everyone it’s kind of stupid as a Business as well to not do that uh i Think there’s kind of like something can You imagine making a webs a an authority A website i’m just saying This is only for uh Mozilla firefox users if you’re using Anything else it’s not gonna work sorry Yeah no it’s terrible it’s a bad idea But it’s a reality of the market for Some of these tools and actually it’s a Good deal i mean like if you’re doing a Lot of um image work like buying a mac Makes a lot of sense and using Pixelmator over playing a subscription For photoshop Um there is there’s alternatives like Affinity designer for example an
Affinity photo is pretty good Alternative to photoshop and works on Mac and pc so there is alternatives but It’s like Not as nice to use it’s just like it’s Kind of like a budget photoshop this Other one whereas this one has its own Personality and it’s just simpler like As a person who is not a professional Designer i feel more comfortable using This than using photoshop Because photoshop is a bit too much for Me sometimes So yeah that’s basically it i know it’s Stupid but pixelmator if you have a mac Is really good and this ai scaling et Cetera i do we do use that quite often In material that people see all the time Um like even our designers don’t have it So i do it for them and then i send it To the designer with the scaling so that It looks better you know so that’s the Kind of stuff that happens Um let’s jump onto the the last two of The list actually and that last tool is Going to be convert box convert box has Just been about uh let’s say what it is First before the history is a lead gen So it’s a pop-up uh or call to action Tool for your site so you can do these Like hello bars and pop-ups and you know These things that pop on the right Pretty much any call to action that you Would want to put on your site these are
Really powerful to promote both fa Offers and to collect emails on your Site They have just been bought out by the Guys who run thrive carts uh and we’ve Been very happy with thrive cart as well We’ve been using it for a long time i Processed like multiple seven figures Through it and had no problem uh and Overall these guys have earned our trust As users uh a lot like convertbox allows You to do like complex targeting not Only for Uh like uh do people come from google or Facebook or stuff like that but you can Actually connect it back to uh things That like which list people are on on Your email tool for example so we could Be like oh we are trying to sell this Product to these people so let’s show Them this call to action but show this How they want to these other people etc Uh so you can do that kind of stuff it Connects to google analytics uh it does Pretty much everything optinmonster does For a subscription for us right now i Think we pay 600 dollars per year for Opt-in monster which is pretty expensive But most of these digitals are getting Expensive because they understand that They make a lot of money toward masters And a good thing with comfort box is It’s a one-off tool it’s like you can Actually buy one off and never pay for
It again so it’s not cheap i think it’s Around four hundred dollars and they Kind of have this mechanic the same as Strike card where you go on the side They say it’s close you have to give Your email they send you an invitation It’s complicated but eventually you land On a one-off price around four or five Hundred dollars depending on the options You take And they allow you to use like I think it’s three hundred thousand Impressions per month but i think they Said they would give they would upgrade It to a million when it was sold to Thrive cards so it might be upgraded to A million soon for that price million Impressions of per month if you have This many impressions it’s really not Hard to make that money back especially When it’s a one-off uh so overall it’s a Really good cta slash lead gen tool that Is a one-off price unlike most of the Competition that now charges per week Per week per month or per year maybe per Week soon And so we are swapping from optinmonster To this with the new design of a toy Hacker and on some other sites as well And i recommend it for having played With it quite a bit in the last few Weeks to figure out how it works it Looks pretty good And we get another subscription which uh
I i think that’s a that’s a good thing For people and i understand it annoys People when they have to sign up for a Dozen subscriptions and it’s eating Their profit and stuff so Sometimes paying a bit more one-off for Tools uh is great versus paying a Subscription and having like 50 Subscriptions or not once Uh any kind of final words of wisdom on The tools and everything Uh no just oh yes just always be aware Of uh tool bloat um i i know i was gonna Say that yeah um this is something we Sort of try and mention every time we we We do these kind of podcasts um anyone Who has a subscription to appsumo knows How easy it is and how addictive it is To like buy the latest tool and then you Know you’re in a subscription and you Never use it and and whatnot but you Know these are tools we’re actually Using um some of you may find uh them Useful in some circumstances so yeah Don’t buy too many tools don’t get Addicted to all the new stuff that comes Out to be frank like These are i mean even pixelmator pro Like i didn’t mention it very often but I’ve been using it for several years Like We probably only picked up like four or Five tools this year And half of them have been replacing all
The tools and like we’ve cut the Subscription or whatever so it’s like i Think we’re doing a much better job now At being lean with tools than we were Like four or five years ago i think it’s Probably this getting all the thing you Know um But uh yeah it’s you will be Baited into buying a million tools and Marketing is gonna do a good job at Making you want it and make you think That you absolutely need it Most of the time you don’t uh and when You have to buy tools try to get Lifetime subscriptions it tends to be Cheaper i mean no when we buy let’s talk About that when we buy tools how do we Do this mark what is the what is the Process usually So Uh you know if it’s not available in Lifetime Then there’s kind of like a different Debate there but usually Never buy the annual subscription only By the the monthly one even though it’s More much more expensive i think the Only tool we have on light on annual Subscriptions Yeah um All the others even tools we’ve been Using for sort of like six years it’s Still on on monthly because just having That flexibility is really important
You’ve seen how often we we change um Our Tool stack um and that flexibility is More important than any like perceived Short-term savings from from it yeah i Mean i would say maybe a bit extreme on The monthly thing uh like for example i Don’t i think Changing like project management system Etc we could probably pay early i don’t Know if we do but if we don’t probably Should look at that um but overall yeah It’s nice to like try it like two three Months pay monthly and then Most of the time you will not use that Tool three months later and you can save Nine months of subscription by doing That so pay monthly first and if you’ve Been using like give yourself a time Maybe a reminder on your calendar or Something and if you’re still using that Tool feel free to buy ele and save some Money Otherwise just stick to the monthly Stuff if you’re not 100 sure Uh and i think that will save you a Bunch of money when you buy tools and if You can buy lifetime at that point That’s when you do that and you save a Bunch of money as well so yeah that’s Pretty much it for this podcast what i Would like to do actually in this week’s Episode to do something a bit different Is if you have a tool that you have been
Liking a lot this year We would like you to go on the youtube Video for this podcast if you’re not if You’re listening to the audio if you’re Watching just go on the comment section Below and tell us which tool that you’ve Enjoyed the most this year because we’re Always looking for new tools to improve Our own processes and we’re always Curious to see what you guys use so Thank you for listening if you enjoyed This podcast don’t forget to give it a Thumbs up and subscribe if you are not Subscribed yet and we’ll see you next Week or in two weeks rather for another Episode bye [Music] You