These resources have good value, helpful information that I use and would recommend.
Do let me know if I’ve missed any of those that you’d recommend too.
Resources for Discounts
1. HUKD
HotUKDeals.com is a community-based deals, freebies, discounts and competitions website. It’s a great website to visit whenever you’re looking for a particular product as, 9 times out of 10, someone somewhere will have posted the deal, freebie or discount information on HUKD. It’s a good idea to subscribe to its daily email to receive the day’s top HUKD bargains. And remember to “share the love” and post information about any new bargains that you’ve found too. Its website explains: “HotUKDeals.com was founded in August 2004 as a place for consumers to freely share deal tips, voucher codes and other consumer information. The purpose of the site is to escape from the marketing messages and ads that surround us and get genuine advice from other people about hot deals” [source: hotukdeals.com].
2. TopCashback
TopCashback.co.uk is a UK website and mobile app that guarantees to pay the highest cashback on over 4,300 online stores and many high street stores. It provides a helpful browser extension which notifies you whenever you visit a TopCashback compatible website. Remember, you’re earning cashback on products you would have bought anyway so you won’t be out-of-pocket. It’s amazing how quickly your cashback accrues. There’s even “free” cashback you can earn just by joining a mailing list (which you could cancel afterwards if needs be), or by getting a quote on a comparison website. There’s no minimum cashback payout and you can earn a bonus of up to 10% on top of cashback earned. It’s quick to withdraw via paypal, BACS, high street gift cards, Amazon and many others.
3. MoneySavingExpert
MoneySavingExpert.com is an amazingly helpful website and I’d be surprised if you’ve not come across it already. Martin Lewis is its founder with a passion to help the consumer save money. Make sure you sign up to the free weekly Money Tips email for all the latest deals, guides and loopholes. Its website explains “MoneySavingExpert.com is the UK’s biggest consumer website, with about 15 million users a month. The site’s dedicated to cutting your bills and fighting your corner with journalistic research, cutting-edge tools and a massive community – all focused on finding deals, saving cash and campaigning for financial justice.” [source: moneysavingexpert.com].
4. Quidco
Quidco.com is the largest UK cashback website and mobile app with over 5 million members. In addition to online cashback, it also has Checkout Smart for use with grocery rewards, EarnAway for the travel market rewards, and Quidco Opinions to earn cashback by completing surveys. As you can imagine, with so many lines of cashback available, it accrues quickly as a nice bit of pocket money. The payout is on a weekly basis via paypal, BACS or Amazon.
5. DailyFreeBooks
DailyFreeBooks.co.uk is a free service which provides details of free UK and US Kindle ebooks. These are never pirated or illegally copied ebooks, but are those which many authors/publishers release free of charge on a daily basis to introduce new readers to their books. It’s those which DailyFreeBooks finds and brings to our attention. You can either visit the website to browse the free ebooks, or subscribe to receive the daily email which sends you up to 15 ebook choices within each of your chosen 15 categories. You can then browse the email, which has thumbnail ebook covers and a short summary, and download any which appeal. I think it’s a brilliant service and it’s much easier than having to search Amazon direct.
6. VoucherCodes
VoucherCodes.co.uk is a UK website and mobile app offering online codes and printable vouchers for discounts at over 2,500 leading online and high street stores, restaurants and tourist attractions (such as theme parks and days out). For the US and Canadian market, you should visit its partner website: RetailMeNot.com. VoucherCodes.co.uk has an Online Codes Working Guarantee, which means that if you find an online code that doesn’t work, then they’ll buy you dinner! What’s great is that unlike a lot of voucher code websites, VoucherCodes.co.uk appears to be regularly monitored and updated so you can be 99% sure that the codes will be both current and useful. You can subscribe to receive the discounts by email rather than looking online.
7. BetterVouchers
BetterVouchers.com is another vouchercodes website with a difference – each vouchercode is checked to make sure it’s current, valid and of substantial value to the consumer, so do check it out to see which vouchercodes you’d like to use. Its tag line is “Better Vouchers for the Smart Saver” and it promises that “if it doesn’t save you at least £10 or 10%, you won’t find it here [source: bettervouchers.com].
8. Freeware
Listoffreeware.com is a website created by the same team responsible for the ilovefreesoftware.com and windows8freeware.com websites. It’s a central place to access information about the best freeware, covering topics from one end of the tech blog spectrum to the other. A list of top choices with a brief explanation, screenshots and a link to the freeware makes it easy to find what you’re looking for. These three websites are very useful and definitely worth visiting when you’re looking for freeware for your computer, website or mobile phone.
9. Free PostCode Lottery
Freepostcodelottery.com is a free lottery, funded by adverts, without any tickets – you simply one-time register your email and postcode to be entered in the daily draw. If your postcode is randomly selected, and you login to the website the same day, then you win £150. It’s a good idea to receive the daily email reminder as, if you forget to login then you miss the prize, and it’s rolled over to the following day for the next postcode drawn. Whenever you login or refer a person, you “earn” 1p (up to a maximum of £200) in addition to your postcode lottery win. There’s also a daily postcode stackpot, survey draw and mini draw for smaller wins, all of which are accessed via its website.
Resources for Learning/Virtual Help
10. Udemy
Udemy.com has over 30,000 online courses available for download. It’s currently used by over 7 million people and has free and paid courses (which are very reasonably priced) on virtually any subject you want to learn. Udemy is so easy to use online or via an app. There are lots of free courses on offer, so if you’ve always wanted to learn a new skill but don’t have the facilities to hand, no time to go to college, or don’t want to read a textbook, then definitely sign-up and start learning!
11. Fiverr®
uk.fiverr.com is for people who provide or request virtual help. Prices start from just $5 per job (aka per Gig®) – yes, that’s in USD, which means the GBP conversion is approximately £3.50! There’s so much virtual help available and to a good standard. Gigs® offered include graphics, design, writing, programming, translation, online marketing, music and animation etc. Just register at the website, set up or search for your Gig® and you’ll find that someone on Fiverr® is likely to need/offer the relevant virtual help.
Resources about Startups
12. New Startups and BetaList
new-startups.com and betalist.com are brilliant to visit if you’re interested in finding out about new products and startup companies. Both have lots of information with links to the respective startups’ websites. You’ll be amazed at the ideas that people have for new products, and you’ll enjoy following their progress and/or joining the beta programmes.
13. Kickstarter
kickstarter.com provides information as well as the opportunity to invest in new startup companies. Unlike other crowd funding campaigns, your investment isn’t repaid in profit but by receiving the startups’ product(s). At the outset, each startup company decides what variant of their new product(s) it’ll provide for X amount of investment. It’s an easy, exciting way to support a new product and follow its progress.
Resources for your Website
14. WPBeginner
wpbeginner.com is one of my go-to websites whenever I need help with my own website set-up. It has articles covering pretty much any Wordress topic, a “how-to” video, step-by-step explanations and clear graphics, with an email newsletter roundup of recent articles. WPBeginner is definitely worth a visit if you’re new to setting up a Wordpress website. Its website explains that “WPBeginner is a free WordPress resource site for Beginners. WPBeginner was founded in July 2009 by Syed Balkhi. The main goal of this site is to provide quality tips, tricks, hacks, and other WordPress resources that allows WordPress beginners to improve their site(s)” [source: wpbeginner.com].
15. WPKube
wpkube.com is full of excellent reviews and tutorials about all things “WordPress”, including themes, plugins and web hosting. Each article explains its topic really clearly; never assuming that you already know a particular step. It’s perfect for the beginner (the Beginners Guide answers a wealth of WordPress questions) and, with tips & tricks, in-depth reviews and information, it’s great for the more advanced user too. “Founded by Devesh Sharma, the main goal of this site is to provide amazing information on anything and everything WordPress” [source: wpkube.com].
16. Yoast
yoast.com is a great resource whenever you need to learn more about website optimization. Head over to Yoast to read well-informed articles, subscribe to its newsletter and use the plugins, such as Yoast SEO (mentioned in my Website Journey blog). Yoast “… optimize websites. Not just one aspect of websites, but every aspect. We make websites more usable, easier to navigate, faster and more reliable. In other words: we make websites work. Not just for the owner, but for the visitor. The added bonus is that if you do all that right, a website becomes easier to find too” [source: yoast.com].
17. Smart Passive Income
smartpassiveincome.com is Pat Flynn’s blog covering everything you need to know about smart passive income which he describes as “building online businesses that take advantage of systems of automation that allow transactions, cash flow, and growth to happen without requiring a real-time presence” [source: smartpassiveincome.com]. Visit the website to find out more about Pat’s tips for smart passive income, his monthly earnings, as well as his brilliant podcast and free resources.
18. Build Your Tribe and The Chalene Show
chalenejohnson.com is Chalene Johnson’s website. She’s perhaps best known for her exercise videos, but in recent years has become an expert in the fields of passive income content conversion and life coaching. As well as her fitness work and online products and academies such as the Courageous Confidence Club, IG Impact, Smart Success and Marketing Impact, Chalene has two podcasts, Build Your Tribe and The Chalene Show, which you’ll find super helpful and interesting. Build Your Tribe deals with creating a virtual community, email list building and internet marketing on social media, whereas The Chalene Show deals with motivation, leadership, confidence, family, fitness and life coaching.
19. Canva
canva.com is a free website currently used by 4.6 million people worldwide, to create stunning designs for every occasion. It has many free images, backgrounds etc with others costing just a $1 or so, or you can choose to upload your own. From a complete beginner’s perspective, it’s very easy to work out how to create designs using the drag-and-drop system and then download your finished, professional-looking, product. The design tools that Canva offers are seemingly endless and there are plenty of stock photos, filters, fonts and template variants to suit any social media, website, email or document purpose. The designs are in your hands, so I’m sure you’ll be pleased with the result.
20. Campayn
campayn.com isn’t one of the most well-known email marketing systems, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less efficient and trustworthy. I chose to use Campayn for my sign-up forms, responsive email design and marketing as it offered the best value for money: it’s free for up to 2,000 contacts, 20,000 emails and 1 follow-up autoresponder with basic reporting. That’s plenty for a start-up website but if you have more contacts, or need to send unlimited emails and autoresponders then you can use one of Campayn’s reasonably priced monthly paid plans.
Bonus Resources
21. website disclaimer, privacy policy and cookie law
ictknowledgebase.org.uk, jamieking.co.uk and aboutcookies.org are the websites at which I found sample wording to use for the PeasOnToast.co.uk disclaimer and privacy (inc cookies) policy. The free sample wording is aimed at the UK market, which you should then adapt to fit your website’s purpose, as well as check that it’s relevant and abides with your local laws if outside of the UK.
22. AppSumo and SumoMe
AppSumo.com brings you free or heavily discounted innovative, creative and practical products to improve your output and your website. I recommend joining the email newsletter to keep up to date with its latest offers. SumoMe.com is an offshoot of AppSumo and offers good quality, free tools to grow your website traffic. Both websites have pro versions of AppSumo and SumoMe available but, unlike many websites, they still offer decent functionality if you choose to stay on the free plan.
What other resources would you recommend?