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This is what I’m buying during Black Friday (for my $1.5m blog portfolio)

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Forrest

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Are you hanging in there? How many cups of coffee have you gobbled down this week?

I jest but I know the struggle of running a business during Black Friday. It’s basically the peak of the year, in many ways; you get big rewards while stress-testing your operation.

It’s interesting how our priorities change over the years, right? Before I started this journey, my BF shopping spree was a new laptop, maybe a few books.

Now I have 10 tabs open hunting for new keyword software, WordPress plugins, ESPs, etc. Black Friday is an opportunity to experiment with new products without breaking the bank.

I figured many of you might be in the same position. So, I’ve gathered everything I’ll be buying for my team and me, plus a couple of deals for tools I’ve been using daily for the last 5 years.

Take a look and let me know if you’ve found something that interests you 👇


1. Digitail (Service Packages for Blogs) Coupon – BLACKFRIDAY

I’ve met the owner, solid guy. And quite handsome. Ahem.

My agency joined the Black Friday dance for the first time. If you’re on the fence about working with us, now it’s time to hop on board – we have everything you need:

Use coupon code BLACKFRIDAY at checkout

1)  Get Content (25% OFF)

Increase your posting frequency with SEO-optimized blog posts from a pool of writers with 5+ years of experience. Save up to $350 👈

2) Get Backlinks (15% OFF)

Land traffic-inducing links in niche relevant websites – vetted and trusted. First link for $100 👈

3) Content Management (15% OFF for life)

Delegate your content strategy to us. From research and SEO to writing and uploading. Take the deal today – take advantage of it for life 👈

4) Affiliate Content Kickstarter (15% OFF)

Grow a second stream of income by taking advantage of your pre-existing traffic. Product reviews, powerful CTAs, unique design elements for CRO. Publish content that converts 👈

5) Website Operator (10% OFF for life)

You give us a bare-bones blog and we’ll take it to the stars, while filling your pockets. Take the deal today – take advantage of it for life 👈

6) Turnkey Affiliate Websites (15% OFF)

Full-blown website with keyword research, starter content (up to 100k words), 10+ permanent backlinks, and more. Save up to $1500 (that’s right) 👈

Tip: You can initiate your orders up to two months from the day you made the purchase. Don’t feel like you HAVE to use our services right now 😉


2. WPX Managed Hosting (Optimize your WordPress Hosting)

WPX Managed Hosting

I use WPX for pretty much ALL of my websites. And I wish I’d made the jump from the get-go. They’re just great, what else can I say? You’ll see major improvements in speed, plus error-free 99.95% uptime.

If you’re struggling to make WordPress work for your blogs, check out their BF offer:

  • From 5 and up to 35 websites
  • 15 GB to infinite storage
  • 200 GB to infinite bandwidth
  • Free malware removal
  • Free fixes even if site is offline
  • Site Speed Optimization
  • 30-day Money-Back Guarantee

(+ like a million other free goodies like SSL certificate, custom CDN, automatic backups, etc)

You can give it a shot for 3 months. See how you like it.

But in my opinion, the best way to use this offer is to grab their yearly deal right now, wait till January or February, and then start using it.

It’ll make the transition smoother in my opinion. 👉 Here’s their yearly offer

3. Depositphotos (Royalty Free Photos for Life)

Depositphotos

This one is a life and time saver. I publish close to a million words per month across 15+ websites – you can imagine how many photos I need!

The cool thing is that their database isn’t filled with generic stuff. You can find these oddly specific pics and a bunch of design elements/vectors that make each blog post pop.

Yesterday, I stacked 3 codes but I’ll probably add more. From that alone I get:

  • 195+ million photos
  • Choose 300 of them for instant download
  • For $177 instead of $1500

Yes, now that I reread what I wrote I’ll get more for sure 😅

I found the deal through AppSumo.

👉 Check it out here

(The code system is a bit awkward at first. You just get 100 photos per code basically)

4. NeuronWriter (SurferSEO Alternative)

NeuronWriter

Not an SEO genius, so I need all of the assistance I can get. SurferSEO is effective for NLP entities and semantic SEO… BUT!

It gets expensive if you’re producing a lot of volume. My team and I started looking for alternatives without sacrificing results.

Disclaimer: I’m still testing things out with NeuronWriter. My thinking is that I’ll supplement SurferSEO with it.

👉 Grabbed 3 codes through AppSumo. The same package would cost $2,500/year with SurferSEO.

5. Jasper.ai (The BEST AI software on the market right now)

Jasper

In 5-10 years, the blogosphere will be filled with AI-generated content. That’s inevitable. It’s why I’ve made a conscious effort to experiment and figure out how to claim a piece of the future-pie.

One of my most recent seeds has been a blog that relies heavily on AI; you can check out the case study showing how it grew from 100 to 6,399 sessions in 4 months.

This was possible through Jasper. No other software has come close to what this bad boy can do with a few cleverly-crafted prompts.

  • Super intuitive to use
  • Smooth editor
  • Built-in templates
  • Image generator (haven’t tried it yet)
  • Multiple users (great for a team)

Given I’ll expand this experiment, launching at least 2 more websites in the coming months, I’m on the lookout to grab any deal I can get my hands on.

With Jasper Black Friday deal, you can save upto $1000, plus get a few more bonuses:

👉 Grab the deal here

6. ConvertKit (Launch your Newsletter)

ConvertKit

Start collecting emails from day 1. There, I said it.

I find it mind-boggling that some blogs get millions of visitors every year and yet they don’t have a system in place to capture their emails…

And then I realized that the owners don’t know where to begin.

If you have a smallish blog, with a few 100 names in your list, go free. MailChimp is great for that.

But, if you own more than one website, perhaps you want to sell a product or promote an affiliate offer, my recommendation is ConvertKit all the way.

$199 for the whole year is solid in my opinion.

  • Free landing pages and forms
  • Up to 1,000 subscribers
  • Automated email sequences

Everything you need to get going.

(If you want help sending your first email, they have a bunch of training videos available. Or contact support, they’re happy to help)

7. Bluehost (Host your small projects)

Bluehost

Bluehost was the first hosting provider I ever tried. I’ve since grown my portfolio and switched over to WPX.

But they have a domain limit. The workaround is to plant the seeds through Bluehost and if I notice potential, I add the new domains to WPX.

BH is like the staging area. And it’s DIRT CHEAP.

👉 You get to run a website for like $36 if you grab their Black Friday deal

8. WP Rocket (Optimize Speed for CWV)

WP Rocket

I’ll be honest. After last year’s Core Web Vitals update, I kinda freaked out about loading time and these kinds of metrics.

You can do everything right but if a potential visitor has to wait for more than 4s, they hit X and move on.

Out of everything I tried, WP Rocket seems to work the best since Jonathan and Jean-Baptiste, the co-founders, understand what Google wants.

(It’s also rare to receive frequent updates for a WordPress plugin)

👉 Get it here (hefty discount)

You’ll notice improvement overnight. Plug in and let the… plugin go to work.

9. SEMRush (No Introduction Needed…)

SEMRush

Everyone knows SEMRush. SEO tools, market research, content marketing, yadda yadda.

Plainly speaking, for a business owner relying on research SEMRush will do a lot of the heavy lifting.

The only issue is that it’s expensive. $449-per-month expensive. I’ll gladly pay that much, plus that much more!

👉But if you’re a newcomer, they’ll give ya 40% off.

Huh, generous (I’m jealous). Best deal to get your feet wet, learn the platform, see if it’ll help your blog(s).

10. Cloudaways (To keep high-priority websites running forever)

Cloudaways

This is for my Big Bad Blogs that need to be up 24/7 or I’m losing money.

Even if you’re new to cloud hosting, their digital environment is fairly easy to use. And they have experts to manually help you migrate over there.

Their packages include:

  • Free SSL
  • Free Migration
  • Advanced Caches
  • HTTP/2 Enabled Servers
  • SSH and SFTP Access

+++ more

Check them out for yourself.

👉 You get 40% off for the first 4 months


That’s my shopping cart for this Black Friday.

Many of these deals happen every year so I know what to look for. But some of them (like the NeuronWriter) I found by accident, even though I use their product.

Anyway. I’m curious to know what you’ve found. Do share in the comments or shoot me an email 👇


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This is what I’m buying during Black Friday (for my $1.5m blog portfolio)

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Are you hanging in there? How many cups of coffee have you gobbled down this week? I jest but I know the struggle of running a business during Black Friday. It’s basically the peak of the year, in many ways; you get big rewards while stress-testing your operation. It’s interesting how our priorities change over ... Read more