As I promised in an earlier post on Reviews Boss, I will be bringing some attention to free platforms and mini tools that can be used to help you get ahead with your web marketing endeavours. These are tools that aren’t deserving of a full review (usually because there is no paid option available) but are worth mentioning because they can really help you take your marketing to the next level.
Today we are looking at the hilariously-named Keyword Shitter.
This is one of the most basic looking tools I have ever seen:
It’s almost beautiful in its simplicity. Note the awesome toilet graphic as well. Lovely jubbly stuff right there.
So how do you find keywords with Keyword Shitter? It’s just too easy! Simply throw in your seed keyword(s) and hit the aptly-named “Shit Keywords!” button. You can leave this tool for hours and it will find keep scraping around to find more keywords. However, the bulk of the keywords will come very quickly:
Here’s a list of almost 4000 keywords based off my seed keyword that came back to me in under 1 minute:
The only other feature available is the positive and negative filter.
With the positive filter your list will be filtered down to only contain phrases that feature the keyword(s) you add. E.g. if I add the word desk into the box, here’s what happens:
Pretty self-explanatory, right?
And as you might expect, the negative filter will remove any line that features the keyword you want to filter out. So if I want to get rid of any keywords that contain the word “review” I would add that to the negative filter:
Keyword Shitter truly is a polished turd – and I mean that in the best possible way. It is something that costs nothing to use, works fantastically well, and can provide you with masses of long tail keyword variations in next to no time. Start incorporating its results into your keyword research campaigns (or adding them directly into your content as relevant phrases) and watch yourself rank for more terms and pull in more organic traffic.
This thing is free and better than Long Tail Pro … why wouldn’t you want to use it? Especially when you combine it with another free tool, which I’ll show you in another post soon.
Hey, how’s it going? Today we are here with a review of a very hot product in the personal development niche. Its called Chakra Activation System and it has really burst onto the scene recently. In terms of demand, its actually close to reaching the insane levels set by Manifestation Miracle (if you haven’t already, then make sure you read my Manifestation Miracle review here).
So as always, lets break it down. Firstly, what exactly is it? I have not really seen anything of this kind before, especially anything dealing with Chakra, as the name suggests.
The idea here is to improve your life through balancing and activating chakra. Its pretty different from anything else we have discussed here, that’s for sure.
Im not going to get into the controversial topic of whether chakra is real or if I think it exists. For the sake of this review, we are going to work on the basis of them existing, which Im sure is what you also think as you are reading this review for a reason, right?
If chakras are new to you, then you might want to check out this introductory guide here.
So, how much does this product cost? Well the price, as you probably guessed by now, is $47. With the original price apparently being $197, which is likely untrue and is only there to create a perception of you making huge savings.
With this product though, you do get some extra features. In fact, they have added in a few bonuses that come along with the base product. These include:
7 Yoga Positions That Heal & Tune Your Chakras
Chakra Money Meditation
Chakra Rainbow Meditation Audio
Pretty cool bonuses for sure, and they do well to expand on the base product. And the best thing about them is that you are getting them completely for free, as you only need to pay the initial $47 for the main product. That’s what I call a really good deal.
As always, below is a list of the things I liked about the product.
Well-made, professional product.
Lots of information and actionable advice about chakras.
Reasonable “sale” price.
And of course some stuff I disliked as well:
Chakra balancing/activation isn’t for everyone.
Quite a bit of “fluff”.
Online only product.
Requires a lot of focus and dedication … you can’t just jump around
Okay, lets get to the end of this. Straight to the point, is this thing worth buying at all?
Well interestingly, I would say yes. And I say this as a person who isn’t sure of the existence of Chakra or not. But regardless I still think there are a lot of benefits to be had from this product for sure.
If you are someone who is sceptical, but still wants to improve yourself, it can’t hurt to give this a try. Maybe you learn something new?
But if you are a person who believes in Chakra, or at least wants to check it out, I would strongly suggest giving this product a try. You can find it here.
Below I have included some screenshots from the Members Area, to help you get an even better idea of what you would potentially be buying.
Are you one of those people who loves designing, but can’t quite get to grips with the likes of Photoshop? Are you looking to take your website to the next level? Well, Canva could be the design service you are looking for.
While some of us are looking for the most powerful design software, there is no shame in admitting that we like the idea of shortcuts that still look great. If you are looking to make incredible infographics, website graphics, social media posts, posters, and much more, Canva might just have everything you need.
What Is Canva?
At this point you are probably wondering what Canva is, or you know and you just want me to get on with the article (if you do, feel free to skip ahead).
Canva is a design service that gives businesses, organisations and individuals a simple design platform that helps them to create professional looking quality graphic designs. It has a whole host of powerful design features that can make creating quality graphics easy.
Canva users have the option of over one million quality photographs, graphics and fonts, and there is even a paid version with more options for $12.95 a month ($9.95 a month if you buy a year subscription. We are going to get to the paid version later.
It’s design tools let you easily turn an idea into a stunning design, whether that is for your website, social media account or a physical product.
How Did Canva Start?
Canva’s story started in 2007 when Melanie Perkins was studying at the University of Western Australia. Melanie taught students how to use programs like Photoshop and InDesign, but found that many struggled with the complicated nature of some of these programs.
Melanie, Cliff Obrecht (co-founder) and some others got together to build a simple to use online design tool, that would go on to become Canva.
How Does Canva Work?
The first thing you will need to do is make an account on Canva, which is a straightforward process. There are various options for accounts from education to personal and business. You can sign up with your Facebook, Google, or email account, which makes it nice and easy.
Once you have created an account, you will be greeted by the homepage of Canva. This is where you can dive straight into making your designs from a blank page, or you can opt to follow a template.
Before you start, there are some other things you should take note of. The left side bar is where you will find all your account information and other information like designs that are shared with you, other templates and a place where you “create a team.”
The main page will also show a number of pre-made templates that you can customise, along with designs that you have previously made. Some of the templates include the following:
Social media
Presentation
Facebook post
Infographic
YouTube Channel Art
Poster
If you don’t want to use a template, you can start from a blank sheet and use your own customised dimensions.
Picking A Template
When you pick a template you will be taken to the design screen. This is where you can let your creative juices flow and is the heart of Canva.
As an example we chose a social media template. This comes in at 800×800 pixels and you will be greeted by a blank, white page on the design screen.
On the left of the screen you will have some pre-set templates you can drag and drop onto the blank page. You can modify this to your liking, from changing the text to pictures and everything in-between.
The other option is to search for graphics, images, vectors or text in the search bar. This will give you a range of options to choose from that you can simply drag and drop onto your design. You may notice that some things have a price next to them or a ‘pro’ sign. This is because they are either only available for Canva for Work members or at an additional cost. We will get to Canva for Work later in this review.
Starting from Scratch
If you want to start from scratch and not use a pre-set size or template, it’s as easy as entering the dimensions you want. You will once again be greeted by a blank white page, where you can drag and drop anything you want from the search section.
Uploading Your Own Images & Graphics
For those who don’t want to use the images, graphics and other bits and pieces Canva provides, you can upload your own. This gives you complete creative freedom over your project and it is as simple as selecting the ‘uploads’ tab, and then selecting the image you want.
In the ‘uploads’ tab you can see all the images you have uploaded to Canva already, and they are all available for any of your projects.
Finishing Your Design
When it gets to finishing your design, there are a few options you can choose from. If you simply want to download your creation, you will be given the option of downloading it as a JPEG, PNG, or PDF.
Another option is to share your design with other people (there is also an option that lets them edit it). You can also share it to your social media accounts and link it to your website or blog.
The last option is to make it public, so other Canva users can view your creation.
Other Things You Can Do with Canva
Make a Team
Canva gives you the option of creating a team of members, which makes it easier to share designs, folders and projects. Up to 50 people can be added into a team for free, with more being able to be added if you sign up for Canva for Work.
Build a Brand
Another feature of Canva is that it lets you build up a brand. This brand can be used to essentially ‘sell yourself’ and let other users see the amazing designs you have done.
We haven’t delved too deep into these features as what we really needed Canva for is to make some nice looking designs.
Is Canva Any Good?
At this point, you are probably thinking is Canva for me and is it any good? We have found that Canva is an excellent addition to our arsenal of design software. Is it the best? Certainly not, but it is great if we need to make a design quickly or a design that is relatively simple.
The intuitive drag-and-drop controls make adding, editing and removing elements on your canvas as easy as can be. This means that even the clueless will be able to produce some amazing designs relatively simply.
We managed to make this simple infographic for our website DogOPedia in a short timeframe, without any help from more complicated design tools.
While Canva makes designing easier, it is by no means only aimed at amateurs. We can see a real benefit for more experienced designers and the simplicity will keep you coming back for more every day.
Problems We Encountered
Canva is an excellent tool, but we have run into a few problems with it. When we made an infographic with an absolute ton of assets, we did find that Canva experienced some significant slowdown on the design page. The search functions and menus of Canva worked perfectly fine, but the slowdown was more than a bit irritating.
We tried this on a few different machines and internet connects, and found the result was the same on all of them.
Now, you could say that a program like Photoshop would be better suited for creating large infographics, but we wanted to see what Canva’s capabilities are.
Another problem we encountered was that lining up assets can be a bit of a pain occasionally; however, if you are keeping the design simple you shouldn’t have a problem.
The last issue we really want to cover is that it can feel a bit limited at times. Canva is a free to use program, so we can’t really knock it here, but it can be a bit frustrating when you really want to do something exciting.
All these issues are really just nit-picking in all honesty. Most users are not going to be making massive infographics and the limitations of the drag-and-drop system only show themselves on rare occasions.
How Does Canva Compare to Something Like Photoshop?
So we’ve discovered that Canva is an excellent, simple design tool that has a few drawbacks, but how does it compare to something more powerful?
Comparing Canva to Photoshop is interesting. While these two design tools are vastly different and can be used for very different designs, there is some crossover. Photoshop is undoubtedly more powerful and you can do so much more, but if you are just looking for something for social media pages or simple website graphics, Canva comes surprisingly close.
We found ourselves reaching for Canva in situations where we wanted to create quick, simple graphics that look pretty good. This shows that there is some merit to Canva’s simple approach and we see ourselves continuing to use the tool for a range of different designs.
Featured photo for our website Garage Dreams
When it gets to something more complicated, we were obviously choosing Photoshop, as it is so much more capable.
For those who lack any experience with more complicated programs like Photoshop, or are new to using design tools, Canva is an excellent place to start. It is free and you can master it in lightning speed compared to a program like Photoshop.
What About Other Alternatives to Canva?
Now, Photoshop isn’t really a direct comparison to Canva. It’s much more expensive and requires a lot more training, but what about design tools that are similar to Canva?
Admittedly, we haven’t tried that many, because between Photoshop and Canva we have everything we need. This is a testament to how good Canva is, and useful it is.
Other programs you may like to look at include Stencil, Snappa and DesignBold. There are even design tools specific to mobile systems like Desygner and Adobe Spark.
The main benefit of these apps is that they offer some new templates, graphics and images that you may not be able to find on Canva. All of their design tools are fairly similar, and they are all great for making some excellent looking designs.
While these other programs are excellent, we can’t say that they offer us much more to pull us away from Canva.
So What’s the Difference Between Canva, Canva for Work and Canva Enterprise?
The simple answer is, a lot. The three options all have their benefits and you can view the differences below.
Obviously, Canva for Work and the Enterprise version offer vastly more than the free version. The 1GB storage limitation of the free version can be quickly used up if you are regularly using Canva (although you can always delete designs).
Access to an extra 400,000 free photos, illustrations and templates is also handy, as sometimes it can be little bit difficult finding the right one in the free version.
The real benefit of Canva for Work is when it comes to working with other people on designs and if you need to regularly resize work as well. There are a few other differences as well like the ability to export designs as GIFs and upload your own custom fonts for your brand.
The Enterprise version offers all the bells and whistles of Canva for Work, but with a bit more for large teams of people. It is limited to teams consisting of more than 30 members and you’ll need to contact Canva for pricing.
Is Canva for Work Worth It?
Now, for the real question. Is Canva for Work worth the monthly subscription fee? At $12.95 a month or $119.40 a year, Canva for Work certainly isn’t going to break the bank, but you don’t want to waste your money as well.
If you are someone with a large stockpile of royalty free pictures and graphics, we personally don’t see a massive upside to Canva for Work. Additionally, those with design tools like Photoshop probably won’t see a massive benefit as well, although the 400,000 photos and illustrations can come in handy.
For those using Canva as their only design tool, Canva for Work is definitely a cut above the free version. It will let you create some tremendous designs and is so simple to pick up. We can definitely recommend it for people who want to improve their social media pages, websites and much more!
The great thing about Canva for Work is that you can try it for free for 30 days, to see if you like it.
Summing Up
Things We Like About Canva
It’s incredibly easy to use. The ability to quickly create good looking designs with little effort is a big plus in our minds. Canva can save you a lot of time and its simplicity means that anyone with half a brain could probably operate it. If you don’t want to learn to use complicated programs like Photoshop, this is the design tool for you.
Access to a wide range of photos and illustrations. The massive quantity of excellent images and graphics is a big plus of Canva. It is so handy being able to quickly search for particular vectors, photos or illustrations that look great. These can then be dragged and dropped into your design. For those who need a bit more, you can either pay for individual designs or subscribe to Canva for Work.
You can use it anywhere. The ability to create great looking designs from anywhere in the world is a great bonus. Sometimes we don’t have access to our own computers, but we can always get to Canva.
Setting up an account is easy. Making an account on Canva is dead simple. Either use your Facebook or Gmail account to speed up the process.
It’s great for teams. The ability to create a team of Canva users and then work together on designs is great.
You can use it to get exposure. While you are obviously going to get more exposure on other platforms, the ability to build your brand on Canva is great.
It’s fast and works well. We have only experienced a couple of hiccups when using Canva, and it has almost always been responsive and fast.
Great pricing for Canva for Work. If you need a bit more out of Canva, the paid version definitely adds a lot more for its small monthly or yearly cost.
Things We Don’t Like About Canva
It’s not great for large infographics or designs. If you have a lot going on in your design, Canva can begin to become a bit unresponsive and laggy. While this is annoying, you will have no trouble with less complicated designs.
The range of photos and illustrations in the free version can feel a bit limited. We can’t really complain here because its free, but we do find that good free photos and illustrations can be buried under a load of paid ones. With a bit of patience, you will probably be able to find something suitable for free. The other option is to pay for the designs individually or get Canva for Work.
Limited design tools compared to more complicated programs. Canva’s simple design tools are both a blessing and a curse. The drag and drop system can sometimes feel a bit limited and its harder to make something really special.
Conclusion
We are big fans of Canva. Not just because its free, but because it is genuinely useful and has helped us save time. The ability to create amazing designs with the simple drag and drop system is excellent.
Canva can really help those looking to improve their social media accounts, website or any other thing where they need great looking visual designs.
While Canva won’t replace more complicated designs tools, it is an excellent addition to our arsenal. It is used for more simple creations and when we don’t have access to programs like Photoshop. The great range of photos and illustrations also come in handy, and some may find that the paid version is worth it for that.
We don’t really have any major issues with Canva, and the ones we listed above are really just nit-picking. It is definitely worth checking out and we recommend you try out Canva for Work as well.
This is a bit of a departure from my usual content (reviews) but today I want to address something that might be of relevance to a number of readers of this blog – especially due to the popularity of my review of My Bitcoin Saver.
The question I’m going to ask in as simple and easy fashion as I possibly can is: “how to buy Bitcoin in New Zealand?”
Rather than bore you with some complicated guide, here are a few different ways you can buy Bitcoin in NZ, along with some pros and cons of each.
My Bitcoin Saver
This is the easiest service I have come across so far. After having tried a number of ways to purchase Bitcoin in NZ (NB I’m talking specifically here about Bitcoin and not other cryptos like Litecoin etc) I still believe that My Bitcoin Saver is absolutely the best way to get started with BTC in NZ.
Here’s how it works:
Register a My Bitcoin Saver account (go here to do so – it’s free)
Set up a wallet – something like blockchain.info will do
Use the unique deposit details given to you by My Bitcoin Saver to deposit anywhere from $20-200 NZD once per week (must be on a Monday) into their account.
On the Friday you will receive your Bitcoin, along with a nice text telling you how much you received.
Cryptopia is an NZ-based cryptocurrency exchange. It’s not one of the biggest ones, but it is growing and also has the benefit of giving you access to many different potential cryptocurrency investments (I use the word investment in the loosest possible sense, as most cryptos are completely speculative purchases, but there’s something fun in knowing that $20 worth of XYZ coin might be worth $10,000 in a few years time).
Cryptopia also makes it relatively easy to buy Bitcoin in New Zealand. Here’s how:
Follow their verification process (it involves submitting a picture of yourself holding NZ-legal ID, .e.g drivers licence)
Deposit money into the Cryptopia account using your unique details you will be provided with.
You will receive an equivalent amount (1:1 ratio) of something called NZDT – this is like a crypto token pegged to the NZD value.
Use NZDT to buy BTC on the NZDT/BTC exchange on Cryptopia.
Withdraw that BTC or buy other cryptos with it.
Reverse this process to withdraw your money.
Local Bitcoins
As the name sort of implies, this is a service that allows you to buy BTC in a marketplace environment from other people in your area. There are a number of NZ-based sellers on Local Bitcoins, and the platform is straightforward and easy to use.
Basically you just browse your area (NZ-wide or your city, e.g. Auckland) and then look for sellers. Sellers can set their own price, so it pays to shop around. But just like TradeMe, sometimes the lowest price isn’t necessarily the best – the risk for scams here is higher than the other two options I presented.
Different sellers will also have different processes for actually completing the sale and BTC deposit process, so be wary of this!
A couple of years, almost three years have passed since I first started using FPTraffic. Long story short, I’m still loving it. It’s still one of my favorite little tools out there. If you’re looking to run Facebook pages, probably not so much for clients because the scheduling and sort of collaboration element isn’t there, but if you’re looking to run Facebook pages for the purpose of building them up, driving traffic to affiliate offers or to an opt-in page or something like that … Basically if you’re doing more affiliate marketing approach with Facebook pages or building them up for personal interest, FPTraffic is a great tool.
There’s still a bit of development work going on with it. It could probably do with some refreshing, and I do believe there was supposed to be a professional version of FPTraffic being released at some stage, but that doesn’t seem to have come to fruition. The base tool for $10 U.S. a month. Not very expensive at all. It really is very helpful. When I think about a few Facebook pages I run, and I run quite a few of them, I’ve got a total audience of a billion, million likes across all the pages I manage now. It takes me no more than about five minutes a day to manage those pages using FPTraffic.
I don’t think I could have grown those pages the way I did without that tool. I’ve made some great commissions as an affiliate marketer, promoting products through those Facebook pages. Even despite the fact that Facebook organic reach, especially when you’re promoting things, is pretty poor these days. If you can get the numbers up and you can boost your engagement a bit … I’ll release some videos on how to do this on this channel. You can still have a fair crack at things. It’s probably not going to be a millionaire-maker as it were compared to some affiliate marketing methods, but if you’re looking for a way … A fun way that’s almost like a hobby that makes you some side money, building up niche Facebook pages is still a good way to go in my opinion.
I’ve used those Facebook pages I’ve built with FPTraffic to build really big Facebook groups. I’m seeing some real good results from groups, something else I’m going to discuss more on this channel as I start to launch more educational content focused on affiliate marketing as well as product reviews. Even the lessons I’ve learned from building up big pages with FPTraffic, I’ve applied to my client work on my consulting side and seen some very good results from it. Basically if you’re still considering FPTraffic in 2019, I think it’s worth it. $10 a month is a small price to pay for the fact that you can schedule with so many pages and so much content.
I use other tools like Buffer with my clients. They’re better if you want to collaborate and share across multiple platforms and all kinds of things, but for the purpose of simply building up some basic Facebook pages, FPTraffic is really good. You can then fall back on other direct integrations, like Facebook to Twitter. Post your Facebook page posts to Twitter, build up a Twitter following there. When you buy FPTraffic, there’s some guides around this stuff that are thrown in. I think it’s a great product still. It’s showing its age a little bit, but for the price you pay and the time and effort you save, it’s worth it.
Check out the link in the description below. That’ll take you to my full FPTraffic review, where I show you all the features of the product and talk about it in more detail. If you’re just looking for a high-level review, I can safely say that FPTraffic is worth the money. You don’t have to pay too much. It works well. It’s easy to use. You can do a lot of great things for your websites or Facebook pages, I should say. Yeah. If you want to check out more product reviews and learn more about how you can make money online from affiliate marketing or selling your own services, go to my website, reviewsboss.com. You can also check out my consulting website, samfrost.co.nz.
