15 Handy Google Chrome Apps You Can Use Offline

A lot of us take our work (and live our lives) online now and the scariest thing that could happen is losing the Internet connection that we depend on so much! In situations like these, it’s great to have useful applications that work offline. These don’t necessarily have to be computer applications though â€" they can also be Google Chrome applications.

Chrome Apps, not to be confused with Chrome Extensions, are often just bookmarks that take you to a Web service. Other times, they’re full-blown applications built exclusively for Google Chrome. One of the best things about Chrome Apps is that many of them have the ability to run offline.

Recommended Reading: 10 Interesting Google Chrome Experiments (Games) You Should Try

So if you happen to be in a situation where you have no Internet, here are 15 Chrome Apps that can keep you going, until you get reconnected.

1. Jolidrive

Jolidrive is a powerful app that lets you access all of your cloud data from a single location. Jolidrive supports: Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, SkyDrive, Flickr, Instagram, Picasa, Vimeo, YouTube, SoundCloud, Facebook, Google+, Tumblr, Instapaper, Pocket, and Readability â€" all in one place.

2. Writebox

If you like a distraction-free environment when writing or blogging, Writebox is an offline text editor that syncs with Dropbox, and automatically saves your work as you write. You can also load documents directly from Dropbox for editing. It’s simple and looks great in fullscreen mode. You may also like QwikNote and Litewrite, which are two very similar distraction-free offline text editors.

3. MomoNote

MomoNote is a personal memo application that can serve as a private diary, personal journal, or just a place to jot down your notes and ideas. If you’re using the iPad or iPhone version, this Web version can sync with the mobile versions and via your Google account.

4. Task Timer

If you need help managing your time, for example, keeping track of how much time you waste on your social networks, Task Timer can help you manage your time better, by showing you how you are spending your precious 24 hours. You can also add goals to your tasks, and get desktop notifications with sound.

5. Gmail Offline

Need access to your gmail offline? This is the app for you. It lets you check your inbox, respond to messages, and compose messages while offline. Once you’re back online, it will send out any messages that you have in your outbox. The app also automatically syncs messages and queued actions when get back online and run Chrome.

6. Scribble

Scribbles is described as "stickies on steroids." With it, you can create sticky notes on a single Chrome tab and access them whenever you like. It’s a great way to organize your quick thoughts, ideas, reminders, tasks and more.

7. SocialBro

SocialBro is a great Twitter CRM dashboard that’s especially great for social media and community managers. It includes analytics reports, Twitter list management, competitor analysis, hashtag and keyword monitoring, advanced search, filters, and more.

8. OrganizeMe!

OrganizeMe lets you manage your Springpad account offline, via a stylish, organized dashboard. You can manage all your notes, lists, browser bookmarks, to-dos, recipes etc, you save to Springpad. You can also import your data from Evernote and Google Note, and manage it all from a single location.

9. Quick Note

Quick Note is just that: a quick way to take notes in Chrome. The app is lightweight and can be used as a notepad, scratchpad, clipboard, or as a way to create to-do lists. Quick Note lets you sync your notes to the cloud, but you can still make notes when it is offline.

10. Read Later Fast

Read Later Fast, another Chrome app by Diigo, is another personal favorite of mine. It lets you save pages to be read later, whether you’re online or offline. It’s also a great way to eliminate the issue of having too many tabs. You can save pages via right-click or a customizable keyboard shortcut.

Bonus: 5 More Apps

Color Piano!

If you get too bored while being offline, you can use this app to learn the piano. Much like the old-school game Simon Says, Color Piano uses colors to teach you songs; there’s no need for sheet music.

Planetarium

If you’re into astrology, you’ll love Planetarium. It’s an interactive sky map that lets you explore the stars and planets. You can see over 1500 stars, up to a magnitude of +5.

Webcam Toy

Webcam Toy is an app tailor-made for webcam users. You can use it to take photos and add over 70 fun effects to them. From there you can save them to your computer, or share them on Twitter and Facebook once you’re back online.

M.easur.es

This app lets you convert recipe measurements within seconds â€" without all the extra work and frustrating manual calculations.

Scientific Calculator

The Scientific Calculator app is great for simple as well as advanced calculations. Not only is the calculator programmable, but it also lets you save scripts online and into a local library.

Do you use Chrome apps that run offline? If so, which ones are you using? Let us know in the comments.

20+ Monetization Tools For Your Blog

Editor’s note: This is a contributed post by Ankit, co-founder of AdPushup, an A/B testing & website optimization app for Publishers. Ankit is also a programmer, online marketer, webmaster & growth hacker. He loves traveling and learning new languages.

Having a hard time monetizing your blog? After spending hours every week planning, writing and posting great content, it can be disappointing to not make any serious amount of money from all your effort. The good news is improving your blog’s monetization and converting it into a moneymaking machine isn’t too hard â€" if you have the right tools.

We’ve gathered a list of the top 20+ tools to improve monetization on your blog. Alongside each tool are the pros and cons (nothing’s perfect) of using these tools. This will help you to decide if the tool is the right tool for your objectives and site goals.

Recommended Reading: 20 Advertising Networks To Monetize Your Mobile App

Do share your thoughts or reviews of these tools in the comments section to help aid fellow readers in making their choices. Here are shortcuts to help you get to your preferred section faster:

Display Related Content

An easy way to improve both your monetization and provide relevant content to your traffic is to join a program that displays related content. You’ve probably seen these around the Internet already. They’re designed to look like part of the site, making them much less off-putting to visitors than normal advertising.

However, there are a few things you need to have to qualify for most related content programs. One, your blog has to receive a good amount of traffic (if you’re going to make any money through clicks) and B, you also usually require a PayPal account to receive payments.

NRelate

NRelate is one of the most popular related content networks. Premium publishers like CNet, Gamespot and CBS Sports use NRelate.

Pros:

• Articles served to visitors are usually very relevant to the traffic. This means you’ll be more likely to have your users click through to the related articles (and thus earn you money).
• Always shows an image (even if it’s just a generic symbol), even if you don’t supply one yourself.
• Easier to customize from within your WordPress plugin.

Con:

• Publisher network much smaller as compared to Outbrain and other networks

Outbrain

Featuring top-tier sites like CNN and Rolling Stone, Outbrain is one of the leading content networks. Outbrain allows you to both promote your own articles and build revenue by showing Outbrain network articles on your site.

Pros:

• Large Publisher and Advertiser network results in better payouts.
• Webmasters have reported a quick and helpful support team.

Cons:

• You have no control over the thumbnail size.
• Some have reported the initial “key claiming” process as buggy.

Taboola

Taboola is an upcoming content network, offering a service very similar to the two above. It is relatively new, but some large publishers have recently shifted from other networks to Taboola. Currently, it is serving more than 3 billion content recommendations daily.

Pros:

• Claims a very sophisticated discovery and recommendation engine, which gets much higher CTRs than other competitors, since the content is more relevant. A lot of customers, who A/B tested between different networks, confirmed this.
• A detailed analytics dashboard provides insights about the content performance.

Con:

• Less control over what you want to show on your website.

Ad Server

Simply put, ad server is the technology that allows you to display ads on your website. Normally websites can make much more money directly selling banner space or ad space than using ad networks. So, with an Ad Server you can easily manage your ad inventory and keep your advertisers happy. Here are some reasons why getting your own ad server is a good idea:

• You have more control over which ads appear on your site. Most ad servers allow you to choose tags relevant to your site instead of relying on them to choose ads for you.
• You have greater accountability over your ads since the software to track ad performance is on your site.
• Like tracking ad performance, having your own ad server will also provide better ad insights. This will allow you to track performance and adjust your inventory accordingly.

ADTECH

Although ADTECH tends to be geared more for larger sites, its features like live testing, user tracking and other add-ons will make it easy to increase monetization (if you have the right site).

Pros:

• Simple and flexible tagging system that makes it easy to have the right ads appear.
• Good presence in European markets.
• Able to integrate with any preferred ad network, making it versatile.

Con:

• Might be a little too advanced for new users. If you don’t keep track of your tags, you could find your interface getting really cluttered.

Oasis

An open-source option, Oasis requires a little more savvy on the part of the site owner to run. It features many premium tools and settings, making it ideal for power users.

Pros:

• Allows you to run your own server with minimal processing power.
• Free, so you don’t need to pay any monthly fee to use it.

Con:

• Requires customization (and a web developer) to get it properly running with your system.

AdZerk

AdZerk is an ad serving platform, which features a very simple and easy to use user interface. It is currently being used by websites like Reddit & StackOverflow. Oh and it is free for up to 100 million impressions.

Pros:

• Very easy to configure and use, making it ideal for new website owners.
• No long-term commitments, and great support staff. One of the fastest ad servers on the market.

Con:

• Ads tend to appear on sites aimed at a specific demographic that may not match your site.

A/B Testing

Do you know that by A/B testing different ad locations, sizes and ad themes you can increase your ad revenue manifold? It works on a very simple model. Different variations of your page are created with different ad locations, sizes and designs. Traffic is then split between these variations to see which variation works best.

Optimizely

Designed to make A/B testing simple and easy, Optimizely is use by both large sites and small ones in determining what works best as far as monetization is concerned. Featuring easy-to-use testing setup, you can track engagements, opt-ins, signups, conversions and more.

Pros:

• A very simple and easy to understand UI.
• You can decide how to split traffic between variations.

Mynaweb

A newer A/B split testing service, Mynaweb uses “multi armed bandit algorithms” to test your site. This gives you faster results, allowing you to test for shorter periods of time. It can also automatically filter out variants that perform poorly, making it easy have the best version running at any given time.

Pros:

• Faster testing means faster results.
• Runs your optimized page sooner than with other A/B testing options.

Con:

• Can be complicated for non-technical users, as they don’t offer a WYSIWYG Editor.

AdPushup

(Disclaimer: I’m a co-founder) Different from the two options above, AdPushup is the first A/B testing tool for Publishers; with it, you can easily create A/B testing experiments for ads like Adsense. You can see how different ad locations, sizes and ad themes perform on your website put the testing on auto-pilot mode. Your visitors behavior on the site will be constantly measured and changes will be made to the ad placement automatically to get the best RPM (revenue per thousand impressions).

Pros:

• Gives you lots of options to customize how your ads will appear
• A/B testing lets you find the most profitable ad placement (and type) on your site.

Con:

• Still in beta mode at the time of writing.

Heatmaps

When you know how users are interacting with your site, you can determine whether your design, layout, and ad locations are effective. The better you know what your users do, the more you’ll be able to optimize your site for ad placement and other monetization tools. Heatmaps show what your users do when they’re on your site.

Crazy Egg

One of the most popular heatmap tools, Crazy Egg has a wide variety of options and tools for you to fully understand how users interact with your site. It can show you where your visitors have clicked in a single overlay, letting you analyze a lot of data at once.

Pros:

• Comprehensive information about your visitors. Gives you data on every interaction but has great summaries to make it easy to know which parts of your site are working and which aren’t.
• Also offers Confetti and scroll maps.

Cons:

• Sometimes it is hard to know what actions to take with the data.

Mouse Flow

Like its name implies, Mouse Flow allows you to track and analyze your website visitors’ mouse movement. The best part is it works in real-time. This means Mouse Flow allows you to virtually look over your visitor’s shoulders and watch what they do to better understand visitor behavior.

Pros:

• Watch what your customers do and know exactly how they interact with your site.
• Gives you accurate, reliable information on their activities allowing you to record and replay visitor’s mouse movement.

Con:

• Some Internet users have expressed privacy concerns especially about the recording of the visitor’s session â€" keystrokes & mouse flow.

Cannoli

If you’re looking for something open-source and free, Cannoli may be your solution. Unfortunately, it appears active development on Cannoli has stopped, but existing versions of this software can still be installed on your site if you want a free heatmap solution.

Pros:

• Open-source, modify as you like.
• Free of cost.

Cons: Hasn’t been updated since a very long time.

Monetize Bounce Traffic

One of the hard truths about blog traffic is that a large part of your visitors will “bounce,” meaning they leave without opening a second page on your website. New, innovative products which try to stop your users from bouncing have emerged to give you a second chance to earn from your visitors.

WP Bounce

WP Bounce: A lot of times, search engines may send not-so-relevant traffic your way, for example, readers hoping to buy a Halloween costume may land on your webpage about creating a Halloween costume. This is where WP bounce comes into action. It will understand this and before the back button is pressed, it will pull and display relevant products from amazon, with your affiliate code, of course.

Pros:

• Easy to install and set up.
• Works very well when monetizing search traffic.
• In-depth analytics showing searches, impressions, CTR, etc.

Cons:

• Requires your site to be build with WordPress to work.
• You also need to be an Amazon reseller to be able to use it.

Bounce Exchange

A truly impressive technology, Bounce Exchange installs software on your site that tracks customer mouse movement in real time. The nanosecond your customers move their cursor off your site to close the window or visit a different site, a message will pop up which gives your visitors another chance to give you their email, get a discount on a product, and more. This service is expensive, but for the right site, it’s definitely worth it.

Pros:

• They have built traction very quickly and are featured on many popular websites.
• Strong Exit intent technology.

Con:

• You need a large budget for this â€" several thousand dollars per month, so only for enterprise customers.

Optinmonster

A fully-featured tool that helps to dramatically reduce your bounce rate, Optinmonster boasts a short setup time and the ability to have a customizable anti-bounce strategy. You create optins, determine when they’ll appear, and let it run.

Pros:

• Allows you to A/B test different forms.
• Page level targeting for customizing message shown to visitors.

Con:

• Since it is a WordPress plugin, works only with WordPress.

Read Also: Guide To A/B Testing With Google Website Optimizer

Monetize CAPTCHA

Do you know that it takes an average of 14 seconds for people to solve CAPTCHAs? Monetize CAPTCHA services take advantage of this by placing ads in the CAPTCHA puzzles. If your site uses CAPTCHAs frequently, you could earn money every time a user solves one of these puzzles.

SolveMedia

Used by many major sites, SolveMedia requires users to answer specific questions and type in brand phrases to solve the CAPTCHA.

Pros:

• Some bloggers have reported better payouts as compared to other networks.
• Solve Media claims its CAPTCHAs can be solved more quickly than others.

Con:

• Some users feel that replacing text with an advertisement and a related question is too invasive.

Confident CAPTCHA

Confident CAPTCHA makes your visitor try drag-and-drop puzzles that mentally engage the people solving the CAPTCHA. Since this makes the brand message or advertisement much more memorable, these kinds of CAPTCHAs can be very profitable if you have the right traffic.

Pros:

• Easy to install.
• Allows you to customize the CAPTCHA skin to match your website.

Con:

• Some compatibility issues reported by users, especially who have WP Multisite.

NLPCaptcha

NLPCaptcha provides users with a variety of puzzle types to keep them engaged when solving. This helps improve recall. You earn money every time a user solves a CAPTCHA, and it also dramatically improves the user experience on your site.

Pros:

• A wide range of puzzles offered.
• They also offer Fill-in and N-gage captcha.

Con:

• Payouts per CAPTCHA are lower than other networks.

Affiliate Marketing Solutions

Do you often feature product reviews on your blog? By joining affiliate programs, you can earn money whenever your website visitor buys a product you featured. This is especially great if you have a site dedicated to product reviews.

ShareASale

With a huge directory of merchants to choose from, ShareASale is about as easy as it comes. Simply find a product or service you want to highlight on your blog, and then add the appropriate link and button to your site. ShareASale has been around for a while, and it’s a well-respected affiliate network.

Pros:

• Easy-to-use interface that make it simple to promote a product (and earn commissions).
• A good network, if your audience is primarily webmasters.

Con:

• Not a very large affiliate network and sometimes you won’t find products for certain niches.

Amazon Associates

Through this service isn’t available in all regions yet (it’s primarily a US program), Amazon Associates allows you to simply link to Amazon sales pages using custom URLs. Any products your visitor buys after clicking your URL will give you credit for the sale, earning you a percentage of the income. Since Amazon has millions of products and makes billions in annual revenue, it’s a convenient way to improve blog monetization.

Pros:

• Allows you to sell any product listed on Amazon.com and get a commission.
• Since Amazon has high trust and authority, conversions are more likely.

Con:

• The biggest issue is that it is primarily a US only program.

ClickBank

Very popular with internet marketers, ClickBank has a high variety of products that you can choose to promote. Simply find a product, apply to become an affiliate, and then promote that product to your visitors. Every time one of your visitors buys a product, you get a share of the commission. ClickBank allows its affiliates to see which products are performing well and which aren’t, allowing you to choose products that have a higher likelihood of selling on your site.

Pros:

• Lots of products to choose from thousands of niche.
• Clickbank Marketplace itself attracts a large volume of traffic.
• They have a great history of helping Internet marketers make millions.

Cons:

• Some people have reported delay in product approvals and higher than normal refund rates.
• They don’t approve list building products.

Membership Sites

Finally, if you have proven your expertise as a blogger, you may be able to sell members-only content on your site. This members-only access to premium content gives your visitors an incentive to pay for a monthly site subscription. As many online business owners know, subscriptions are an easy way to collect recurring payments and therefore is a reliable income you can count on for your blogging efforts.

Premise

A powerful WordPress tool from Copyblogger Media, Premise makes setting up membership sites easy and convenient. It’s a one-time charge, so a single investment can go a long way in building a network of membership sites.

Pros:

• Comes with over 1100 graphics you can use to make your landing pages attractive and easy to navigate.
• Also includes copywriting templates to make it easy to sell your product.
• Allows you to easily create members-only access areas.

Con:

• Premise landing page editor somewhat cumbersome to use. No live editor.

Wishlist Member

Another simple solution that’s popular for many bloggers, Wishlist Member allows you to easily create membership sites with a variety of content. Although it doesn’t play as well with other plugins such as Premise, it’s still an easy, “out-of-the-box” option for setting up members-only access.

Pros:

• Provides unlimited membership levels.
• Allows you to deliver content gradually, integrates with your current WordPress site.
• Members management panel designed well.

Cons:

• Not a standalone theme. Adds onto an existing site instead of providing templates, landing pages, etc.

Optimizepress

With its recent update Optimizepress has become a powerful plugin that can work with your existing WordPress theme instead of replacing your current site’s appearance. This has convinced many users to make the switch from other membership site tools.

Pros:

• You can install it on top of your current WordPress theme â€" no new software needed.
• You can also create attractive landing pages, signup forms, and more with its easy-to-use interface and in-built features.
• Great customer support.

Con:

• Limited templates (without paying for an upgrade to the Optimizepress Club)

If you’ve been trying to improve the income you make from your blog, I’m sure the tools I mentioned above will help. Look into the options that will best fit with your site and see how you can improve monetization on your blog today. Good luck!

20 Places To Spend your Bitcoins

If you’re a follower of technology or business websites, you’ve probably heard of Bitcoin. Bitcoin is a digital peer-to-peer currency famed for its anonymity, independence from centralized authority and its high value. At the time of writing, one Bitcoin, or BTC, is valued at $1000.

While Bitcoin may carry the impression of not-so-legal use such as its relation to the Silk Road as well as gambling websites, the growing popularity of Bitcoin has seen a large number of legitimate businesses opening up to the digital currency.

(Image Source: CoinDesk)

Whether it’s new enterprises looking to cater to Bitcoin enthusiasts, or already-existing businesses adapting to the market, there’s no shortage of legitimate places for you to spend your Bitcoins. Here’s a list of 20.

Recommended Reading: 10 Things You Need To Know About Bitcoins

University Of Nicosia, Cyprus

The University of Nicosia in Cyprus recently announced that they would begin accepting Bitcoins as payment for tuition and other fees. This makes the University of Nicosia the first university in the world to accept Bitcoins as payment.

BitcoinStore

BitcoinStore is an online marketplace that sells a variety of electronic gadgets, at prices cheaper than sites such as Amazon and NewEgg. BitcoinStore offers international shipping, albeit with a few exceptions that are listed in its FAQ.

BitPremier

BitPremier is a luxury Bitcoin-only marketplace, where you can find anything from high-performance sports cars to works of art and even real estate.

Gyft

Gyft lets you buy, recieve, redeem and send digital gift cards for over 200 retailers, including Amazon, Sears, Target and GameStop. The best thing? You can buy these gift cards using Bitcoins.

Coingig

Coingig is an online marketplace that conducts its transactions solely in Bitcoins. You can find everything from books to t-shirts to gift vouchers on Coingig. International shipping, as with similar online marketplaces, will depend on individual sellers.

BitFash

BitFash acts as an intermediary, allowing you to buy fashion items from Fashion21 and ASOS using Bitcoins, with more brands coming soon.

CoinMap

CoinMap is a map of more than 900 (at the time of writing) Bitcoin-friendly businesses all across the world, including restaurants, pubs, cafes and bakeries. Some examples include Pembury Tavern in London, Tabita Bakery in Mexico City, and a Subway franchise in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

PizzaForCoins

PizzaForCoins allows you to order from any nearby Domino’s, Pizza Hut or Papa Johns. Pay in Bitcoins to PizzaForCoins, and they’ll order your pizza(s) for you. PizzaForCoins is currently available for United States and Australian customers only; the United Kingdom service is currently offline, while a Canadian service is "coming soon."

the Swiss Pharmacy

The Swiss Pharmacy provides high-quality medicine, both branded and generic. The Swiss Pharmacy accepts Bitcoins alongside traditional money, and will ship worldwide, with some exceptions that are listed on the website.

Young Pioneer Tours

Young Pioneer Tours operates budget group and individual tours to North Korea (including the Rason Special Economic Zone) and other parts of the world tourists often avoid. Prices on the website are listed in Euros, but Young Pioneer Tours accepts Bitcoins.

All Things Luxury

All Things Luxury carries a large selection of jewelry, including rings, necklaces, bracelets, earrings and cuff links. Prices are not listed in Bitcoin, but you have the option of paying with Bitcoins at checkout.

Virgin Galactic

Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic venture, which aims to promote space tourism, recently announced that it had begun accepting Bitcoins as payment for their suborbital space flights.

CheapAir

CheapAir recently announced that they would begin to accept Bitcoin as a way to pay for flights. CheapAir intends to eventually allow you to book hotels and flights using Bitcoin via their iOS app.

TravelForCoins

TravelForCoins acts as a middleman between you and travel sites such as Expedia; you pay in Bitcoins to TravelForCoins, who will pay for your flights using standard currency. Your tickets will be put under the names you provide to TravelForCoins.

BitcoinCommodities

BitcoinCommodities sells gold and silver coins, bars and sheets. As the name suggests, it accepts Bitcoin payments. Orders ship internationally, either from Germany or drop-shipped from the USA.

BitBrew

BitBrew sells a variety of coffees to customers all around the world, exclusively using Bitcoins. Coffees are roasted the day before delivery.

Kickass Kombat

Kickass Kombat sells Japanese martial arts weapons, clothing, DVDs, gifts and accessories. They ship worldwide, and accept payments in Bitcoin.

Nestorgames

Nestorgames is an independent board game manufacturer with a large selection of board games to choose from. Bitcoins can only be used to purchase bundles; Bitcoin purchases get a 10% discount on the price of the bundle.

BooshWorks

BooshWorks offers both discount and full-service printing, including screen, offset and wide format printing. They accept both USD and Bitcoin.

Wholly Hemp

Wholly Hemp manufacture and sell skin care products made from hemp seed oil. 25% of their proceeds go to charity. Prices are not listed in Bitcoin on the site, but you can pay using Bitcoins at checkout.

Ultimate Gift Guide For Digital Artist

If you ever delved into the world of digital artists, you will know the word ‘hardworking’ is never enough to describe their effort. Not only do they have to keep improving their skills in order to triumph, the cost of the tools they need could always put them into the state of starvation (and I’m only half-joking). Art burns money. So if you have plans to help out a fellow digital artist friend, we have for you the ultimate gift guide.

(Image Source: Pogo Connect)

In this list you will find 50 down-to-earth products â€" hardware, software, apps, books and courses â€" will be the ideal gift(s) for a digital artist. Help them upgrade their skills, gain new insights, or be more productive, and with comfort in mind .Let us know your favorite.

Read Also: 26 Advanced Digital Painting Tutorials To Greatly Elevate Your Art

Here are shortcuts to let you skip to the section you want:

Hardware & Accessories

Intuos Pen and Touch Tablet (Small). Formerly Wacom Bamboo, Wacom Intuos Pen and Touch tablet is perfect for digital artist wannabe to discover the world of digital painting. [$99.00]

Intuos Pro Pen and Touch Tablet (Small). Intended for the experienced artist, Intuos Pro is built with 2048 levels of pen pressure sensitivity and better control panel, and with the purchase you also get a set of nibs that mimic traditional brushes. [$249.00]

Cintiq 13HD Pen Display. Wacom surprised the world months ago by releasing Cintiq 13 HD, the most affordable luxurious graphic tablet with interactive pen display, allowing artists to draw on screen like they do on paper. [$1379.99]

Cintiq 22HD Pen Display. Cintiq 22HD is the dream of every digital artist. Not only does it have all the features of the Intuos and Cintiq family, this gigantic tablet also allows you to adjust its position for your comfort. [$1999.00]

Bamboo Feel Stylus. Unlike most affordable stylus, the best thing about Bamboo Feel stylus is that it comes with pressure sensitivity, allowing you to draw and paint dynamically on the tablet surface. [$39.95]

Wacom Inkling Digital Sketch Pen. This magical pen has the ability to let you draw on paper, then transform your physical sketch into a compatible digital format, but mind you, it’s purely intended for sketching, so its accuracy is not up to production standards. [$99.00]

Bamboo Stylus Mini. If you prefer mobility over all, Bamboo Stylus Mini could follow you everywhere. You could even attach it to your tablet or smartphone’s audio jack â€" that’s what its strap is for! [$9.95]

Sensu Artist Brush and Stylus. Imagine painting on a tablet with a… brush! Sensu can make this a reality for you. [$39.99]

Jot Touch 4. You deserve a great product if you are wiling to fork out a premium price. Jot Touch 4 features 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity, and a palm rejection feature which ignores hand movement on the touchscreen (talk about usability)! [$89.99]

Pogo Connect. Promoted by Procreate, Pogo Connect is a Bluetooth-enabled pen that lets you draw with different line widths on the iPad and yes, it comes with pressure sensitivity. With a few extra bucks you could even get 4 extra tip options including the brush tip. [$79.95]

TruGlide Duo Stylus Pen. Want to draw traditional and digital artwork with the same pen? TruGlide Duo Stylus Pen makes it possible. Ink refill is possible too. [$19.95]

TruGlide Pro Paintbrush Tip. Yes, you can equip a paintbrush tip onto TruGlide Pro Stylus, then paint like a boss. [$14.95]

Nomad FLeX Paintbrush Stylus. Here is the Nomad FleX stylus that promises an all-synthetic brush tip, with flexibility as its advertisement tagline. [$29.99]

12″ Wooden Male Figure. Made of seasoned hardwood and stuck firmly to a stand, this wooden guy is ready to pose any way you like for your reference. [$6.99]

Software

Adobe Photoshop CC. Besides photo editing, Adobe Photoshop CC is also a perfect painting software with highly customizable brush settings. It includes all professional features of its predecessors and comes with an incredibly low monthly subscription fee. [$19.99/Month for Annual Plan]

Adobe Photoshop Elements 12. Although its painting capabilities is limited, Photoshop Elements 12 excels in post-processing including level, contrast, saturation, etc. And it helps to organize your files! [$99.99]

Adobe Illustrator CC. If you love making icons, or are of the hardcore type that takes account where each pixel lands, Adobe Illustrator CC is for you. It is now available with an affordable monthly subscription fee. [$19.99/Month for Annual Plan]

Corel Painter X3. Painter X3 is known for its power to mimic most traditional brushes, textures, wet and dry media to an amazing level of perfection. [$399.00]

Painter Lite. You could kickstart your digital painting life easier (and cheaper) with Painter Lite, and it still keeps the realistic natural-media painting feature (it behaves like traditional art tools). [$69.99]

Clip Paint Studio PRO. Though it’s originally intended for manga drawing, Clip Paint Studio has evolved far enough to be used in industry-standard digital art production. Its tool customization is the killer feature. [$49.99]

Paint Tool SAI. Do not be tricked by SAI’s clean interface, as it is the de facto standard of painting software for most professional Japanese Anime artists. It also comes with line correction feature for a smooth drawing experience. [$53.50]

Autodesk Sketchbook Pro. Sketchbook Pro makes painting a relaxing and enjoyable journey, and it is specially designed for pen tablets. [$59.00]

ArtRage 4. In under $50 you could obtain this software and its surreal painting tools and, a whole bunch of features to make your painting life easier. [$49.90]

Xara Photo and Graphic Designer 9. Photo editing, check. Drawing tools, check. Creative effects, check. File format compatibility, check. Quality software with affordable price, check. [$89.99]

Poser Pro 2014. The key to good art is correct perspective and posture, and Poser Pro 2014 lets you achieve them with less effort. [$499.99]

Apps

Adobe Photoshop Touch. Photoshop Touch offers a slew of features for quality photo editing and adjustment. On top of that, you could share your proudest results to social networking websites. [$9.99 for tablet, $4.99 for iOS]

Procreate. Procreate truly lives up to its name with this professional interface design, its brushes, performance, and an up to 4096×4096 canvas size! No wonder it won the Apple Design Award. [$4.99]

Sketchbook Pro for iPad. Using the same engine from its desktop counterpart, Sketchbook Pro makes sure your painting experience is pleasing on the tablet. [$4.99]

Sketchbook Ink. Different from most painting apps, Sketchbook Ink focuses intensively on the line art, the critical factor that makes an art even bolder and more impressive. [$4.99]

Inspire Pro. It’s not just about painting, but also how fast you can paint. Inspire Pro allows you to paint as fast as possible with its performance-based painting engine. [$4.99]

ArtStudio for iPad. ArtStudio certainly has its edge in the mobile painting world with its 450 high-quality brushes and 21-layer blending modes, and 40 filters! [$4.20]

ArtRage for Mobile. Since there’s no Corel Painter for iPad, ArtRage for mobile is your best bet for a realistic painting experience. [$4.99 for iPad, $1.99 for iPhone]

Brushes 3. Brushes is free and has a layers upgrade as an app purchase but it’s another fun sketching app you can try out on your mobile device. [Free, $2.99 for Layers Upgrade]

Bamboo Paper. Wacom came out with this digital notebook app to streamline your collection process. You can draw, write and even import photos as reference. [Free, $1.99 for Full Version]

Paper. Paper is designed with mobile interactivity in mind, so it has no complicated interfaces that mess up your painting process. Its ink engine even tracks your movement and optimizes its tools for a better outcome. [Free, $6.99 for Essentials]

Handy. If you need a 3D sculpture to draw better body parts, you have to try Handy. Pose or change the perspective of the sculpture or shine a light on it to get great color and depth observation that will help you create more realistic paintings. [$1.99]

MARA3D Facial Expressions. Even with 3D software, capturing precise facial expressions could prove a daunting task for an artist, but MARA3D simplifies the process into 2 easy steps: touch and show. [$5.99]

Books and Magazine

ImagineFX. ImagineFX could be one of your best investments as it comes with inspiring artworks, aspiring artist profiles, premium brushes and software. Also included, professional tutorials in both written and video format. [$8.30/Issue, $31.25/Yearly Subscription]

2DArtist. Whether you are beginner or expert, 2dartist will keep you improving with its collection of techniques, tutorials, reviews and galleries, all jam-packed in each issue. [$4.20/Issue, $33.10/Yearly Subscription]

Fantasy Artist. Fantasy Artist will not only make sure you got plenty of wild resources to inspire great ideas, it will also show you the ways to handle painting tools for even more fantastic production. [$8.30/Issue]

EXPOSÉ 11. Your mind could explode from the awesomeness you will be getting from EXPOSÉ. Get all the best digital artworks (in the known universe) here. [$69.00]

EXOTIQUE 7. If you are having a slow day with creativity, EXOTIQUE is certainly the solution for you to spark more inspiration in your mind while on the go. [$59.00]

Digital Art Masters 8. Just as its name suggests, the book showcases the best artworks from art masters around the world. Plus a sweet bonus: detailed tutorials explaining how each image is done! [$44.10]

3D Artist. Seeking enlightenment in digital sculpting? 3D Artist is the magazine where masters share their tips and techniques for you to improve. [$8.30/Issue, $86.00/Yearly Subscription]

3D World. Modeling, animation, showcase, software, you could discover the entire world of 3D in this magazine. [$5.50/Issue, $62.50/6 Issues]

3DCreative. Are you ready to take your modeling technique to the next level? 3DCreative has the resources you need. [$4.20/Issue, $33.10/Yearly Subscription]

Advanced Photoshop. The more you know, the better the artwork you could produce. Advanced Photoshop uncovers all Pro techniques and secret features of Photoshop for more efficient post-processing works. [$8.30/Issue, $85.80/Yearly Subscription]

Computer Arts. There are times when we need to look more into design cases and business tips, and Computer Arts is published for these purposes. [$5.50/Issue, $62.50/6 Issues]

Courses

The Gnomon Workshop. Personal success means aggressive improvement, and aggressive improvement means lots of practice and professional tutorials. Gnomon Workshop is ready to boost your skill aggressively. [$499/Year]

Digital-Tutors. Pay $45 a month and you have complete access to 1300+ courses split among 60+ industry standard software. Smooth difficulty curve guaranteed. [$45/Month, $225/6 Months]

That’s all we have to offer! Artist or not, do share with us which product you will love to receive, or give!