"Essential
Tools Every Online Entrepreneur Needs"
by Merle .
Are you an online entrepreneur? If you make your
income or part of your income on the Internet, you most definitely are.
With more and more people earning an income online,many tools and
software have been created to help them with their online business
chores.
If you know about these tools, they can make your
life as an "online warrior" a lot easier. There's a lot of work
involved with running your own Internet business. You need to wear many
different hats and be at least slightly skilled in many areas.
Let's take a look at some of the resources you
should have in your "Entrepreneur Toolbox."
1) Websites: The structure and design of your site
is very important. It needs to look "clean" and professional. You can
use software to create your site from scratch, pay someone else, or use
an online template.
A) Some resources for learning HTML:
Dave's HTML Guide:
http://www.davesite.com/webstation/html/
HTML Goodies http://www.htmlgoodies.com/
W3 Schools- Online Tutorials
http://www.w3schools.com/
B) For Templates, see:
Template Monster http://www.templatemonster.com/
Basic Templates http://basictemplates.com/
C) For Software, some free:
The Free Site
http://thefreesite.com/Free_Software/HTML_freeware/
A handy tool to check your website for broken
links online:
http://www.stickysauce.com/cgi-local/linkcheck/linkcheck.pl
To make sure you haven't created an overblown site
that takes forever to download, use this online tester:
http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/
2) Utility Programs: There are a few basic
utilities you'll need to have on hand for everyday tasks. These include
a good FTP program for uploading your files to your web server and a
program to zip and unzip files. You'll need to zip files when they are
large, to compress them for Internet downloading.
Check out:
Sofotex:
http://www.sofotex.com/download/FTP_Software/
Zipper:
http://www.trans4mind.com/personal_development/zipper/
Zip It Fast: http://www.zipitfast.com/
3) Email: As your business grows you'll come to
rely on email as your primary means of communication. The most common
email programs are Outlook and Outlook Express which come standard with
Windows, and Eudora, which many power users prefer:
Eudora: http://www.Eudora.com
Whatever you use for an email client make sure
you're familiar with how it works, and how to create folders and
autoresponders. With today's spam problem, you'll have to use a good
filtering program, such as: Cloudmark: http://www.cloudmark.com/
or a third party service like:
http://www.spamarrest.com/
4) Mailing List Management: Any website owner
worth his salt knows the importance of collecting visitors' email
addresses. It doesn't matter if you'll be sending out a monthly
newsletter or just periodic site updates, you need software that's up
for the task. Make sure whatever you use is capable of handling
multiple lists, as when your online business grows you may need to keep
lists for different things. For example, you might have one for those
who like to swap ezine ads with you, one for those who have expressed
an interest in advertising with you, etc. Here are a few great
resources:
Groupmail: (the one I use) http://www.infacta.com/
Subscribe Me:
http://www.siteinteractive.com/subpro/
Here's a list of some others:
http://www.emailaddresses.com/email_mailing.htm
With everyone using filters on email these days
make sure you download this program that checks your email for "trigger
words" and improves your chances of making it through to the inbox.
It's called Email Advisor
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/emailadvisor.html
5) Graphics Program: You'll find you need graphics
for many of your online activities. Maybe for your website, a banner
for an exchange, a cover for an ebook, etc. The two most popular online
today are Photoshop http://www.Adobe.com and Paintshop Pro
http://www.jasc.com/products/paintshoppro/
If you don't want to part with your cash, there is
a free one: http://oriens-solution.com/enhancer/default.asp
When you create your fancy graphics, do make sure
that they aren't too large and cause delay in downloading. You want
them tight and compressed. Run them through an online check at
Spinwave: http://www.spinwave.com/crunchers.html
6) Autoresponders: An autoresponder works much
like Fax on Demand and automatically replies to any email sent to it
with a pre-formatted message. For example you might have a "thanks for
emailing me" response that replies to all incoming messages or you
might want to set one up for "price lists," "product information,"
"advertising rates," etc. Autoresponders are very powerful and can help
to automate many aspects of your daily email chores. You can use a
third party service, or install software on your server, or configure
them from within your email client itself.
SendFree: http://www.sendfree.com/ Get Response:
http://www.getresponse.com/
7) Online Payments: If you're going to be doing
business online, you'll need to be able to accept online payments. If
you don't want the expense of a merchant account there are plenty of
other inexpensive third party services you can use.
PayPal: http://www.PayPal.com ClickBank
http://www.ClickBank.com Ikobo: https://www.ikobo.com/ 2 CheckOut:
http://www.2checkout.com/
8) PDF Software: If you want to offer downloadable
documents from your website or create and sell ebooks or reports,
you'll need a way to convert Word and text documents to PDF. There are
many other options besides Adobe:
PDF Moto: http://PDFMoto.com Gymnast:
http://www.oakworth.demon.co.uk/gymnast.htm Win2PDF: http://Win2PDF.com
9) Ebook Creators: Ebooks are very popular and can
be sold or given away for free. If you give them away, they become very
powerful viral marketing tools that can generate a consistent traffic
flow to your site. If sold, they can produce a nice income for you.
Most ebooks come in PDF (portable document format) or .exe. To create
an .exe format you'll need what's called a compiler.
HTML Executable:
http://www.gdgsoft.com/htmlexe/index.aspx Ebook Generator:
http://www.ebookgenerator.com/ Ebooks Writer:
http://www.ebookswriter.com/
Nice directions on how to create PDF Ebooks:
http://www.adobe.com/epaper/tips/acr5ebook/main.html
For professional ebook covers see: Cover Software
http://www.coversoftware.com/ Ebook on Making Covers:
http://tinyurl.com/2l4o2
10) Virus/Firewall Protection: It's a dangerous
world online and you need to protect yourself from the "bad guys" who
create and send out viruses. You'll need to install a good virus
protection program and keep it running constantly in the background in
order to steer clear of infections. If you have a "constant on" Net
connection like DSL or cable, you'll also need to run a firewall
program to keep out hackers. Take a look at:
McAfee: http://us.mcafee.com/default.asp Norton:
http://www.symantec.com/index.htm AVG:
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_index.php Firewall Protection:
http://www.tinysoftware.com/home/tiny2?la=EN Spyware Remover:
http://lavasoft.de
11) Accounting Software: As an entrepreneur,
you'll need to be able to generate invoices and track your income and
expenses for the "tax man." Three of the best are:
Quickbooks: http://www.Quickbooks.com Internet Tax
Helper: http://www.internettaxhelper.com/ Netledger:
http://www.Netledger.com
12) Marketing/Promotional: It may have worked for
Kevin Costner in "Field of Dreams," but online, the saying "build it
and they will come" is just not true. You need to be proactive by
promoting and marketing your website constantly to bring in the paying
customers. Here are some excellent resources:
Self Promotion: http://www.selfpromotion.com/ Jim
World: http://www.jimworld.com/ Bruce Clay: http://www.bruceclay.com/
http://www.PRWeb.com
13) Typing Shortcuts: At the end of the day you
may feel you've typed so much your fingers will fall off. Repetitive
typing comes with the territory. You'll find yourself answering the
same questions about your products and services, as well as posting
your sig line to hundreds of posts in discussion boards...all of which
adds up to a lot of repetitive typing. A typing shortcut tool stores
short snippets of text for you so when you need them you just hit a key
or a combination of keys, and it will type out your pre-stored text for
you. This really saves a lot of valuable time.
Type It In: http://www.wavget.com/typeitin.html
ShortKeys: http://www.shortkeys.com/ ClipMate: http://www.clipmate.com/
14) Misc: Here are some tools that don't
categorize easily -- but can be extremely useful to you. As you move
around the Net, you'll find many useful tools and software that can
help you in your daily entrepreneur life. Make sure you bookmark or
down- load them for later use.
TextPad: A more powerful alternative to Notepad
http://www.TextPad.com
FeedReader: RSS is becoming very popular online so
you'll need a reader to subscribe and read them.
http://www.FeedReader.com
Music: For your musical enjoyment while doing your
web work I highly suggest.. http://www.Itunes.com
WebBBS: A shareware discussion board to install on
your website. http://awsd.com/scripts/webbbs/index.shtml
The Directory of Ezines: A pay for membership site
that will give you access to over 800 newsletters you can purchase ad
space in or swap ads or submit articles to.
http://www.lifestylespub.com/
ICop: If you'd like to join a group of online
professionals you'll want to take a look at this organization:
http://www.i-cop.org/
Being an online entrepreneur involves juggling a
lot of balls to keep everything running smoothly. By using the right
tools for the job you'll save yourself a lot of time and energy that
can be used to grow your business in a very successful direction.
"Must Have Marketing Resources" by Merle is loaded
with VALUABLE online resources you need to know about, when it comes to
running your web business. Get your copy now at ...
http://mcebook.mcpromotions.com
Merle . may be contacted at http://www.EzineAdAuction.com
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