Weekly Web Tools

While there are free services like Google Voice that allow you to put in a number and when someone calls your Google voice you can send the call to your cell, home, company phone. The person who called is going to hear how Google voice is trying to locate the caller. (http://www.awltovhc.com/image-2535497-10952926)An inexpensive way to get voice mail for your small business is Phonebooth which not only does what Google voice does (like forwarding phones, transcribing emails), but it also allows you to create an auto attendant. From my short period working for a Cisco company, auto attendants can be a pain in the butt, and most companies charge to set on up. There is no charge, and there is no limit. You also have two conference lines included in your price. As phonebooth owns the network they use, there are two benefit: 1. Crystal clear calls and voice mail 2. A less expensive option as the don't have to "rent" part of their network from someone else. Picture your customer calling you and and hearing "for sales press 1, for service press 2." While these all may end up at your cell phone, you now would have a heads up about what the call was for. Here are  some other things that caught my eye. For one price you get unlimited calls, and unlimited long distance. The other thing I like about this service is there is no contract. That and the price is $20 a user. So now instead of having to buy a phone for everyone and investing in a a large Cisco system (including a phone for everyone's desk) you can save big money by going with a phonebooth system. The reason I consider this a web tool is they have a great Web 2.0 interface that makes setup and operations a breeze. In fact the minute you place our order, you have phone booth. How cool is that. Don't like it? No problem as there is no contract. Check it out at phonebooth.com (http://weeklywebtools.com/phonebooth) Also on this episode we talk about Bufferapp (which I wrote about earlier (http://weeklywebtools.com/news/spread-out-your-tweets-with-buffer-app) in our newsetter)  

Tools for Webmasters, Entrepreneurs, and Marketers

(http://www.lduhtrp.net/image-2535497-11002581)I've been a big fan of Freshbooks and have used the invoicing system and time tracking tool very easy to use. It's built in tools to help you collect overdue invoices is wonderful. What I didn't like about it is it limited th number of clients I could have (the more clients I had, the more I would have to pay). I hated that the third party app that I used to track time on my desktop quit working. I hated that when I paid them, my money had to go through a conversation and as the US economoy is crap, I always got the short end of the stick. Then I stumbled across Harvest. It's $7 less a month for their smallest account, and it has UNLIMITED Clients, UNLIMITED Projects, and UNLIMITED invoicing. They have all the basic tools you need, and the ability to tie in with a TON of third party apps. You can track time on your iPhone, Droid, iPad, etc. It does all the "nudging" and collections that Freshbooks did, AND it has a retainer tool (very cool). I was playing with the system and (for lack of a better phrase) tried to make it do something stupid. The system wouldn't let me. However, I didn't know what I was doing was being "silly." I sent an email to their support and got a very quick response. That made my decision to move my billing to their system a "no brainer." If you're interested, check them out at getharvest.com (http://www.weeklywebtools.com/harvest)

(http://weeklywebtools.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/250x250ban1.jpg)I've talked about "all in one" packages before in the past. I love Optimizepress (http://weeklywebtools.com/optimize) and Premise (http://weeklywebtools.com/premise)for wordpress, but when I heard Market Pro Max I thought "It can't be that cool. " It turns out it is. There are tons of features, and yet a very small learning curve. Without trying to sound like a giant infomercial there are some very cool tools bundled together into one package. These include: 1. Evergreen webinars 2. Squeeze pages (pretest to convert) 3. Membership site with dripping feature. 4. Go to meeting squeeze page 5. Limited time offers (that automates the pricing). 6. Product launch 7. Link cloaking 8. Guard your product launch information from those who haven't opted in. 9. Tools to automatically build your list. 10. Works with any payment portal worth using 11. Build Sales funnels in minutes. They use the Wordpress core as the background engine (except its been put on steroids). So you have built in templates that have been tested, drag and drop tools with built in images to make pages, and anything you've seen in Internet Marketing website is already built in. So now instead of starting a Wordpress site and then purchasing a handful of plugins, you can pay one price for Market Pro Max. As a hosted solution the staff of Market Pro Max handles all the technical aspects, you just provide a header graphic, and a graphic of your product and then go. It's that simple. You can watch their 30 minute video on their website. It's worth watching. They have a total money back guarantee. Pricing starts at $97 a month for three sites. You will see where there packages include computer cycles. This might lead you to ask: What are Computer Cycles? Compute cycles measure how much processing time the applications on your site require . A a ‘compute cycle’ is based on looking at the monthly capacity delivered by a typical 1.2Ghz server under average load, and has defined that as 10,000 compute cycles. Their $97 package comes with 1000 computer cycles. How many compute cycles will my applications use? Since web applications vary so greatly, it's hard to make a perfect guess. There are, however, some guidelines that can help. For example, 10,000 compute cycles would power approximately: 2.1 million page views using a database-driven content management system 11 million page views of a static page 25 million requests for a static 15KB image As the $97 /month covers three websites that's only $32 a  monthly (roughly), and could be made up easily with these great templates, tools, and in some cases "Sneaky" strategies that protect your information and help you build your list. Check it out at www.marketpromax.com (http://www.weeklywebtools.com/marketpromax)

(http://weeklywebtools.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Communit_Avatar-150x150.png) I just got back from the New Media Expo (previously Blogworld). There is a new free tool for handling Twitter. It's called commun.it and it looks at the movers and shakers in your niche and advises you on who to follow, who you should unfollow, and more. It does a great job of storing all the communication you had with previous users, and sends you reports on activities. The best thing that it does it helps you tune out the "noise" that you get when you login to tweetdeck and watch a million tweets zip by. You can create groups and lists, and only watch those people that you want to. You can also enter some keywords and it will go out and evaluate those keywords and recommend the top movers in that area. The best part is its free. If you want to go to the premium version (which allows you to handle multiple twitter accounts) it's only $4.99 a month. For more information check out www.commun.it (http://www.commun.it) Free Chat For Your Website (http://weeklywebtools.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/zopim.jpg)There have been some cool chat clients in the past, but this one is pretty cool. It has everything. It integrates with Wordpress (or any other type of site) with a quick java script snippet. Copy and paste the code and you are up and running in minutes. The dashboard has a great layout, and is easy to read and you get the big picutre super fast. The thing I love about it is you can put that snippet on multiple websites and offer chat to all of your websites. You can use their free service, or upgrade for the $9 a month package and get customization (so you can match the chat window with your theme). If you sign up for a year you get a 20% discount. It integrates with Google analytics and has built in stats where you can see how many visitors you've had, watch where they go LIVE while they surf the website and you can set it to automatically engage if someone gets to the "hot zone" of your website to make sure you never miss a lead. I got to tell you after I found it, I installed it on my website and I love it. Check it out at zopim.com (http://www.weeklywebtools.com/zopim)

(http://weeklywebtools.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/evernote-logo1.jpg)Today I looked and looked and had a hard time finding a cool tool for the week. Got any ideas? Then it dawned on me that I have never talked about Evernote. This is a great tool that works on your smartphone, in your browser, on your PC and makes it super easy to write, speak, copy notes and have them organized in one single space. Evernote makes it easy to remember things big and small from your everyday life using your computer, phone, tablet and the web. Check it out at evernote.com (http://evernote.com) iDevaffiliate is having a sale now through June. You can use the discount code springtime8 and save 8% on your purchase. The software starts at $99 and the discount code expires at the end of June so don’t delay. For more information go to idevaffiliate.com (http://www.weeklywebtools.com/idevaffiliate) Speed Up Your Wordpress Website Here are some quick tips to speed up your website: Clean up your drafts Delete spam and comments Delete categories and tags that are not linked to anything. Delete any leftovers from plugins that have been removed. To remove unwanted plugin and theme data from your database, browse it to find such entries and tables and delete them. Make sure you first deactivate and delete the plugins and themes you don’t need. Also I can not stress this enough, make a backup (http://weeklywebtools.com/backupcreator) of your database before doing anything. The first place you would want to look at is your wp_options table in your database. Browse the table carefully and see if you can find entries related to an inactive plugin.

Let me start by saying I own backupbuddy. I'm not super happy with it (basically I have to pay for it every year - although I can cancel my support). There are tons of plugins to let you backup your wordpress installation (and you should - I've been hacked a few times in the six years I've been using Wordpress). When I found out about Backup Creator I am thinking of jumping ship from Backupbuddy. Here are some features that both share: (http://backupcreator.com/bc/images/bc1_250x250.gif)1. Super easy to schedule backups 2. Send you back to your computer, send via email, store via FTP, store to Amazin S3. 3. Backup all files - not just the Wordpress database. 4. Both plugins apparently have issues with super large backups (according to some websites I checked, and the fact that mine won't backup). 5. Both have super simple restore steps and make cloaning a website super easy. Here is Backupbuddy and Backup Creator  differ: 1. Backupbuddy will scan your files for malware(http://ithemes.com/graphics/backupbuddy-125.gif) 2. Backupcreator costs $47 for unlimted sites (that you own) while backupbuddy is $75 for two sites and has a once year support payment. Check out the quick 4 minute video of Backupcreator at www.backupcreator.com Check out backup a webinar about backupbuddy at ithemes.com (http://ithemes.com/member/go.php?r=7364&i=l88) Thesis Awesome Takes The Thesis Theme to the Next Level We've talked about tools to create landing pages before like Optimizepress, and Premise. (http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=337603&u=74276&m=31479&urllink=&afftrack=)  We've talked about drag and drop Themes like Builder and Headway themes, and nowI found a tool that seems very powerful for those who are using the Thesis theme for Wordpress. This uses the Thesis skins feature and by uploading a few files to your thesis and you can utilize drag and drop technology to create landing pages, coming soon pages, squeeze pages (intergated with Aweber and mailchimp), one time offer pages, launch pages and more. It adds 16 different color schemes, ipad compatability, slide show, with built in call to action buttons. The documentation was somewhat thin, but then again adding a skin to your blog is pretty easy. You pretty much drag and drop your features into place, save yoru changes and preview your website. If you're not happy, just repeat and add additional features. The best part is the "Product skin" is only $47 at thesisawesome.com (http://www.thesisawesome.com/member/go.php?r=1545&i=b17)

If you're ot sure what social sites you should be using, or maybe you want to use the network where your audience is the most active then the Social Metrics Pro plugin for Wordpress is something you should check out. Here is a quick list of some of the things you can do with this plugin: * (http://weeklywebtools.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/socialmetrics.png)Tracks your social signals automatically * Watch which network has your posts/pages shared * Turn reds to greens and see increase in traffic! * Maintain great social visibilities and see more keywords ranked * Expect more keywords to rank high on Search Engines! * Feel and celebrate the power of Social Media marketing! They have a 60 day guarentee so if yo're worried about putting out the $27 for a single user license, or $47 for an unlimited license you can rest assured that you will receive value for your money, not to mention the return on your time yuo will get by targeting the best websites, while learning what messages hit a chord with your audience. These are ONE TIME fees. Check it out at www.socialmetricspro.com (http://weeklywebtools.com/social-metrics) If This Then That This is a hard webstie to classify. It allows you to have an action trigger on another action. For example, if I'm tagged in a picture on Facebook then send me a text message. It works with all sorts of networks (evernote, facebook, twitter, etc).  Check it out at www.ifttt.com (http://www.ifttt.com) (it's free).

Check Your User Name, Company Name, etc on 350 Social Media Sites (http://www.shareasale.com/image/21886/socialmedia125x125-ver2.jpg)Today I bring you a free tool called knowem.com (http://www.weeklywebtools.com/knowem) KnowEm allows you to check for the use of your brand, product, personal name or username instantly on over 590 popular and emerging social media websites. Grab your name and secure your brand before someone else does.  By using THIS LINK you an sign up for free and check 350 sites for FREE. To date the KnowEm team has helped to reserve over 350,000 profiles and reported back to some of our clients over 25,000 issues of squatting and misrepresentation of a brand, username or trademarked term. This is all done with local employees in New Jersey; we are proud to be a company fully staffed in the United States with absolutely no dependence on offshore outsourcing. Since security is one of our primary concerns, none of your sensitive information is sent overseas.   1Shopping Cart Alternative That Does it All (https://www.secureinfossl.com/images/merchantSecuredImages/MER-01013/Large-Rectangle-(336-x-280)-LIGHT.gif)(9778d5d219c5080b9a6a17bef029331c)I ran across this service that has all the tools a small business would want. It starts off with a great shopping cart that allows you to sell physical and digital goods, it has a CRM system, Affiliate system, Membership System (with drip feature I might add), Project Management, Live Help System, Ticketing System, Bug Report System, Surveys, and more. It's amazing. 1shopping cart has the ability to integrate with other separate systems you purchase, with Premium Web Cart it's all under one "umbrella" and the best part your support is included AND they have an e-business advisor. There are videos available that explain all the features available. Their support seems impressive (when I clicked on their live support there was actually someone on the other end). Pricing ranges from 39 - 149 a month (based on what features you want) you can even save on those prices by purchasing a year in advance. Best of all you can sign up for a 30 day trial for free. If you want the "Super Jumbo Deluxe" version (that's what I call it) the 30 day trial is $4.97. Check it out the videos at premiumwebcart.com (http://www.weeklywebtools.com/premiumwebcart) some include some pretty bad cheesy music! WP AD Center Still Not Working I purchased WP Ad Center a month ago, and its still not working. I'm getting the old "We can reproduce the problem" so I gave them a login and password to www.feedingmyfaith.com and www.jillianmichalespodcast.com (where I'm testing the script, where its not working on either site). I switched to the default theme and it didn't work (so it's not a theme issue). I used it in the sidebar, I've used it in other areas. When people click on the banner, it doesn't take them to the destination page. It instead returns them to their original page that they click on. I'll keep you posted.  

Today is a quick show, so I found a quick plugin for Wordpress that puts your social media icons on your sidebar. They have all the tools you can imagine, and there are premade icons for each website. All you do is enter the url, and click save. To find this free plugin, just search for Social Media Widget in the Wordpress Plugin directory. New Weekly Web Tools Facebook Page I've always been afraid to start a weekly web tools facebook page as I don't live on Facebook (I check it about once a week). However, if you and other supporters of the show would like to communicate on Facebook, I've now created a space. You can find it at www.weeklywebtools.com/facebook iTunes Comment Please Again, as I start to add these icons, I noticed that the listing for Weekly Web Tools in iTunes has only two reviews. Got a second? Coul you please go to www.weeklywebtools.com/itunes (http://www.weeklywebtools.com/itunes) and add a positive review?

Special thanks to listner Justin from www.justinbvocal.com (http://www.justinbvocal.com) for this one. With UppSite you can create an application of your website for your smart phone. Best of all its free. This works if you are using a Wordpress of Vbulletin (http://weeklywebtools.com/v-bulletin)website. This will include ads (of which you get no revenue). If you want to split the ad revenue, then you can purchase the plan that is $9.99 a month. You can also customize your design a bit more (although I was impressed with the free design features). For $9.99 a month, its worth looking into. You can end up with an app in a store relatively quickly. According to their FAQ page: After your app creation process is done, your app will be reviewed by our team to make sure it's compatible with the different stores and that it works properly. This check usually occurs up to 24 hours from your app's completion, but may take longer on weekends and holidays. Once an application is approved by UppSite, it gets sent to your chosen stores and is subjected to the store's policy as follows: •    Android: Immediately. •    Apple Store: 2-14 Working days. Your application will be available on all UppSite supported stores, Apple App Store, Android Market and UppSites Portal app. Check it out at www.weeklywebtools.com/uppsite (http://www.uppsite.com/) (http://weeklywebtools.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/weeklywebtools1.jpg) Put a News Ticker On your Website (http://weeklywebtools.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/newstickerlogo-300x35.jpg)It seems everyone has something grabbing their visitor's attention be it Pop Up Domination, or WP Subscribers, etc. The problem is they are all starting to look the same and it's (for me) losing its influence. That's why I really liked the News Ticker Plugin as it caught my attention because it was different. There is a free version, but the premium is only $19.99 (as of now) and it has 10 different color schemes available plus the ability to put links in your ticker, pick categories and more. If you're looking to not just grab the attention of your visitor, but politely smack them over the head, you might check out the Latest News Ticker plugin. For more info go to www.weeklywebtools.com/newsticker (www.weeklywebtools.com/newsticker)  

(http://weeklywebtools.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/ultimateheatmap.jpg)I got a tip from a listener who enjoyed the episode about Clicktale, and she thought "I don't know a thing about Heat Maps. She did some research and found a book called "The Ultimate Heatmap." This books goes over the results that the author came to after doing years of researching, split testing, and studied usability and ad performance. It has details, as well as it provides with templates for ads, and websites to show you what converts. It shows the three ad sizes that work best and what things on your website that annoy visitors. He even explains WHY things work. That to me is HUGE. If you make your own advertisements (maybe for your affiliate links) this book could provide you with the insights to help you get the best results. The book has a bonus that talks about the results of studies into using different colors on your website.There is a free sample of the book at their website. Check them out at ultmiateheatmap.com (http://www.weeklywebtools.com/heatmap)

We have spoken about Artisteer in the past on how cool Artisteer is, and how it creates custom themese for Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla and more. It's pretty cool and comes in version that are $49 and $129. Its really cool and Iv'e used it before. If you are looking to EASILY make your own Wordpress theme. If you can get a cool banner, your website will look awesome. They even have built in banners that look good. As Artisteer (http://weeklywebtools.com/artisteer)does themes for Drupal, Joomla, Wordpress, etc they can't add some customizations as they can't Wordpress stuff that doesn't apply to Joomla, etc. Enter the templateer (http://weeklywebtools.com/templateer). This tool is for people who are using Artisteer and are creating Wordpress themes. It allows you to add functionality that is not available in Artisteeer, and some of this is actually added so you can adjust them on your website. Thats cool. The best part is it's only $29.00 If you are looking to create your own Wordpress theme. The combination of Artisteer (http://weeklywebtools.com/artisteer)and Templateer (http://weeklywebtools.com/templateer)are a great combination. Here is a screen shot of just SOME of the options added to your theme. (http://weeklywebtools.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/headeroptions.jpg) (http://weeklywebtools.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/templateer.jpg)  

(http://weeklywebtools.com/wp-content/mbp-banner/125light2_20120326033841.png)In the past we've talked about plugins like Max banner ads (http://weeklywebtools.com/podcast/selling-advertising-on-your-website)that allows you to creatively rotate ads throughout your website. We've talked about OIO publisher (http://weeklywebtools.com/podcast/selling-advertising-on-your-website) that allowsy ou to sell ads directly to people on your website. At the end of 2011 a new player came into the Wordpress Ad rotation plugin game. It's called WP Ad Center. It is super flexible, super powerful, and super affordable. Here is a quick overview of the features. unlimited Zones featuring standard ad sizes or create a custom size. Create campaigns to track performance of each ad complete with easy to understand graphics. Advertisers can login to their own account to manage their account, and see their own stats. Place ads via short code, php script, or widget. In a nutshell create unlimited zones, and then put them anywhere. Sell time based ads OR impression based ads. Have campaigns start and stop automatically (great for time sensitive campaigns). Single license $49. wpadcenter.com (http://www.weeklywebtools.com/wpadcenter) Cranky Ads This is a free plugin that allowsy ou to sell ads on your site. Its flexible and easy to use, and you'll give 25% to them for using their service. The other thing I didn't like here is your potential sponsor had to sign up with an account at crankyads.com If you are looking for them you have to have some pretty serious traffic coming to your site. I liked the ease of use of this plugin, and if you want to just use your own programs, it can be used for that. You won't get any stats, but its hard to argue with free.

(http://tribulant.postaffiliatepro.com/accounts/default1/banners/questions-small.jpg)(http://tribulant.postaffiliatepro.com/scripts/imp.php?a_aid=jammindave&a_bid=b9082471)One way that you can boost customer service is by having a frequently asked questions section (FAQ). This is a easy to use plugin that is only $29.99 for a single user liscense. It has great features that you can use to manage questions, and make it easy create a FAQ section on your website. Then you can have your visitors search through the FAQ to get answers. It has a great accordian type interface that amkes it easy to read. Then if they can't find the question, there is an easyway for visitors to submit questions. There are notification settings to alert you of a new question. Check it out at http://tribulant.com (http://weeklywebtools.com/wordpressfaq)