Today I just found about a new site that reminds me alot of paydotcom.com which reminds me of clickbank.com(I like paydotcom.com better) only this one has no waiting for checks (like clickbank), no waiting to have things listed (like clickbank), and no “per product fees (like paydotcom.com) and its called click2sell.eu
No sign up fees - FREE
Unlimited products
Flat fee per product (earn up to 95% commission)
Built in Affiliate program and market place
I just signed up, so I will be talking more about this in the future.
DOMAIN NAME TOOLS When it comes to a name you need to take some time to think about it. These tools help show you what names are available. You may find a name that is better than the original one you thought up. I’ve used nameboy.com and I had some friends tell me about domainsbot.com and bustaname.com
Fun Tool For Photos on Social Sites You can make cool slide shows, or make your photos sparkle and more with this free tool at www.magtoo.com Its fun to play with, and it’s free.
Today I just have one tool (as we switch advertisers on the site). Its
yousendit.com.
. Not only can you use this tool via email, but if you sign up for a business account you can have a drop box right on your site. No more teaching customers how to use ftp, burn cds, etc. Just drag and drop like they do in solitaire.
We also have some interesting statistics that people click News, then Images, then videos in a beldned results page. They click these items more frequently than if they did an actual search for these items.
As a podcast consultant, I needed a way for my potential customers to see my schedule and book an appointment. This would eliminate the “what day is good for you” and then the whole confirmation, etc. I wanted to streamline things a bit. So I went looking for an online tool. My goal was to find a script I could throw on my site (with no monthly fee) if those exist I couldn’t find one. However what I did find (in some case free) were very powerful and very cool.
I found this site via a google search. After coming across a couple of sites that didn’t let you see the service (the whole “Call for a demo” routine) genbook.com is a great website. They have some cool demos, and more importantly no strings. That’s right if you want to try their free version for a while - go ahead. (the full version has additional notifications, the ability to get into the customer database a bit deeper, and the ability to accept payment right at the scheduling point).
It really look simple, and since it was free, I jumped right in. It turns out, it IS THAT EASY. Here is the cool part. You end up with a “book now” button that you can put anywhere. So I can put it on my website, my myspace page, facebook, craigs list, etc. (This really got me thinking). You can have multiple services at multiple prices (this is also available in the other services). I also love the way I can customize the look of it, how easy it was to set up my working hours, block hours I didn’t want to accept appointments. It was two very key words: easy and powerful. Ok, that’s three words, but you get my point. I’m using it at www.schoolofpodcasting.com and I’ll let you know how it goes.
Wev-Appointments web-appointments.com
This site has many of the big sites, it is cheaper than some of the other services I looked at. The problem I ran into was the interface. I’m not sure you can customize it alot as most of their demos had the same layout, etc. Also their flash demo was very 1992. It might be worth a shot. Their customer interface seemed pretty fairly straight forward. They have a 30 day free trial at
This site has a ton of features to their site. Easy to use and fully customizable Online Appointment Scheduler and Event Registration Software. The ultimate onlinee-bBooking Calendar software for any business type. The only thing I thought was strange is they limit the number of bookings per month (300 bookings for $20 a month. $30/month for 600). They have the most features and a very slick site. You can try it free for 30 days at bookingcalendar.com
CSS Addict Web 2.0 Tools
I came across CSS addict and thought, “Oh here we go again, but when I started playing with their “Web 2.0 tools” I thought, “Wow, I might actually use these!” as there is some very cool stuff. The tools include: badger designers, stripe makers, loader generators, favicon editor, tab genertor, button makers, logo creators, and they are all FREE.
Colour Lovers An online comunity sharing colors, backgrounds, patterns and more. When I went there
I see its kind of a myspace for color designers. I would’ve perfered to have a way to see the color palletes in action.
FlavaFX
Looking for some vector art? Flavafx has animals, crests, art, military, nature, people, symbols, technical and more. They do have some free samples as well as some value packs, but most of the art budles are $15 bucks.
The next tool I heard about at www.454n5.comits called Crawltrack at www.crawltrack.fr which allows you to track search engine spiders and their visits along with other interesting details. It also blocks hackers. Its free.
Scribe Juice creates sales pages, generates power words, helps with the layout, built in analytics, it has research tools and more. It has a ton of stuff built into it, and why spend years becoming an expert when you can use this software. For more information go to scribejuice.com
Pic2coloris an interesting site where you point it at a graphic (locally or on the Internet ) and it will come up with a matching color scheme.
www.designsnack.com is an interesting site to get some constructive criticism on your site.
In the News Ebay and Half.com affiliate program is leaving commission junction and going in house starting April 1.
In last week’s show we talked about how drop down and fly out menus suck because it takes such a steady hand to get through the navigation. I currently use a program from Xara. It turns out they have software, and a ton of online tools you can use (but no expandable/tree menu software )So I went looking for a menu system that would stay open untill I closed it. Some call this tree menus, or expandable menus. Here is what I found.
Emenu Tree http://www.emenutree.com/
This site and its software look like they were designed in 1991. No thanks.
Soft Complex Tigra Menu Pro http://www.softcomplex.com/order.html
$29. This site seemed ok untill I went to llok at the price. It seemed liek they had so many option that I had a hard time finding out how much this software is, and what is a configuration service? Is your software so hard I need this?
CSS Tree Menu http://www.pluginlab.com/dreamweaver-extensions.asp
This site is great looking, and if you are using Dreamweaver they have a ton of stuff (some of it free). It’s 79 for their product, but I’m seriously considering it.
Entrecard.com is a networking tool where you upload a 125X125 jpg file into the system and you can “Drop” your card on blogs and people. The more people drop cards at your site the more you can earn. You can even sell credits (um, ok I don’t know about that), but it is easy to transfer your credits to another person. It looks interesting. See my entrecard in my sidebar >>>>>
NEW SEARCH ENGINE IN BETA “Search Me”
This new search engine provides results as a graphic. Interesting, and it makes my previous points that the first impression of your site should be a good one. Check out the video at www.searchme.com
Today I start off with a book review (which I did in a previous post).
Website SEO Score http://www.websitegrader.com/Default.aspx
Website Grader is a free seo tool that measures the marketing effectiveness of a website. It provides a score that incorporates things like website traffic, SEO, social popularity and other technical factors. It also provides some basic advice on how the website can be improved from a marketing perspective
Viral Tool Talking Cards (I had a blast making the dog talk)
This system is a little bit like Sitepal.com in that they both use talking characters to promote your website. The biggest difference is that putting a talking card on your site is not easy. They are made to be used in email (which is very easy to forward to friends and family). Also sitepal.com has a monthyl fee where talkingcards.com is a one time fee of 17 bucks. You can call in and put your voice on the character (but from what I saw that is the only way to get your voice on the the character).
On that note, sitepal.com now has a tool where you can put them into emails (cool). sitepal.com is as low as 10 bucks a month. (it varies based on how busy your site is).
Create Your Own Search Engine
An ex-google has started www.topicle.com where you can add websites that are then used as a custom search eninge.
Larry’s no nonsense approach to reviewing techniques and tools is a refreshing change from the melba toast “I don’t want to offend anyone” approach. For example, “fly out menus suck”. You don’t really have to wonder what Larry means by this. If you’re looking for more opinion there is plenty to go around. He talks about flash, frames, e-mail lists, search engines, usability, and more. One of my favorite points is that search engines don’t by products customers do. We get so hung up on getting good placement that when we do get a visitor on the page it doesn’t address their needs.
The other thing that I really liked about this book is the stats that Larry brings to back up his comments. For example if someone offers to list you in 10,000 search engines, Larry points out that there are really only 11 search engines you should worry about. His information on e-mail lists, guarantees, and other staples of websites has me rethinking a lot of what I am currently doing.
The best thing about the book is the style. It’s as if Larry is sitting across the table talking to you and trying to stop you from making the most common mistakes on the Internet. This is a cliché, but I had a hard time putting down the book. It was not only educational but entertaining as well. If you have some marketing specialist at your heels telling you that they can get you number positioning n Google by tweaking your keywords, you REALLY need to read this book.
Today I just found about a new site that reminds me alot of paydotcom.com which reminds me of clickbank.com(I like paydotcom.com better) only this one has no waiting for checks (like clickbank), no waiting to have things listed (like clickbank), and no “per product fees (like paydotcom.com) and its called click2sell.eu
