by Dave Jackson on January 28, 2009
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Push Button Marketer
This website is funny just for the videos of the guy in the shower with his monkey. What this software does it is designed to help you write reviews of products, you input your affilaite, click a few buttons as to what you felt about the review, and it pops out a review to past on your website, blog, article site, etc. Push button marketer comes with videos, blueprints and other marketing tools, but it appears to be a super maxed out macro software package that might be able to be used for more than its original purpose.
Appointment Plus Software
I’ve spoken about appointment software in the past. This one has Boo-Koo features. Everything from email alerts, to flexible scheduling, to event management including the number of attendees, you can have multiple locations, employees, exporting items to outlook, point of sale, and a secure way for people to pay for appointments online, it goes on and on. The interesting thing is its only $39 a month (there is a free trial available). While this is more expensive than other software titles I’ve spoken about in the past, it is by far the most feature rich of all that I’ve previously mentioned.
Message Rover
If you have a company that has people out in the field, and yet utilizes one central reception area, you may want to look into Message Rover. When someone calls, the receptionist uses this online system to instantly send a text message and/or email to the person in the field. The first 25 messages are free, and then its only $10 a month for each 100 messages.
Virtual Assistant Manager
You’ve probably heard about Rent a Coder, and all sorts of other sites that allow you to hire a virtual assistant (many times from places such as India). One of the biggest problems is the time difference and keeping people on the same page. Virtual Assistant Manager also a place for you to enter your tasks, that then automaitcally alerts the Virtual Assistant, who then performs their work and updates the status of the task. Any communication between you and the assistant is saved in the system (and not list in your gmail). You can track time logged, and export that to Excel. A free trial is available and pricing is $39 a month.
by Dave Jackson on October 27, 2008
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Today I have a video to show off a software that I am really excited about. I’ve wanted a software like this for years, and I’m so glad this exists. It’s called Artisteer, and it allows you to create a wordpress theme from scratch in minutes.
You can customize every aspect of your worpdress theme. Choose your colors, your layout, the location of items like categories, etc, your header, your buttons, your menus, and on and on and on…
In making a video for the podcast, I typically try to keep them under 5 minutes. This is an almost impossible feat as this software has so many features (but I gave it a shot). The best part of this software is its price. You can download a trial version for free. If you like (and how can you not if you work in WordPress), you can buy the “home” version for $49. There is also standard version that regularly sells for $149 (NOTE: I ACCIDENTALLY SAY $129 in the video it’s normally $149) and you can buy that version (during this introductory offer for $99.95 The standard version will have the ability to output to Joomla, and drupal (in the future), it also has a library of textures and glares, and you can export to CodeCharge Studio. If you’re not working in WordPress it also exports as XHTML+CSS (so you can work with Dreamweaver, etc).
According to their FAQ, when it comes to selling themes created with this product, “Yes, as long as you do not include Artisteer photo objects within your header (Header -> Foreground Photo), as those objects are licensed from a 3rd party only for your own use. You may re-distribute any other designs you create, including those with Artisteer header background photos (Header -> Background) and your own photo objects.”
Watch the video, and for more information go to www.artisteer.com
by Dave Jackson on September 15, 2008
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Ebook Cover Generators
Nick from http://www.nicksjourney.com/ was looking for a cool ebook cover software that didn’t require photoshop. He had looked at:
http://www.virtual-cover-creator.net/ $90 create
http://www.adolix.com/ecover-engineer $38 plain
http://www.3d-ebook-shot.com $97 makes videos
http://www.3d-pack.com/#swf free
http://www.absolutecovers.com – subscription service?
http://www.ebooktemplatesource.com/ebook-cover-software.html — 3 free
photoshop templates
He wanted to know what I use. I’ve use a software package called True Box Shot for $45
Nick said “I found the mackdaddy of all the ebook cover creators. Most of everything I found up to this point was either a simple graphics program that did basic 3D rotations -OR- a photoshop template. It’s Box Shot 3d and it’s only $57
Putting Advertising On Your Blog – Update
I had previously spoke about the OIO Publisher that allows you to sell banner, links, posts, and more on your wordpress site (and its widget ready). After using this for one of my podcast fast pass clients, I’m not a huge fan. It doesn’t allow you to sell clicks, or track stats based on a banner. You get stats for the whole system. I’ve used Ad Manager Pro from PHP Webscripts and I tested it and it works great in a blog (as I found out that with the OIO publisher I ended up copying and pasting code anyway. While the OIO publisher is cheaper, Ad Manager Pro gives you the flexibility and stats to sell advertisements on your blog.
Comments on Esyndicat
Regular listeners know we use PHP Webscripts for our Link Section (using Link up gold). However, I always like to try new things to make sure I’m using the best, and that I am up on the latest technology for my clients. I had spoken about Esyndicat in a previous show. I thought I would try out their free version. While their system isn’t as robust as Link Up Gold, I did really like the interface. Both Link Up Gold and Eysndicat have a free version. Installing eysndicat was a breeze (once I got over the MySQL part, but that’s my bad). In general if you looking for something simple (and you don’t need the power of Link Up Gold) I would give it a thumbs up.
New Google Insights Tool
Kind of a cross between google trends, and their key word tool. Check it out at http://www.google.com/insights/search
Do You Know of a Good Craig’s List Submission / Automation Tool?
I’ve seen a few at www.uneeksoftware.com and www.adsoncraig.com but I haven’t seen one that heps me post and thats it (not looking to be a giant spammer). Got any ideas? Let us know at 888-563-3228
