Top 5 Websites I Use in My Small Business

Posted on 25. Sep, 2007 by Elizabeth Potts Weinstein in Blog

Here are the websites that I use every day for my business — most of them are free or very low cost! 

www.google.com/alerts - free resource from Google that allows you to have automated searches for words, like you target key words, the name of your business, you name, and your trademarks.  Great way to find out if you have been mentioned by other bloggers or in the press, to research your field, and to keep an eye on your trademarks and copyrights. 

www.google.com/analytics – free resource from Google to track traffic and conversion on your website.  Very powerful and easy to use — just have to put a line of code on you web pages (easy to add this script to a wordpress blog).  I use it to track the visitors to my websites, including where they came from, how long they stayed, what they read, and whether they converted (signed up or bought something).

www.aweber.com – autoresponder software, costs under $20/month.  That a program that sends out mass emails for you, so you don’t violate spam rules, you can keep track of your promotions, and to automate sign ups to your list.  I check this at least once a day to see how many people signed up for one of my lists, and how many people opened or clicked through from automated emails and eZines. 

1shoppingcart.com – shopping cart software, costs a bit more ($29-79/month, I pay $49/month).  This is how people buy products and services from me online (and how I process live orders from clients).  I also use this software to sign up people for teleclasses and maintain my snail-mail mailing list.  They still need work (no html editor) but works better than anything else I have seen. 

www.appointment-plus.com – automated calendar and appointment system, costs under $20/month.  My clients (and my virtual assistant) can schedule their own appointments using my portal, so no phone or email tag.  It also sends out automatic reminders and confirmations for appointments, and people can reschedule their own appointments.  Saved 4-6 hours per week of my virtual assistant’s time! 

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  • It's a very helpful list of sites. Thank-you!
  • Wow. You are very good at what you do and I think it's great that you are so willing to share what you've learned with others. I'm so impressed I'm going to subscribe to your feed and put on My Yahoo. I've been using computers for 20 years and I've been internet savvy since 1998. I discuss similar issues to yourself on my new blog and even I didn't know some of the information you have written about here. Well done and keep it up.
  • Thank you for the useful tips!
  • I just started using http://officezilla.com for contacts/calendar management. I'll definitely take a look at appointments plus.

    Thanks for the list!
  • Hi Elizabeth,

    Thanks for the mention. I love hearing what people think about our system.

    Thought I would mention too that 1ShoppingCart implemented an HTML editor to the autoresponder and broadcasting sections a few weeks ago (we've had in other areas for a lot longer).

    If you ever find our software is missing something or needs something to help run your business more efficiently, please let us know! I can't guarantee we can implement everything of course, but we're always listening and evolve our software based heavily on the comments of our merchants!

    cheers!

    Michael Valiant
    http://blog.1shoppingcart.com
  • Bee
    I use google alerts and analytics too and aweber for mailing lists/newsletters.
  • I use aweber because it is a better autoresponder. It has more sophisticated reporting and tracking, and an html editor inside the application. The sign up is easier because aweber will give you scripts to put on your websites, instead of having to write html every time you want to add a signup box to a new webpage. It's also compatible with wordpress plugins and a bunch of other applications, since aweber is one of the industry standards.

    Since it is only $20/month, the cost is not too much to make it prohibitive.
  • I use a lot of google applications, including alerts and analytics.

    I also use google calendar for my appointments. My assistant and clients can set up their own appointments, and it syncs with my outlook and PDA.

    Plus...it's free.

    I also use a free wiki (PB wiki) as an online operations manual for my interns and staff, as well as smartsheet (paid $20 a month) for project management.


    Quick ? though: why use aweber & 1 shopping cart when the latter has the same services?
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