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12 FREE Tools
and
Resources to Save You Money
and Make
Your Business
Profitable
When
establishing a Web business, you have to be sure that your most
important
e-business tools are high-quality, dependable products and services.
But if
you're like many new online entrepreneurs, you're probably curious
about
various free tools and resources you may have heard about or discovered
yourself when surfing the 'Net for information. And you may be
wondering if
it's worth your while giving them a try.
My
first word
of advice on free tools and resources is this: Always be cautious. Free
tools
can be unreliable or come with hidden "catches," like requirements
that you display certain advertisements.
However
(now
that I've told you the downside), there are a number of very good (and
reliable!) tools and resources available on the 'Net that are FREE. And
these
can be excellent ways to complement your existing tools at no cost,
helping you
to make your site stickier and more user-friendly, make your keywords
more
effective, keep an eye on your competition, find potential business
partners,
and more...
Of
course, you
should still take care in the "free" world, and always be aware of
what you may have to give up (like reliability) or give over (like
advertising
space on your site -- and potential customers). But the following 12
tools and
resources can be effectively used to give your online business that
extra edge
you need to stay ahead of your competition.
1. Free
link partner
evaluation tool
download.alexa.com
The
Alexa
toolbar is one of the most useful tools around for businesses on the
'Net.
Alexa provides a free, downloadable toolbar that opens in your web
browser
whenever you're online.
The
most useful
feature is a "site info" option. When you click on this button, Alexa
lays out all the details of the site you're on, including...
- The
traffic ranking of the site (this is also listed right on the toolbar
itself)
- A list
of related links (two or three of the most popular links also appear on
the toolbar)
- The
number of other sites that link to the site
- The
contact information of the site owner
- All
site/user reviews
This
is the
exact information you need when you're researching high-traffic sites
in your
industry and considering link partnerships or joint ventures. Use this
information
to...
- Decide
how much you're willing to pay for advertising
- Make
educated decisions about the worth of a joint venture partner
- Determine
the credibility and the perceived value of the site
The
list of
related links -- which also has its own button on the toolbar -- is an
excellent way for you to find other popular or similar sites that might
be good
linking partners or joint venture partners. Use this list to determine
other
popular sites that your target market visits -- start by looking at
your own site
with Alexa's toolbar, and see
what related links are suggested! The toolbar also contains a Google
search
option, so you can jump directly into a search without having to leave
the page
you're on.
If
you prefer
not to download the toolbar, you can still take advantage of these
features
right from Alexa's site: www.Alexa.com.
2. Free market research
tool
www.google.com/toolbar
(Make sure to check the "Enable Advanced Features" option when you
download it to enable all the options.)
When
you're
building a successful online business, you'll probably need to spend
hours at a
time researching your competitors and your target market and looking
for new
product ideas.
The
good news
is that there are some nifty free tools available on the Google
Toolbar that
can make this whole process faster and a lot more productive:
- "Google
Groups" search:
This is great for
product or market research, as you can search for your keywords within
the
thousands of Google Groups online and find forums relevant to your web
site. By
checking these forums regularly, you'll get to know what's important to
the
people in your target market.
-
"Search
News":
This feature lets you
find news stories relevant to your web site, e-zine, or blog within
news pages
indexed by Google. It's great for sparking content ideas or just
keeping up
with the latest developments in your market or industry.
-
"Web
Directory" search:
This option lets you
search Google's directory for sites that match your search terms. It's
ideal
for finding out how many competitors you may have for a new product,
and for
seeking out potential linking partners.
-
"Search
Froogle":
Froogle lets online
shoppers search for products and compare prices. It displays pictures,
prices,
and links to online stores in the results, so you can use it to quickly
research how the pricing of your products or services compares with
other
offerings across the Web. If you have an idea for a new product,
Froogle is a
great place to check out your potential competitors.
Once
you get
the hang of them, these powerful tools can become a great asset to your
business, as they can save you hours spent on research -- leaving you
more time
to concentrate on developing new products, new marketing strategies,
and other
ways to boost your profits.
3. Free
image-reducing
tool and free "tool kit" trials
www.marketingtips.com/netmechanic
NetMechanic
is
a "tool kit" resource, offering a number of free trials that are
great for easily locating potential problems with your site and
repairing them
quickly. Address problems such as...
- HTML
code errors
- Browser
display problems
- Lengthy
load times
- Broken
links
- Site
downtime
Some
of these
tools will even give you a free monthly update! However, you'll get a
limited
version of each tool unless you're willing to pay the fee. But
NetMechanic's
image-reducing tool, GIFbot, is totally free and is a particularly
useful
resource.
Using
GIFBot is
an excellent way to reduce the file size of your images so that your
web pages
load faster -- and you don't lose those impatient surfers. Image files
can be
reduced by as much as 50 - 85% in many cases, and it's so easy to do
that
nowadays you'll look totally unprofessional with huge, lagging image
files that
take forever to load on your site.
4. Free HTML Editor and
HTML tutorials
www.nvu.com
You
don't have
to spend hundreds of dollars on HTML Editors and web design software to
create
your own web site. Nvu is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) HTML
editor
that's similar to FrontPage or Dreamweaver -- but completely free to
download!
The software allows you to create and manage a professional-looking web
site
without any knowledge of HTML programming, and includes the following
features:
-
WYSIWYG
editing of pages, meaning you can see what your web page
will look like as you're creating it
- Integrated
file management via FTP, so you can upload your pages
to your web host
-
Easy-to-use
interface
- Free
tutorials
If
you are
interested in learning how to code HTML yourself, here are a couple of
excellent tutorial and resource sites where you can learn everything
you need
to know:
And,
for those
of you who are a little more technically inclined, you may want to
check out
some of the many free CGI script resources out there. Two good places
to start
include...
5.
Free-trial keyword
service
www.smartecreation.com/yes/wordtracker
Using
a service
such as Wordtracker allows you to easily discover which keywords are
frequently
searched by your target market -- but are not
being
used by your competition. Wordtracker has compiled a massive
database of terms that people search on, so all you have to do is enter
your
keyword, and Wordtracker tells you how often people are searching that
term,
how many competing sites are using that particular keyword, and how
much they
are bidding for the pay-per-click search engines.
A
tool like
this will help you optimize your search engine ranking by targeting
keywords
and phrases that are frequently searched by your best potential
customers, but
that few (if any!) of your competitors are competing under. Capitalize
on the
streams of neglected and missed traffic that are passing your
competition by --
and even discover misspellings of your keywords that may be drawing
traffic!
The
free trial
version of Wordtracker, however, will only compare your keywords with
MSN,
while the paid version compiles results from the top search engines,
directories,
and pay-per-click engines. If you're happy to limit yourself to MSN,
you can
use the free trial as many times as you like. Otherwise, the paid
version is
available for $8.04 per day or $26.81 per week, with monthly and yearly
subscriptions available as well.
You
might also
want to try out Yahoo! Search Marketing's Keyword Popularity and
Suggestion
tool, available free at: http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
Yahoo!
Search
Marketing's keyword service will give you a list of related searches
that
include your term and tell you how many times those terms were searched
in
Yahoo! Search Marketing (formerly Overture) in the last month. This is
a good
way to find out the popularity of your keyword, but the tool doesn't
list
bidding amounts. If you're looking for great deals on your keywords,
your best
bet is to search in both Yahoo! Search Marketing and Wordtracker to
gauge
popularity, then use Wordtracker to determine your bidding strategy.
6. Free
browser
compatibility service
www.anybrowser.com
The
browser
compatibility experts AnyBrowser offers every tool you'll need to make
your
site viewable, as the name suggests, in any browser. The most useful
tool is
the "SiteViewer," which allows you to see your web pages as surfers
will see them on multiple browsers. For example, your site may look
different
in Netscape Navigator than it does in Internet Explorer -- images may
be
broken, tables may shift, and so on. With AnyBrowser you can ensure you
meet
the needs of every browser.
You
can also
make sure your coding checks out and your links aren't broken, and view
an
example of how your listing will appear in the search engines (what
description
will be used, what the title will be, etc.).
AnyBrowser
is
also a great resource directory, pointing you toward a variety of
really useful
free tools. It's a great place to find online HTML tutorials, banner
exchanges,
CGI scripts, and a ton of free resources such as HTML editors,
classifieds,
fonts, graphics, Java scripts, message boards, and more.
7. Free
search tool
www.answers.com
1-Click
Answers
is a downloadable search tool available from the Answers.com search
engine. It
allows you to search multiple information sources and find instant
answers
containing concise information on the topic you're searching for.
After
you've
downloaded the personal (free) version, you'll have a search bar right
on your
desktop. When you search on an item, you'll get results from some or
all of the
following resources, depending on your search term:
- Dictionaries
- Thesauruses
- Atlases
- Glossaries
- Encyclopedias
...
All in just
one step! No more messing around with multiple search tools; 1-Click
Answers
consolidates them in one source to save the precious time of the busy
netrepreneur.
8. Free
content
www.freesticky.com/stickyweb
This resource is a good place to find free (or cheap) content for your
site, so
you can keep your site fresh and interesting for your visitors -- and
keep them
coming back. Find articles, news briefs, headlines, tickers, tips of
the day,
and more. The broad variety of topics range from financial advice to
hip hop
headlines, from travel guides to lottery results. You can also give
away free
software applications directly from your site, many of which are
available for
co-branding.
Another
good
source for articles is www.EZineArticles.com,
which offers free content designed for both web sites and e-zines.
Watch
that you
don't just load up your site with a lot of stuff that you think is
interesting.
The material you provide has to be relevant to your business and your
customer
base. Also be aware that the sponsorship information that is usually
included
can pull your readers' attention away from your purpose -- and, most
importantly,
the sponsors' links can draw traffic away from your site. It is always
a good
idea to have quality content on your site, use your discretion, and
make sure
it's worth the risk involved.
9. Free
e-mail campaign
ROI calculator
www.marketingtoday.com/tools/roi_calculator.htm
A
very cool
tool… Marketing Today's ROI calculator is an easy-to-use
little device that
allows you to accurately estimate what kind of return on investment you
can
expect from your upcoming direct mail or e-mail campaigns and
promotions.
The
most
accurate way to operate this tool is to use the response rate you
received from
your previous mailings to calculate your ROI for future mailings. All
you have
to do is enter the numbers: the number of mailings you'll be doing,
your total
costs, the response rate you expect, the conversion rate you expect,
and how
much you expect each buyer to spend (i.e., the cost of your product or
service).
Hint:
If you do
not have previous response rates and conversion rates to base your
figures on,
you should estimate much lower than you think necessary. If you guess
too low,
you'll just end up with extra cash on hand; guess too high, however,
and you'll
be making a costly mistake.
The
ROI
calculator is a simple tool that acts as an excellent reality check
when you're
determining your marketing costs.
10. Free
web design tool
www.colormatch.dk
Most
Internet
entrepreneurs have very little, if any, web design knowledge. However,
this
doesn't have to be a barrier to creating a professional-looking web
site.
One
of the
hardest tasks for someone with no design experience is choosing the
color
scheme for your site. Well, this easy-to-use free tool allows you to
create a
complete color scheme at the click of the button. It also gives you the
HTML
codes for the colors you choose (every web color has a code, e.g.,
black is
#000000) -- so you can use them on your site and not have to worry if
that pink
really does match that orange.
11. Free
site search
tools
http://sitelevel.whatuseek.com
SiteLevel
can
set you up with effective, free search tools for your web site. If your
site is
more than a couple of pages and doesn't have a good internal search
tool,
you're probably losing many a frustrated visitor.
While
appeasing
your visitors, a site-level search engine also enables you to find out
what
your users want and need. SiteLevel's search tools allow you to track
what your
visitors are searching for and see what they are finding or not
finding, so you
can adapt to their agendas and increase visitor satisfaction -- and the
stickiness of your site.
SiteLevel
also
lets you customize your own search results page to make it suit the
look and
feel of your web site.
The
basic
(free) version has more than enough "oomph" for the average
small-business web site, allowing you to index up to 1,000 pages and
incorporate a variety of search strategies.
12. More
free marketing
tools
www.thefreesite.com
You
got it… The
Free Site is free stuff! And lots of it!
Not
everything
on this site is e-business related, but you can find plenty that is.
Probably
the most useful section for e-businesses is the "webmaster" section
at: http://thefreesite.com/webmaster_freebies/
Here
you'll
find the "Internet Seer" site monitoring tool that provides downtime
alerts so you don't lose valuable customers. You'll also find...
- Tools to
help you check your keywords and your link popularity
- Suggested
methods of winning awards for your site
- Scripts,
banners, and polls
- Guestbooks,
message boards, and more...
The
Free Site
also lists free technical support and online tutorials, free personal
management tools, plenty of Java script resources, free fonts, clipart,
graphics, icons, and buttons, plus much, much more. Again, be wary of
freebies
that ask for advertising space in return... but you might want to
bookmark this
page!
Final
thoughts
One
of the
great advantages of starting an online business, as opposed to taking
the more
traditional "bricks and mortar" approach, is that costs are SO much
lower. Hosting fees are your main overhead, but these are nowhere near
the rent
you'd pay for office space for an offline business. And when it comes
to
creating and building your web site -- as well as marketing it -- you
can
further reduce your costs by making use of some great free tools and
resources.
The
tools I've
recommended are personal favorites, and I know you'll find them
incredibly
useful. But when you're choosing free services or software, always
proceed with
caution and stay in control with each decision you make. Find out
whether any
advertising will be included and whether you will be bound by any
restrictions
or obligations. "Free" can sometimes mean only that there's no charge
-- not no consequences.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Derek Gehl specializes in teaching real people how to start
profitable Internet businesses that make $100,000 to $2.5 Million (or
more) per
year. To get instant access to all his most profitable marketing
campaigns,
strategies, tools, and resources that he's used to grow $25 into over
$40
Million in online sales, visit:
http://www.marketingtips.com
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