Resources
Please Note: as you know, the web is an always-evolving entity, so many things have changed and continue to change daily. This page is a work in progress.
On the page below you’re going to find some of the most valuable resources, services, and contacts in the world for your business, and let me just say this… It’s not easy finding quality resources like these. It can take years of expensive trial and error to separate the good from the bad.
***KEYWORD RESEARCH***
Google Keyword Tool (FREE) – Use the Keyword Tool to get new keyword ideas. Select an option to enter a few descriptive words or phrases, or type in your website’s URL and the tool will suggest your possible keywords based on the content. (You are looking for keywords with a lot of search volume and a lot of paying competition. If you manage to optimize your website for such a keyword and get it ranked on the first page, you are basically getting free traffic while others are paying for it.)
Google Search (FREE of course) – use Google search to see how many websites are competing for the specific keywords. My personal opinion – you should pick keywords that have no more than 300K competing websites.
Hexatrack – the ultimate guide to finding keywords: learn how to discover profitable niches, choose the best keywords, and even “spy” on your competition. I had no idea things like that were possible until I used Hexatrack!
***NOTE: the 3 tools listed above combined give me everything I need to know about a particular keyword: 1. Search volume and paid competition; 2. Number of competing websites; 3. How profitable a certain keyword is.
***WEBSITE BUILDING & MANAGEMENT***
For a list of free website building tools, see 10 Fantastic Free Website Builders To Create Your Very Own YourNetBiz Site
DomainsBot.com – Domain suggestions, name spinner, expired and expiring domain name search, for sale domains, whois lookup and registration.
W3C Link Checker – this free tool will go over all your links and check for those that are broken or incorrectly redirected. Search engine crawlers hate broken links; so make sure you run the check at least once a month!
LastPass.com – password management solution.
***VIDEO RECORDING SOFTWARE***
JingProject.com (FREE) – great video-recording software created by the makers of CAMTASIA. Works on both PCs and Macs; you can literally record your video and have it on the web live with 2 mouse clicks – “record” and “share”.
***FREELANCING/OUTSOURCING SERVICES***
ODesk.com - provides an all-in-one solution for finding, hiring, progress tracking, and paying freelancers for various web-based projects.
GetAFreelancer.com – will help you find Freelance Programmers, Web Designers and Copywriters at the best possible price. I’ve used them quite a bit; usually get a lot of response for all my posted projects.
Elance.com – very well-established and well organized site; the prices are usually higher here, the talent is not necessarily better (from personal experience)
***FREE GRAPHICS/STOCK PHOTOS***
It is always great to add an image to your website or blog post, for both esthetic and SEO purposes. Do not forget to include an Alt tag with a description including your keywords, as so: <img src=”happy.gif” alt=”happy face” /> where “happy face” is a keyword you are optimizing for.
IStockPhoto.com - not a free site, but the prices are minimum and the quality is great.
WebResizer.com – Quickly shrink graphics to manageable Web size.
***FUN STUFF***
PageSwirl.com - If you want to create your own co-op, consider getting a rotator website. You can get a free one at www.pageswirl.com. Your PageSwirl website will allow up to 5 websites to be rotated for a co-op advertisement.
Gravatar.com – A gravatar, or globally recognized avatar, is quite simply an image that follows you from site to site appearing beside your name when you do things. Avatars help identify your posts on blogs and web forums, so why not on any site?
Very helpful and entirely FREE.
My Live Signature – Use this tool to create a graphical version of your signature you can use on your site or any electronic document.
CutePDF – Create PDF files from virtually any printable document using this free app. A great alternative if you don’t want to shell out $450 for Adobe Acrobat Professional.
