Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

No doubt, Good Analytics page overlays are soooo cool. I'm also becoming a big fan of Jott.

Google Reader doesn't do it for me. I love that Mac Mail can read all my RSS feeds. Each update comes in like an email. I haven't adopted del.icio.us either.

@Tyler - so what are your 5 favs

In no particular order, my favorite web things are :

Google Reader - allows me to quickly and easily read news like this and see what is going on in the news and blogs for my business area.

Google Calendar - Keeps my business and personal life organsied. Combined with Goosync, I keep all my devices updated.

Google Analytics - Essential for me to see where my customers are coming from, how they found me and a whole lot more.

Twitter/FriendFeed - I have been using twitter for a while now but have just created a friendfeed account. I am liking friendfeed a lot.

Highrise CRM - Can't live without this now I have started using it. Simple to use and it records all my mail conversations which keeps my mail box clean.

Lee

My top 5:

1. Quickbooks Online - I can do my accounting from anywhere in the world!

2. Google Analytics - Enough said.

3. Google Alerts - They bring me the content I want right to my inbox.

4. my Emma - Great email marketing program staffed by awesome, friendly people.

5. Elance - Couldn't live without freelancers at my fingertips.

Faves: Google Reader too, flickr, Basecamp, Gmail and my news site, up at last!

(If I am allowed six, yours too John) :-)

1. Google News Alerts - I create a variety of searches that are of interest to me (this gives me a base of material to pull from for ideas when my well is dry!) - I also search on terms based on my clients - this feeds me articles I then pass on to them (they find it "fascinating" that I would not only email them such articles, but I'm finding stuff they don't even see).

2. I have used Jott so many times - I love having a place to store my ideas when I'm on the go and don't have time to write it all down - I love Jotting my wife, too, with cool messages during the day. Now, I will say that I just got a new phone (LG Rumor) that has a keyboard for texting and I text more now than before, so my Jotts are down. But still a great tool for small business people on the go (they can send a quick group message to everyone at the same time!)

3. Facebook - I know alot of small business people probably still think this is a tool for college kids trying to get dates - but I love it for business. I'm still exploring all it can do - but if you are looking for a tool that will be mechanism for viral marketing (you can't CREATE a viral campaign - that's organic - but you gotta have some venues for it to happen) - Facebook is growing and it offers a way you can connect with people! And yes, I have gotten clients from something I posted on Facebook, so it's not just for socializing (although that is part of building trust!)

4. FLICKR - I post this simply because there are some folks who can use FLICKR wisely - I found a group of freelance graphic designers who created their own FLICKR group page and they share their design concepts with one another for feedback (prior to passing it on to the client). It's a great tool for someone like thi s, but in the end, I watched and started seeing one particular designer whose style I liked best - I contacted him and found out he lives in the local area - and now he is one of my favorite web designers to use when I'm building sites for my clients! I would have never found this guy - thanks to FLICKR, I did!

5. A new tool I enjoy is one recommended by D. M. Scott - it's www.websitegrader.com - this is not a substitute for good SEO counsel, but it does open your eyes to alot about your site (it offers you ideas of things that are missing, causing your site to rank low). Hubspot also offers the same for press releases - it grades your press releases and informs you of things that are needed to better enhance your efforts. These are FREE tools!

I like having Google Analytics, but it's a little challenging for me to navigate and get a handle on what's happening - but it is a nice tool to track hits, sources, etc... I'll put that at #6.

Add Twitter to the list for me!

Great post, John. I'm always on the lookout for web tools that help me be more productive. My favourite tools are:

Google Reader - like you said! I used to separately review lots of different blogs (including yours!) but having them all on my iGoogle home page is much quicker.

Qipit.com - this is awesome. If you take pictures of documents with your phone or digital camera and email them to this free service, it turns it into a PDF for you. I do this to capture my meeting notes and scribbles electronically without having to mess about with a scanner. Love it.

CMAP OnDemand - on-demand CRM and project management software for services companies (honesty note: CMAP OnDemand is developed by a company I own, but it's still awesome!) This software does tons of stuff, but for me as the business owner I love it because it gives me a clear insight into how my business is doing in real-time.

SharePointSite.net - excellent hosted SharePoint service. I use this all the time when I'm working on projects that involve a team of people from different companies working together on a project that is document-heavy.

Elance - I use this for outsourcing small projects, such as transcription services and it works really well.

Oh, and I also monitor Lifehacker.com as it gives me the heads up on great tools and tricks to maximise my productivity (I heard about Qipit.com from this website).

Well, that's my thoughts. Hope they're useful!

Cheers,

Dave

I'm curious that you mentioned Friend Feed not Twitter. Does Friend Feed have less downtime generally?

Linkedin - adds another way for my customers to contact me and see what the company is up to.

1) gmail (although not sold on Googledocs, hopefully they improve it)
2) mapquest (it's easy to create a dynamic link from your web site directly into a mapquest map of the location)
3) alexa.com--great intelligence source on the competition and potential partners
4) adsense--how did small to medium online publishers survive before adsense came along?
5) pdfonline.com--easily converts DOC, RFT, and TXT into PDF then emails the document to you

Two resources that I use are mindmapping (with MindMeister) and stock images from stock.xchng.

Google Alerts: I have alerts on my industry, name, website, blog, and every article I submit online. I'm always in the loop!

Google Reader: Enough said. . .

Meebo: I have widgets on my blog and my website so that visitors can chat with me in real time.

I'll second Todd's recommendation of stock.xchng: I use the images for my blog posts and my image-based PowerPoints. Best selection of free images I've found.

Pingoat: I use it to ping a bunch of services every time I post to my blog.

Ok, for now, my 5 are...

Basecamp
guru.com
stompernet
quantcast.com
compete.com

Looking at Freemind.com and now will add websitegrader.com to the list :)

Loved the post and the comments.

Dina
direct response copywriting

1. Basecamp

2. Highrise

3. Campfire

4. Backpack

5. 37 Signals' next product ... whatever that may be!

Web Success Agency would not be near as productive without these great products from 37 Signals.

1. Blogspot: for my business site http:pitstopcafe.blogspot.com
2. Formlogix: for online reservation system
3. Google Calendar: for managing upcoming events for the team.
4. Google Docs: for sharing documents. Like it but somehow doesn't really take off as much as i like to within the team.
5. Flickr: for sharing photos of the cafe customers.

I've found Facebook and LinkedIn to be incredibly useful for networking. I've made several business connections that have led to joint venture projects and increased my business by using these tools.

I love WordPress. It's a great blogging tool and is very versatile.

Mozilla Thunderbird email and calendar program. I like that there are numerous plugins that can expand the functionality of the program.

Yahoo Groups. I couldn't live without the mailing lists I belong to.

Andrea

1. Google Mail - How is it that a webmail client is the most sophisticated mail program around? I stopped trying to find old emails on my desktop app long ago. But with Gmail, all it takes is remembering a few choice words.

2. LinkedIn - A social network with a niche purpose. It's never been so easy to find a new hire within your own network, get and receive recommendations, and even spark the meeting of new people in your company.

3. Twitter - Boy was I skeptical of this one early on. Now, it's become invaluable. Twitter lets me stay in touch, but more important is a source of instant news and meetup info for when I'm on the move.

4. Google Analytics & Google Website Optimizer - For all the reasons stated above. What a set of tools.

5. Stumbleupon - A recommendation engine for websites based on aggregated user ratings from the millions of others using the site. Better, it's a source for finding the people in your niche who are passionate enough to review and spread messages. Connecting with those people has never been easier.