12 Great resources to help you establish and maintain your Business online

December 14, 2011 Unipro2013main Great online Tech Resources

1. Great Online website Builder
Although website creation has become much easier today than a decade ago, a majority
of businesses still do not have a website. A reason for this is they do not know where to
start, but most of the time, they just think it is too difficult and costly.

Finally, a website builder that’s easy to use and you can setup and manage your website
from as little as $4.99 per month!

With Website Tonight, everything works just like you’d expect.
Need to move a section? Just drag and drop it. Want to add some text?
Just click and type.

Need help getting started? Choose from over 3,000 design and color combinations in our
template library, including 120 pre-built websites customized to fit your business or style
– just replace
the text and images and you’re ready to go!

Create business websites in three steps
Choose themes most relevant to your business
Contact page
Add media galleries
Maps and directions
Website optimized for search
Get web statistics

Check out our website Tonight Service here:
Website tonight online website Builder

2. Help den
If you have a website and want to provide live support to your users, check out HelpDen.
It is an easy-to-use hosted live support system for website owners. There is nothing to
install. It is hosted remotely on their servers and is very easy to setup. You simply sign
up for an account and paste a few lines of code to integrate it within your website. You
can log in to your Live Support admin area from your own dedicated URL (companyname.
helpden.com) to view current chats, stats and configuration options.

They have a free plan, which lets you have 1 agent. To get additional features like online
support, branding, support statistics, time tracking etc., you have to sign up for one of
their paid plans starting from 10$/month.

Simple live support system for websites in the cloud.
Set up in minutes.
Cross browser.
Archives chats.
Geographical tracking – see where your chats are coming from worldwide.
Supports multiple agents.
Customized messages.
256-bit Security.
Intergrates with 3rd party CMS platforms like WordPress, Drupal and Joomla.
Free account provided.

Check out HelpDen @ www.helpden.com

3. BitNami
BitNami makes it easier to download and install Open Source software packages (i.e.
WordPress, SugarCRM, Drupal, phpBB…) by bundling each package into preconfigured
1-click setup file. No need to deal with configuration settings or dependencies. Just
download a package you need, run installation wizard, and that’s it. Once done, you
will have a fully-functional and configured copy on your system.

Advanced search: browse and search open source packages by category (Blogging,
CMS, Collaboration, CRM, Wiki, Photo Sharing, etc.), technology (ASP.NET, Java,
MySQL, Python, Ruby on Rails, etc.), license type (Apache, Creative commeons,
EPL, GPL, …) or tags.
Recommend and vote on the next to be stacked apps on Bitnami polls.
BitNami forums: Get help and provide feedback on the BitNami stacks.

Check out BitNami @ www.bitnami.org

4. Domain Clock
If you are one of those who has a huge portfolio of domains and is always on the lookout
for new domain names then this cool domain name idea generator is definitely for you.
Powered by the Google App Engine, Domain Clock generates domain name ideas by
the current time. And it does that pretty well. I would have never imagined there can
be so many permutations and combination of domain names for every minute on the
clock!

The clock based domain idea tool has a simple interface and updates automatically with
time. When you hover your mouse over the main domain name, it also gives an option
to buy the domain which then directs to sedo.com. The default domain name extension
is .com but you can always change that in one click.

Check out DomainClock @ domainclock.caughtandloose.com

5. Traindom
If you are an expert on something, why not turn your knowledge into a business? Traindom
lets you set up your online information business such as an e-training website, online course,
membership site or even a simple e-book. You can even collect payments from your customers
without worrying about anything.

No technical knowledge is required to set up your business on Traindom since it is a very
easy-to-use web-based platform. You can add multimedia content, track traffic using Google
Analytics and build discussions forums for your users.

Traindom is free if you are not charging your customer, but takes a little cut when you start
making money.

Create an online information business.
Add multimedia content and analytics.
Totally web-based, access from anywhere anytime.
Schedule content to be displayed later.
Accept payments from your users without any hassle.
Excellent for online courses, trainings and paid tutorials.

Visit Traindom @ www.traindom.com

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6. Ecwid
Are you looking to set up your own online store? If you are, then you should check out Ecwid.
This nifty web application lets you create your own online store for free within your existing
website in less than five minutes.

Short for “e-commerce widget”, Ecwid features easy- to-use tools that streamlines your online
business so that you can quickly sell your products without the need for complicated e-commerce
scripts.

Setting up an online store with Ecwid is very easy. Once you get into the control panel, you can
upload your products and edit the store settings. Then get the embed code and paste it into your
website to render a web store on your page. You can set up the payment method, shipping
information, product description, shopping carts, and more.

Ecwid lets you set up a mobile version of your online store. You can also use Ecwid to create and
manage an online store in Facebook and MySpace. This powerful e-commerce tool will definitely
keep your online business up and running.

Create an online store.
Drag-and-drop support.
Integrates with existing sites easily.
Widgets include product browsers, categories, product search and mini cart.
Manage and track your inventory.
Create unlimited categories and subcategories.
No software installation is required.
Configurable shipping rules.
Realtime shipment tracking.
Customizable email notifications.
HTML version for mobile devices and SEO purposes.
Invoice printing.
Track payment and shipping status.
Support for PayPal, Google Checkout, Authorize.NET, and 2CheckOut.

Check out Ecwid @ www.ecwid.com

7. Verified Pages
Verified Pages is a unique website which gives brands a place to list their official
websites and accounts on different networks. As much as there are brands all over
the internet, there are a lot of fake accounts too which dupe people by using the
name of a trusted brand. Hence by listing the real accounts of a brand on this site
people will have a trusted place where they can look to find out if a site or account
they are looking at online really is associated with a brand, or if it’s someone who
is faking it and has nothing to do with a brand.

After an account is registered with the site, the following methods of verification are
carried out to ensure the authenticity of the account.

Verifying Twitter credentials.
Signing into Facebook Connect.
Linking with MySpaceID.
Uploading a blank file to a brand domain.
Manual Verification by verifiedpages staff.

Manual verification is generally done for the premium accounts. But even free accounts
could be verified to a high level.

Check out VerifiedPages @ www.verifiedpages.com

8. BistroSquare
For all businesses, having a website is an important factor that will affect their business.
This is particularly true for restaurants. Restaurants can use websites to market what they
offer and attract customers from near and far. If you are a restaurant owner and want an
easy tool to create a website, check out BistroSquare.

BistroSquare lets you easily create a website for your restaurant. You start by creating an
account on the site; selecting between the free and paid options will depend on the type of
site you want to build. Next you select your site’s template and enter its information. Once
the basics are set up, you can add pages to your site to provide an introduction, show your
restaurant’s location on a map, upload your menu, and take reservations. Other features of
BistroSquare include social media integration, mobile-friendliness, and custom coupon
creators.

A user-friendly website.
Lets you create a website for your restaurant.
You can select from many templates.
Supports social media integration.
Your created website is mobile-friendly.

Check out BistroSquare @ www.bistrosquare.com

9. PhpList
PhpList is one of the most popular e-mail marketing tools today and the most popular open
-source tool for e-mail management. However, you have to download, install, and configure
the software before you can start using it, which can limit the way you want to use it.

Fortunately, they are now offering a beta service of PhpList Hosted, which is basically the
cloud-based version of this email campaign manager. PhpList Hosted is ready-to-use and
it will allow you to access and manage your email campaigns easily and conveniently, from
any computer.

Once you have signed up for an account in phpList Hosted, you will be automatically provided
with a trial account of the service. This will let you send up to 300 messages per month with a
daily limit of 50 messages. If you wish to send larger volumes of emails after trying out the free
service, you may then sign up for a paid account that will let you send from 2,000 messages per
month up to 100,000 messages per month (depending on the subscription), which also allows
attachments.

Aside from being a very convenient email campaign manager, PhpList Hosted allows you to
experience the latest developments in PhpList without doing constant upgrades. This tool is
a great, cheap, and powerful alternative for popular e-mail marketing tools.

Features:

Open source email list manager online.
Access you email campaigns from any computer.
No downloading, installation, and configuration required.
Automatically processes message queue and bounces.
Manages whitelisting and deliverability of your email campaigns.
Secure managing of account.
Experience first the latest developments from phpList.

Check out Phplist @ www.phplist.com

10. 1and1Mail
1and1Mail is definitely not the first or the only email marketing software available in the
market. However, it does stand apart because of its powerful features despite its simple
and neat user interface. Once download on your Windows machine, the software allows
you to create and send mass emails for upto 50 people with free version.

The built-in WYSIWYG email editor lets you create HTML emails without worrying about
the code behind it and many annoying formatting issues. You can add text, create hyper-
links, insert images, align your content with a few clicks and if too adventurous even edit
the actual HTML code.

The software lets you create multiple groups targeted towards different sets of audience,
and send emails to these groups as desired. You can give each group a name, enter
addresses manually, or even import them from a CSV or a delimited text file. Similarly,
you can also export groups and customize their mail settings. The software allows you to
pre-defined fields that you can quickly insert in your newsletters. You can send a different
reply-to address and send emails by setting even your Gmail account as the senders account.
You can setup multiple accounts in the software and select the one you want while sending
emails.

For a nominal fees, you can remove the 50 recipients per email cap and send emails to
unlimited users.

An easy-to-use email marketing software for Windows.
Create groups and populate by adding or importing contacts.
Design HTML emails and newsletters without any coding.
Insert custom fields in newsletters and set default settings for each account.
Send up to 50 recipients per message for free.
Works on Windows Vista, 7 and XP

Download 1and1mail from www.1and1soft.com

11. Google Website
An increasing number of people own smartphones and use them to access the Internet.
Therefore any business with a website would find it beneficial to create a mobile website
as well. Doing so cannot be made any simpler, thanks to Google Mobile Sites.

Google Mobile Sites is a new tool launched by Google that lets you instantly create a mobile
website. You start from the given templates that cater to every business type. These templates
correspond to restaurants, local businesses, lead generation, social, and eCommerce. Each
template offers a unique design that suits the business type. Once you select a template and
a color, you can preview it before selection.

With the template selected you can start entering site details such as name and description.
The prefix for your website is https://sites.google.com/site/ while the suffix can be of your
choosing, provided it is not already taken. You can also choose to set privacy on the site; you
can make the site publicly accessible or visible only to selected people.

The site you create can be edited anytime to add text, photos, and modify the content already
on the site such as maps.

Features:

A user-friendly web service.
Lets you instantly create mobile websites.
Offers various templates to cater to various business type.
Offers different color schemes.
Lets you modify website anytime.
Similar tool: Appsbar, AppMakr, Mobify, Ubik, Mowser, Mofuse and Movylo.

Check out Google Mobile Sites @ www.sites.google.com/mobilize

12. Helponclick
Through live chat support on your website you are able to quickly assist site visitors and
discover which areas of the site they face problems in. Coding up a live chatting interface
can be quite tedious. Here to make matters easier is a service called HelpOnClick.

HelpOnClick is a web service that lets you add a live chat to your website through an
embeddable HTML code. You can customize the chat interface to a great degree. For
instance you can decide whether to pop up the chat dialog immediately after somebody
visits your website or after a few seconds have passed by. New chat notifications to you
are delivered through a desktop client.

In addition to providing you with a way to talk to your site visitors online, HelpOnClick lets
you save chat conversations in your online account. The messages sent to you at the time
you were offline are emailed to you for later reading. IP blacklisting and seeing the visitor’s
characters as he types them are also supported.

You can set up different operators for a single HelpOnClick account – this helps you to divide
the customer assistance between yourself and other site owners and administrators

There is also a real time traffic monitoring which allows you to see exactly who’s on your
website, on which pages, which keywords were used to get to your website and more.

HelpOnClick offers an absolutely free 14 day trial; after the trial period people who want to
continue using HelpOnClick need to opt for the site’s paid services.

HelpOnClick has offered 10 free basic accounts for 3 months each to MakeUseOf readers.
To take advantage of these licenses please leave comment on this post (using your email
address).

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