Essential Tools Every Online Entrepreneur Needs
by Merle
Are you an online entrepreneur? If you make your income or part of your income on the
Internet, you most definitely are. With more and more people earning an income online,
many tools and software have been created to help them with their online business chores.
If you know about these tools, they can make your life as an "online warrior" a lot easier.
There's a lot of work involved with running your own Internet business. You need to wear
many different hats and be at least slightly skilled in many areas. Let's take a look at
some of the resources you should have in your "Entrepreneur Toolbox."
1. Websites: The structure and design of your site is very important. It needs to
look "clean" and professional. You can use software to create your site from scratch, pay
someone else, or use an online template.
a. Some resources for learning HTML:
Dave's HTML Guide
HTML Goodies
W3 Schools- Online Tutorials
b. For Templates, see:
Template Monster
Basic Templates
c. For Software, some free:
The Free Site
A handy tool to check your website for broken links online:
Stickysauce.com
To make sure you haven't created an overblown site that takes forever to download, use this online tester:
websiteoptimization.com
2. Utility Programs: There are a few basic utilities you'll need to have on hand
for everyday tasks. These include a good FTP program for uploading your files to your web
server and a program to zip and unzip files. You'll need to zip files when they are large,
to compress them for Internet downloading. Check out:
Sofotex
Zipper
Zip It Fast
3. Email: As your business grows you'll come to rely on email as your primary means
of communication. The most common email programs are Outlook and Outlook Express which come
standard with Windows, and Eudora, which many power users prefer:
Eudora
Whatever you use for an email client make sure you're familiar with how it works, and how
to create folders and autoresponders. With today's spam problem, you'll have to use a good
filtering program, such as:
Cloudmark or a third party service like:
Spamarrest
4. Mailing List Management: Any website owner worth his salt knows the importance of
collecting visitors' email addresses. It doesn't matter if you'll be sending out a monthly
newsletter or just periodic site updates, you need software that's up for the task. Make
sure whatever you use is capable of handling multiple lists, as when your online business
grows you may need to keep lists for different things. For example, you might have one for
those who like to swap ezine ads with you, one for those who have expressed an interest in
advertising with you, etc. Here are a few great resources:
Groupmail (the one I use)
Subscribe Me
Here's a list of some others: emailaddresses.com
With everyone using filters on email these days make sure you download this program that
checks your email for "trigger words" and improves your chances of making it through to
the inbox. It's called Email Advisor
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