Running an Internet business takes quite a few different tools and resources… Although none of are very hard to use or master it can take a little time to dial them in.
So without further delay here is a quick rundown of what products and services I use most often:
Wordpress- Currently the de facto standard when it comes to blogs and blogging. If you go through the Ninja Blog they will setup a Wordpress blog with all the cool plugins (like InstantUpgrade, Backup and more) for free.
Camtasia Studio- From creating new products to documenting business systems, procedures and videos uploaded to YouTube I use Camtasia to record everything that can be done on a computer. You can also get the old version (not compliant with Vista) for free!
Word/Notepad- Most of the time I use MS Word or another word processing program to write blog entries. I also hand edit all html and php using Notepad.
Glyphius- I am by no means a word class copywriter so Glyphius is a great tool for shortcutting the copy writing process. It has a database of copy that has been proven to be profitable so you simply type something in, score it and word smith it a little try to improve your score. The higher the score the better.
MuVar- Multi-variate testing software for your sales or other pages where you want a user to take some sort of action. I consider MuVar indespensible for creating sales pages that continuously improve on near auto-pilot while increasing conversions that ultimately leads to more money. Here are some sites I run MuVar on:
http://www.articlesintotraffic.com
http://www.leanbusinesssystem.com
http://www.antivirusvideos.com
Munius- This is a simple to install set of scripts for putting up an article directory or content site where users can submit content. You get search engine friendly content and they get links back to there site so it’s a win win. Here is a sample site where I am running Munius:
http://www.thekaizenbusiness.com/art/
Artemis Pro- The only article submission program I use. It contains a list of internal publishers and content sites that are automatically matched to your article topic. The real power of Artemis is how it handles dupe content and being able to submit articles to your own external list.
Article Tool- This free tool takes your Artemis formatted articles and resource box and can be used for manual article submissions to sites that dont accept email submissions.
Artemis PreProcessor- A rockin tool for making your article writing a breeze. It places your three article versions side by side making your re-writes for each one very painless. If I had one gripe about this program it would be the lack of a spell check feature so after completing the articles you have to copy them over to Word, correct the mistakes and then copy them back.
RentACoder- This is my favorite site for tracking down contractors and outsourcers that can be used to assign tasks for running your business.
ClickBank- I use Clickbank to handle all of my digital product sales plus they take care of all affiliate tracking and payouts.
Kunaki- Kunaki rocks for DVD and CD disc creation. They have a very slick program for creating your case covers and uploading your master disc. A few clicks later and you have a page for making sales and they send you the check the following month.
-Jim
10 Comments
Wordpress also is also a great “one step” content site. Just open up the defaults a bit and anyone can be an author. All the spam guards and notifications, built in.
I just set up a content site with three articles in a couple hours (the next one will go a lot faster).
Jim,
As far as I know, the free offer for Camtasia Studio 3 is history.
Back Pain Expert: If it has expired, there’s a free “Camtasia clone” created by the same people who created Camtasia.
It’s called Jing - do a Google search to find it. (The Jing Project)
It won’t let you do some things (like create video suitable for DVDs, or even edit your video) but it’s perfect for intern procedures and online screen-cam videos. We’re now using it for all of our internal training videos (instead of a wiki).
If you’re on a Mac, there’s a better piece of software than Camtasia for DVD-style screen-cam video - Screenflow. It’s only just hit the market. Check it out.
Rumour is TechSmith’s next generation Camtasia is going to be “beefed up” with a whole bunch of new features - but this was before Screenflow was released, so no doubt they’re going to be working feverishly to catch up.
Brent
Awesome list! I’m glad I got Camtasia for free when I did, even though I haven’t used it yet!
The programs I use most often are:
-WordPress
-Word
-Glyphius
-Photoshop
-Skype
I’m definitely going to check out some of these others, thanks!
The old version of Camstasia Studio for free is history. Whoever was offering the old version free quit doing so. Actually all I have seen that you can get now is versions 4 and 5 and both sell for the same price.
Glyphius works xlnt for me. Anyone selling the new Glyphius 2008 yet?
For those of you still looking for a free camstasia-type program, there’s and open source one called cam studio.
http://camstudio.org/
It doesn’t have the glut of features that camtasia has, but you can record a box, or a full screen. It’s worked great for me.
Brent, thanks for that info on the Camtasia Studio alternatives.
Bryce, I agree that Camstudio is pretty good… but I do prefer Camtasia.
Jim, one other tool I think deserves mention is Aweber.
Thanks for the mention Jim.
Hey I noticed that JB is now using permalinks with post titles in his URLs on both his blogs…do you think that his testing indicates that it leads to higher search rankings?
Awesome list! The programs I use most often are:
-WordPress
-Word
-Photoshop
-FireFox
-Outlook
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