If you need a graphic created, you can't beat this company. Traditionally to have a designer create a banner or graphic would start around $300 on the low end of the scale. For less than $40, Rightbanners will create an amazing banner at almost any size. We've been using them for almost 3 years and their service and quality is unmatched anywhere if you're looking for a cool banner. Create-A-Book has also been using them for most of their own banners (website and seasonal marketing banners).
* MailChimp - Email Marketing
Mailchimp is an email marketing service to help you send professional email newsletters and updates to your customers. Having an email marketing service also ensures you have a higher deliverability rate (less emails ending up in spam boxes). Their service is FREE if you have less than 2,000 subscribers or send less than 12K emails a month. Plus they have many templates you can choose from to send professionally designed emails. Mailchimp is also great because they integrate with so many other tools and platforms. www.Mailchimp.com
* iStockPhoto - royalty free Images and Pictures starting at $1 each
Our favorite place to find great royalty free images, pictures, illustrations, and more you can add to your website, or include in a banner. Most pictures sell for $1.00 www.iStockphoto.com
* Stop Remembering Passwords
We listed this first for a reason. You need it and you'll thank us for recommending it. It's hard to remember passwords and it gets harder every year as we create more accounts. Depending on whether you use a PC or a MAC, these two programs are in our "can't do without" category. If you use the internet, trust us - you need one of these programs. You login once when you turn on your computer, then whenever you login to a new website it asks if you want to save the login. From then on, if you open that webpage you can click a button and login. Or you can search from your list of saved websites and click one to open that website and login automatically. Each has many more features you can read about on their website, both also have ability to store identities and wallet info for orders, but nothing compares to not having to remember passwords. Both are really cheap.
1Password - The best option on MAC
Roboform - The best option on PC (and it's free until you've saved around 35 site logins)
1Password - The best option on MAC
Roboform - The best option on PC (and it's free until you've saved around 35 site logins)
* Freshbooks - best invoice software
We've noticed some dealers will send invoices through paypal for telephone orders. If you're going to create and send invoices, don't do it with Paypal. Too clumsy and difficult for customers to use. Freshbooks will give you a free account for a small number of customers, and they're light years ahead of Paypal in features, ease of use, and attractiveness. The quality of your tools reflects the quality of your products in the customers eyes. Plus the additional features on Freshbooks are much better.
* Adobe Flash - how to make sure you're on latest version
Our admin control panel to manage your website requires the latest version of Flash. This link will verify if you're using the latest version available is. http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/
* TeamViewer - Remote access for trouble shooting
You probably won't need this unless we've directed you to this page. This allows you to give temporary access to your computer so we can view your screen and control your mouse. This is very handy if we need to show you how to do something, or if there's an issue that's happening on your computer only. We only do TeamViewer sessions with you on the phone, and each session requires you to give us a temporary code and password. When you close the session it kills all connections. www.TeamViewer.com
We've noticed some dealers will send invoices through paypal for telephone orders. If you're going to create and send invoices, don't do it with Paypal. Too clumsy and difficult for customers to use. Freshbooks will give you a free account for a small number of customers, and they're light years ahead of Paypal in features, ease of use, and attractiveness. The quality of your tools reflects the quality of your products in the customers eyes. Plus the additional features on Freshbooks are much better.
* Adobe Flash - how to make sure you're on latest version
Our admin control panel to manage your website requires the latest version of Flash. This link will verify if you're using the latest version available is. http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/
* TeamViewer - Remote access for trouble shooting
You probably won't need this unless we've directed you to this page. This allows you to give temporary access to your computer so we can view your screen and control your mouse. This is very handy if we need to show you how to do something, or if there's an issue that's happening on your computer only. We only do TeamViewer sessions with you on the phone, and each session requires you to give us a temporary code and password. When you close the session it kills all connections. www.TeamViewer.com
