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This page will tell you in simple and plain language what software works for me in my home office. The home is where I do my work and I assume if you're reading this you have some interest in software tools suitable for a home office environment. This is by no means an all-inclusinve list of software I use. This is the "short list" and the focus is primarily on software uses within the Internet environment.
Therefore, if I mention software which connects to another server through a free or paid service... it counts as software. My rules. Okay, here goes...
Let's start out with the basics. If you're not familiar with the software currently on your PC, then it's time to get cracking. Here is a program designed to teach you about your computer, the software on it, and the hardware driving it. It's called the PC and Internet Companion, and it's a hefty tutorial with 43 chapters. This picture-driven learning system gives you some control over your computer. If you're not sure of your way around a computer, this will step up your game. You'll find out what you need to know about email, those little pictures on the screen, downloads, in short: everything. As the guys at the Newbie Club say, "This is the program that should have come with your new PC." Here are some good programs to keep the bugs from reeking digital mayhem on your PC (Precious Companion). They are all freeware or shareware and do a wonderful job of keeping my PC running at click-happy speed:
This is a great concept. Mike Chen has created a neat little software tool that lets you churn out your own software applications. Yep, you can make your own software. It's surprisingly easy to use. The possibilities of what you can do with this tool are really limitless, and Mike gives lots of practical examples of how this could be used to enhance the bottom line of any business. The software has 2 settings... one for the novice and one for experienced coders. Yet, even in the basic, or "literal" mode as Mike calls it, you can churn out some pretty sophisticated stuff. I've used it turn out some newsletter applications and couldn't be happier. I have a couple of other ideas cookin' and can't wait to get 'em up and going. Managing your email can be real drudgery... such tedious work and it can really eat into your time. Automation is the key. I take several approaches to email. On my computer I manage some of my lists with a program called GroupMail. With this program I can quickly sort and send email to hundreds of people with just a few clicks. I'm also a fan of autoresponders. I can create email messages on any topic I choose, folks can then request the information and get it instantaneously. Perfect time saver. I use GetResponse Autoresponders, not just for autoresponders, but to send out my newsletter as well. The sign-up form for my newsletter is courtesy of GetResponse. They collect the names and automatically send a personalized message to new subscribers. Gotta love it. Another email option is Mailloop. This software does your email "dirty work" for you... automatically filters your email, runs your newsletters, imports your leads or orders into a database, automatically emails your personalized customer database, takes care of an unlimited amount of autoresponses, etc. It's expensive up front, but it's good. One more email option I like is Constant Contact. It's completely web-based. Extremely simply to use with high-end results. If you like sending HTML emails, they're got a great selection of pretty templates. Their subscriber management tools are superb and you can track and analyze your email campaigns effortlessly. For ease of use combined with professional results... A+. I'm just not willing to give up to spammers. Unless you want to use a web-based service to get all your email, or allow your ISP or a third party spam control intermediary to control the flow of unwanted trash, you need something to filter through the mounds of rubbish coming into your computer's email client. For this I use MailWasher. It's a learning program that you teach to discriminate between what you want to keep and what you don't. My life has gotten much simpler since downloading this gem. Before building a new site, entering a new market, or creating new pages for your existing site, it's a good idea to research the keywords people use to find information on the Internet. Keyword research will alert you to under-served or over-served areas within your market and allow you to burrow down and really target a particular market segment. Once you know fundamental keywords to attack, you can pick an appropriate domain name, perform more effectively with PPC advertising, and score more traffic from search engines. I use a couple of online keyword search tools to analyze suggested keywords from Google, Overture, and Wordtracker. This is a good starting point, then I move on to software... Good Keywords is good to start out with. It's still free as of this writing. For another more sophisticated perspective you can use WordTracker. If you're using keyword research to identify a new domain name, NameBoy has a great online tool. It allows you to input a term or phrase, find out if the domain name is available, and gives suggestions for names similar to your chosen name. I'm a bit nostalgic when it comes to HTML editors. I still like to use Microsoft FrontPage, though it does have its drawbacks. It tends to muddle up the code and Microsoft has a way of making you jump through hoops to get the full use of their products. But I've grown familiar with it and can easily glide through page building. Right now I'm looking into the latest release of Dreamweaver. It has a lot of nice features. It's a slam dunk on Frontpage. Pricey software. But it looks to be capable of delivering the goods. Getting back to basics, you can't go wrong with NoteTab. No matter what software you use, NoteTab can be counted on as a simple and efficient text/HTML editor. I pull up this program nearly everyday for all my text editing needs and for tweaking and touching up web pages. An important consideration in choosing an audio format is the ease with which your visitor can listen to the audio. By this I mean you should use an audio format that allows most visitors to your site to hear the audio without needing to download more software. At this time, it looks like the Macromedia Flash Player has the clear lead in market saturation, which means the SWF audio file format is the way to go. Now then, have you seen the price of Flash? Priced way beyond what many small-timers such as myself are willing to pay. So, the answer is to get a specialized program that takes MP3 or WAV audio files and embeds them into SWF format. One such critter is MP3 Sound Stream. And it's priced within the range of wee little webmasters like myself. Once you have produced your audio file it's simply a matter of transferring the file to your server. This is easily accomplished with an FTP client such as CoreFTP or CuteFTP. If you want to edit your audio files you can go with open source software from Audacity. Man, how much easier can this get. And talk about cheap! Snaz up your site with audio that sounds like it cost hundreds to produce... but didn't! It's hard to improve your visibility in search results if you're not taking proactive measures to improve your rankings. If you're tracking your site's performance you'll know what steps to take to monetize effectively. For time-strapped business owners, a tool is needed that streamlines page optimization practices and helps you monitor your progress easily. A small investment in a good piece of SEO software pays for itself in no time at all. Optilink is a good choice... priced mid-range. It has features comparable to higher priced competitors at half the cost. Another good choice is WebPosition. More expensive - but fully loaded. You can build search engine optimized pages, schedule SE submissions, analyze your traffic, check your rankings, and a whole lot more. A handy piece of software in home business heaven. SUGGESTIONS Want to see your software on this page? Do you know of some great software everyone should know about? Let me know.
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