Super Tuesday -- Super Links

I'm speaking at the Atlanta Business League's annual "Super Tuesday" event 9/25. I've promised to post a list of the web sites I referenced during my talk. The topic is technology to grow and manage your business. I've broken the links into tools we use on the marketing side and tools we use on the operations side. Hope you all find this helpful. Regular readers of our blog will recognize some of these as we've blogged on their usefulness before!

Marketing Tools

•E-mail management and marketing:
–www.ConstantContact.com
•Polls/customer surveys:
–www.SurveyMonkey.com
•Cheap photos for marketing pieces (coupla’ bucks a piece):
–www.iStockPhoto.com
•Full-color printing:
–www.PrintingForLess.com (ask for the Red Team)
•Quick, cheap printing (quality not great):
–www.OvernightPrints.com
•Fun, quirky printing:
–www.Moo.com
•Shirts, tote bags with your logo (small quantity):
–http://ocs.landsend.com/corpsales
•Edible greeting cards:
–www.ediblesinc.com
•Custom cookies:
–www.LadyFortunes.com
•Chocolate business cards:
–http://schottchocolateimages.com/
•Last-minute gift ideas:
–www.RedEnvelope.com
•Business networking:
–www.LinkedIn.com
•Social networking (find relevant groups):
–www.Facebook.com
–www.Ning.com
–http://www.meetup.com/cities/us/ga/atlanta/ (MeetUp Atlanta)

Operational Tools

•Simple project management tool:
–www.BasecampHQ.com
•Quicker surfing:
–Google Toolbar
•Easier bookmarking:
–Google Bookmarks
•Directory assistance on the run (free):
–Google SMS (text message
•Create PDF files (free):
–www.pdf995.com
•Conference calls (almost free):
–www.MrConference.com
•Legal advice and forms:
–www.LegalZoom.com
•Productivity advice:
–http://suiteminute.blogspot.com/
•Restaurant reservations (quick):
–www.OpenTable.com
•Discount furniture, supplies, office space:
–http://atlanta.craigslist.org/
•Web-based accounting:
–www.QBOE.com (QuickBooks Online Edition)
•Plan your route:
–www.MapQuest.com
–www.GeorgiaNavigator.com
•Web site traffic reports and analysis (free):
–Google Analytics
•Free website (domain name, hosting, branded e-mail, design tools):
–http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/officelive/default.aspx (Microsoft Office Live)

Make Life Easier: Priceline and Hotwire Forum

This site won't win any design awards, but if you're looking for serious insider help getting the best hotel rates, you won't care what the site looks like. My hubby and I are planning a trip to NYC for our anniversary and I was coming up short with my usual research; the room rates in NY right now are sky high. Googling away, I found this site called BetterBidding.com. If you like to use Hotwire (and I do), they have all kinds of cheat sheets to help you figure out which hotels match up with your Hotwire search results. You can then go check those hotels out on TripAdvisor or another review engine and see if it's a decent place. And if you still can't figure it out, post a request for help on the boards and you'll get very useful tips, rates, and links. It's like having a travel agent who really knows how to "game the system." Be sure and use the links they provide you; this guy makes his money through the referrals.

Priceline and Hotwire Forum on BetterBidding.com