Get More Clients Online

GenBook

Recently when I had to schedule 60 appointments for interviews for a podcast series that I'm doing, I wanted to automate that process as much as possible.  There are a number of online appointment systems, but I simply didn't want to pay another monthly fee for a service if I didn't have to.  Then I found GenBook. 

Genbook offers a fr*ee version that is quite robust and permits you to use almost all of its fee-based features except managing your customer database, collecting credit card info on customers, and creating only a four-week advance time on client appointment bookings rather than up to a full year with the paid version.

I had a slight difficulty in getting the program to do what I wanted it to do, but a quick email to customer service helped me solve my issue right away.  Yes, they even respond to questions from the users of the free version, which is amazing!  And, ironically enough, the info that I needed was always readily available to me, had I chosen to take the tour and explore the settings features in more detail..:)

I like the ability to set up different services for which someone might book an appointment with me so that when the appointment is booked, I have some idea of what it's about.  And, even though I may have set up a time that is available for appointments, if I decide that I don't want any appointments on that day, I simply log into my account and block that time on that day.

Set up your online appointment system here.

20 Must-Have Tools to Automate an Online Business

With all the information online about tools and techniques available to help someone effective manage and run an online business, how do you ever decide which ones are truly useful to have in your business management toolkit?  Here's my listing of the 20 indispensable tools that I cannot live without:

1. Article Marketing: SubmitYourArticle.com automates the article submission process by allowing you to submit up to eight articles each month and then distributes the articles to hundreds of web sites, article directories and ezine publishers. Without a doubt, this has been my most effective online marketing tool that has produced tremendous results for my business.

2. Audio Recording/Podcasting: AudioAcrobat.com makes audio streaming fast and simple, whether you want to add an audio greeting, audio testimonials, podcast or videos to your website or send out an audio postcard or record a teleclass.

3. Backup: Carbonite.com offers an unlimited amount of data storage for $50 per year.  Carbonite is very intuitive and went directly to my email files and Roboform files to back them up without me having to manual select the backup files.  I frequently use this service to find the original version of a file that I've accidentally overwritten, as well.

4. Blogging: Typepad.com is both simple to use and powerful.  You can set up as many blogs as you desire with a Pro account, and you can customize your blog in an infinite number of ways.  Once it's set up, the online interface makes it a snap to make new posts to your blog.

5. Bookmark Manager:  SPURL.net makes managing a moderate to massive amount of bookmarks very easy. You create any number of categories in which to file your favorites, and adding a favorite website is as easy as clicking a button.

6. Color Matching:  Pixie is a tool that I use daily to help me match a color exactly for a document that I'm creating or a color I'm trying to replicate on a website. Run it, simply point to a color and it will tell you the hex, RGB, HTML, CMYK and HSV values of that color.

7. Content Management: Edit.com is a website maintenance service that makes your current website editable so you can change the content yourself. They handle everything to get your site set up and provide you with a phone training to walk you through your first edits. There is no software to install because it just uses your web browser. At no charge, you can have them review your website to ensure that your site is compatible with their service.

8. Email List Management/Autoresponders: aWeber.com is a great service for creating, mailing and reporting back on the success of your newsletter as well as to subscribe your readers to a sequential autoresponder, either associated with your newsletter or with another product. I love to be able to see how many readers opened my newsletter, who opened the newsletter, and what links they clicked on from the newsletters.

9. Fax: MaxEmail.com lets you send a receive faxes through the Internet/email and makes your need for a fax machine obsolete.  The faxes arrive in PDF format, so you can easily share you faxes with others as needed. They also offer voice mail on your fax line, and the voicemail message arrives as an audio file in your email inbox.

10. Graphics Program: SnagIt.com lets you show someone exactly what you see on your screen. Select and capture your screen image. and send it to SnagIt's editor to add professional effects, edit the image (resize, adjust color), and or drop it into your favorite application. 

11. Hosting:  Aaces.com offers the ability to buy a hosting plan in which you can host and manage a large number of websites through one account rather than buying multiple hosting plans for each website for your business.  And, their customer service can't be beat.

12. Idea Management:  With EverNote.com you can easily store and quickly access typed and handwritten memos, webpage excerpts, emails, phone messages, addresses, passwords, brainstorms, sketches, documents and more!  A free version or a 30-day trial of the paid version is available for download.

13. Merchant Account: PracticePaySolutions.com offers an all-in-one ecommerce solution that helps you take payment online.  The coolest feature that they offer in this service is the ability to do batch uploads of charges, so if you have a number of clients on retainer that you invoice every month, you can simply create a spreadsheet and batch upload the data rather than entering each client's information individually.   

14. Publicity Tracker:  Google Alerts let you type in an unlimited number of search terms, like your name, your company name, your industry, the name of your competitors, etc.  Google will then deliver an email alert for any mention of your search term online.  This is a wonderful way to track your own PR as well as industry trends.

15. Password Management: Roboform.com is the top-rated password manager and web form filler that completely automates password entering and form filling. You'll never have to remember a password again! I maintain both my passwords and user info and that of my clients in this program.

16. Shopping Cart: KickstartCart.com is easy to use and setup, and offers the ability to create affiliate programs, follow up with prospective and current customers with autoresponders, create coupons for limited-time offers, as well as enable buyers to immediately download electronic purchases (ebooks, audio files). There is a free 30-day trial, but don't sign up until you have the time to test drive it--30 days goes by fast!  Get your free ebook here, How to Pick a Shopping Cart System That Makes You Money.

17. Spyware: CounterSpy.com will protect your computer from spyware, adware, Trojans and other malware threats.

18. Teleconference Line: LiveOfficeFreeConferencing.com lets you meet with colleagues, associates or even family members through a teleconference bridge line that can bring up to 250 people together at one place over a teleconference phone line.  You can use the line to conduct classes and training and record your calls, as well as manage your participants from an online interface.

19. Time Tracker: TraxTime.com has helped me keep track of my consulting projects for years.  You simply create projects and clock into and out of them, with the ability to write memos about how you've used your time.

20. To Do List Management: Accomplice.com works online and offline, integrates with Outlook and other software you already use, and syncs with your PDA. What I love most about this software is that I can create in-depth, hierarchical to-do lists (tasks and sub-tasks of a bigger project) very easily, and add additional tasks on the fly as they occur to me. I can see at any point what are my more important tasks and what is coming due soon.

Try out these tools with the trials offers provided and see how your business becomes easier to manage!

Charlotte-o-Meter

Here's a cool little freebie you can actually send for, or simply use it online. With a simple turn of the wheel of the Charlotte-o-Meter, you can easily calculate your deadline dates. It’s the perfect office companion that will instantly increase your productivity and your popularity. Or, you can use the online version, like I do.

It's a great viral marketing tool for the court reporter trade, and an amazing tribute to a woman, Charlotte, who lost her battle with breast cancer in 2004.

Get yours today here.

Accomplice

 

Accomplice is a software application that helps busy professionals manage your to-dos, goals, and notes, then sync them with your team. This isn’t some trivial to-do list, and it isn’t an overweight project management suite. Accomplice has just the ingredients you really need to stay on top of your busy life, integrated into an intuitive and flexible system. It works online and offline, integrates with Outlook and other software you already use, and syncs with your PDA. Oh, by the way, it’s fr*ee. 

What I love most about this software is that I can create in-depth, hierarchal to-do lists (tasks and sub-tasks of a bigger project) very easily, and add additional tasks on the fly as they occur to me. I find this much more useful than the task List function in Outlook. In Accomplice I can see at any point what are my more important tasks and what is coming due soon. It integrates very well with Outlook, permitting you to access your email and contacts as well.  If you use Eudora as I do, you can access your email but not any contacts. And, the clapping sound that you hear when you finish a task is a very cool motivator..LOL

Try it out here.

MeetingWizard

Have you ever tried to set up a meeting and gotten overwhelmed with the volume of phone calls and or emails that ensued to schedule a time?  Now, you can automate that process with this fr*ee online service, MeetingWizard.  Once you set up an account, MeetingWizard will automatically send invitations to participants proposing alternate times, ummarize their responses , update you on the results , send confirmations , and se optional reminders prior to meetings. 

MeetingWizard requires only that you and your participants have access to e-mail and a browser. It's designed to be effective in more than 90% of meeting planning situations, and does not try to fulfill every possible need.  However, it allows for enough flexibility to make changes, add personalized notes, make cancellations and handles most other situations that might arise.

My Weekend of Organization

I spent the weekend trying to get my PC organized.  My email inbox runneth over, my bookmark program was acting up, my All Programs list was out of control, and I had to-do lists scattered all over my desk.  Here are some cool tools I decided to try out over the weekend to help me get my PC in order:

1.  I have been quite loyal to my bookmark program, AcqURL, for many years.  However, every time I go to rearrange something, it seems I lose part of my bookmarks.  And, I've never been able to get the search feature to function properly.  So, I went to look for an online system and found one that seems to be meeting my needs at Spurl. I can create multiple categories (although the program won't permit long category names), search my bookmarks, keep my bookmarks private (or make them public, if I like), and add notes and references about a site.  You can sign up for your free account at www.spurl.net.  Downside-- I don't appear to be able to alphabetize my bookmarks in a category.

2.  Tidy Start Menu:  I had written about this handy little tool about a year ago in my newsletter, and I decided that I liked the free version so much that I bought the fee version.  Here's what I initially said about this tool:

As time goes by, the list of the programs in the Start Menu becomes too long. As a result, each time you want to launch a program, it takes too much time to find it in the menu. The "Tidy Start Menu" program will help you to put the menu in order and make your work comfortable. For setting the menu in order, the program offers you to categorize the Menu. For example, the Internet programs can be put into the "Internet" category, while all games can be included in the "Games" category. Thus, after using the program, you will have a compact menu, which will contain nothing but the names of your categories. Therefore, it will be no trouble to find a necessary program. You can download a free shareware version here.

3.  I'm great at writing to do lists but lousy at keeping up with them.  However, I have discovered that if my to-do's appear on my calendar each day, I'm much more likely to do them.  I recently read about Taskline and decided to download the trial version. Taskline is a new and innovative approach to managing your personal schedule, work, and goals in Microsoft Outlook. By adding powerful time management and task management facilities to Microsoft Outlook, Taskline allows you to quickly and easily achieve all of these things. Taskline schedules your task list (or To Do list) automatically, taking into account your normal working week, and existing commitments in your calendar, such as holidays and meetings. Tasks can also be displayed in the calendar in Outlook, so you can now have a single view of all your commitments. I'm still working through the kinks, but so far, so good.  Get your free trial.

I've got my email inbox down to a manageable size, can now find any program on my computer, have started transferring all of my bookmarks to Spurl, and managed to create a healthy Daily Marketing List for myself in Outlook.  Life is good..:)