The Ultimate Bookmark (For Online Entrepreneurs)

APR

The Ultimate Bookmark (For Online Entrepreneurs)

Posted by: JABacchetta / Comments: 15

NOTE (Read First): This list is still in the process of being updated and especially organized. Plenty more links to add, and plenty more to be done to improve navigation of these links. This list is for your benefit, as well as mine. Put simply, I got tired of having so many bookmarks for my business. Now, I have one.

Conquer The Web

Learning to conquer the web can actually be quite easy, as long as you have the tools and resources you need to do it. Many aspiring internet marketers have no clue where to begin – they subscribe to more than enough feeds, buy overpriced books, and spend more time on forums than they do on their actual business.

This is your solution – the ultimate bookmark. My goal was to create a portal. Here you’ll find a list of everything that I believe to be worthy of your time. I will continue to keep this list up-to-date, so all you need to do is bookmark it, and refer back to it whenever the need arises. Want to recommend a link? Contact me, and I’ll look it over. This list is in no way “complete.” The whole point of it being “The Ultimate Bookmark” is so that we can continue to update and add to it.

You love it – we understand. Tell your friends, link to us, comment, subscribe – all that good stuff.

Analytics

ClickTale – Watch mouse movements and clicks from visitors.

Crazy Egg – Heatmaps that allow you to see what’s hot on your site.

Google Analytics – A must have – learn more about where your visitors come from, and how they interact with your site.

Quantcast – Shows your audience reach and composition. Allows you to attract higher ad rates.

Directories

Alltop – Stay on top of what’s being said in your niche.

Best of the Web – The internet’s oldest directory.

BigBoards – Forum rankings and directory. Find out which forums are hot in your niche, and then join the community.

Blogged – Find out who your competitors are, and then make them your friends. Also see what other people think about your blog.

DMOZ – One of the hardest directories to get into, but many argue that it’s well worth the wait.

Yahoo! Directory – Expensive, but you know you want in.

Firefox Add-ons

Fireshot – Create screenshots of webpages.

PageSpeed – Improve the load time of your website.

SEO Book Toolbar – The one and only add-on you need for SEO.

ScribeFire – Full-featured blog editor.

ShareThis – Instantly share content from around the web through an array of social media and bookmarking sites.

Hosting

Host Gator – The host I recommend to people looking for shared hosting.

Liquid Web – The host I recommend to people looking for dedicated servers.

Who’s Hosting The Top Blogs – These web hosts are favorites among top bloggers.

Images

Big Stock Photo – Another excellent source to find images for your articles, or any other projects you might be working on.

Crestock – Creative stock images.

iStockphoto – My personal favorite. Probably the best selection of images, and they even have a free image of the week.

PicApp – An excellent way to get images for your articles (especially from recent events). It has it’s advantages and disadvantages (read up on it).

Legal

Copyscape – Search for copies of your page on the web. Make sure the content that your writers are producing is unique and original. Plagiarism and a bad reputation isn’t a good way to start a business.

Disclosure Policy Generator – Need a disclosure, but have no clue how to create one? Click a few buttons, and be done with it.

LegalZoom – Online legal document services – trademarks, patents, copyrights, etc.

Marketing

AWeber – Email marketing – newsletters, autoresponders, RSS to email.

BlogBurst – RSS-based blog syndication network for online media publishers

Blog Carnival – Submit your articles to a variety of blog carnivals for more exposure.

Entrecard – An excellent way for small bloggers to get started. Create a stream of traffic, get your name into the blogosphere, and make contacts.

MyAds – Advertise on MySpace.

PRWeb – Press release distribution.

Sphere – Connects your current articles to contextually relevant content from across the web.

Subvert and Profit – Black market for votes on social media sites. Use at your own risk.

TubeMogul – Distribute your videos to multiple sites.

Monetizing

OIOPublisher – Take control of your own advertising, and forget the middleman. Direct advertising doesn’t get any easier than this. Sell banners, text links, reviews, ebooks, or whatever else your heart desires. Even set up your own affiliate program.

Pluck On Demand – Adds contextually relevant content and social media to your site, earning you revenue, while increasing pageviews and user engagement.

Vibrant Media – In-text advertising.

Kontera – In-text ppc ads.

Infolinks – Linking text to revenue.

AdBrite – Internet’s ad marketplace

Networks

Other Excellent Resources

99designs – A designer marketplace. Crowd sourcing at it’s best.

AMember

Angelsoft – Tools for startups, VCs, and angel investors.

Brightcove

Business Models on the Web

Buy Text Links

Escrow

Widgetbox – Find and create web widgets.

Lulu – Self publishing (books, calendars, etc.)

Magpie – Ad network for Twitter.

Most Valuable Blogs

Elance – Hire experts.

Flippa – Buy/sell websites and domains.

Webmaster Central – Webmaster tools from Google.

Sphere – Connects your current articles to contextually relevant content from across the web.

Unfollow All

Kaltura Video Platform

Yume

IZEA – A few great web properties that come in handy.

Printing

UPrinting – Quality printing at great prices. Brochures, business cards, flyers, letterheads, etc.

Security

COMODO – Our recommended firewall

ESET NOD32 – Our recommended antivirus/spyware software

Social Networking

Facebook – Connect and share with friends, family, and contacts. Create a page for your business and build a fan base.

LinkedIn – Exchange information, ideas, and opportunities with other professionals.

Twitter – A simple way to communicate and stay connected with short updates. Possibly the easiest way to contact people who otherwise would have been unreachable.

Studies & Research

Design Study Of Big Blogs – Find out how many columns, which typeface, and even the fonts that big blogs are using.

Design Study of Big Blogs (Part 2) – Structure, advertisements, and functionality.

Search Engine Ranking Factors

Why Readers Unsubscribe – 34 reasons provided by readers.

Themes

Wordpress

Joomla

Tools

BrowserShots – Check browser compatibility.

CamStudio – Screen recording doesn’t get any easier than this. It’s as simple as pushing record, pause, stop. There’s also a few advanced features if you’re wanting to test your skills. Not as pro as Camtasia, but CamStudio is free, and it gets the job done.

Digsby – IM + Email + Social Networks. Get a notification when you get an email, add contacts from all of your IM accounts, twitter from your desktop, and read the feeds from your Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.

Gimp – Need to open psd files to edit layers? Want to enhance an image, or retouch a photo? Gimp can do just about everything that Photoshop can, and it won’t cost you anything.

Website Grader – Does a pretty good job at measuring the marketing effectiveness of your website.

bit.ly – Shorten, share, and track your links.

Zemanta – Suggests tags, links, photos, and related articles for enrichment of your blog posts.

Ultimate Guides/Lists

101 Techniques for Wordpress – Building a powerful CMS with WordPress.

404 Error Pages Examined – Some good advice and great examples.

Adsense Performance – An ultimate roundup.

Advertise Yourself – 30+ ways to do it.

Affiliate Marketing Guide – A crap load of affiliate marketing tools, articles, and experiments.

Blogger’s Glossary – Definitions for new bloggers.

Building Links – 101 Tips and strategies.

Collection of Wordpress – Tutorials, tips, and themes.

Everything Twitter – Learn the basics of starting a twitter account and attracting followers. Then discover the different twitter apps, and plugins that are out there.

FaceBook Fan Page – How to set up and promote one.

Headline Formulas – 102 of them.

IAB Ad Unit Guidelines – Follow these guidelines when placing advertisements on your site, especially if you’re not large enough yet to seek out direct advertisers.

Internet Marketing Blog Rankings – The who’s who of internet marketing.

Internet Marketing Handbook – The best tools and resources needed to master internet marketing.

Iphone Apps for Business – A list of 21 apps that will help you run your business.

Link Building – 69 solid tactics.

Link Worthy – 11 ways to increase your chances of being linked to by a blogger.

Make Money Blogging – A list of different ways to make money from your blog.

Multi-Author Blogs – 35 tips to manage them.

Press Release – 20+ Free Distribution Sites.

Web Apps For Freelancers – 100 of them.

Web Hosting – Everything you need to know before deciding on a web host.

WordPress Expert – 300+ Resources to get you started.

WordPress Hacks – 40 of them.

WordPress Hacks – 30 more.

WordPress Plugins – The best of them.

Videos: Inspiring & Educational

Belcher Button Explained

Building Your Brand: Gary Vaynerchuck

SEO Mistakes Most Bloggers Make: Stephan Spencer

Make Compelling Videos: Loren Feldman

Further Reading

Want more? Check out these excellent articles from around the web:

Achieve Your Goals – By surfing the web.

Blogging Alliance – Why you should have one.

Blog Tips for ProBloggers – More the more experienced blogger.

Blueprint for a Blog Launch – Good tips for generating buzz, and keeping it.

Breadcrumb Navigation – Examined.

Build Traffic – 169 ways to do it.

Find Ideas – For blog posts.

Get Advertisers – How to be better prepared.

Get Featured by the Press

Polish Article Design – Make them more appealing.

Pre Launch Check – 15 essential checks before launching your website.

Strategic Design – Designing your website with intelligence.

Twitter Follow Fail – Why you won’t be followed on Twitter.

URL Shortener – Create your own with WordPress.

Website Maintenance Tips – For front-end developers.

Web Usability – 7 common problems.

WordPress Typography – 20 plugins to enhance readability.

Load Impact

Marketing Bullets

15 Comments

Gyutae Park

April 6, 2009

Great list you’ve compiled here. Nice work and thanks for the mention!

Katherine

April 6, 2009

Wow! This list is absolutely fantastic!

I’ve been building my blog presence (or at least trying to) – but get stuck doing exactly what you mentioned – spendng more time working on it/promoting it than I do actually “working on it”. It’s been driving me nuts.

I’m on the verge of launching my own site – but I’ve been putting if off due to the fear of having to invest even more time working on “working on it”. (Sounds strange – but it’s true.)

You’ve saved me so much time – and I think your list will help dispell my fears and get me going. I can’t thank you enough – I Stumbled this (and bookmarked it!).

Izzy Daniels

April 6, 2009

This is an excellently compiled list. As a fairly new blogger I had no idea that all this content even existed. Thank you very much.

Jason

April 7, 2009

Thanks everyone! I still have a lot to add.

Hopefully there’s something to discover for new bloggers as well as the more experienced.

Apollo

April 7, 2009

Nice job putting some of the most important sites together which a blogger needs.

michael

April 8, 2009

Nice compiled list, maybe i should intergrate those in my blog. thanks for the tips

Sacramento Weddings

April 9, 2009

Fantastic list: it will take me many days to digest all of these links and find the ones applicable to my static web site. Not only is the page bookmarked, but I will sign up for this blog’s e-mail subscription feed.