Auctionwally's Top Ten Useful Sites and Tools for 2008 Happy New Year Everyone!
I wish you a healthy and profitable 2008. While it's common for news sites and bloggers to do a top ten list of things that happened in the last year, I'm going to take this opportunity on New Years morning to do a top 10 list of sites and tools that I consider be extremely helpful in my online endeavors.
These are all sites & tools I use very often, so I'm recommending from experience.
1) Powersellingmom.com
This is an eBay related site run by my friend Danna Crawford, whom I met on Stumbleupon.
On her site you can promote your eBay listing for free, network with her loyal readers, and gain access to a bunch of free as well as quality paid useful eBay tools.
Of course she is an eBay Powerseller as well as an eBay trainer, in the rare instance that Danna doesn't know something about eBay, she will quickly and cheerfully steer you in the right direction.
2) Blogtalkradio
Blogtalkradio is a site where you can find great online radio shows on just about any subject or niche market. I was the featured guest on Danna Crawford's last show.
Would you like to host your own online radio show? Blogtalkradio can help you out and it's free.
I'll be hosting my own show there soon. BTR is a great way to share knowledge and information throughout the business in a radio show format.
3) Googlereader
If you visit a lot of sites that you would like to keep track of without cluttering up your favorites folder and worry about having to bookmark every time you visit, you've got to get the googlereader.
Just enter a site you want to follow, and whenever you open googlereader, it will let you know when that site has fresh content. The best part about it is that you don't even have to go to the site itself, you can just read the content inside of googlereader and be done!
The GR is a must for anyone who wants to make the most of their online time. (When you get there, don't forget to ad me to the reader, to get my fresh content.)
4) Gmail
Google's answer to email. Just get it. Really.
5) Google's Blogger
OK, I know that at this point there's a risk of me coming across as a Google fanatic, but friends, when something works, it works!
Over the last few years I've tried quite a few different avenues to blog and post on and none of them has been as easy to use or has gotten me anywhere near the readership of Blogger.
I know there are some purists in the field who think that the simplicity of Blogger means it's not a serious format for a professional blog, but this is my 187th post in only 4 months!
Blogger is so easy to use, upload posts and pictures on that for me, there's just no other format to use. So you can go fiddle with ubercode and be a blogsnob insisting that Blogger is only for hobby blogs, and while your trying to figure out how to upload your new shopping cart for 3 days on that 'Professional' blogging site that you PAY for, I'll have probably posted 9 articles by then.
Did I mention blogger is FREE.
6) iTunes
Want to know something funny? I don't even own an iPod and have never purchased an iTunes song.
Many people aren't aware of all the free things on iTunes, you can subscribe to any podcasts, get free music and listen to radio shows. You can organize the music and audio files on your PC and even burn CDs with it, and of course, like everything else on this top ten list, it's free.
One more thing, it works, well. You can subscribe to the Auctionwally show there ;)
7) Stumbleupon
I'm not a huge user of social networking sites, I am on Facebook and Linkedin, I've abandoned my MySpace site because of the spam there, but I LOVE Stumbleupon. You just download a little tool bar and you'll be finding new sites that are customized to your tastes and you'll be able to promote your site just as easily. Be careful, it's addictive!
8) Auctiva
Auctiva is a great eBay listing tool. I get a lot of compliments on how nice my eBay auctions look. Well, I wish I could take credit for that, but the fact is that I use the free Auctiva templates, as well as a ton of their other services. You can post up to 12 pictures for free, they have uploading tools, counters and tracking tools. All for FREE. The best thing about Auctiva? It works!
9) For Immediate Release
This is a podcast which is bit more for the tech oriented folks that visit my blog.
Neville and Hobbs bring all of the latest and most important things in the online world to your ears in a very concise manner. If it's on their show, and your involved with online marketing, you'll want to know about it.
10) Internetbusinessmastery.com
This is another marketing podcast hosted by Sterling and Jay. You'll need to put your hands to the sides of your heads to retain the ton of useful information these two gentlemen have to offer.
Their show deals with the the challenge of keeping up to date with online marketing. The wonderful thing is, they wrap their content in a manner that is useful and relevant no matter what your business is.
They do so freely and in an easy to understand way that even the most non-tech oriented person can understand.
Well that's it for now, I want to thank you all for reading again. I hope you'll visit some of the sites I've recommended and that you find them as useful as I do.
PS, if you visit one of the Podcasts or Blogs I've posted above, please remember that these folks do a LOT of work to put out their content for free. If you like their content it's common courtesy to leave a comment stating so and how you found them, so tell them Auctionwally sent you.
