7 Web Services I Use Every Day As A Pro Blogger

24 | Posted In Opinion by David

I am a big fan of working “in the cloud”. Meaning, I like working online and having things based on the Internet. It means I can run things from anywhere and from any device.

In running my online business, I’ve come to rely on a handful of web-based services. For me, these are the most important ones.

Google

Yeah, well, I’m sure this one isn’t any revelation, but have you ever stopped to think just how many services Google offers that many of us rely on every day?

  • Gmail. This is where I do all of my email. Even when people send emails to one of my domain-based POP3 accounts, I get them all downloaded into Gmail. Easy email access from anywhere.
  • Calendar. My business life doesn’t include very many appointments (thank God). But, I do use GCal to track certain things. The reminder feature is handy, too.
  • Reader. Obviously. And now, using the Reeder app on the Ipad, I’ve finally found a decent RSS reader so I can keep track of other blogs in my downtime. I don’t like using office time to read other people’s blogs because I should be working on my own stuff instead. :)
  • Google Voice. My business phone number goes through Voice. Really great service.

Basecamp

Screen shot 2010-06-14 at 12.51.50 PM Now that I am picking up the pace in my business and working with other people, Basecamp is proving invaluable to me.

Trying to work with others via email is a major pain in the butt. People lose emails, accidently delete them. Or they reply back and forget to quote back the prior message and you lose track of where things stood. Or they change the subject line and break up the threading of messages. Wholly cow.

Basecamp gets rid of all that. It puts all of your projects in one place – on the web. Every person I hire gets a Basecamp account and I manage all my projects in there. I can also track/manage projects via my Ipad, on the go. It works on the Iphone, too, but the screen size is an issue there.

Aweber

Screen shot 2010-06-14 at 12.52.47 PM Aweber is clearly web-based, and it is for email list management.

Put simply, my monthly Aweber bill is simply the highest ROI bill that I pay. When you consider how important your email list is to your business, trying to skimp on it is suicidal. I spent a lot of time in my past (stupidly) trying to save money by managing my list in-house, sending emails from my own server. It was one of the dumbest things I ever did.

I’m in Aweber many times per week. Used correctly and with good use of your email list, it truly is a money machine.

SurveyMonkey

For web-based surveys, it doesn’t really get much better than SurveyMonkey. I’ve been a subscriber to this service for about 3 years now.

Strategic use of surveys is VITAL for a business. The alternative is to simply guess what people need and want. Too often, we guess wrong.

As bloggers, we could simply use our blog comments for feedback. Yes, that is a mode of feedback and a valuable one. But, using structured surveys changes the game beyond what you can do with just the blog.

Screen shot 2010-06-14 at 12.54.10 PM

The feedback you can gain from surveys can lead you down roads which will easily pay for SurveyMonkey many, MANY times over. It is a no-brainer.

RememberTheMilk

It is a web-based to-do list. I subscribe to the Pro account for $25/year and this gives me ability to sync to my Iphone and use their Iphone app.

I like being able to think of things to do wherever I am and not lose it. I can add it to my list from anywhere, via the Iphone. Then, having it all on the web just makes it easy.

1ShoppingCart

No secret here, this is a web-based shopping cart solution. I use 1ShoppingCart for order processing, affiliate management, customer email lists, etc. Which means I log into 1SC fairly regularly.

Screen shot 2010-06-14 at 12.49.31 PM1SC is a good solution, but definitely not the only one. It also has drawbacks. For one, I definitely don’t recommend using 1SC as your primary email list manager. You COULD, but their delivery rate isn’t as good as Aweber. Plus, Aweber is much more capable.

I’ve done a lot of looking around at shopping carts. For now, 1SC seems to be the best balance of features, costs, and proven record.

GetClicky

Screen shot 2010-06-14 at 12.48.19 PM GetClicky is a web-based stat service – similar to Google Analytics.

The obvious question is – why bother with this when you can use Analytics for free, right?

Well, I DO use Analytics. But, I ALSO use GetClicky. For me, I find GetClicky to be more intuitive for some of the stats I want quick access to. Analytics is powerful, but some of the important information is hidden behind several clicks and report running. GetClicky has a dashboard which gives a nice bird’s eye view of your sites from a glance. Plus, it works pretty well on the Iphone.

Add Some Of Your Own…

So, there you have it.

But, what about you? Got any killer web apps you use day-to-day that you want to share? Use that snazzy comment box below and tell me all about it. :)

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  • Kristoffer Sandven

    Hi David, thanks for your reommendations. Some new stuff for me.I’va actually done a similar post not long ago. You might want to take a look at it:http://www.joomlablogger.net/blog/other-softwar…

  • Kristoffer Sandven

    Hi David, thanks for your reommendations. Some new stuff for me.I’va actually done a similar post not long ago. You might want to take a look at it:http://www.joomlablogger.net/blog/other-softwar…

  • http://erica.biz ericabiz

    No need to use SurveyMonkey when Google Docs can do everything it does for free:
    http://www.erica.biz/2010/how-to-survey-free-on…

    (Yes, I've used both.)

    -Erica

  • http://www.gospelrhys.co.uk/ Rhys

    Yes I use Google Docs too :)

  • http://www.gospelrhys.co.uk/ Rhys

    I'm more of a fan of mailchimp than aweber, both are great though. Different horses for different courses though (I do very little email affiliate marketing).

  • http://bradleydurham.com Bradley

    I think you forgot the most important (outside of email)… Evernote.

    I use the online version at my day job, and the desktop app at my other job.

  • http://www.johnpaulaguiar.com John Paul

    Aweber def for me, and Sticky Notes to keep track random thoughts or links and of course HootSuite.

  • Karl Hadwen

    I use pretty much the same things, since I've just started a new blog I firstly signed up to Getresponse to try their email marketing services but I was very disappointed. Aweber is really good and I can't believe I even thought about moving away from their service.

  • http://davidrisley.com David Risley

    Yeah, I love Evernote. Only reason I didn't list it is because I think of it more as a desktop app with cloud sync than a web app. :-)

  • http://davidrisley.com David Risley

    Yeah, I've not tried Mailchimp. I know people who have, though, and they tell me that it isn't as friendly for marketers. Who knows.

  • http://davidrisley.com David Risley

    They must have improved it, because when I last used GDocs for a survey, it was just a raw output into a spreadsheet and all the tabulation was left to you. Ugh. If they've added features to it, awesome.

  • joshuanoerr

    Wow, as a novice David, I am learning so much these days and this maybe the single most info packed post I've read to date. Get clicky and basecamp sound amazing. Thank you for this, I am definately going to look into them immediately.

  • Amanya Jacobs

    What a great listing of important sites. Some of these I'm aware of and using. Others are totally new to me and I'm going to investigate them. Thanks!

  • http://www.financiallydigital.com Nunzio Bruno

    I love the Google Cloud! I used SurveyMonkey a bit as well but after a presentation from the Google for Small Business people one afternoon I dropped that subscription. I checked out GetClicky too but again I think I'll stick with Google ;p Great post and it makes me feel like I'm on the right track if most of those places you are logging into on a daily basis I am to for Financially Digital. To Erica – I'm always a fan :) Love your stuff too!!

  • http://www.shawnchristenson.com Shawn Christenson

    I disagree – it's totally a web-app. I use it on the web on my iMac at home. I use the desktop on my MacPro at office. I use it on my iPhone. But I would say it;s totally web based because the free version stores everything on the web. You need the web to use it.

  • http://www.shawnchristenson.com Shawn Christenson

    GetClicky IS amazing. Just be careful of the REAL TIME statistics. You can sit refreshing for hours. “Oooh, someone from Hong Kong. I wonder why they're here. Oh look they just checked out my About page. Sweet – they came from a really obscure keyword”.

  • http://www.shawnchristenson.com Shawn Christenson

    I think MailChimp rocks. It' not AS powerful as Aweber for some things – but i think it's easier to use for most. It's what I recommend to people that don't want to pay me to do anything – because this way they can do it themselves.

  • http://www.shawnchristenson.com Shawn Christenson

    I'm actually NOT a fan of working in the cloud. I really like being able to work from a desktop or iphone app. I kinda hate having apps open in my browser.

    I want to second GetClicky tho – that is one awesome stats service.

  • http://impulsemagazine.net Impulse Magazine

    I need to definitely start checking my analytics a little bit more and might try get clicky

  • http://erica.biz ericabiz

    Oh, they have full charts and graphs, all that fun stuff, and you can also export into Excel. It's amazing! Try it for your next survey. I have a free video on my site that walks you through it step by step: http://www.erica.biz/2010/how-to-survey-free-on…

    -Erica

  • http://twitter.com/flodner Flodner

    I use MarketGid widgets (I mentioned it in the e-mail to you) – very great tool which increases your pageviews

  • http://www.slymarketing.com Jens P. Berget

    You have listed a lot of awesome web services, I use some of them, but not all. One that I'd like to mention is LinkShiftr, I use it to shorten my links and to track them.

    Are you using a similar service to shorten your links?

  • http://www.liberiangeek.net Liberian Geek

    GetClicky is obviously the first on my list, since I am obsessed about traffic on my site.

  • Pamela John

    no, doubt web applications have become integral part of our life today either in business or or at home in a way or another we are addicted to many web applications.