Top Five Programs You Need to Run Your Internet Business

Top Five Programs You Need to Run Your Internet Business

[I've just brought this article over from my other blog - lynda-hill.com - where I am changing the theme etc. It was first posted in December 2008.]

It doesn’t matter what type of internet business you are working at, these programs will serve to help you do everything more efficiently. Here’s one take on the programs you cannot do without.

No. 1   Roboform

You must have a password management program. It isn’t enough to use the same password with variations, you need to also keep your full login details. What’s easier than clicking one button which then takes you directly to the website (in a new window/tab) and logs you in? Roboform will do that and more. Works with Internet Explorer and Firefox. You can try their free trial for up to 15 logins.

No. 2   OneNote

Microsoft have great products – despite the fact that Wordperfect was 10 times better than Word! MS OneNote is a brilliant product. Yes, you have to pay for it if it isn’t part of the suite already, (but Amazon have good deals). OneNote is your ’swipe’ file, organiser, filing cabinet, book writer, ideas file, scrapbook. All tabbed and saved instantly without the need to work out where to put them and under what filename. Easily searchable, so as long as you can remember a phrase or word, you’ll find it. Brilliant! You can get a 60 day free trial directly from Microsoft and then buy the license from Amazon.

No. 3   Ashampoo Magical Snap

On first using this very simple program, you really will think it’s magical. Instead of printscreen or highlight/copy/paste, use Magical Snap to copy a whole web page, a section as a rectangle, a section as a squiggly outline – then paste it into… you guessed it, your OneNote. Each item is stored as an image or you can print it out directly. Magical Snap works like a breeze and is you right hand man for your business swipe file and writing books is a breeze as you can simply slide the chapters around if you have a change of mind. It doesn’t matter how many monitors you have either – copy exactly as much or as little as you want.

No 4   Firefox browser

It takes people a long time to move from Internet Explorer to Firefox. But almost everyone who does wishes they had made the transition sooner. There are so many add-ons available that almost everything you will ever need can be found somewhere. It works fine with Roboform too. You can look at Safari and Google Chrome, but Firefox takes the gold medal right now.

No. 5   Eset Security Suite

Perhaps this should be top of the list. Anti-virus and PC security software are absolute essentials these days. No longer is it sufficient to run a virus check once a week and download updates to your AV software once a month. These must be run on a daily basis if you are to not only keep your computer safe and secure, but also protect your contacts from being infected by a virus sent out by your machine! Unlike other AV suites, Eset Security has very low impact on the speed of your system and doesn’t impinge on other programs unless it finds an infestation somewhere. It runs totally in the background so you will hardly ever need to touch it – just let it do its job.

These are the very first five programs you should consider putting onto your computer before you get started in your internet business. That’s not to say they can’t be used for anything else, but I think you will find that the ease they bring to managing all the information which passes through your virtual desk every day, will make them priceless.

Tools For Your Online Business

Tools For Your Online Business

Ever wondered exactly how people ‘do’ their online business? How do they do what they do? Here’s a quick list of the Top Five tools I use on my computer to do what I do online, and I’m going to list them as far as possible in order of importance….

1. Roboform. Just about the best way I know to manage all my passwords and logins. At time of writing I have several hundred. Also a USB key version so you can take them with you to any computer.
2. OneNote - part of the Microsoft Office Suite, but I bought mine separately through Amazon. A computerised notebook which is so versatile I think it may take years to get the hang of what it can do. I have my systems eg affiliate marketing, article marketing, blogging, set out in categories and within those a separate folder for each program. A also write my ebooks using OneNote because I can move chapters around, add screenshots etc so easily. I’m sure I could learn to do much more with OneNote – when I have time. I do use paper notebooks too – lots of them.
3. Ashampoo Magical Snap. I use two monitors at the moment (need three). Magical Snap lets me take images of parts of a web page or it will scroll through a whole page and copy the lot. I can then paste into any other program, OneNote being ideal, or print it out. With OneNote it’s indispensable.
4. Googlemail. I’m thinking of actually paying for GoogleApps as I think the email in their is better still, but GoogleMail (mine is the original Gmail) lets me have mail from all of my domains come in to one place. Having linked my e-addresses, i can also send from the relevant domain too. The downside is that on outgoing messages it still shows my gmail address which is not very professional – hence my looking at GoogleApps.
5. So what will I bring in as no. 5? Has to be something I can’t work without. Eudora email was going to be my choice for this position, but if I move to GoogleApps then it’s out of the running. I do think it’s the best email program I’ve ever used. It’s latest Mozilla incarnation is not as good. So I suppose no 5 will have to be the Firefox browser. I have used a tabbed browser for years, as soon as I discovered CrazyBrowser – which sat on top of Internet Explorer. I moved to IE8 pro but have had so many issues with images not showing that I gave in and took up with Firefox. I love the plugins you can get (although for a couple of things I have had to rummage quite hard to find them).

Summary with links for more info:

no 1 – Roboform – offers a trial version

no 2 – MS OneNote – I bought mine from Amazon

no 3 – Magical Snap also has a trial version

no 4 – GoogleMail US or GoogleMail UK

no 5 – Firefox – free as you know

So, there are my top five. What are yours?

Please leave a comment and let me and my other reader know what your favourite programs are.

All the best

–L

JohnnysIdeas and Passwords

I’ve just come across this fascinating site called JohnnysIdeas. It’s a free ‘Creative Idea Consulting Website’ – but looks as if he doesn’t mind accepting a donations if what he comes up with is useful. I think this could be a very useful little resource.

I found the site after I had visited Paula Brett’s Blog – she was explaining all about RSS feeds and this hit a nerve for me. I’ve just started using Squidoo and I hadn’t quite worked out how to set it up for RSS. You can see what she has written here. Paula has loads of really useful information in her Blog – hopefully I will too sometime.

My Squidoo Lens (their word for an article) is about the Best Way to Manage Passwords. I won’t re-write it all again, so here’s where it is. I’ve been many years working with computers and it sometimes fills me with terror when I see how careless intelligent people are with their passwords. I can understand new users getting it wrong as there’s lots to learn – but old hands really should know better!

More importantly is the need to find a secure way to look after all the passwords we need – and – to fill in all the different logins. Anyway, my lens describes a bit more, or if you want to know the answer now, then pop along to this site (and no, I’m not going to tell you here!)

So, it just goes to show how one thing can lead to another when you’re surfing (and potentially distract us from the job in hand – so back to my ebook writing it is).

Gxis la revido

–Lynda