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Yesterday someone left a comment here on my blog asking me what I thought about Aweber. My immediate thought was “OMG what would I do without it! Then it got me thinking about what else couldn’t I live without?
These 5 tools have changed my life, without them I really wouldn’t know how to do what I do. They are such an important part of how I build my business, run my marketing, bring in customers… They touch every part of my business for sure.
Joomla
I’ve been using Joomla so long and so much that I almost feel like it’s my digital brother. Joomla is a content managment system which basically means it lets you build websites without needing to know programming languages. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t still have a learning curve though.
Once you know how to work with Joomla you can literally build any type of website you want. You could copy Myspace.com, you could make your own Craigslist.com, you could build your own EzineArticles.com, and yes I’ve even used it for salesletters.
There is tons of support in the main Joomla forum and extensions galore to build just about anything your imagination can think up. If there isn’t an extension already made that you need then you can always go to Joomlancers.com and have it made for you (for a fee).
Aweber
If I were a carpenter, Aweber would be my hammer! It really doesn’t have to be Aweber it could be any email management company that gives you autoresponder functionality. Although, Aweber is my personal recommendation.
Aweber is what lets me type an email one time and send it to hundreds, thousands, or in some peoples case hundreds of thousands to millions. Totally not spam either since Aweber doesn’t let you send any emails to anyone who hasn’t first “opted-in” to one of your email address collection forms. So everyone has given you permission to mail them.
Now if you email them just sales pitches and other horse shit type stuff then yeah they are probably going to press the spam button on you. It’s best to keep it informational and if you have a sales message try to keep it on a website they have to click-thru too.
The other really sweet part about software like Aweber is that they let you setup a series of emails that will go out to your subscribers on a pre-determined schedule. For example if you had a 7 part article that taught someone how to prepare the ultimate Christmas dinner, you could setup 7 emails and have them go out daily, weekly, monthly… Whatever your heart desires!
And you wouldn’t have to be there to do it, just set it up once and off she goes!
Camtasia
If you’ve followed me for any period of time then no doubt you’ve seen some of my instructional videos. Camtasia is what I use to make those videos. With Camtasia I record anything on my computer screen, even camera feeds coming into my computer, as well as my voice.
It’s the best software, hands down, for making instructional or demonstrational videos. If you were a software seller you could use it to show people how you software works. If you are an information market you can use it to create instructional videos. Or you can mix the two and create instructional videos on other peoples softwares and sell them as video tutorial courses.
Wordpress
What you are reading right now is being powered by wordpress. It is bar none the worlds most popular and most used web blogging platform. When I talk about wordpress as a tool I am talking about the self-hosted version that you download and install on your own hosting provider.
It also does more then just blogging… People have made salesletters out of it like MarketingBully.com, people have turned it into corporate identity websites, and even into membership sites using WPWishlist.com.
There is an overwhelming amount of support and just about anything you could want to learn about wordpress is available on Youtube for free. We recommend that if you do start using it to use a premium wordpress theme and not just any old junk found in the free theme directories.
Premium themes like Thesis, that we use, allow you a lot more freedom with your design and much more powerful search engine optimization.
DimDim
Last but certainly not least is a good webinar software. I used to use GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar but they are quite complicated. I went with them because they are pretty close to the best in the business, however, DimDim has all the right features for me.
With DimDim I can hold an online meeting and show my desktop, an application, or a whiteboard. I can use these features either for group coaching, a demonstration for a potential prospect, or as a sales plateform where I can do one pitch to hundreds in attendence.
What I really like about DimDim is that they are easier to use then other applications, really its all pretty common sense. If you can run a VCR you should be able to run DimDim. It also has a chat room which is killer for creating an interactive environment.
Using these 5 tools I could rebuild my business from the ground up. Without these tools I would have an implausible time trying to do what I do online, I urge you too look into these tools if you are a webpreneur yourself.
Like anything else though just having the tools won’t do anything for you. If you want to have a thriving Internet business in the face of the worst financial crisis the United States has ever seen then all it takes is action & action builds confidence.
Go Bigger,
Justin Brooke
P.S. What is your favorite tool? Did I miss one that you just can’t live without? Feel free to include an affiliate link if you have one also.
