I asked Jenn what tools she considers to be essential for running her business online. Her favorites in her own words:

YouSendit

YouSendIt is a free service that allows you to send large files over email. It’s fantastic if you work remotely and handle large files. I used to pay $50/month for Basecamp account, but found clients thought it was difficult to use or burdensome. They just want their files sent to them directly without clogging up their email and without having to remember any extra passwords or usernames. That’s YouSendIt.com

Dropbox

This service is also a life saver for those of us who work remotely and sometimes collaborate with others. Instantly I can share large files with another designer – or access them myself from another computer.

Tweet Deck

Tweet deck is always open on my computer. Not only does it allow me real-time updates simultaneously from all my social media accounts (Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter) but it allows me to stay up to the minute watching what’s happening with my social media clients as well. I can see who’s saying what about my client’s brand instantly.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is great free service that allows me to track how my blog, websites and client sites are doing. Each morning I can’t wait to see what content is hot… and well, what’s not so hot with my users. I’m constantly learning and evolving content based on user engagement.

Apple Magic Mouse

If you have a Mac, you need a magic mouse. It now comes standard with new iMacs and it’s amazing. It’s wireless, with no buttons or scroll button. Instead, it has a smooth “multi-touch” surface and it supports momentum scrolling (similiar to iphone and itouch).

Smart Brief

Recently I was lucky enough to have met Wendy Goldman Scherer of The Social Studies Group at the Blissdom Conference. She was one of the keynote speakers. I asked her what she read each day to stay current and she told me to sign up for my industry briefs at SmartBrief.com. It’s great! Every morning I receive the headlines for my clients’ industries. It’s impressed them numerous times.

Jenn’s not all business, though. Catch up with Jenn at her personal blog, JenericStories.com, too or follow her on Twitter at @pixelpopdesigns.

Don’t forget to stop back next week for more essential tools for success, featuring programmer turned super affiliate marketer, Eric Nagel . If you are interested in sharing your essential tools for business, drop me a line at cpolanosky [at] gmaildotcom.

A Day in the Life of a Mom Palm

• 6:00 a.m. – Alarm goes off. Feet hit the floor, head down the stairs to the coffee pot! While coffee is being made, I quickly check my email on the Palm Pre Plus (ok, I’m impatient) and let the dog out.
• 6:30 a.m. – Get first of 3 kids up for school – others staggered by 15 min. each. Check the weather and my calendar for the day on the Palm Pre Plus and look up a recipe for dinner (using the What’s for Dinner app) while making lunches.
• 7:30 a.m. – Everyone in the car and drop off kids at school – get a text message from my walking buddy wanting to do our workout at 8 a.m.
• 8:00 a.m. – Take Palm Pre Plus on the walk. Since we are trying to get back into running shape we use the cool countdown timer app to alternate 2 minutes walking with 2 minutes running.
• 9:00 a.m. – Back from workout, showered and plug the Palm Pre Plus back in to charge while I work. Get text messages from hubs and friends in between.
• 12:00 p.m. – Alarm on Palm Pre Plus goes off reminding me of a conference call I have.
• 2:30 p.m. – Afternoon craziness officially starts and this is where the Palm Pre Plus seriously gets a workout. Head out to pick up kids from school. Check email in carpool lane and can actually open the PDF file (thanks to the built in PDF viewer) containing event sheet for upcoming swim meet and read them (big improvement over my last phone).
• 4:00 p.m. – Drop off two kids at swim and head to grocery store with third. Use shopping list created from Whats for Dinner app. Drop off third child at gymnastics. Check in with husband via phone in between.
• 5:30 p.m. – Back at the pool waiting for swimmers to be done. Check email, upload a cute picture of kids to Facebook, use TweeFree to check in with online pals on Twitter, make notes on favorite websites using Evernote app – and did I mention I can do all of this with my headphones on listening to my favorite music?
• 6:00 p.m. – Youngest one done with practice waiting for older one. Let her play Flash Cards on the phone followed by Crossword Light (I seriously love this app) while we wait.
• 7:00 p.m. – Back home and time for dinner. Pull up our dinner recipe on Whats for Dinner and get dinner started. Check email in between and respond to client questions without walking into the office.
• 7:45 p.m. – Chill out time with family.
• 9:00 p.m. Get text message from my daughter who is still at gymnastics practice to let me know her carpool is on its way to the meet up point. Pick her up and head home to make sure all homework is done and get all three kids in bed.
• 9:30 p.m. – Palm Pre Plus goes back on the charger while husband and I hang out, watch TV and surf on our laptops (not always but most nights) – we are a multitasking family!

Now that is a cell phone that works!

Overall, how has the Palm Pre Plus scored during my trial with it? I’d give it an A-. Minus? Really? Yep, because while this phone rocks, but there are a few little things that are either missing or could be better. For example, the camera is great but there is no capability to take video yet (coming in version 1.4);  I’d really like to be able to assign different notification tones for email and texts; and I like the Google Maps but wish it had the built-in free navigation (I’m sure that is just a matter of time, too).

Now something good for you!!

I have been given a $50 Visa Gift Card from Verizon to give away to one of my lucky readers. That’s $50 to spend on what ever you want!

How do you win?

Leave a comment on this post no later than midnight March 16, 2010 answering one of the following questions:

1. What is your favorite feature on your cell phone (or mine )?
2. How do you use technology to keep your busy life on track?

Get an extra entry by getting social – use any of the buttons at the bottom of this post to spread the word about the giveaway. Leave a separate comment telling me whether you tweeted, stumbled, or otherwise shared this post using one of the social buttons. I will select a winner using Random.org and will post it here.

——

Disclosure again – I have been given the Palm Pre Plus and the service package for it by Verizon for a few months, they are providing the gift card for the giveaway as well. I am also being compensated for my time.

——-

UPDATE: We have a winner!! Lucky #21 Courtney. Thanks again to all who entered.

And, now, over to Grant to let you know what his essential tools for online success are.

My business and office is rather unique. First, I spend all day online. Second, I have the pleasure of doing it all from my home office. Not only do I need tools that just work. I also need tools that are portable.

My list of must haves include both the hardware and the apps I use daily.

The hard stuff

MacBook Pro

At the center of my office is my computer. This is where the “just works” comes into play. I moved over to Mac computers over 6 years ago and I have not looked back since. The Mac and especially the MacBook Pro enables me to do what I need to do whenever and where ever I need to do it.

Yes, there might be one or two programs or apps I might need to use on a PC. However, I have yet to find there is anything I can’t do on my MacBook Pro that I can not do better and easier.

Time Capsule

The Apple Time Capsule Network Hard Drive is also a must for us. This handy little piece of hardware takes up very little space on my desk. Not only is it a full-featured 802.11n Wi-Fi station. It also has a huge amount of storage. We do daily backups to the Time Capsule. In fact, it is all automatic with Time Machine.

Flip Video

I use the UltraHD Flip and it is wonderful. It combines the Flip’s shoot-and-share simplicity with the power of vivid, vibrant HD video. The first time I used the UltraHD I was blown away by the quality of the picture. How can something this small capture and give you such great video? My only regret with the Flip is the fact it does not give you the ability to plug in an external mic. Which would be nice if you were doing interviews. If you are looking to get the Flip, I would recommend you look to Amazon to purchase. I was able to buy mine for a lot less than you can get it from Flip.

Kindle

This is without a doubt one of the all time best inventions in the last 20 years. Other than the personal computer, the Kindle is amazing. Seriously, if you don’t have one and you are a reader, get it. Yes, it cost over $200. But, I have actually found I am reading more for pleasure since I received it last Christmas from my 4 sons. And talk about portable. I take it every where.

Since I have been doing more traveling this year to conferences, it also makes those 2 or 3 hour flights go a lot quicker too. Just whip it out and start reading.

Moleskine

I love my Moleskines. This is another one of those tools I take every where and use daily. It is even surprising to myself that I still find it more useful to take pen and paper to start writing down ideas for a project I am working on or to jot down blog post ideas. There is just something about the feel of a pen in your hand and the actual act of writing something down to get the creative juices flowing.

Applications and the soft side of my tool box

Wordpress

Not only do I blog myself for a living and to promote and market our businesses, we also build blog and web sites for clients. I would not want to do this on any other platform than WordPress. WordPress is without a doubt the best solution for any business when it comes to a Content Management System. It is also the best blogging software too.

When it comes to making WordPress work for you in a way you want it to, there are just a ton of plugins you can get. And, the WordPress developer community is awesome too. The only limitations you have with WordPress is really your own imagination. If you can think it up, either you or someone can do it with WordPress.

Headway

I almost wasn’t going to list Headway as one of my essential tools. Especially since I am one of the co-founders. But, I could not make a list of my own essential tools without a mention.

Headway is more than a theme. It is a framework which gives the DIY’er and the developer the ability to build a blog, blogsite or a website with or without custom CSS. It is so easy to use, even I can use it. When we started to build Headway last year I told my son and business partner Clay it had to be more than dummy proof. It had to be Dad proof. And it is. Seriously, if I can use Headway to build a site, anyone can.

Chrome

Chrome has become my browser of choice. I still use Firefox for a few things. But Chrome is quickly becoming my only browser. I was thrilled when Google released the extensions for Chrome last month. With that feature added, there is really no reason not to use Chrome.

Chrome also works with all of the other tools I use daily. From Evernote to Dropbox. I have it all in my toolbar now and it saves me time too.

Gmail + MailPlane

My email service of choice is Gmail. I run all of my accounts through Gmail even if they are not a Gmail account. The spam filter, labels and filters in Gmail are something I would not want to be without. I get a large volume of email daily and Gmail gives me the ability to organize and control it the best I can.

MailPlane is the app I use to run my Gmail. It is a desktop application that looks and feels just like Gmail. Best of all, it does not tie up a browser window and uses very little memory too.

Google Calendar

I could not do what I do without Google calendar. I run at least 3 different calendars. One for business related items. One for my editorial calendar where I schedule my own post, but also the post of our contributing editors for Blog For Profit. I also have a calendar for Home.

And it all sync’s with my Droid so I can take my calendar with me where ever I go.

Twitter + Seesmic

Social media tools like twitter are a huge part of my daily activities. Not only is it a way I stay in touch with those I know. Twitter has a huge part in our daily marketing of Blog For Profit, but also Headway.

Twitter is a great way to network and connect with people all over the world. I could spend an entire series of post discussing twitter, which I have done. The key to twitter is to don’t over think it and just use it. The other key to twitter is to get the right tools to manage it for you.

I use Seesmic which is a desktop client for twitter. It gives you the ability to set up columns so you can manage those you follow in some type of an orderly fashion. Right now, it is free. Free is good.

Other essential blogging tools

• ImageWell
• Skitch
• MarsEdit
• NetNewsWire
• Skype

I really could go on and on. There are a number of small apps I use which I would not want to be without. However, I did not want to bore you with too many.

Thanks Grant for such excellent insight into your tools for online success! Make sure you leave comments to this post so we can keep the conversation going. Share what you are using in your own blogging tool box and in your home office. I have found I get some of the best ideas of things I can use by reading what others are using.

Next week will spotlight another amazing web design talent, Jenn Chamberlain of Pixel Pop Designs.

Meet Raven. She’s my new office mate. Until this winter Raven had always been an outdoor dog, living the high life in her oversized dog house and sharing a large enclosed run with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal, Kodi. Unfortunately Kodi passed away this summer so Raven has been a little lonely. As the weather started getting cooler and the snow started piling up by the foot, Raven has casually made her way into the house and deemed herself my sidekick. Her two favorite places to sleep all day are by my feet under my desk or right in the middle of my office (as shown above).

Raven has been a great influence – she really does help me stay on task more. I’m less hesitant to get up in the middle of something for fear of disturbing her nap!

So, what have I been working on? Let me warn you – it’s all over the board.

I recently upgraded my system to Windows 7. So far so good – nothing really earth shattering new, but it did give me the opportunity to clean off my desktop, reorganize all my bookmarks and start the year fresh. Before I did the Windows 7 upgrade I backed up all my files to Carbonite (I initially tried the free Carbonite Online Backup – no credit card required – and almost immediately upgraded to the paid version – much cheaper than a second hard drive), synced my bookmarks to Xmarks (just in case I wanted them back) and wiped the screen down with the very cute little duck (Aroma Home Screen Wipe – too cute) that is perched on top of my monitor.

Project wise I have a few web design projects in the works – hopefully I will be sharing a few of them here in the next week or so.  I’ve been playing with the new Genesis series of themes from Brian Gardner and the latest Headway release from Grant Griffiths. I am also getting ready to do some social media consulting for a client with a really important iPhone app (more on that later).

I am having fun field testing the Palm Pre Plus phone (which I used to take these photos – nice quality coming from a phone!) for Verizon. You can read my initial thoughts on the “Mom Palm” and stay tuned because I have another write up and a giveaway coming up as part of the campaign.

While I don’t really like the term “Mom Blogger,” I have been doing some writing in that department. You can find me at Snackpicks.com as part of their team of Mom Experts and recently the youth sports social networking site, WePlay, featured one of my articles from SportsGirlsPlay.com titled “Getting Past I Quit.”

And finally I have been keeping up with all of my own sites, from all the new guests on the Essential Tools series to tons of new printable activities and party ideas, girls sports insight and what’s for dinner!

Whew! I think I might just need a nap.

So, in her own words, these are Selene’s absolute essential tools for online success:

Adobe Photoshop / Dreamweaver

As a web designer, one of the first things I need is a killer graphics program. There are some things you just can’t skimp on, and in my opinion, a high end / industry standard graphics program is one of them. Photoshop is the best of the best when it comes to this, and I use it almost every day.

Another program from the Adobe suite that I use on a daily basis is Dreamweaver. Possibly overkill, since I hand code all of my sites, and stay in the code view 99% of the time, but it does it’s job well, and I like it more than any of the other editors I’ve tried in the past. For the record, it is significantly better than Notepad, which is what I started out with when I first started playing with HTML back in 1994, LOL.

WordPress

When it comes to developing web sites, both for myself and my clients, I can’t rave enough about WordPress. While I initially started out creating static HTML (and occasionally Flash) web sites, I now focus almost entirely on designing and developing custom WordPress themes.

In my opinion, WordPress is the best CMS (Content Management System) and blogging software out there. The fact that it is open source, and has such a vast community of developers behind it, means that the software is constantly being improved upon. As we speak, I’m anxiously awaiting the release of WordPress 3.0 later this year. My favorite part of developing custom WordPress themes is the constant learning. I’m not over-exaggerating when I say that I learn at least one (or five) new techniques with each site that I create. And with WordPress 3.0 on it’s way out soon, that number is sure to increase.

Equally as important, are all of the WordPress plugins. Almost anything my clients have ever needed their web site to do… if it wasn’t a feature already built into WordPress, you can almost always count on there already being a plugin out there that can do it for you.

Mozilla Firefox / Thunderbird + Gmail

Yes, I am a web designer/developer, and like many of my breed, I am pro-Mozilla and anti-Microsoft – especially Internet Explorer 6. (Ironically enough, I have always owned PC’s – although I plan on finally buying a Mac the next time around).

At any rate, I started off using Netscape and Netscape Messenger years ago as my web browser and email client of choice. As Mozilla evolved, I transitioned over to Firefox and Thunderbird as soon as they became available. I have years worth of email archives in Thunderbird – nicely arranged into folders for each client, prospect, etc. And Firefox’s support of web standards (especially over the lack of support from Internet Explorer) make it my number one choice in web browser.

As far as web based email clients, I am partial to Gmail. Although I don’t usually send mail from Gmail, I have a backup copy of all of my messages going to that account. It’s especially helpful if I am out of town and want to check my email on something larger than my BlackBerry.

The primary reason I use Gmail, however, is for it’s incredible filtering system. While I have all of my email routed to Thunderbird on my desktop, I filter out everything but the essentials in Gmail, which are then sent to my BlackBerry. Take newsletters, for example… while I’m subscribed to them for a reason, I only need to get them on my computer. If I’m on the go, I want to limit the spam, and non-essentials so all I get on my phone are important emails from friends and family, clients, new business inquiries, etc. While I still want to receive the less urgent messages, they can wait until I’m in front of my computer.

Onebox + Google Voice

If you are running your business from a home office, like so many people do, it’s important to have a professional presence when it comes to communicating via telephone. I’ve been using Onebox for a few years now. It’s a great service that gives you a toll free number, forwards calls to any number you specify, lets you setup a comprehensive calling schedule, lets you send/receive faxes, and sends you voicemails and faxes via email. Their rates are reasonable for the amount of options they give you, too.

Enter Google Voice, which is my new love! It’s not quite as robust as Onebox, so I’m not willing to give that service up just yet. I primarily use Google Voice for outgoing calls. Working from a home office, I always used call blocking to mask my phone number when calling clients and prospects. With Voice, I can now call out with that number appearing as my caller ID, and I’m not giving clients 24/7 access to my home or cell phones. With both Onebox and Google Voice, I have a Monday-Friday / 9-5 schedule setup for incoming calls… after all, everyone needs their boundaries, and a healthy work-life balance is one of them! (As an added bonus, there is a Google Voice app for the BlackBerry, which makes it that much easier to use.)

Studiometry

I first got acquainted with Studiometry through my old full-time job. It’s a great tool for keeping track of all your clients and open projects, and is primarily used for time tracking – essential if you are running your own business and need to know how to bill your clients.

While the majority of the work I do is on a flat / per-project basis, I devise those rates based on the average amount of time certain job phases take. For example X number of hours for a site design vs X number of hours to develop as a WordPress theme, etc. I take those averages to come up with my project rates. I also have several clients that hire me for repeated site maintenance and updates – the type of thing that must be billed hourly, as it doesn’t quite fall into a cookie cutter project.

Enter Studiometry! It’s fantastic for time tracking, but is actually much more robust than this. It lets you track client contact details, create and send invoices right from the program, setup project schedules and milestones as gantt charts, etc. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t use this program to it’s full potential. I still only use it for time tracking (and use much more archaic methods for sending invoices… can you say Excel invoices saved and emailed as PDF files, LOL).

This one is a bit pricey (though not nearly as high as Adobe products), but well worth it for the time tracking alone. I know there are other online services that do the same thing, but there are some things that I prefer to purchase outright (aka software), rather than pay monthly usage for – and this is one of those things.

Whiteboard + Google Calendar

Call me old fashioned, but as far as scheduling goes, I like to see it written out in front of me. I’ve got a huge whiteboard in my office with several sections marked off that let me see my week ahead with a quick glance. I’ve got a section for income (with monthly and annual totals, as well as a list of outstanding invoices) / there is a section that lists all of my open projects with milestone phases and due dates / there is a section for my weekly work schedule, marked off in 1 hour increments that I use to block off time for each of the projects I’m working on, or scheduled phone calls, etc.

I also can’t do without my Google Calendar. I love the ability to create individual calendars within my main account – I’m a sucker for the color coding, LOL. I have ALL of my time blocked out… family time, “me” time, work time geared towards in-house projects, work time geared towards client projects, etc. And of course scheduling of actual appointments where I get email notifications 1 week, 1 day and 1 hour ahead of time. Better yet – it syncs with my BlackBerry!

Twitter / TweetDeck + Facebook

As far as social networking goes, Twitter and Facebook are my guilty pleasures. I primarily reserve Facebook for personal networking with family and friends. (I do have a fan page for the business, but I’m not nearly as active on it as I am on my personal profile or on Twitter.)

Twitter is fantastic for networking – especially among my field, because it is FULL of amazing designers and developers. It’s a great way to network with your peers and find great links… I read more posts linked on Twitter than I do from my feed reader (which, for the record, happens to be Google Reader). It’s great to see what other people are working on and just chit chat a bit when you need a break. Equally as great is if I ever run into a problem developing a site, I can always count on getting great feedback or suggestions from Twitter.

As far as how I tweet… with TweetDeck, of course! It’s been my favorite desktop Twitter app for some time now. I have as many columns as it’ll let me have, which makes it easy to scan for tweets based on topic (integrated very nicely with my Twitter lists). It even has a Facebook column… if only they’d hurry up and come out with a version for BlackBerry!

BlackBerry

Hello, my name is Selene and I’m addicted to my BlackBerry.

Although I am not a huge fan of talking on the phone, you will rarely find me without my BlackBerry in hand (or very close nearby). It’s connected to my Gmail account, I use Google Sync to sync up my contacts and calendar, and it even has a Google Voice app. And apparently this section should be titled BlackBerry + Google, LOL.

As for other favorite BlackBerry apps, I have the Facebook, Twitter (Seesmic) and WeatherBug apps on my home screen, alongside the default Mail, Contact and To Do List applications. My BlackBerry is my handheld everything, and I would quite honestly be lost without it!

I told you, you were in for a treat! Thanks again to Selene for sharing all her insight on her essential tools for online success!

Don’t forget to stop back next week for more essential tools for success, featuring Grant Griffiths of Headway Themes fame . If you are interested in sharing your essential tools for business, drop me a line at cpolanosky [at] gmaildotcom.

So, in full disclosure, I am letting you know that I have been given a Palm Pre Plus and the service package for it by Verizon for a few months. I am also being compensated for my time and will be hosting a giveaway in the upcoming months to go with the review. However, knowing that I am a truly a geek girl – you know the one that asks for a Wacom Bamboo Fun Tablet for Christmas, totes a pink Vaio laptop and has been known to dress her cell phone in red leather, you can bet that I will be giving the Palm Pre Plus a serious workout and will give you the real scoop on the phone.

When the phone arrived last week I had to seriously fend off the rest of my technology crazed family. The kids hovered around me as I opened the box and my middle school aged daughter immediately declared that she wanted a Palm Pre Plus of her own and if I didn’t like the phone, could she have it? Uh, no. It’s. MINE. Of course my teenage son immediately went into a full fledged monologue touting the features of the Palm Pre Plus (because he started researching it the day I told him it was on its way) and how it runs on the Palm webOS operating system, has 16GB of flash storage and 512 MB of RAM, uses multi-touch technology, has a 3MP camera with a flash, and on and on and on. I couldn’t get a word in edge-wise.

After declaring it the “Mom Palm” the kids finally let me have a few minutes to play with my new phone without their commentary. I totally LOVE the way the Palm Pre Plus feels. It’s smooth finish and rounded corners make it very comfortable to hold (unlike the smartphone my husband has which feels like you are holding a brick). The Palm Pre Plus is also small (and mighty) – measuring 3.9″ x 2.3″ x .67″ – it even fits in my favorite red Vera Bradley wristlet that goes with me everywhere!

The Palm Pre Plus is a combination touch screen phone with a slide out QWERTY keyboard. The touch screen area uses something called “gestures” which are simply movements of your finger across the screen in a certain motion that cause things to happen. For example, sliding your finger from right to left across the bottom of the screen takes you back one screen; you can close applications on the “desktop” but sliding them upward off the top of the screen; and you can zoom in and out on pictures by placing two thumbs near the center of the photo and “pulling” out diagonally. The keyboard ROCKS. It has a “clicky” feel to it much like a full size keyboard would.

Once I got finished playing with the gesture area and oohing and aahing over the keyboard, I started to set up the Palm Pre Plus. Within minutes I had made the Palm Pre Plus “my own” - by simply logging into my Gmail account I instantly had my complete contact list, calendar and email. This is exactly the type of functionality I need. Additionally, I synced the contacts with my Facebook account so not only can I call, text, Google Talk (IM), and email my friends right from the contact list – I can also see their Facebook status updates, profile photos and add notes to their contact details.

By syncing the calendar with my Gmail calendar (you can sync it with your Outlook calendar and others, too) I can keep track of my commitments from anywhere and get friendly reminders so I don’t miss a thing. If I add an event to my calendar from my phone it immediately shows up on my desktop. I have shared calendars with my family and with some clients and the calendars all show up in different colors on the Palm Pre Plus so I know at a glance who the appointment belongs to. Too cool!!

In addition to the standard Smartphone features of phone, text, email, web, camera and calendar, the Palm Pre Plus:

• acts as an MP3 player,
• lets you watch videos – with amazing quality too,
• has a cool “corkboard” for writing yourself memos,
• has a great to-do list (my favorite),
• can give you directions to anywhere in a flash using Google Maps (no GPS unless you want to subscribe to the Verizon Navigator service for $9.99 a month)
• and through the App store you can find free and low cost apps for just about anything you want to add to your phone.

Having used the Palm Pre Plus for just under two weeks now, all I can say is WOW! It may be small, but it sure can do a lot and look fabulous doing it! This phone and I will be spending a lot of quality time together – from my home office to the carpool line, pool deck and everywhere in between. I’ll keep you posted along the way – especially as I find out what other amazing feats this phone can help me conquer in my busy life.

Geno is the founder of AMNavigator.com. He is an affiliate marketing author, educator, and blogger. Geno authored the bestselling “A Practical Guide to Affiliate Marketing“, and continues to share his experience-based affiliate program management and online marketing knowledge in his blog on a daily basis. He has been one of the three finalists for the Best Blogger award 2010 by Affiliate Summit, and holds multiple Best OPM of the Year awards by ABestWeb.com. Educated in linguistics, psychology and international relations (one of his degrees is from the Univesity of Cambridge), he has become one of the most popular names in affiliate marketing — for his mindset of a persistent student, and his character of a passionate practitioner.

I recently asked Geno what his essential tools for working online are and here they are, “in his own words:”

Google Alerts – Google Alerts is an excellent and free tool that delivers emails alerts on what’s being said about you, your business, your industry, etc online. It is easy-to-setup and fairly comprehensively customizable (can include news, blogs, video, etc). At the time, it doesn’t monitor Social Media for you. For ten free tools that do, read my Brick and Mortar Businesses Must Monitor Online Space blog post.

The Bat! – The Bat! is an email client created by Ritlabs SRL. I’ve been using it for the past 5 or 6 years, and just a few months ago I’ve found out that their main development office is located just a block away from my birthplace in Chisinau, Moldova. What a pleasant surprise! It’s a great little email client (with multiple useful plugins), and they keep improving it constantly.

Google Analytics – I know why they do it, but I am still amazed that it is being done – a web analytics tool as powerful as this offered free of charge. I use it for analysis of my websites’ performance for multiple times daily. For competitive intelligence, on the other hand, I use Quantcast.com, Compete.com, and Alexa.

WordPress – This one is also sweet as it can get – robust and free. I love WordPress, and recommend it to everyone who is considering blogging.

Macromedia Dreamweaver – Of course, it is now Adobe Dreamweaver CS4, but I use one of the pre-Adobe versions. Good, robust tool for creation of HTML pages – simple enough for non-coders to use effectively. I use it both for website editing, and newsletter creation.

Adobe PhotoShop – No day passes by without me using my PhotoShop. I’m a self-taught user of this program, but I cannot imagine my professional life without it. Blog posts without images are blend. So, I use it to create/edit pictures and graphs that liven up my blog content. I also use it to put together banners (the ImageReady editor that I have incorporated in my 2007 version is especially helpful here), editing professional and family photos, etc.

Total Commander – This is my file manager (also has a good FTP client embedded in it).

Mozilla Firefox – After trying every other one out there, this is my web browser of choice.

Twitter and Facebook – Every article I read, every post or article I write myself, and everything that I believe may be of benefit to my fellow affiliate marketers, I tweet or post on Facebook. As a result, Twitter is the #2 referrer of traffic to my blog, while Facebook – #4.

Skype – I have a landline number tied to Skype, and I make many of my national and international phone calls from it (very few companies can beat their rates). I also use it extensively as an instant messaging tool, file transfer tool, and to host phone conferences, and arrange video calls. I used to manage Skype’s affiliate program (back in 2007), but fell in love with it way before that. I still am.

Webster.com & Synonym.com – I write a lot, and consulting dictionaries is a part of my daily routine. These two websites help me a lot.

Google Translate – Launched just a few months ago, Google Translate quickly gained my respect. Being a professional linguist and translator myself, I am extremely suspicious of any machine translation of text. However, when it comes to translation of words, Google has once again put together an amazing tool. I highly recommend it for word (not text) translation.

Geno’s AMNavigator blog is absolutely packed with really valuable information for just about anyone working in the online world, but it is a MUST read if you are involved in affiliate marketing in anyway. The all-time readers’ favorites:

• Online Guide to Affiliate Marketing (How to Start and Run an Affiliate Program)
• 20 Differences Between Management & Leadership
• Affiliate Websites – Types and Examples
• Misrepresented Affiliate Marketing (YouTube video)

And don’t forget to check out his books as well :

• A Practical Guide to Affiliate Marketing (2007)
• Online Shopping Through Consumers’ Eyes (2008)
• Internet Marketing from the Real Experts (2010) – 5 articles of Geno’s in this book put together by Shawn Collins and Missy Ward

Don’t forget to stop back next week for more essential tools for success, featuring ultra-talented web designer Selene Bowlby of iDesign Studios. If you are interested in sharing your essential tools for business, drop me a line at cpolanosky [at] gmaildotcom.

This week’s Essential Tools edition features Matt McWilliams, the Affiliate Manager at Legacy Learning Systems in Nashville, Tennessee. Legacy’s ‘Learn and Master series’ has a mission of “Bringing Personal Dreams Within Reach,” making difficult skills, such as guitar, piano, drums, ballroom dancing, and more accessible through multimedia self-education courses. In 2010, Matt won the Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards Affiliate Manager of the Year. He has also won awards from ABestWeb, the leading online affiliate community, for his affiliate management skills and advocacy of affiliate marketing.

Matt’s essential tools include:

HootSuite – Matt likes HootSuite because it’s really easy to manage his Twitter accounts and shorten URLs. One thing HootSuite allows him to do is schedule tweets on delay if he knows they are time-sensitive and he won’t be near a computer. Plus, many of the others like Tweetdeck and always seem to crash his system where HootSuite seems more stable.

Google Docs – Matt has a Virtual Assistant in India who is constantly collaborating with on things. It’s great to have an online tool to share documents through rather than do the whole email back and forth thing. He was reluctant to use Google Docs until this year, but  now hardly uses anything else.

ABestWeb – What can I say? ABW is like his affiliate family. There is a support forum and Matt loves interacting with affiliates, learning and occasionally actually helping others, too. He also appreciates the affiliate managers forum where he can ask honest questions and get honest feedback from other great affiliate managers.

iTunes – Really, how could anyone ever make it through the day without music!  Plus Matt uses iTunes to catch up on all the great affiliate podcasts like Affiliate Thing, Geek Dads Weekly, Both Sides of the Tracks, and others, just to name a few.

Meebo – Matt uses Meebo to manage all of his Instant Messaging clients. He has 5 for business use and 2 for personal use and is constantly chatting with Legacy’s affiliates, other affiliate managers, his virtual assistant and his wife throughout the day.

CamStudio – CamStudio is a free screen recording software that is not great, but it’s free and does the job. Matt uses CamStudio to do tutorials featuring screen captures. It records the video into either AVI or FLV. The quality is decent but again, it’s free!

PDF995 – PDF995 is another free app that Matt uses to easily convert Word documents into PDF files. It is super easy to use. (More PDF basics and resources)

Windows Movie Maker – Matt claims he is not exactly a video guy but he does all of Legacy Learning’s affiliate videos and he doesn’t know how to use anything else. One of his goals is to learn something a little more advanced and be cool like everyone else. When he needs something more advanced, he just asks Legacy’s production team. They are a video company after all.

One of the reasons Matt is a super star affiliate manager is that he genuinely cares and gives Legacy’s affiliates the tools they need to succeed. Even if you are not an affiliate marketer, check out the Legacy Learning Affiliate blog for more great resources and articles to help you succeed in business online.

Don’t forget to stop back next week for more essential tools for success, featuring Evgenii “Geno” Prussakov, founder of AM Navigator, Affiliate Marketing Author, Educator, and Blogger. If you are interested in sharing your essential tools for business, drop me a line at cpolanosky [at] gmaildotcom.

I am really sorry to see this great resource go.

According to Deb, she is technically challenged. Anything that makes her life easier, and that she can use without breaking her blog network is an essential tool, however, she can narrow it down to a few can’t live without apps and programs.

WordPress – As a blogger for hire Deb has worked with every platform imaginable; Blogger, Drupal, Moveable Type, and a few others. WordPress is quite simply the best. It’s customizable, has plugins for all occasions and is as user-friendly as they come. While she has had occasions where she hasn’t been able to implement a particular design or community feature on one of the other platforms, this has never happened with WordPress. If it hasn’t been done, it’s only a matter of time.

Google Calendar – Deb uses many of Google’s free tools like Gmail, Google Analytics, and Google Docs. She has been using Google Calendar as an editorial calendar for a year now and it hasn’t let her down yet. Because it’s web-based, she can access the calendar from anywhere and receive updates via email every morning. If you don’t take already take advantage of some of the free goodies from Google, may I recommend you do so?

Performancing Metrics and Google Analytics – A killer combination for any stats junkie, PMetrics and Google Analytics are the ultimate analytical tag team. PMetrics allows accurate real time analysis. In fact, you can see what any one user is doing at any particular time on your site. Using this platform, either by itself or with some backup from Google Analytics (which allows Deb to analyze her advertising stats and a few other details that PMetrics doesn’t cover) has resulted in an increase in traffic and revenue. The fee for pMetrics is $10 a month and it’s worth every penny.

Seesmic – As a Twitter junkie, Seesmic allows Deb to maximize her experience. She has columns set up to display Tweets from her friends, her own Tweets, @replys, direct messages and several search terms and hashtags that she finds useful for her blogging. Moreover, it allows her to post to Facebook and see what her Facebook friends are up to as well.

Skype – Skype enables Deb to keep in contact with my family, friends, clients, collaborators and the people who blog or handle technical stuff for my blog network. She rarely uses the calling feature, but always takes advantage of Instant Messaging. Unlike certain other Instant Messaging services that will remain nameless, Skype has never crashed her machine.

And, Deb has a Droid!! (I just got one, too – and I am so in love – but that is a post for another day)

Deb’s husband gave her the Droid Eris for Christmas so she can travel and leave the laptop at home now and then. Her Droid is an essential tool in itself because it allows her to stay in touch via Gmail, Text, Skype and more. Deb’s essential tools for the Droid are:

• WordPress to Go – While you can’t use it for heavy blogging because its hard to write a lot with two thumbs and a tiny keyboard, it’s terrific for adding simple bits of content.
• Seesmic for Droid – Totally rocks Deb’s Droid/Twitter experience. She doesn’t have as many tabs set up as her laptop version of Seesmic, but it still allows her to see everything at a glance.

Visit Deb and her community for freelance writers now and stop back next week for more essential tools for success, featuring Matt McWilliams, Affiliate Manager at Legacy Learning Systems. If you are interested in sharing your essential tools for business, drop me a line at cpolanosky [at] gmaildotcom.