Billings

Billings is a client invoice and time tracking application. I was converted to Billings after using Freshbooks for over a year. After diving into Billings I discovered a great UI and easy to use tools that saved me from spending $14.99 a month on my Freshbooks account. The only thing I do miss from my days at Freshbooks was the ability to have my clients pay their bills directly from Freshbooks using Paypal. 

Billings however offers a time tracking device that sits in your taskbar allowing you to view the time accumulated, as well as directly linking that time to a working slip for your client. This allows you to not only track time very efficiently but also helps you stay on budget. When it does come time to invoice your clients Billings allows to choose from a great assortment of premade invoices (which are beautiful I must say) OR allows you to create your own look/feel of your invoices, and offers great video tutorials for doing so.

A free trial is available from the Billings website, a full version is available for $39.99.

DropBox

Dropbox is an online and offline tool that allows you to backup and share your files on their website. This is great for testing basic html/css files and sharing mockups with clients (once they offer the ability to use your own server it’ll be an absolutely PERFECT application). Available for both Windows and Mac, upon installation of the application you place a folder on your desktop that you simple drop files into which then automatically makes them available on the Dropbox website. You have the ability to either make the files public, by dropping them into the public folder within your main dropbox folder or keep them private. The best part is that you have your files still stored locally on your machine but also have the same files backed up online within the same folder. Perfect for easy access to your files from anywhere.

Dropbox is available for free for 2gb of space. An upgrade to 50gb is availabe for $9.99 / month or $99 a year.

Relenta

Relenta is an online based customer relationship manager (CRM). Now I tried about nearly every CRM under the sun, sugarCRM most recently , and I found that nearly every single one of them was bloated with features that I would never use nor need, Relenta changed all that. The interface within Relenta is absolutely beautiful and the ajax features let you quickly add notes, activities (such as calls, followups, etc), and much more. You are also able to setup an email address within Relenta in order help capture new contacts, I use this feature with the request for proposal form on my website. This makes it super easy to keep track of your clients and make sure they receive that top notch customer service that keeps retention rates high.

Plans range from $25 per user / per month. Or a free account limited to 100 contacts. 

Grand Central

Grand Central from Google is a phone number forwarding service like no other. This is perfect for keeping my work and personal life separate, which can be very difficult for the beginning freelancer. Grand Central allows me to use a local number which is then forwards calls to my cellphone, thus allowing me to have one phone for both my business and my personal use but with different numbers. Grand Central also gives you your own voicemail box for the forwarding number so you can have voicemail strictly for your business, which helps give off a very professional image. The voicemail is viewable and downloadable online in MP3 format which allows you to save important phone calls for your records. 

Grand Central is currently free while Beta but is not accepting any new accounts, hopefully that changes soon!

Eventbox

With social media now changing how we do business online it is very important to stay connected. Eventbox allows me to keep all my Twitter and Google RSS feeds (as has modules for facebook, flickr, and reddit) all in one spot and easily available. Social networking is very important in landing new clients and staying up to date with new technologies and tricks of the trade as you build the most important brand of all, yourself.

Eventbox is available as a free 15-day trail, or $15 USD.

Its about an hour lecture but outlines a lot of information on how the election was won. The statistics of people watching the nightly news and the other various “old school” media outlets is on the decline. People nowadays are getting their information directly from the source. May it be from a YouTube video, live stream, or other people’s tweets and status updates. The news game is changing and is the way to reach out and connect with people. So if you are wonder how to get your advertising out to the world, start by connecting through twitter, creating relevant videos for Myspace and YouTube and you will see a difference in your ROI.

I believe it is the fact that Internet users today are tired of filling out forms with their identity to be splattered all over the web. Some companies do use this information for good. Amazon.com is a great example on how register can be benefit. They will gather information about what items you have looked at or are interested in and lead you in the right direction when you shop later, almost like a personal shopper on the web. The problem is most companies don’t have deep pockets where they are able to get custom tailored solutions for better customer service via the web. Instead they relay on cookie cutter shopping carts that are bloated with features and make the online shopping experience not so pleasant.

I am a hardcore twitter user (@goldfinger) and one of the people I follow posted an article (http://www.uie.com/articles/three_hund_million_button) about how a company made a $300 MILLION dollar profit increase by simply allowing the customer to not register and just purchase their goods. It really got me thinking about how technologies like OpenID could really be the feature in the Internet, or should be. I don’t know what it will take to get more websites to incorporate features such as OpenID into their sites, maybe an act of god or possibly an act of Congress, but it needs to happen and soon.

What are your thoughts?

I couldn’t wait to try the IngenuiTEA when opened my package from UPS today. Its a great device. First you heat up some boiling water, then you put the boiling water into the IngenuiTEA and place the 1 teaspoon of the loose leaf tea right on top. After closing the lid and letting it steep for the recommended time (5 minutes for most black teas, 7 minutes for dark oolong and white, only 3 minutes for white and green teas) you just place the IngenuiTEA on top of your cup and it’ll strain right into it, leaving you with perfect tea and leaving the leafs behind!

Here is a few photos of my experience today, and let me know what you think of Adagio Teas!

So with that I want to recommend some wines that I really enjoy. The first wine is from Lopez Island Vineyards, the Madeleine Angevine 2007 ($18). This wine is fantastic smooth, I am not a HUGE wine drinker but I am enjoying it more and more. This wine is probably one of the best white wines I have had! This wine is also even better if you decanter it for about 3-4 hours before drinking. If you are into food pairing this wine goes great with seafood. So if you are in the Puget Sound and are lucky enough to grab a bottle it is WELL worth it.

So please come back often and if you haven’t subscribed to the RSS feed please do so to stay up with the updates!

http://sheldon.lendrum.co.nz/bluesimplicity-wordpress-free-theme_255/20/

http://www.quakemedia.com/wordpress-themes/tremor

CSS Heaven - http://www.cssheaven.com/

CSS Artillery - http://www.cssartillery.com/

CSS Beauty - http://www.cssbeauty.com

CSS Remix - http://www.cssremix.com

Unmatched Style - http://www.unmatchedstyle.com/

CSS Import - http://www.cssimport.com/

CSS Reboot - http://www.cssreboot.com/

CSS Vault - http://www.cssvault.com/

CSS Elite - http://www.csselite.com/

Web Creme - http://www.webcreme.com/

CeeSes - http://www.ceeses.com/

CSS Collection - http://www.csscollection.com/

CSS Bloom - http://www.cssbloom.com/

CSS Zone - http://www.csszone.org/

CSS Mania - http://cssmania.com/

CSS Based - http://www.cssbased.com/

Style Gala - http://www.stylegala.com/

Screenalicious - http://www.screenalicious.com/

Style Crunch - http://stylecrunch.com/

Zeniltuo - http://www.zeniltuo.com/

Dez Inspiration - http://www.dezinspiration.com/

I will be continously adding to this list so keep checking back for updates!

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As for the movie there is one thing I always get told when I tell people they NEED to watch this new series starting with Batman Begins. There is something about this new series that is very gripping and not your normal “superhero” movie, they are dark and Christan Bale actually gets injured and isn’t at all supernatural. The bank robbery scene which became infamous before the movie was officially released lives up to all the hype.

Overall I give this movie a MUST SEE rating, especially if you have seen the first one. If you haven’t seen Batman Begins watch it first, then you’ll really enjoy the complexity of The Dark Knight.

*side note: I also downloaded The Dark Knight soundtrack, scored by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard, it is absolutely stupendous and very well worth an iTunes purchase. It surpasses the mediocre work done on the first film and introduces new themes and very much adds to the epic which is The Dark Knight.