What is Pingdom?

Pingdom is a powerful online tool which helps you to monitor your website uptime. Servers could fail randomly for couple of seconds, minutes, hours. Whether you are at work or even while you sleep Pingdom will keep you up to date on such failures.

How it works?

Any business acting online has at one time or another run into problems with network outages, a website that either responds slowly or not at all, undelivered emails, or other problems that have degraded the service they want to offer their customers and end-users online.

The problem is, how do you as a business really know where the problem lies, or if there even is a problem? You do not visit your own site and use your own services every minute of the day, every day of the year. This is where Pingdom comes in.

Pingdom gives you the tools you need to monitor the quality of your presence on the Internet, around the clock all year long.

Source: Pingdom.com

Pricing

Pingdom offers all this for a flat monthly subscription which is only $9.95/month.

Bret’s Note

If you are a small business which relies heavily on your website for your day to day businesses, then you’ve got to minimize the downtimes and failures. Your host may tell that they have a guaranteed uptime of 99% but sometimes this may not be the truth. Yet keeping an eye on the website downtimes may not be practical while managing your small business and its many activities. So Pingdom could be an ideal solution.

Like to read more on Pingdom? They too have a blog.

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What is Referral Monitor?

Referral Monitor is a web based application which allows you to manage a referral marketing campaign with minimum hassle.

Pricing

Like most of the other web based applications/services Referral Monitor offers 4 separate packages based on the features. Pricing starts from $5.99/month and goes up to $19.99/month mainly depending on the number of referrals you can add for a given month.

You also could sign up for their FREE account (with limited functionality) to familiarize with the application before subscribing for a paid account.

Why Use Referral Marketing?

The world is overwhelmed with marketing and advertising; with so many, often conflicting, messages it is no wonder today’s consumer discounts what they see on a billboard, hear on the radio or see on their screen- TV, computer and mobile phone alike! Consumers are increasingly turning to one channel they can trust: friends and colleagues that have personal experience with the product or service under consideration.

Effective referral marketing does not have to include ad campaigns, discounts, coupons or fancy gifts. Many businesses that don’t use rewards, or are prevented by regulation from doing so, mistakenly operate under the assumption they can’t do referral marketing. Nothing is further from the truth. The most important referral marketing campaign isn’t a campaign at all; it is a way of doing business.

Referral marketing leverages another sales force to grow business. This channel, also known as the existing customer base, is low cost and highly effective. Like any channel, however, it does take some management to flourish.

Source: ReferralMonitor.com

Bret’s Note

As mentioned in the above section referral marketing campaigns are one of the most effective ways to promote your small business products and services. But managing a good campaign is a daunting task due to the complexities such as monitoring the referrals, rewarding them, etc. This is getting more complicated if you expect to have several levels of the campaign. Referral Monitor seems a good attempt to simplify the process and help you with your small business referral marketing campaigns with the minimum cost.

However I’d like to see them (Referral Monitor team) improving this application to make it a real success.

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Its almost 40 days since I started this blog with the intention of making this a useful resource for small businesses to find quality services, products, offers and news that affect their business. I am glad, plans are working better than I expected.

Visitors are gradually increasing in numbers and I am receiving dozens of emails requesting to feature various small business products and services here. I have my own limitations (less time for blogging, etc.) and as a result not in a position to feature all that. Bad news yeah? Don’t worry. Here is an alternative.

I thought of setting up a Small Business directory dedicated to small businesses. Its FREE, simply pick the most relevant category and add yours. I’ll give priority to ones listed (and approved) in the directory when featuring services/products in small-business-services blog.

To preserve the quality of the directory, only 100 listings will be allowed per category. This should give better weight/value for your back link with better search engine optimization.

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What is ChatStat?

ChatStat is a service for web site owners to add live chat and statistical tracking services to their web site(s) for the purpose of performing sales and support chats and monitoring traffic trends over time.

Pricing

You can sign up for FREE. The free account comes with powerful features though it is limited to maximum of 2 chat operators.

However ChatStat also offers unique set of features on demand. You can upgrade your account any time with more powerful features as well as with more chat operators. Each Feature on Demand is subscribed on a Monthly subscription fee that is usually $5 or $10 per month.

Bret’s Note

Are you a small business owner trying to market your product or the service? Do you use internet for the above (example: through a website, online marketing campaigns, etc.)? What’s your success rate?

You could be having a superb product or a very attractive service. But if your potential customer doesn’t get it right she will click on the next Google result. But with tools like ChatStat you always stand a chance to convince her before anyone else.

ChatStat is a quality solution packed with features, and I really like the way they have priced their service allowing all essentials FREE for small businesses including two chat operators. Simply download the software, sign up for a ChatStat account and get busy with more clients real time.

If you need any assistance try ChatStat forum.

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What is BudgetPulse?

BudgetPulse is a web based money management application which helps you to manage your personal finances. The application is built on principles of simplicity, user friendliness and comprehensiveness.

Pricing

BudgetPulse is still in it public beta and offered free. But with more features coming up, they might go for a subscription model as most of the other web based services.

Why BudgetPulse?

Money management software is usually complicated while online ones are too simple and featureless. BudgetPulse is built on principles of simplicity, user friendliness and comprehensiveness. As the application is easy to use, it is especially useful for people to manage and monitor their financial condition. For security reasons, we do not and have no intention to link direct to users’ account data.

Source: BudgetPluse.com

Bret’s Note

This would be an ideal solution for solo entrepreneurs and anyone who’d like to track finances. I can simply agree with the developers of this application on achieving their three main objectives; simplicity, user friendliness and comprehensiveness.

If you have been using a spread sheet or some other way to keep a track of your finances, I am inviting you to try BudgetPulse. You’ll enjoy that for sure.

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What is Campaign Monitor?

Campaign Monitor is a web based application which helps you to manage email marketing campaigns by sending great looking emails, tracking results and subscriptions.

How much does it cost?

$5 per campaign + 1 cent per recipient. How ever if you are sending it to less than 5 recipients, Campaign Monitor will let you do that for free.

What their Clients say

“Campaign Monitor is quite honestly one of the best tools I’ve ever come across. Having been asked by one of my clients to research this area for them and having spent hours Googling for information and becoming more and more confused and frustrated, I finally spoke to one of your existing customers who put me on to you - thank God he did.

Your service is a credit to the industry and I only wish that more companies would take the same approach. I’m not exactly a novice to web technology (but no expert either) and your clear and concise explanations made what is a potential minefield for someone like myself extremely easy to understand and to use.

Many thanks, and keep up the good work. I’ll be taking full advantage of your service in the near future and have already recommended you to others.”
Alex Barker, Alex Barker Design

Source: Campaign Monitor Blog

Bret’s Note

Although they say this is for designers (”For designers who create and send email newsletters for themselves and their clients”) I think this is a great tool for any small business when it comes to email marketing, newsletters, etc. People tend to spend time in a well designed site compared to a poorly designed one even with the same content . Same theory applies to your emails. Rich content is a must, and its even better if you have a more professional presentation.

Except for improving the appearance in your emails Campaign Monitor will also help you to manage all your subscribers, analyse campaign performance, etc. through this lovely application.

If you’d like to stay up-to-date with Campaign Monitor stay tuned to their blog

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What is LinkXL?

A service which help you to get quality back links with the right anchor text in addition to driving more traffic to your website. Except LinkXL ads could earn you more revenue by publishing text link ads within your website’s content.

Pricing

For Advertisers: If you are looking to buy back links for your website then the pricing starts from low as $2 per link. Based on the Alexa as well as the and Google page rank it could cost you more.

For Publishers: You have some free space in your website or the blog? You can monetize that by allowing few links to show up within your content. You can earn anything from $2 per link depending on the quality of your website and content. How ever LinkXL keeps a commission of 40% for their efforts.

Why LinkXL?

How are your HTML text link ads different then other text links I purchased or traded with link exchanges in the past?

In the past, text link ads you purchased have traditionally been placed in tables located in the footer or sidebars of the site you are advertising on. Search engines are now beginning to algorithmically identify these large blocks of paid text links, not counting them as true links pointing to your website. If you buy links links along side other text link ads, chances are they are not giving you any real value.

With the LinkXL™ service, we allow you to automatically place real text links in the content of publisher’s current indexed pages. For example, if your site sells Cookware, you could search our system for the keyword phrase “Pots and Pans”, all pages that already have the phrase “Pots and Pans” in their content will be available to you for purchase. LinkXL™ enables you to buy “real HTML links” embedded in real content with the keywords you need to help your search engine rankings.

Source: LinkXL.com

Bret’s Note

Its always good to get quality back links to your website in improving your search engine visibility and rankings. As search engines are trying to disregard sites with heavy amounts of links (e.g. directories, etc.) LinkXL text links could be an alternative in this highly competitive market.

If you are looking for paid back links, my advice it not to get blind with higher page ranks and place yours among hundreds and thousands of similar links from a single page. Instead you are better off to get linked from a site with quality content and limited number (say less than 20) of out going links.

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For any business it’s a challenge to attract more visitors to their website though there are many ways you could do this such as advertising, referrals, etc. How ever one of the most effective and cost efficient options are to work out a PR campaign for your small business.

So if you are looking for a way to start your PR campaign you could easily do that through PR Leap. All you need is to create an account and start posting your press releases. The basic account is free for use.

With PR Leap you can:

Source: PRLeap.com

Bret’s Note

I see a great importance of this service especially with search engine optimization & marketing (SEO/SEM). Good amount of small businesses are clueless with SEO/SEM and how to get it right at the minimum cost. If you are a small business from a similar background, PR Leap could be more beneficial in attracting both visitors and search engine bots.

To find more on this, visit PR Leap blog.

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What is Less Accounting?

Name says it all. Less Accounting is a web based solution to manage your day to day small business accounts with the minimum (or no) knowladge on accounting. Its quite simple (easy to learn and use) yet powerful.

Features

The key features include,

Pricing

For now it’s free. Less Accounting is still in it’s beta and they MIGHT go for a subscription based fee structure similar to other hosted (on-demand) applications.

Bret’s Note

I created an account for myself and used it for awhile. As in their tag line (Because your job title isn’t Accountant) the Less Accounting team has done a great job to make life easier for small business owners. Just pay a visit and create your account and start experiencing it. You’ll love it!

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What is ProPay?

A solution which makes it easy and affordable for small businesses to accept credit cards.

Why ProPay?

It’s simple and straight forward. All you need to know is the following details from your customer and you can process the payment using the ProPay’s website or touch-tone phone.

Pricing

Pricing varies according to account type and following options are available.

Basic: Annual fee $34.95, Visa/MC 3.50 % + $0.35, processing limit (per transaction / monthly) $250/$1000

Premium: Annual fee $59.95, Visa/MC 3.25 % + $0.35, processing limit (per transaction / monthly) $500.00 / $3000.00

Premium Plus: Annual fee $119.95, Visa/MC 2.99 % + $0.30, processing limit (per transaction / monthly) $1000.00 / $5000.00

Platinum: Annual fee $299.95, Visa/MC 2.69 % + $0.25, processing limit (per transaction / monthly) $3,000.00 / $15,000.00

See full comparison here

Bret’s Note

Are you a small business need to accept credit cards at low cost (with no sign up fees, monthly minimums, no equipment cost, etc.)? ProPay solution could be the right choice for you.

However if you have more complex requirements such as shopping cart implementation for your website, recurring billing, etc you would need a different solution.

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