Domai.nrSo you've come up with a funky domain name for your next website. You pitch the idea to your Marketing team - they give you a thumbs up. You get the green signal from the Finance guys and then finally, you brief your "web people". They give you a quote and you do a good job convincing the Finance department and justifying that extra zero in the cost to your Board of Directors.
The next day the "web people" tell you the domain name is not available. You heart sinks like a well-known ship hit by an iceberg. You're broken, tormented and distressed.
There are heaps of tools that tell you if a domain is available or not, almost every domain registrar provides a basic online tool for this. But none of these "basic tools" compare to Domai.nr, which not only shows you availability but also suggests how you could stretch that creativity a little bit more to end up with the perfect name for your website. You can choose between the usuals (.com, .net, .org and so on) or get adventurous with Top Level Domain (TLD) to end up with something like "mo.jo"
It's fun, it's cool and yes - it's FREE.
WidgetboxWidgetbox makes the complexities of sharing your ideas and experiences on the web simple. They make it fun and easy for anyone to turn their content into dynamic web apps that can be shared on just about any website, including: Facebook, MySpace, Blogger, and iGoogle.
Tumblr "Follow me", "Latest Tweets", "Follow us on Twitter"...let's face it, the little blue-bird has done well in four years. Almost everyone is on Twitter and the rest are following suit.
If you want to be more than just a follower (no pun intended), you'd flip the bird and get something else, like Tumblr. Go on, give it a try. However, it does come with a price - it's addictive. Tumblr lets you effortlessly share anything. Post text, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos, from your browser, phone, desktop, email, or wherever you happen to be. You can customize everything, from colors, to your theme's HTML.
AboutUsWikipedia meets YellowPages. An interesting concept, their mission statement says it all - "To build the world's most comprehensive, collaborative guide to the best places on the world wide web. We invite everyone to engage with our wiki: whether you're an organization, business, non-profit or individual. Come see why the knowledge of many makes us one of the fastest-growing and most powerful websites on the internet today. It's easy to participate because you can edit our pages!"
So basically, a free web-directory plus wiki. A source of free PR which is easy to edit.
ChromaticSitesA comprehensive checklist for websites.
HTML to PDFSimply put, this is an online tool that converts any HTML webpage to a PDF document for FREE.
FonoloCalling up customer care is something I dread. They ask you to key in a series of secret numeric combinations and make you talk to the voice-recognition lady, who makes you repeat yourself three times before admitting that she can't understand what you just said. In short, nobody enjoys walking you through the convoluted maze of customer service.
Enter Fonolo, the good guys who'll make the call for you, wait till they get a 'real person' on the other end and then put them through to you. A simple and convenient tool for any business that requires a customer support system.
DropBoxUndoubtedly the most useful online tool for the 'well-organised'. Dropbox is a virtual online 'box' where you can 'drop' your stuff. You can use it to backup your data, access it from anywhere on any computer, sync it with a folder on your hard-drive and enable version control.
The FREE package gives you 2GB, which is a good start. A very useful tool for people who take work home (and bring home to work)
AppointyAppointy is an advanced web-based scheduling software tool which allows you to manage your clients and market your services by speeding up your word-of-mouth publicity.
You can be growing your business and gaining new clients 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year; even while you sleep or go to the gym. Organize your appointment book, staff, services, etc., from anywhere in the world.
Appointy will keep you up to date with real-time updates while you are out and about or just away from your desk. A very useful tool for people who provide services which require prior appointments.
Really addictive gameNow that you've got some great tools that will get you organised and save you heaps of time and effort, you can afford to let loose with this really addictive game. Go on, give it a try...I've done it for over two minutes :)
