AN A-Z OF OVER 100 ONLINE TOOLS & TIPS FOR SMALL

BUSINESS

Use the links in the presentation as we go along and refer back here after the session in your own

time.

goo.gl/GNeQQv

ABOUT ME

Clayton Wehner Most recently Digital Strategist at Public Library Services, South Australia

Previously Digital Strategist at Rundle Mall and Defence Force Recruiting

Operate my own digital consulting and content business, bluetrain

Founder and co-owner of online bookstore, Boomerang Books Have ‘started up’ and sold two other businesses Broad industry experience: including Local, State and Federal Government; Military and Defence; Recruitment and Professional Services; Small Business; Retail; Libraries; and Banking and Finance.

ABOUT YOU

Quick whip around the room…

Tell us: Your first name Your business, if you have one Why you’re here (Any specific issues or problems that you would like to talk about today?)

TODAY

A journey from A-Z of tools and tips that you might consider using to help you run your small business.

Some you might already be aware of, some that will be new.

Not all tools and tips will be relevant to your particular business

But I hope that you leave here today with some new ideas and a desire to try some of them out.

TODAY

There will be some interactive activities throughout the session. Do you have a Google account? Do you have the Chrome browser?

This is a two-way session; ask questions; relate your experiences; and suggest alternatives. These are tools that I have used, but you may have encountered others.

Many of these tools have a ‘free’ tier or free trial period.

READY TO TAKE THE JOURNEY?

99DESIGNS

Get logos and website templates done cheaply via a design contest

ACORNS

Invest spare change everyday into a diversified investment portfolio

ADBLOCK EXTENSION FOR CHROME

Block all ads in your browser; remove those distracting banner ads

ADDTHIS

Easy-to-implement social share buttons and pop-overs for websites

Alternatives:GetSiteControl

SumoMe

APPOINTY

Let customers schedule their own appointments with your business

AUDIBLE

Listen to popular books on the treadmill or in the car to work

AWESOME SCREENSHOT

Capture screen shots from your browser with this Chrome extension

BASECAMP

Project management and collaboration tool for teams and groups

Alternatives:Slack

Hipchat

BEACON

Create professional looking eBooks and PDFs with existing content

BLINKIST

Save time by reading a synopsis of over 1000 business books

BUFFER

Schedule future social media posts on Facebook, Twitter & Linkedin

https://www.hipchat.com/

CANVA

Powerful online graphic design tool; inexpensive and easy to use

Alternatives:PabloPixlr

CHROME REMOTE DESKTOP

Connect to your home computer whilst on the road

CONSTANT CONTACT

Popular email marketing software platform

Alternatives:Mailchimp

Campaign Monitor

COURSERA

Online courses from some of the world’s best academic institutions

Alternatives:Lynda.com

Khan AcademyUdemy

CYFE

Dashboard tool that pulls data from multiple sources

BUSINESS INSIDER

Daily business news via email with an entertaining bent

CRAZYEGG

A heatmap tool for understanding how customers use your website

DROPBOX

Online file storage and sharing tool

Alternatives:Google Drive

OneDrive

EBAY STORES

Cost-effective and low risk online store solution

Alternatives:Shopify

BigCommercePaypal Buttons

ENVATO MARKET

Marketplace for website themes and other design assets

EVENTBRITE

Simple, free, fully-featured event management software

EVERNOTE

App for making notes on any device; automatically synced everywhere

Alternatives:Google Keep

FACEBOOK ADS

Target very specific demographic groups with pay-per-click ads

FEEDLY

An RSS feeder tool; aggregate favourite news sources in one place

FREELANCER.COM Alternatives:Fiverr

Upwork

GETSITECONTROL Alternatives:AddThisSumoMe

Website tools and widgets that are easy to install

GODADDY

Domain name registration, management and cheap hosting

GOODREADS

A book social network; manage your bookshelf virtually

GOOGLE

Search hacks: Use organic search filters and search tools at the top of the page Use AND/OR – for limiting search results Use “ quotation marks – for exact phrases Use * asterisk symbol – inserts a ‘wildcard’: eg. A * in need Use - minus symbol – removes results with a particular keyword: eg.

jaguar speed -car vs jaguar speed Use filetype: - eg. TED talk filetype:ppt Use site: eg. site:bluetrainenterprises.com.au

More search operators here…

GOOGLE ADWORDS

Promote your website and drive traffic with a small budget

GOOGLE ALERTS

Get alerts when content matching a keyword is added to Google

GOOGLE APPS FOR WORK

Google’s suite of business apps – email, calendar, docs, spreadsheets

Alternatives:Office365

GOOGLE ANALYTICS

Monitor the performance of your website with dashboards & reports

GOOGLE CARDBOARD

Buy some virtual reality goggles and check out the next big thing

GOOGLE CALENDAR

Powerful calendar that is shareable and publishable

GOOGLE CHROME

The best web browser; no need to use any other!

Alternatives:Safari

Mozilla FirefoxMicrosoft Edge

GOOGLE CHROME STORE

Apps, extensions and themes to enhance Google Chrome

GOOGLE CLOUD PRINT

Print to your home printer, from any device, anywhere

GOOGLE DRIVE

Online cloud storage for all of your documents and files

Alternatives:DropboxOneDrive

GOOGLE FORMS

Setup online forms and collect user data for free

Alternatives:Wufoo

GOOGLE HANGOUTS

Video chat one-to-one, videoconferencing or broadcast to YouTube

Alternatives:Skype

GOOGLE KEEP

Simple tool for capturing notes, lists, photos and audio

Alternatives:Evernote

GOOGLE KEYWORD PLANNER TOOL

Tool that helps you understand which keywords to target

GOOGLE MAPS

The world’s most popular mapping service – you can make your own

GOOGLE MOBILE-FRIENDLY TEST

Check to see if your website is mobile-friendly

GOOGLE MY BUSINESS

The tool that enables organisations to appear prominently in Google

GOOGLE PAGESPEED TOOLS

Analyse and optimise your website following web best practices

GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE

Manage your website’s listings in the Google search engine

GOOGLE SITES

Simple web publishing tool; great for intranets & collaboration sites

GOOGLE STRUCTURED DATA TOOL

Check to see if your on-page tags and markup is working correctly

GOOGLE TRENDS

Tool for understanding searcher behaviour over time

GOOGLE URL SHORTENER

Tool that shortens long URLs and makes them easier to access

GMAIL

Powerful web-based email client

GTASKS

Mobile to-do list app that syncs with Google Calendar

GRAMMARLY

Make sure that everything you type is easy to read and mistake-free

GUMTREE

Buy and sell second-hand products, including office equipment

HEADSPACE

Try mindfulness for a clearer head

HOOTSUITE

Manage all of your social media properties in the one place

IFTTT

Automation tool that will complete an action on a trigger

Alternatives:Zapier

INSIGHTLY

Affordable, fully-featured customer relationship management tool

Alternatives:BatchbookZoho CRM

INSTAGRAM

Photo sharing tool that all the young people are using

LIFEHACKER

Great blog with advice on how to ‘hack’ your life for the better

LINKEDIN

World’s most popular professional network

LYNDA.COM

Learn new skills from this online training provider owned by Linkedin

Alternatives:Coursera

Khan AcademyUdemy

MAILCHIMP

Easy to use and fully-featured email marketing platform

Alternatives:Campaign MonitorConstant Contact

MENTION

Simple social media monitoring tool that listens for your brand

MIGHTYTEXT

Send and receive SMS messages from your computer

OFFICE365

Microsoft Office subscription based plans

Alternatives:Google Apps for Work

ONEDRIVE

Microsoft’s cloud-based file storage solution

Alternatives:Dropbox

Google Drive

PABLO

Graphic design tool for social media pictures, memes & quotes

Alternatives:Canva

PAYPAL

Online payment tool; accept payments using Paypal buttons

PEXELS

Free stock images and photography

Alternatives:iStockPhotoShutterstock

PINGDOM

Monitor website uptime and performance, and receive alerts

PIXLR EDITOR

Free browser-based image editing tool with Photoshop capabilities

POCKET

Save articles for reading later

SCREENCASTIFY

Record screencasts directly from within your Chrome browser

SEOPROFILER

Fully featured, cloud-based search engine optimisation tool

SHOPIFYAlternatives:BigCommerce

Volusionashop

Fully featured, cloud-based online store builder

SLACK

Team collaboration, file sharing and messaging app

Alternatives:Basecamp

Hipchat

SLIDESHARE

Share your Powerpoint presentations online for a new audience

STOCARD

Store all of your loyalty cards on your smartphone

SURVEYMONKEY

Easy to use and fully-featured online surveying tool

TRELLO

‘Kanban board’ project management tool; simple, but powerful

TWEETDECK

Monitor the Twittersphere and post to multiple Twitter accounts

TWITTER

Social networking site based around 140 character ‘tweets’

UPWORK

Hire freelancers online for projects

Alternatives:Fiverr

Freelancer.com

WORDPRESS (.COM AND .ORG)

World’s most popular content management system & blogging tool

WUFOO

Online form builder for capturing information on the web

Alternatives:Google Forms

XERO

Easy-to-use online accounting software for small-medium business

YOUTUBE

The world’s most popular source of video; build a ‘channel’?

ZAPIER

Automation tool that will complete an action on a trigger

Alternatives:IFTTT

ZENDESK

Help desk and knowledge base software

ZINIO

Read digital magazines on your computer or mobile device

THAT’S IT!

My details:

Email: contact@bluetrainenterprises.com.auWeb: http://bluetrainenterprises.com.auBlog: http://bluetrainenterprises.com.au/blog/

Linkedin: https://au.linkedin.com/in/claytonwehner

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ccwehner