Technology We Use

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As technologists with decades of experience, we typically review many different products before making a choice that is right for us to use here at Thriving Now. Below are some of the tools and services we recommend. (Please note that there are often several different options, and while the products listed below are ones we use, there may be better choices for you.)

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Website Resources

Word Press – http://www.wordpress.org
This is an easy to use and mostly free way to quickly set up a blog and/or a website. You can sign up for a free Wordpress blog at www.wordpress.com.

GoDaddy.com – http://www.godaddy.com
If you want to register a domain for your site,  this is a good place to go. Prices are average for the industry (they often have sales as well) and their customer service has been exceptional.

Expression Engine – http://www.expressionengine.com
Our websites are powered by ExpressionEngine, a powerful and flexible content management system. While definitely not for the rank beginner, if you want to have a dynamic, easily updated website, we  recommend having your webmaster look into this product. The company also offers hosting, if you don’t want to do the installation of the software yourself.

Amazon S3 – http://aws.amazon.com/s3/
Amazon S3 is storage for the Internet. We use it to deliver large files like audios and videos to customers, and for off-site archive storage for important projects. Price is reasonable. We use S3 Organizer in Firefox to access our S3 storage “buckets.”

Google Analytics – https://www.google.com/analytics
Free service where you add some javascript to your web pages and google will track usage and popular pages (and more).

Communications

Skype – http://www.skype.com
Allows you to use your computer to make audio and video calls around the world for free. Also has some paid features. Offers the ability to remotely view another person’s screen (useful for collaborating).

Skype Recording with Call Graph – https://callgraph.biz/
Windows audio recording of Skype calls. Free.

Free Conference Call – http://www.freeconferencecall.com
This service allows you to host free conference calls up to 96 people. They also have a simple event version that hosts up 1000 people.

NConnects – http://www.nconnects.com
This is a paid conference-call service which allows control of individual caller’s volume and participation. It also allows you to record and download calls.

AudioAcrobat – http://thrivingnow.audioacrobat.com/
You can use the service to upload audio you record on your own computer, record directly to their service over the internet, and record by telephone. Using three-way-calling, you can also record teleconferences and client sessions up to two hours in length. You can also set up client testimonial lines. It is easy to integrate the audio into any website where you can paste HTML.

Marketing

ISnare Ezine Article Submission Site – http://www.isnare.com
Distribute your articles to thousands of article sites for $2 or less per article.

Custom Surveys – http://www.isalient.com
Easily create eye catching online surveys. Collect survey responses and fully analyze your results.

List And Traffic – http://listandtraffic.com/
How to grow and profit from lists and online traffic.

Membernaire – http://www.membernaire.com
Jimmy Brown is a successful internet marketer.  We really love his no-hype and easy to follow approach. Membernaire is a membership site that walks you through creating fixed term memberships, but is also worth the cost for the marketing suggestions and list building advise. This program is only available for a limited time.

Affiliatenaire – http://www.affiliatenaire.com/
Jimmy Brown guides you through setting up a blog, and gives you direction on how to affiliate market your products in this membership site. Many internet marketers make more on affiliate commissions than they do on their own products. Selling other people’s products without burning out your list (and making sure your list is getting quality content) is key.  This program is also available for a limited time.

The Net Reporter – http://www.thenetreporter.com
This membership site goes into different topics on internet marketing, including how to video webinars. More expensive,  but it is quite comprehensive and they add content all the time.

Traffic-Bug – http://www.traffic-bug.com/
Traffic-Bug submits your site to over 138 different search engines getting you indexed even faster by Google!

Customer Management & Shopping Cart

1ShoppingCart – http://www.1shoppingcart.com
On-line shopping cart and e-commerce.  Includes email autoresponders and affiliate management as well. It’s what we use.

Aweber – http://www.aweber.com
Has excellent deliverability and pricing, as well as integration with some services through “email parsing.” This system is used by many internet marketers. It requires double opt-in (confirmation of all subscriptions). Aweber has powerful autoresponders and automatic newsletter generation from RSS feeds.

Auto Response Plus – http://www.autoresponseplus.com
Email broadcast and auto responder you install on your mail server. It’s what we use now for our email lists. Requires someone skilled in server and email management as part of your team.

Amember – http://www.aweber.com/
Membership and subscription management system, integrates with systems like 1ShoppingCart and ExpressionEngine.

Paypal – http://www.paypal.com
On-line shopping cart and e-commerce. Convenient way to allow clients to send you payments. Easy to set up Buy Now buttons.

Outsourcing

Elance – http://www.elance.com
On-line freelance support for outsourcing various parts of your business.

OutSource Weekly – http://www.outsourceweekly.com
52 week course on outsourcing your internet and product needs with recommended resources and how to’s.

Easy PLR – http://www.easyplr.com
Private Label Rights Articles (PLR) can be a great way to add new content to your website or blog and fill up your newsletter or autoresponder. When you purchase private label rights, you can re-publish the content with or without changes and additions.

Social Media

Facebook – http://www.facebook.com
Become a fan of Thriving Now at http://facebook.com/thrivingnow

Twitter – http://www.twitter.com
Follow Thriving Now at http://twitter.com/thrivingnow

Other Useful Resources

Carbonite – http://www.carbonite.com
Auto Backup for Computer Files. If you do not have OFF-SITE backup of your key files, you are taking a risk of total loss. Use something like Carbonite, store files on Amazon S3, or some other off-site backup strategy.

Roboform – http://www.roboform.com
Program manages and stores your passwords and autofills on-line registration forms to save you time.

Big Stock Photos – http://www.bigstockphotos.com
Search and download photos for websites,  advertizing, products, etc.

Camtasia – http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp
Video presentation creation and editing

Sony Sound Forge – http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/products/soundforgefamily.asp
Audio creation and editing. We use the Pro version which has an outstanding noise reduction filter. Many people choose the free program Audacity - http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Levelator – http://www.conversationsnetwork.org/levelator
Free program that allows you to balance the volume of audios automatically (must be saved in .wav or .aiff format first). Perfect for processing teleclass recordings.