There’s a lot of great stuff out there that you can tap into (without paying a dime). Here are some of the best tools/applications I’ve found and use regularly in my webpreneurship…
Launch List
I stumbled across this free tool a while back and absolutely love it. Launch List is an outstanding tool for website designers and developers – providing you (in a super sleek and sexy way) with a list of things to test and double-check before launching any website, including everything from cross-browser testing to spell-checking the copy. You can also add your own fields and then e-mail the completed list directly to your client (or yourself) for confirmation.
Right now Launch List is 100% free, but very soon they’ll be releasing a more versatile and customizable version for a small fee. Check it out and never again worry about forgetting something before launching a site.
- How I use it: Launch List serves as a great reminder for what I need to do before ‘going live’ with any site I develop. It’s also prompted me to create my own personal ‘launch list’ as part of my client relations process. With both the client and I knowing everything has been taken care of, it’s a win-win.
- Bonus Tip: Don’t be bashful about adding your own Custom Fields. You may have project-specific items and Launch List makes it VERY easy to add those into the checklist before sending it off for client approval.
Freelance Switch Hourly Rate Calculator
“How do I value myself”? This is a question that EVERY SINGLE freelancer and entrepreneur mus ask him/herself and it’s one of the most challenging things to figure out, especially early on. Service costs are extremely subjective and have a very wide range, so it’s difficult to base off of an ‘industry standard’.
The Freelance Switch Hourly Rate Calculator is a wonderful tool that asks a series of questions to help you determine both what you need to make, and what would be ideal, and then provides you with the hourly rate you need to make to match those needs and wants.
- How I use it: I stumbled across this recently and it really helped to validate where I currently am in terms of pricing. Any tools that make the numbers game easier to handle are good in my book.
- Bonus Tip: Don’t rush it! I tried to zoom through this at first glance and got a totally ridiculous final number. Take your time and think about your responses carefully. You’ll be glad you did.
Evernote
This is a new one for me. I tweeted recently that I was finally giving Evernote a try, which represented a giant leap for mankind, being that I am through and through a pen and paper to-do list maker and note-taker. But, I have to say, even after a brief time of playing around with Evernote, I’m already hooked.
Evernote allows you to take notes virtually, take pictures of your hand-written notes and receipts, bookmark sites, articles, and links seamlessly, and much more. Best of all? While it does have a sweet desktop app, it’s also 100% accesible from anywhere via the web. Also, you can tag every single thing you upload and search your entire database based on those tags. Pretty sweet. For someone as anal about organization and efficency as I am, it’s a dream come true.
- How I use it: I’m a noob with Evernote, but I’ve already made myself an awesome (organized) to-do list for the week ahead and took a couple snapshots of concept ideas for clients I had written out on paper.
- Bonus Tip: Check out this awesome article written by Amber Naslund of Brass Tack Thinking on the benefits of using Evernote.
Google Reader
You may be saying, “Wow, this is an obvious one” but you would be shocked by how many folks doing business on the web have no idea what Google Reader even is. Honestly, I’d be completely lost without it. In a time where we’re constantly inundated with content coming from every direction, weeding through the crap and keeping tabs on the good stuff is more important than ever.
Google Reader acts as an ‘online newspaper’ – allowing you to subscribe to your favorite blogs, comment streams, videos, etc and receive the latest updates all in one place. If you have a Google account, you can access Google Reader (and if you don’t have a Google account it’s free to set up and takes less than a minute).
- How I use it: My Google Reader is one of the first things I open in the morning – sticking with that whole ‘newspaper’ theme, I grab my cup of coffee, read through articles from that day, comment, schedule updates in Hootsuite to share on Twitter – it’s all one beautiful routine.
- Bonus Tip: Set up a special Google account for your company, encourage your staff to subscribe to relevant sites and blogs, and block out 30 minutes of the day to allow your employees to catch up on latest industry news and trends by reading through the companies Google Reader.
Clients from Hell
OK, guilty, Clients from Hell isn’t really a tool, but it is something that can absolutely keep you sane and provide you with some much-needed comic relief.
Let’s face it, there are always going to be some more ‘interesting’ clients. You’re going to get some wild and crazy requests but, as a service provider, it’s your job to make the client happy, whatever it takes (without of course getting walked all over). Clients from Hell is 100% anonymous user submitted ‘horror stories’ provided by designers and developers.
In short, maybe you won’t feel so bad when that client asks to throw up a picture on the home page of her from the 80′s holding a manicured poodle after reading through Clients from Hell.
- How I use it: When I need a good laugh. When I need to take a break. I go to Clients from Hell. It rocks.
- Bonus Tip: Check out this Oatmeal cartoon – it very well may be the best thing ever.
What would you add to this list?
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Great list, Matt. I’m personally excited to try out Evernote as I am also the pen and paper list type. Post-its everywhere – not very organized! So Evernote – here.I.come!
I’ll never go 100% paperless, it’s just in my nature to write things in a notebook or on a white-board, but I’m really liking Evernote and how easy it is to use so far. It’s great for taking notes during client calls and having them automatically save and be accessible from any computer.
Very cool list Matt. I love Evernote for on-the-go notes. I even have a wine list in Evernote, with pics of labels I loved, since I can never remember what I liked or why. Have you ever used eSign at echosign.com? It’s the easiest way to get proposals and contracts digitally signed.
Hey Mana. Love the idea w/ wine labels. One of the first things I noticed was how easy it was to take snapshots and upload them into Evernote (or take instant screenshots on your computer and add them). Pretty sweet.
I haven’t even heard of echosign.com but I’ll have to check it out!
These are all great tools here. I personally love Evernote because it’s so easy to jot down blog post ideas, shopping lists, etc. on your phone and/or desktop and then have it synced automatically all over.
Clients From Hell is awesome because it’s SO TRUE. Sad, really, I suppose, heh.
Love the term you coined here, webpreneur. Trademark that
So is the nature of being a web designer/developer. A lot of folks don’t know what they want and it can turn into a nightmare. The key is turning that nightmare into a customer that is 100% satisfied – without driving yourself nuts.
Wish I could take credit for webpreneur, but, like pretty much everything else, it’s been said/done before.
Great list Matt. I’m a big fan of Evernote and love that I can email, tweet and text directly to my account. The web clipper is also a great feature. Love it.
Yes! I am digging the web clipper – super convenient and overall the interface of Evernote is sleek and easy to use. Thanks for coming by!
Great list. I’m a recent convert to Evernote and liking it a lot. Makes it SO much easier to find stuff that I saved “for later.”
I also love Google Reader & would add Google Calendar to the list. I’m so in love with this tool (and the way it let me trash my To Do List) that I wrote a post about it: http://ow.ly/2aOkg
I couldn’t live without my GCal. A friend turned me on to it about a year ago and I’ve never looked back. They say you shouldn’t rely TOO MUCH on your calendar but, I’d be lost without it. Thanks for stopping by Jamie!
I needed something funny this morning and through Clients From Hell found ‘The Oatmeal’ , this is great stuff! Thanks for sharing this stress buster of a site. Oh, Evernote and Google Reader are good too…
Always recommend both for some comic relief – you can’t go wrong! Thanks for coming by Pat!
Why has it taken me this long to find a) your site and b) evernote.
Great stuff Matt!
Now that you have used Evernote for a couple of months, what is your opinion? Are there things Evernote does exceptionally well or things that are better handled by other tools?