The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Update - Timothy Ferriss [80]
Google Website Optimizer (WO) (http://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer)
This is a free tool that, like Google Analytics, is better than most paid services. I used Google WO to test three potential homepages for www.dailyburn.com and increased sign-ups 19%, then again by more than 16%.
Offermatica (www.offermatica.com)
Vertster.com (www.vertster.com)
Optimost (www.optimost.com)
Low-Cost Toll-free Numbers
TollFreeMAX (www.tollfreemax.com) (877–888–8MAX) and Kall8 (www.kall8.com)
TollFreeMAX and Kall8 both allow you to set up toll-free numbers in 2–5 minutes. Calls can then be forwarded to any other numbers, and voicemail and statistics can be managed online or via e-mail.
Checking Competitive Site Traffic
Want to see how much traffic your competition is getting and who is linking to them?
Compete (www.compete.com)
Quantcast (www.quantcast.com)
Alexa (www.alexa.com)
Freelance Designers and Programmers
99Designs (www.99designs.com) and Crowdspring (www.crowdspring.com)
I used 99Designs to get an excellent logo for www.litliberation.org in 24 hours for less than $150. I submitted the concept, more than 50 designers worldwide uploaded their best attempts, which I could browse, and I chose the best after suggesting a few improvements. From Crowdspring’s site: “Name your price, name your deadline, see entries within hours and be done in just days. The average project gets a whopping 68 entries. 25 entries or your money back.”
eLance (www.elance.com) (877–435–2623)
Craigslist (www.craigslist.org)
LIFESTYLE DESIGN IN ACTION
I’m a U.S. citizen and it was impossible for my friends and relatives to track me down by phone. Enter Skype In. It’s not new but allows you to lease a fixed U.S. (or other country) phone number which then forwards to your Skype account. About $60/year. Within Skype you can then set up call forwarding to ring you at your local number. You pay the rate as if you were calling from the United States to wherever you are. I’ve used this in about 40 countries and it works like a treat. The call quality is usually great and the convenience is amazing. http://www.skype.com/allfeatures/onlinenumber/. A caveat is to always, ALWAYS get a local SIM card for your unlocked GSM phone. Roaming is for amateurs. A local SIM also gets you GPRS, Edge, or 3G. Sometimes even free Wifi. Cheers, —TY KROLL
Basically I try to keep all of my tools online so that if my laptop gets stolen, I can buy a new one and have everything up and running within 24 hours. Here are a few of the tools I use on a regular basis:
RememberTheMilk.com has been really crucial to me keeping on top of my daily tasks.
Freshbooks.com for online invoicing
Highrise (http://www.highrisehq.com/) for online CRM
Dropbox (getdropbox.com) for easy file sharing/automatic backup of critical files while on the road
TrueCrypt (truecrypt.org) for keeping your laptop data secure while on the road. [Tim comment: This can also be used with a USB flash drive, and another cool feature—it provides two levels of “plausible deniability” (hidden volumes, etc.) if someone forces you to reveal the password.]
PBwiki.com-Wiki site that helps me keep on top of the notes and ideas that I collect as I go through life.
FogBugz on Demand: http://www.fogcreek.com/FogBUGZ/IntrotoOnDemand.html. It’s a “bug tracker” aimed at software development companies, but I use it every day for both personal and business tasks. It’s almost like a VA, as you can route your mail through it and it will help you sort it and keep track of it. It has great features to track e-mails, and there’s a free version for two users (me + VA!). —RB CARTER
A really useful service is Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. With a small investment in time or money, a business that requires hundreds of people doing small bits of defined work becomes possible for extraordinarily low work-per-unit costs. Examples include the search for Steve Fosset (literally thousands of people looked at satellite photos that would have overwhelmed SAR agencies)