Favorite Small Business Resources – The Toolbox

I’ve put together a fabulous list of small business tools and resources for you. Feel free to test and play around with these as I have!

I am always adding more too so check back.

Domain Management

GoDaddy - It’s the best, most robust domain manager around. Note: I do NOT recommend GoDaddy for hosting though. See next item for hosting recommendation.

Hosting

Hostgator - I use Hostgator for all of my own sites and most of my clients. I always go to Hostgator first. It’s easy to use, the control panel is not clunky like some others I’ve seen, very reliable when it comes to website availability, and EXCELLENT customer service which is top priority in my book.
Bluehost - This is my number two hosting company and I have some clients on this host who haven’t had any problems. Customer service is good here as well. They’ve been around for years and demonstrates server reliability.

Website/Blog Creation and Testing

WordPress - It’s the best, free blog publishing platform online. I design exclusively for WordPress now. Great developer community to find answers easily, extremely customizable and very extensible too.
Website Grader – Check how well your website is doing, find out how popular it is in social media, and check for problems – all for free.
W3C Markup Validation Service – Just enter your website address and find out if there are any errors that need to be corrected.

eCommerce

PayPal - PayPal has become one of the easiest and most convenient ways to pay online. If you’re looking for a very simple way to accept payments on your website, PayPal will definitely do the trick.
Clickbank – ClickBank is the Internet’s leading retailer of digital products. Whether you’re looking to sell, promote, or shop for digital goods, ClickBank is for you.
BigCommerce - This eCommerce software has too many features and benefits to name here but just know that it helps you setup a professional online store with shopping cart, product pages, secure checkout, and so much more. Great for the Do-It-Yourself’er who wants to get online quickly, easily, and economically.

Email List Management / Autoresponder Software

Aweber – Aweber is one of the top preferred email list management and autoresponder tools for a lot of online marketers and bloggers. It’s easy to use & only $1 to try. Can’t beat it.
MailChimp – I’ve been playing around with Mailchimp as it’s an ever increasing popular software for email and list management. It’s also has a free option up to a 1,000 subscribers which is good for people starting out.

Website Analytics / Tracking

Google Analytics – Powerful, free analytics tool that tracks all of your incoming traffic for free. Lets you measure your advertising ROI as well as track video and social networking sites and applications. I love mostly all of Google’s tools!
Google Website Optimizer – This is Google’s free website testing and optimization tool, allowing you to increase the value of your existing websites and traffic without spending a cent.
Alexa - This tool gauges a website’s ranking by computing traffic rankings and analyzing the Web usage of millions of Alexa Toolbar users. Download it so see how you fair among other website owners.

Social Media Tools

SocialOomph – Great for follower management with many tools included, even in the free version. Who says it has to take forever to manage your social media activities. Be more productive!
Manage Flitter – Twitter account management – clean up and manage who you follow. It comes in very handy to get rid of those inactive accounts and those who aren’t following back.
Twitter Grader – Now here’s a cool free tool that allows you to check the power of your twitter profile compared to millions of other users that have been graded.

Event Management

EventBrite - Eventbrite empowers you with simple but powerful tools to manage, promote, and sell out your event. It’s free to sign up and get started.

Search Engine Optimization Tools

SEOBOOK – This site has several free SEO tools to play with! They offer a wide array of free and paid SEO tools to SEO professionals and DIY webmasters.

Video Creation / Publishing

YouTube - Well, what can I say? It’s the largest worldwide video-sharing community. Video marketing is great for small businesses and YouTube is an excellent to publish them for greater exposure.
TubeMogul - Syndicate your videos free! TubeMogul OneLoad is a free service that provides a single point for deploying videos to the top video and social networking sites.
Camtasia Studio – Camtasia is great for video creation. You can create screen captures or screencasts and professional videos easily with effects.

Note: I am an affiliate for some of these tools/ resources but that doesn’t invalidate any of these! On the contrary, I am an affiliate because I first used the tool/resource and found it extremely helpful either for myself or my clients.