Are you freeing up your time and money with these business automation tools?
All of those repetitive tasks that normally take hours to do can be done in seconds with my top 10 list of business automation tools. In fact most of these tools are the “exact” same tools I use to help me run my online business. I stand behind each and every one of them.
Take a look through this “essential” list and put into use as many as you can!
1. 1ShoppingCart
With 1ShoppingCart you get all the tools you need to process online payments, deliver digital and physical products, run an affiliate program, track your sales conversions, contact your customers and affiliates via autoresponder and track orders and payments.
I’ve used 1ShoppingCart on and off over the past 5 years, now I use them exclusively because their system is rock solid and I can set up products for sale in just minutes with no messing around with code. Everything with 1ShoppingCart is point and click easy!
2. DLGuard
The only downside to 1ShoppingCart is there is no membership management available. So for example if you want to sell a digital product and offer your customers a username and password to access the download page you’ll need to use DL Guard as I do.
Unlike 1ShoppingCart DL Guard is a software script you need to install on your own website. It took me about 15 minutes to set up and configure, the support documents are very clear so you’re up and running within an hour.
Even if you don’t have 1ShoppingCart you can still use DL Guard because it has it’s own payment processing system built in. The only thing is this easy to install software script doesn’t have an affiliate management system so you really need to use 1ShoppingCart for that.
3. Aweber
I’m amazed at how many people don’t use a professional email automation system like Aweber! I’ve been using Aweber since November 2003 and I’ve got to say they’re the absolute best there is when it comes to automating email delivery.
With Aweber you can even automatically post a “tweet” to your Twitter account whenever you send out a broadcast email! Or how about every time you write a blog post? Aweber will automatically send out an HTML email to your blog subscribers telling them about it (if you’re on my blog email list that’s probably how you found your way here to my top 10 list).
As you can see Aweber goes way beyond giving you unlimited autoresponders! If you’re not using it yet you really should be.
4. TubeMogul
If you’ve ever created a video and spent 3 hours posting it to many of the social video hosting websites out there then you need to take a look at this service ASAP. It’s totally free to use and is a “big” time saver when it comes to getting your message out there and in front of the most number of people.
More than just automating the distribution of your videos TubeMogul will also give you countless statistics about your videos including how many people have watched them!
5. Ping.fm
What I like about Ping.fm is how much time it saves you. In fact this has got to be one of the biggest time savers out there when it comes to syndicating your content across the very best social networking websites.
The way Ping.fm works is you post your message on their website and that message gets posted to 40 social networking websites like Facebook, Plaxo and LinkedIn.
Of course this does mean you have to post your messages on the Ping.fm website. However there is another way…
Here’s how I use it…
First of all you need to install a copy of Twhirl (this is another automation tool I’ll get to in a minute, it’s one of the best applications out there for posting tweets on Twitter.com).
Within Twhirl you can enter your Ping.fm account details. Then whenever you post a tweet it’s syndicated to up to 40 other social networking websites through your Ping.fm account.
6. Survey Monkey
Don’t let this name fool you. It’s not a system for surveying monkey’s
Although it’s probably easy enough for a monkey to use! What Survey Monkey does is it gives you a “super” easy way of creating surveys.
It’s through these survey’s that you can find out what your subscribers and customers want and need. When you know those kind of answers marketing becomes a whole lot easier!
7. Twhirl
If you post messages to Twitter.com then you need to get this application installed ASAP! If you’re not using Twitter to get your message out there then you’re missing huge opportunity because right now Twitter is a “red hot” marketing tool.
As I mentioned earlier with Ping.fm make sure you tie your Ping.fm account into your Twhirl application and every time you post a Tweet message you can get massive exposure through the power of syndication.
8. SubmitYourArticle
If you’ve been marketing online for even the shortest time you’re probably aware of the power of articles as a way of generating traffic and building your brand. However the problem with articles is getting them into the hands of as many of the “right” people as you can.
Sure there are applications you can download and use them to submit your articles to 1,000’s of directories but there’s a problem called “duplicate content” you need to contend with.
This is a “big” issue because when Google and other search engines see 1,000 of copies of your articles all over the Internet they’ll only consider the 1st one they find unique, rank it accordingly and ignore the other 999.
SubmitYourArticle has a superb solution to this because it provides you with a way of turning 1 unique article into many unique articles all at the press of a button as well as submitting it to the best places online.
One of the things I like about this service is how it’s more about getting your article published by “top tier” websites and even offline publications. It’s not about pumping out as many low value articles as you can then submitting them to every man and his dog in the hop of some traffic.
P.S. By the way… I designed the logo and website templates for the SubmitYourArticle site. Steve Shaw the creator of SubmitYourArticle is a great guy and will look after you.
9. OnlyWire
In some ways this is similar to Ping.fm only this time you can submit your content right from your web browser to all the top social networking sites. They also include some other useful tools that make it possible for your website visitors to submit your content for you. It’s an interesting service I’ll be testing out myself very soon.
10. MindJetManager
This is one of my all-time favorite applications that helps me to shortcut the process of coming up with ideas. I’m sure you’ve heard of mind mapping before, well this software takes it to the next level whenever you need to brainstorm a new idea or develop new systems and procedures for the streamlining your online business.
So there you have it… my top 10 business automation tools.
What’s your favorite business automation tool and why do you like it?
Just post your link in the comments box below…
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