I was on a break from a website design I was working on for a new client. I went with my wife to a little resort called Just Inn. We did their website for them at http://www.justinnresort.com. While waiting for our lunch to arrive, a 6.9 earthquake hit about 30 miles away and shook the water out of the pool.

• HTML Code Generator – This site has a screen editor that allows you to create content and then convert it HTML Source code by simply clicking on the “Source” button.
• Favicon Creator – This lovely little site enables you to import a graphic and then convert it to .ico-file that that you can use as a favicon on your website. The editor allows for easy cleanup.
• Color Palette Generator -  If you are looking to create a color scheme based on the colors of an image or a logi, this site makes it easy. Simply provide the url of the image and click the “Color Palette-ify!” button.
• Color Picker – Convert from Hex value to RGB codes and also find complimentary colors.
• Color Code Generator -  Generate a color code and complimentary color codes for your website.

As I find new tools, I will update this page. And if you find anything you like, let me know and I will add it to the list!

VoIP turns Internet infrastructure into a huge global telephone network. All phone systems can take advantage of VoIP lines. Companies don’t need an IP based (IP PBX) or an IP compatible phone system. VoIP converts the voice signal from a company telephone into a digital signal which travels over the Internet then it’s converted back at the other end which allows you to talk to anyone with a standard number.

Besides telephone cost savings, companies using VoIP gain long-term benefits such as:

• Improved team collaboration
• Improved individual productivity
• Better quality of service to customers
• Faster responsiveness to customers
• Better support for globalization efforts

According to a Gartner survey, businesses using VoIP believe it’s better than a traditional telephone system in many categories including:

• Administration
• Advanced features
• Vendor support
• Cost of ownership
• Quality of service
• End-user satisfaction

The survey showed that in each of these categories VoIP scored at least 70 percent better than a traditional telephone system. VoIP improves your business.

According to information gathered by online research company Visibli the average Facebook post has already received more than half of its “likes” before the time it is ninety minutes old.  Following the first few hours’ engagement slows a bit until the average post has almost completely run its course just under one day after you’ve hit the share button.

While this look at the average wall post’s timeframe for engagement won’t necessarily give you a detailed road map for Facebook marketing success it does give you a decent guideline.  If you are only publishing a post every three or four days you probably aren’t giving your connections enough opportunities to truly keep them engaged.  On the other hand, if you are publishing a post every two hours you aren’t giving each of your updates sufficient time to reach the maximum level of user engagement.

Reaching the perfect posting frequency for your niche and for your connections will likely take a bit of time and effort.  Experiment with different posting times and frequencies until you’ve reached what you feel to be the best formula for engaging regularly with the broadest cross section of your connections.

Prior to pouring every bit of your online marketing efforts into a single medium you’ve got to take the time to figure out if that medium will be the most effective means of reaching your target customer.  Step outside of the business owner mindset and view your approach to online marketing from your target customer perspective in order to determine if you are on the best possible path.

Are your customers and prospects likely to have the time and patience to pour over a long and wordy tutorial or would you get better results from a more visual medium.  Some businesses will achieve incredible success from delivering one high quality article after another whereas others will reap the biggest benefit from focusing on video content.

Determining what type of content will most effectively reach your target audience prior to taking the time and effort to create it will ultimately save time and yield much better results.  Answering questions and solving problems through your content is a great way to increase connections but delivering   it  in the most suitable form will result in even greater success.

As part of your online marketing strategy you should make every effort to excite and entice customers by making them aware of upgrades, improvements and new products prior to launch. By making customers aware of pending changes and providing them with detailed information on the improvements you’ll create an atmosphere of ongoing interest until the launch date.

You can magnify the level of interest by holding a contest to coincide with the launch date that will provide a chosen few of those that order your new or revamped product with a special giveaway.  The prize for the contest doesn’t have to be anything huge or expensive – a free t-shirt, gift bag or e-book should be more than enough to create additional interest. Don’t miss out on an opportunity to pre advertise an exciting new product and generate interest leading up to the release.

If you generate interesting updates regarding your upcoming launch and offer those who buy an opportunity to take home something extra you should see a much bigger spike in sales upon launch.

A successful online marketing strategy is not something that you will likely see astonishing results from immediately.  Developing your business blog and social media profiles, researching keywords and implementing a sound SEO strategy are all things that will take time to develop.  If you do them properly though, you will establish yourself
as an expert in your niche and you will gain the trust necessary to grow your business, along with your profits, over time.

Focus your online marketing efforts on developing and sharing as much high quality content as you can in the time that you can afford to allot to your campaign.  Even if you can only deliver one or two highly usable pieces per week you will reap a much greater reward in the long run than if you had simply focused all of your efforts on counting your money.

Building the credibility you’ll need to generate a loyal following and establish strong connections takes both time and effort.  If you invest that time in building connections through quality content your business will be the first that comes to mind when those you’ve helped require products or services that you provide.

If you promise a specific solution to a serious issue with the title of your content you’ve got to make sure that the content that you deliver fulfills that promise as fully and completely as possible.  Offering up a title for the sole purpose of attracting attention or soliciting clicks through to your website may provide a temporary spike in traffic, but it will do little to improve your business in the long run.

If you promise the “Top 5 Secret Methods of Increasing Web Traffic,” the content needs to deliver five highly effective and little known methods of gaining website traffic to avoid reader disappointment.  Generating titles that will compel readers to click through is huge, but success in your online marketing efforts will require that you generate the trust necessary for a reader to take the next step.  The best way of generating trust is by consistently delivering high quality content and fulfilling every promise that you make to your readers.

In order to get new visitors to your website to seriously consider purchasing something that you’ve created you’ve got to show them that you are serious about every phase of your business.  You need to make sure that there are no broken links, no spelling errors and no grammatical miscues on your website to instill the confidence in your business necessary for a visitor to become a customer.  You can’t expect a brand new visitor to your blog or website to trust a product that you’ve created if you can’t even deliver a clean, functional and user friendly website.

Your online marketing efforts should focus on showing your current customers and prospects the kind of quality you and your business are capable of delivering.  Provide an online experience that is pleasing in terms of appearance and functionality and deliver content that is cleanly written and useable and you’ll have a much easier time creating conversions.

You don’t need any special education or overly complex tools in order to create a video that will attract new contacts or generate interest in your business.  If you’ve got a basic video camera and a deep understanding of your own product you’ve got more than enough to take your online marketing to a more visual level.

Start this phase of your online marketing plan by shooting a short video that shows prospects how to use your product or a video that highlights the features that set it apart from the competition.  Upload your video to YouTube, share it via your social networking accounts and blog and ask your connections for shares and feedback.

Not all of your connections will have the time or patience to read a thousand word blog post a few days a week, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they wouldn’t benefit from the information.  By sharing both well written blog posts and informative short videos you will be able to reach and help a much broader audience than you would through blog posts alone.  These additional connections can help to spread the word of your brand even further and will ultimately result in more chances for you to engage qualified leads.