It’s been a while since I gave a little advice (just kidding). As I was doing a little work last night I realized there were 10 things that I use every single day to help me in my business. Some are free, some cost money but all are worth the price.
1. Protrada Sniper Tool I don’t use Protrada to find domains but I love it for one reason, their Sniper tool. It lets you put in bids at the last minute (Namejet and Godaddy) so you don’t draw attention to the names and then texts or emails you if you’ve been outbid or win the name. Worth the price just for this service
2. DomainTools Pro Membership I use it for one main reason. To see who owned domains in the past. Godaddy moving auctions into privacy? No problem. Also good for tracking changes in domains you are interested in.
3. WebBoar.com I use this for one thing as well. To find out what other domains a domain owner has. Most people use the same email for all their domains. This will show you those domains……for free
4. Skitch I work on Macs and I love this screen capture and editor. Its real easy to use, hangs out at the top, and does everything you need to update blogs and quick manipulation of photos.
5. Valuate.com If I need some kind of reference to price I use Valuate. I realize it means nothing when it comes to real price but we all need something to start with and this is what I start with
6. Mechanical Turk The finest use of crowdsourcing out there. If I need a larger task done this is where I go. I’m always amazed how well and how fast they can get something accomplished. I use them to fill in data like plant information. It’s not really something I use daily but I’m thankful its available
7. MacBook Air It’s a Godsend. Light as a feather so I can throw it in my bag. Powerful enough to crunch a little data here and there. A relatively cheap at $800. I have a macbook pro with retina , ipads, imacs, and mac minis and I find myself working on the Air most of the time.
8. Escrow.com and Paypal.com They are simply the way I get paid online. Without them I would have a lot of trouble making safe transactions. You don’t hear me announcing every sale but I do make a good amount of them and they only go through these two. Escrow if its a larger amount and paypal if it’s under $2000. Bankwire has become a lot more popular for me but mostly because I am dealing with more companies and they prefer to wire.
9. Reverse Internet There are a ton of great tools on this site. From looking at what affiliate programs are being used by a site to what other sites are owned by the same company or person. Lots of data to be had if you know what to look for or what to do with it. Of course the good stuff costs but the free stuff is pretty useful
10. Google It is frickin ridiculous how much I use Google. I know everyone does but just crazy how the online world revolves around this company. If you don’t own stock in Google you are crazy
Feel free to add more tools you think are useful (blatant spam will be erased)
Nice article, Shane.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. I love to snoop and research the internet and boy you’ve share a really nice gem.