Comments on: 10 Essential Online Tools for Your Startup

By: Jerome

Jerome — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 02:47:03 +0000

Great article. You may wish also to consider PMP HQ http://www.pmphq.com which helps SMBs keep track of their projects, tasks and budgets and eventually get things done on time and on budget.

By: W2ttsy

W2ttsy — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:46:03 +0000

for development houses, i recommend the atlassian product range. Especially since they are running the $10 starter licences on their best products. How any company works without JIRA or confluence is beyond me.

By: awasson

awasson — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:03:22 +0000

Great if you don’t want the designer to research what will be effective for your Market and most of the time not even bother to find out who your target Market is.

I agree with you there…

I don’t design but I’m a partner at a design studio and have been involved in identity development. When we do an ID for a new client and especially a startup in a niche field, we spend lots of time doing R&D before we even see anything sketched up. That’s the difference between hiring a designer and using a McLogo solution.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:32:25 +0000

I’m afraid I agree with the last post. Design competitions are great if you want a designer who doesn’t value their own work. Great if you don’t want the designer to research what will be effective for your Market and most of the time not even bother to find out who your target Market is. Do your business a favour. Look at some designers portfolios find one you like and approach the designer and work together to find the right solution for your business

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 20:54:32 +0000

Where are the analytics tools ? That is surely a must. I'd also recommend mashup seo/code/analytics applications. For example, a report on sitepoint : Sitepoint.com Analytics Report

By: Kris

Kris — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 08:30:57 +0000

@TedMorrison

You know, it is that sort of attitude that keeps a lot of good designers very poor. It is a bad practice. Any designers out there that use these sites, don’t. There is plenty of work out there if you look.

God it pisses me off.

By: Andy

Andy — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 08:22:05 +0000

I always enjoy learning what other people think about Amazon Web Services and how they use them. Check out my very own tool CloudBerry Explorer that helps to
manage S3 on Windows . It is a freeware. http://cloudberrylab.com/

By: Rob V

Rob V — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:27:24 +0000

Looks like you guys missed out on http://brandstackc.com definitely a must for startups looking for a solid identity.

By: ShayneTilley

ShayneTilley — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:53:01 +0000

@LeapGo — I’d have to agree — I’d have analytics in this list for sure.

By: awasson

awasson — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:10:51 +0000

I really think that Zendesk looks like a powerful addition to any online business. Thanks for putting that up.

By: LeapGo

LeapGo — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:57:45 +0000

What about Google analytics?

By: terrydunn

terrydunn — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:56:08 +0000

I think design contests are a great way of getting design work done. And while searching youtube, I’ve found a useful video from the Sue and Steve show giving you some tips on how to run a successful design contest. You can find it on my blog at ‘http://www.webdesignability.com’.

By: TedMorrison

TedMorrison — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:20:17 +0000

I *REALLY* like Dropbox…which is Mac-friendly also…yeeeeah!

Tested Zendesk but went with the help desk software by Web Help Desk. I like the UI better in Zen but we needed to track some inventory, so we went with Web Help Desk. Couldn’t be happier!

Gmail is a bit slow through IMAP…BUT I don’t worry about loosing any emails!!! :)

Twitter….I *DESPISE* the concept….but…effective.

My 2cents :) Thanks for the list, I’m going to look into the Amazon bit in more detail. THX!

By: chillybin

chillybin — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:03:48 +0000

i use all of these, and have tested zendesk, it looks pretty good so far

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:58:03 +0000

I suppose the reason you don’t have a site specific to crowdsourcing web development and programming is because your reader base would destroy you. But hey, screw the designers, let’s start a site that devalues design.

By: Jdawg2k

Jdawg2k — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:09:39 +0000

Great list. I use many of these options already for my business.

By: NickSR

NickSR — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:16:53 +0000

Great list but could you perhaps add as 10.1 one of my favorites now – ‘Posterous’.

The guys at posterous.com – who are neighbours of the Twitter crew – have developed an amazing app that easily posts files/images/videos and generally updates you blogs/Twitter/Facebook in a flash simply via an email.

Really quick with inbuilt URL shortener makes this a really useful tool when you are churning out hand selected choice content.

*Major hat tip* to Posterous.com

By: James

James — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:58:35 +0000

Great post.

Congratulations on your disclosure. Too many magazines and blog posts have blatent advertisements for their own or others products but try to hide it.