Technology Used

As technologists with decades of experience, we typically review many different products before making a choice that is right for us to use here at Virtual-Partner. Below are some of the tools and services we recommend. (Please note that there are often several different options, and while the products listed below are ones we use, there may be better choices for you.)

Training

Online Business Manager Certification www.OBMconnect.com

Online businesses are growing at an alarming rate, and many online based business owners find themselves “tapped out.” They simply can’t do it all themselves anymore and are desperately seeking someone to help them grow and manage their business – they are looking to hire an Online Business Manager (OBM).

VA Classroom www.VAClassroom.com

VA Classroom offers a comprehensive skills training center for Virtual Assistants, online professionals & consultants.

Website Resources

WordPress www.wordpress.org
This is an easy to use and mostly free way to quickly set up a blog and/or a website. You can sign up for a free WordPress blog at www.wordpress.com. All our sites now run on WordPress.

Blue Host www.bluehost.com
If you want to register a domain for your site,  this is a good place to go. Prices are average for the industry (they often have sales as well) and their customer service has been exceptional.

Amazon S3 http://aws.amazon.com/s3/
Amazon S3 is storage for the Internet. We use it to deliver large files like audios and videos to customers, and for off-site archive storage for important projects. Price is reasonable. We use S3 Organizer in Firefox to access our S3 storage “buckets.”

Google Analytics www.google.com/analytics
Free service where you add some javascript to your web pages and google will track usage and popular pages (and more).

MaxCDN www.maxcdn.com
Content Delivery Network that works automatically with the W3 Total Cache plugin for WordPress. Allows visitors from around the world to load cached images, css style sheets, and more from a network of servers closer to their location. Also takes the load off our server, even for VERY high traffic days. Well worth the cost.

Communications

Skype www.skype.com
Allows you to use your computer to make audio and video calls around the world for free. Also has some paid features. Offers the ability to remotely view another person’s screen (useful for collaborating).

Skype Recording with Call Graph – https://callgraph.biz/
Windows audio recording of Skype calls. Free.

NConnects www.nconnects.com
This is a paid conference-call service which allows control of individual caller’s volume and participation. It also allows you to record and download calls. It’s what we use! Now allows callers to access the service directly from Skype without using SkypeOut.

Phone.com www.phone.com
We use their virtual office service to route incoming calls to office phone line AND cell phone(s). They offer human voicemail transcription, too. Pressing *7 on an incoming call also activates call recording, which you can easily use to download into a Dropbox folder to send a “public” (but unguessable) link to your clients so they can listen again.

Free Conference Call www.freeconferencecall.com
This service allows you to host free conference calls up to 96 people. They also have a simple event version that hosts up 1000 people.

AudioAcrobat www.audioacrobat.com
You can use the service to upload audio you record on your own computer, record directly to their service over the internet, and record by telephone. Using three-way-calling, you can also record teleconferences and client sessions up to two hours in length. You can also set up client testimonial lines. It is easy to integrate the audio into any website where you can paste HTML.

Marketing

ISnare Ezine Article Submission Site www.isnare.com
Distribute your articles to thousands of article sites for $2 or less per article.

Custom Surveys www.isalient.com
Easily create eye catching online surveys. Collect survey responses and fully analyze your results.

The Net Reporter www.thenetreporter.com
This membership site goes into different topics on internet marketing, including how to video webinars. More expensive,  but it is quite comprehensive and they add content all the time.

Customer Management & Shopping Cart

InfusionSoft & 1ShoppingCart www.infusionsoft.com & www.1shoppingcart.com
On-line shopping cart and e-commerce.  Includes email autoresponders and affiliate management as well. It’s what we use.

Auto Response Plus www.autoresponseplus.com
Email broadcast and auto responder you install on your mail server. It’s what we use now for our email lists. Requires someone skilled in server and email management as part of your team.

Amember www.amember.com
Membership and subscription management system, integrates with systems like InfusionSoft, 1ShoppingCart and ExpressionEngine.

MailChimp & Aweber www.mailchimp.com / www.aweber.com
Newsletters, autoresponders, email campaigns.

Paypal www.paypal.com
On-line shopping cart and e-commerce. Convenient way to allow clients to send you payments. Easy to set up Buy Now buttons.

Outsourcing

Elance http://www.elance.com
On-line freelance support for outsourcing various parts of your business.

OutSource Weekly www.outsourceweekly.com
52 week course on outsourcing your internet and product needs with recommended resources and how to’s.

Easy PLR www.easyplr.com
Private Label Rights Articles (PLR) can be a great way to add new content to your website or blog and fill up your newsletter or autoresponder. When you purchase private label rights, you can re-publish the content with or without changes and additions.

Social Media

Facebook http://www.facebook.com

Twitter http://www.twitter.com

LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com

Other Useful Resources

Dropbox http://www.dropbox.com
Integrates so nicely into Windows. We use it to easily send private recordings to clients, share spreadsheets and other project files, and sync content between computers.

Carbonite http://www.carbonite.com
Auto Backup for Computer Files. If you do not have OFF-SITE backup of your key files, you are taking a risk of total loss. Use something like Carbonite, store files on Amazon S3, or some other off-site backup strategy.

Roboform http://www.roboform.com
Program manages and stores your passwords and autofills on-line registration forms to save you time.

Big Stock Photo http://www.bigstockphoto.com
Search and download photos for websites,  advertizing, products, etc.

Camtasia http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp
Video presentation creation and editing

Sony Sound Forge http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/products/soundforgefamily.asp
Audio creation and editing. We use the Pro version which has an outstanding noise reduction filter. Many people choose the free program Audacity – http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Levelator http://www.conversationsnetwork.org/levelator
Free program that allows you to balance the volume of audios automatically (must be saved in .wav or .aiff format first). Perfect for processing teleclass recordings.

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