Now here’s an interesting concept! Vontoo bills itself as an on-demand, permission-based, self-service voice messaging system. Similar to permission-based email marketing, but using the human voice and a phone. Vontoo helps you create, send and track voice message campaigns. In a world of email clutter, this may be just the new twist to get your message in front of people.
I tried out Vontoo’s free trial and see many reasons to use the service. It would be ideal for personal applications (like sending a voice-based invitation to a group of friends). Most importantly in business applications it’s a fresh way to get a message out to customers or business associates. Vontoo even lets you schedule your message to go at a specific time.
Vontoo, I think you have a new customer here. I would encourage everyone to give it a look.
This post is an entry for the $1,000 Giveaway at The Marketing Technology Blog.
In the world of running a web site, one of the most important jobs you’ll have is getting your site listed in the search engines. After all, more people learn about a web site as a result of a search than any other method. And without traffic to your site, what’s the point?
Your site will earn a certain rank on its own merits, called “organic placement.” But what if that position isn’t as high as you’d like? Then there’s paying for placement through pay-per-click advertising (PPC).
I’ve managed a few PPC campaigns and let me tell you, it’s part art, part science and part voodoo! A great resource for learning about all things PPC is PPC Hero. The site’s stated goal is, “To educate the world on the basic techniques and finer skills of successful pay-per-click campaign management.”
In a couple of weeks, I’ll be back at the PPC campaign management game. Oh PPC Hero, save me! I’m ready to learn all you have to offer.
This post is an entry for the $1,000 Giveaway at The Marketing Technology Blog.
For years, I have built web forms the hard way. Here’s the drill: a co-worker needs a web-based registration form, subscription form, or (god forbid) a survey. Yikes! The time involved to build a web form can blow an otherwise perfectly good work day completely off course.
Now there’s a better way! FormSpring lets you build powerful forms without any programming at all. There’s a live functioning demo of the tool on FormSpring’s site. I took it for a test drive and found the interface to be clean and very easy to understand.
If you have an occasional need to build a web form, one of FormSpring’s free accounts will suit you just fine. Other account options are available with very reasonable monthly fees. The next time I need to build a form, I’m using FormSpring, that’s for sure!
This post is an entry for the $1,000 Giveaway at The Marketing Technology Blog.
Sometimes it’s hard to conceive of real world applications for all the cool technology tools available on the web. If you’re into web tech or involved in marketing at any level, I highly recommend reading The Marketing Technology Blog by Doug Karr.
I started reading this treasure-trove a while back, after I hired Doug to develop a store locator for Wild Birds Unlimited using Google Maps. His work on this project, attention to detail and excellent customer service couldn’t be any better.
Somehow in the midst of freelance projects, his full time job and being involved in his kids’ lives, Doug finds time to write one of the most informative blogs out there. I find a useful nugget every time I read The Marketing Technology Blog. Give it a read. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed!
This post is an entry for the $1,000 Giveaway at The Marketing Technology Blog.
Most web-based email services limit the file size you can send or receive. The practice is especially common for mail boxes on corporate networks. If you ever need to send or recieve a file larger than your inbox allows, look no further than YouSendIt for a solution. Simply upload your file, enter your recipeint’s email address, add a custom message and send. The recipient gets a pick up notice in their inbox with instructions on where to go to download the file you sent. Quick, easy, limitation shattering!
The YouSendIt service comes in several flavors including the free Lite version which allows you to send files up to 100MB. If you need to send larger files, consider signing up for their Pro or Business plans for a very reasonable monthly fee.
One of the ways I keep up with great online resources is to bookmark them. I’m sure you’ve clicked that “bookmark” or “favorites” button in your web browser a few times, too. Over time though, my collection grew unwieldy and I could never find an easy way to keep up with them across the various computers I use. I tried del.ico.us and a couple of other social bookmarking sites but they didn’t really meet my needs. I wasn’t necessarily looking for a way to share my bookmarks with others as much as I needed a way to access them from anywhere.
A couple of weeks ago I added the Google Bookmark widget to my iGoogle page. 
That’s the ticket! It’s simple, easy to organize and available anywhere by logging in to my iGoogle page. I’ve taken the time to actually visit most of the bookmarks in my collection. It’s been fun rediscovering a lot of terrific resourceful sites. Good thing I bookmarked them. Now I can share them with you. Stay tuned!
I just hate getting a call from a mysterious phone number! I figure if it’s not a number in my phone’s directory, I certainly don’t know the person. I’m obsessive about keeping numbers in my phone. Personal, work, you name it. So was it someone who dialed a wrong number? Someone I know calling from a strange location? Opportunity knocking, er - calling? I can’t stand it, I have to know.
The Internet is perfect for solving this kind of mystery. My favorite reverse phone directory resource is SuperPages.com. Here you can do a reverse search by residential or business phone number or address. Just type in that mysterious phone number and see the address and name of the person calling. Of course unpublished numbers aren’t included, but it sure beats the days of going to the library to look up this kind of information.
Even though I haven’t been blogging for long, I recently decided that I was bored with my first choice of blogging tool, Blooger. It was very easy to use and I would highly recommend it to anyone starting out. But…
Last Friday I met with Doug Karr, who is working on a Google mapping project for us at Wild Birds Unlimited. Knowing that Doug is a very sucessful and prolific blogger who uses WordPress, I took the opportunity to ask him about it. I few mouse clicks later he was giving me a “behind the scenes” tour of the WordPress interface. Wow! What a difference - I was hooked.
I spent the weekend moving my stuff from Blogger to WordPress. I was worried that I would lose my posts and comments in the move. I studied the help section and followed everything very carefully. Then to my amusement, I arrived at the WordPress ”Magic Button.” One click and everything from my Blogger account magically appeared in WordPress. Most excellent! Now, if I could just find the “Magic Button” in my laundry room.
I know just enough about graphic design to be dangerous. I can hack my way through using PhotoShop but it isn’t 
pretty. I always struggle with making rounded corner graphics for that nice Web 2.0 look. Today I found a nifty tool called Cornershop that will make my life easier. Simply type in your page background hex color, the corner radius, transparency and viola, instant corners! You can download .gif images ready to use in your page layout or download CSS or HTML code. All this for free. Gotta love coders!
If you or someone you know will be flying the friendly skies this summer, make note of these cool travel tools:For those among us who need to know what the environment will be like on the plane, SeatGuru.com provides a detailed look at your scheduled flight’s seat configuration. Want to know if your assigned seat has more leg room or if the aircraft is equipped with video monitors? No problem, just locate the listing for your airline and the type of plane and you get a complete picture of what to expect.
And if you’re like me and can never find your flight number listed on those annoying monitors at the airport, keep up with your flight’s status with FlightStats.com. Register with the site to receive a text message on your cell phone if your flight is delayed. You can also get a notice when a flight departs or arrives at its destination.
Have fun with these tools and I wish you safe travels!
