Website Grader claims to measure the marketing effectiveness of your website based on search engine optimization, social popularity, inbound links, Google page rank, page source code, and other factors. Simply enter your website URL, wait a few seconds, and get your website score along with a full report emailed to you.

Why should I use this tool?

Website Grader is a good tool to let you know how you rank compared to your competition in selected online marketing efforts. It also alerts you to areas in which you could increase the scope and effectiveness of your marketing efforts.

But don’t sweat the small stuff…

This tool doesn’t score you on everything you are doing with social or viral marketing, or show every directory you are listed in. In addition, it didn’t pick up all my inbound links, although other search engines picked them up.  Some alerts that it reports are not to be overly concerned about. I’m not sure I agree with the readability level scoring either. It seems that more technical sites might come up with a “Graduate” level readability score simply because they include some technical terms.

Overall, I believe this is a useful tool. Grade your website and use the report card to lay out specific steps to improve your online marketing strategies.

Lynda.com is a great online resource for small-business owners who need to brush up their web and graphics skills. Whether you need some help using Photoshop or need help integrating an online shopping cart, Lynda.com can offer assistance via video tutorials. Some of the topics include:

• digital photography
• HTML
• blogging
• e-commerce
• search engines
• and much more

Lynda.com offers excerpts from a selection of courses for free. But to gain unlimited access, you must purchase one of their subscriptions. The monthly subscription is only $25/mo, well worth it considering the range of information available at any time of day, from any computer with internet access.

These courses offer a good place to start learning basics of print and web design. This would be helpful to small-business owners who like to do things on their own. It also gives them a solid knowledge base to draw from when discussing designs with their web developers, or graphic designers.

I definitely recommend Lynda.com to small-businesses to offer training of their employees. And with businesses looking for ways to cut costs, it’s a good resource to learn to accomplish some tasks in-house when hiring a professional designer isn’t possible.

Volusion Live Chat Software offers live web chats for businesses who have an online presence and need to offer live support to their customers.

Live Chat is a great web feature to include if your product is complex and needs explanation, or if people need help during the buying process. Written FAQs and forums are excellent resources, but sometimes you just need to talk to somebody. And Live Chat is a great alternative to the telephone. It’s a convenience for customers that can give you an edge over your competition and increase conversions.

Installed on the Mindspring Design Website

The free Volusion Live Chat version offers a free chat application for your computer. You download and install it in a few minutes. When you sign into the application, customers know automatically that you are online and available to chat.

You have the ability to chat with 5 people at once, from one department. And you can customize the online and offline messages that people see. You can upload your own logo and your own “LiveChat” buttons or use the free ones provided. Just copy and paste the code into your website’s HTML code and you’re done.

I installed this on my website for testing purposes. Volusion Live Chat was simple to install and use, and I liked it so much that I kept it on my website. I look forward to chatting with potential and current clients about web and graphic design.

What is it?

Genbook is a web appointment scheduling service that offers several features. I installed the free version on my site for testing purposes, and decided to keep it since it fits my needs.

Who needs it?

I recommend online appointment scheduling to anyone who meets with customers. It’s great for hair stylists, dentists, trainers, etc. This is an easy, non-in-your-face way to invite people to talk to you, meet with you, purchase your services.

Everything’s done online and takes about five minutes for you to set up and two minutes for customers to book. A customer chooses a service you offer, books a time, and confirms. You both receive notification via email.

Features

• FREE
• invite customers to make appointment
• view calendar
• book up to 4 weeks in advance
• email notification
• your logo
• sends customer email reminders
• send up to three customer messages when they confirm their appointment
• free book now button on your website
• additional features are available at cost.

Pros

This saves time and can boost sales and visibility. Upgrading to a paid plan allows you to save contact information for business marketing and to capture credit card info to make sure clients show up.

Cons

You can’t have multiple user sign-ons on the account. But you can offer several staff members’ services on the same calendar. There is a small Genbook byline and logo on the booking pages, and you can’t weave the booking software into your own site’s layout and design.