Freeware used to be pretty much worthless. It was stripped down and buggy, or it was a limited-time trial license that would stop working and start demanding money as soon as you figured out how to use it. To make matters worse freeware was a minefield of viruses and spyware. Windows 7 seems to be changing all that. Microsoft’s brand new OS works with a lot of excellent plug-in programs that are actually free, stable, and clean.
There are so many useful utilities that it would take months to find the best options, and there are. I’d like to try to help you out. Below I’ve compiled a list of my favorite 7 utilities that will make any business person’s day-to-day working life a little easier.
1. Dropbox
The novel, multi-platform-compatible Dropbox is the answer to keeping your files on all your machines synchronized and up to date. It’s easy to use. Just drag and drop files into dropbox and they can be accessed by any dropbox user you authorize. You can even store selected files publicly online for anyone to see/use.
Your free dropbox is 2GB, but you can buy additional storage if you need it.
2. Evernote
Evernote is a real lifesaver. Think of it as an online notebook that remembers everything, and "remember everything" is their motto. Evernote is compatable with most operating systems, including most smart phones. With it you can save and organize everything from simple text, to pictures, to sound bites, to entire websites. Like Dropbox, this program synchronizes with other devices. The utility also has various recognition features, so go ahead and keep jotting down business notes on old receipts or scribbled on napkins.
Free for the first 40MB.
3. WinSplit Revolution
The tiling powers of WinSplit are unmatched in the Windows utility world. With this program, you can make the best of your desktop space by tiling and organizing windows in a manner that’s easy to switch and access. No more time-consuming dragging and resizing!
Free for download.
4. Launchy
A program intended to keep you organized. Launchy is a "keystroke launcher" and heralds back to the days of the text based operating system, except it’s much easier and more more intuitive than DOS ever was. Instead of searching through start menus and folders just type a keyword into launchy and it will use a shortcut to open the app or file you asked for. This program is very handy when a client calls and you need to access her file quickly. Instead of searching your app folders just type her last name into launchy and Voila!
Free for download (donation suggested).
5. VLC Media Player
The ultimate in video playback is here. VLC is a completely free, codec-rich program that allows you to play everything from DVDs to obscurely formatted videos. No more need for Quicktime or Window’s Media Player’s downloads (which are often impossible to find). It’s all built in.
VLC is a free download.
6. System Information for Windows
System Information for Windows, or "SIW", provides you with realtime feedback on your computer. It tracks your hardware and software information and presents it in an easy to understand format. It also offers tools like Active-X controls, password recovery, and monitor testing. In addition, it can help you retrieve license keys, measure temperatures of your processor, and more.
Another feature I really love about this utility is that it’s "portable". It’s a standalone utility that doesn’t require any installation.
Free for download.
7. Recuva
Ever delete a file by accident? Recuva (actually pronounced "recover") is a file that can retrieve any unsaved or accidentally deleted information – providing you haven’t already overwritten it . Recuva scouts out all the files flagged for overwrite and gets them back to you quickly, completely, and efficiently.
Free for download.
These are only a tiny sample of the various useful applications you can use free. Your choices are more or less limitless. It’s an awfully exciting time to be online, and as the internet flourishes more options will become available.
About Me
Kenny is an SEO and former officer here at CPA Site Solutions , one of the country’s largest companies oriented solely to accounting website design. At present we provide websites for more than 4000 CPA, accounting, bookkeeping, and tax preparation firms.
Writing a blog is easy and fun, but without readers your blog will not help you market your firm. Building a sound following, though, is a ton of work. There aren’t any cheats. It takes months, perhaps years, to solidify your reputation as a blogger. Much has been written about the need to offer interesting and continually updated content for your blog to be successful but there’s much more you need to do to get your business blog off the ground.
So how do you draw subscribers to your accounting blog?
1. Make your blog part of the way you communicate.
Your employees are a built in audience, and your blog makes a great place to post staff birthdays, meetings, after hours get-togethers, and other daily updates. Your clients can also make great readers. Use your blog to keep them appraised on tax law changes and other news that directly affects them. Don’t be shy. If you have a client that can benefit from your post send them an email and ask them to leave you a comment.
2. Don’t make visitors dig through your website for your blog.
Website users are accustomed to getting what the want when they want it, and if you don’t make it easy for them they leave. Most won’t take more than a few seconds to find your blog on your home page. Display the link prominently on your accounting website . Put it on the navigation menu where it can be seen without making them open or roll over anything. Add a nice banner link to your home page.
3. Display your website address everywhere!
The more places you post your web address the easier it will be for potential readers to find your blog. Business cards, stationary, email signatures, yellow pages and other ads are all natural places to post your URL. Also, post your URL on any blogs or forums that you participate in. When posting your URL online ask yourself whether it’s more appropriate to link directly to your blog rather than to the top level of your domain. Visitors looking for your blog won’t want to navigate through your home page.
4. Share and share alike.
Bloggers are a tight-knit, cooperative community. If you help them out, they’ll help you out. Doing this will get your name out there on other blogs in the industry and help gain exposure for your content. As a rule you’ll get a link back to your website or blog for your trouble. This is not just a great way to drive visitors to your site, the search engines also look at these links as adding authority to your domain.
Conversely, you can return the favor by inviting guest bloggers of your own. Help others help you!
5. Use your networking skills.
Putting yourself out there in online communities is a must. Joining a LinkedIn group or a more traditional forum are two ways you can do this. Don’t just promote your website. Put a link in your profile, sure, and site your blog when the opportunity arises, but it’s more important to engage the group according to their needs and interests rather than your own.
6. Mention your influences.
Use social communities to talk to your clients, prospects, and contacts; especially other bloggers.
Your contacts will very likely see and appreciate these "plugs". Most online networking sites like twitter and Facebook have tracking services that will allow your friends to get an alert when you mention them. This will get you noticed. If you help them get noticed it’s much more likely they’ll take the time to get you noticed.
7. Contests draw a lot of traffic.
It’s a fact – people love to win things. The prize doesn’t need to be exrtraordinary; it can be as simple as sharing your blog link or posting the most comments. If you want to get even more comments you could offer something even more valuable. A free tax prep might seem like one obvious choice.
Contests can also be used as a good way to cross sell your off season services. Offering a free compilation and review for a local business owner, for example, can kill two birds with one stone. It will often bring that client into the monthly fold, and it can be used to create a new blog post that highlights the value added by exploiting financial statements.
8. Keep it dynamic.
Eventually every blogger gets stuck in a rut. Once you succumb to a formula it can be hard to get past it. Don’t succumb to the doldrums! By the time you feel yourself starting to drift into limbo it’s a pretty safe bet it’s already happened. Mix up the content on your blog so your readers remain surprised and interested in coming back for me. One nice addition to your repertoire is video, and when you upload the finished piece to YouTube you draw in additional readers who might not have found you otherwise.
If you employ these tactics you’ll have a much better chance of cultivating a real following. As always, keep your content novel and keep reaching out. As long as you’re engaged, your readers will be, too.
Google has added a brand new search instrument called "Google Instant". Google is the most significant search engine on the planet and when it modifies the way it works the rumbling it causes is heard globally. Google toolbar users will find it familiar. It’s a basic keyword suggestion tool. To the everyday observer "Google Instant" really does not look like much. Google now shows likely searches based on the poularity of previous similar searches, and displays outputs in real time immediately. When you understand how it works, you can use it to find the best keywords for your services.
There’s nothing new about keyword suggestions. Google instant, however, has made these suggestions much more important. Casual users didn’t usually use keyword suggestions, probably because of the subtleties of using the keyboard to select the ones you wanted. No such subtleties are needed to use Google Instant.
I’m sure you’re wondering how this will affect you. It means that "New York Accountants" is a better keyword than "New York Accountant" because the plural version comes up as a result in Google Instant and the singular version does not.
If you can get a good ranking in a better keyword your listing will get more exposure and your accounting website will get more visits.
How It Works
With Google Instant, a searcher might be looking for a "Boston Accountant" and Google Instant will display a search results page as you type. The City name is too generic to matter, and none of the suggested keywords will be relevant to you, but look what happens as you type "a-c-c-o-u"… and soon a relevant keyword appears among the suggestions! Most users are going to stop typing here and use their down arrow to select the search term they want… "Boston Accountants". Naturally this is a search term you want to market to!
What Does This Mean for SEO?
There’s a concern in the SEO marketing community that this could negatively impact how SEO works for long-tailed keywords, phrases containing three or more words. What impact will this have on YOUR SEO? Well, if you’re a small or medium sized accounting firm you might be pleased.
The first step in the SEO process is identifying your relevant keywords. Google instant makes this process easy. As you type, the keywords Google has found to be used most often show up in gray in the search box.
The guessing game and hours spent pouring over traffic stats to identify your primary keywords are no longer necessary. Google Instant will tell you exactly what keywords and phrases are most likely to be searched.
Keyword Basics Still Count
There are some basic rules in selecting key phrases for your accounting website that still apply. The basic keywords you need to implement into your website should consist of the services you provide and your location. This will give you a base to work with. After you have a list of base keywords, expand it by making some more specific terms that potential clients might type in. For example, someone could look for "Tampa FL Strategic Business Planning."
You’ve Got the Keywords – Now What?
Make sure to use your base keywords a couple of times on your home page and other important pages. The home page should have keywords for your primary service and your location. Scatter keywords around the rest of the site as well, and optimize different pages to different, but related, key phrases. The more you customize your site the more relevant it will appear. Make sure your service pages are optimized to your location.
By following these steps, your page’s SEO score will increase. Try to optimize as many pages as you can to as many different key phrases as you can.
Work on your website continuously. Search engines prefer dynamic sites to static ones. SEO is a duty I liken to mowing the lawn; it’s a an activity that’s never actually over. It’s a process rather than a destination.
Fortunately, Google Instant makes the journey much less difficult.
Jan Carlzon once said: “Any time a customer comes into contact with any aspect of your business, however remote, that customer has an opportunity to form an impression.â€
If you look up a hotel’s website and the photos are dingy, the booking form looks unsafe and the ‘seasonal menu’ is two years old, chances are you’ll look somewhere else. The hotel itself might very well be a perfectly decent place to stay. But the first impression created by the poor website – the ‘moment of truth’ – is critical and irrevocable.
This applies to your website. In order to project a professional, reliable, reassuring image to your prospects – an image that reflects the quality of your work – then you need more than just a an accounting website. You need a GOOD accounting Website! There really is nothing worse than a site that looks like it’s been thrown together by an IT student. I’ve seen accounting firm websites with low-res scanned logos, amateur animations and ‘free reports’ and ‘Current Tax Rates’ that are four years out of date. Your website is a vitally important ‘face’ of your firm. Even if your website doesn’t bring in hundreds of new clients every month, at least make sure it doesn’t put anybody off!
As an Accounting Website Designer I have Identified a few of the worst traps to avoid.
Copyright CPASiteSolutions 2008
