6 Free Tools We Couldn’t Live Without
At Uproar, we’ve benefited from numerous free tools. These are the 6 tools I couldn’t live without.
1. Google Apps
To me, the most valuable free tool has been the Google Apps suite of applications.
- Gmail provides all of our email. Nuff said.
- Documents stores all of our documents and spreadsheets online.
- Sites provides a great wiki-like site for ideas, designs, etc.
2. Subversion
All of our code and design is managed under SVN. By having a version control system, we can easily track changes while working in the same project. Additionally, each of our code releases are tagged providing an easy means to go back to a previous code version should the need arise.
3. bit.ly
How does a URL shortener turn up on this list? Well, anytime we provide a link via Twitter or this blog, we use bit.ly to wrap it. This allows us to track how many people click each URL and when. bit.ly also tracks various social networking sites and can show you if others are posting the link. This data is great for understanding the reach of your messaging. For instance, here are the details behind our link to Gratuitous.
4. Google Analytics
Where bit.ly provides a means to analyze your URL traffic, Google Analytics provides a means to analyze your website traffic. Our site is completely instrumented with Google Analytics, providing us the ability to see what is being visited, by whom, and when.
5. WordPress
WordPress runs the blog you’re reading right now. It is incredibly easy to manage, providing a means to auto-update both the WordPress software and each plugin directly from a web interface.
6. Twitter
Twitter provides a significant portion of our overall traffic (mainly due to our use of the service). Most importantly, it is a great communication tool and allows you to keep a good pulse on your community.
The Rest
The above list of course does not include all of the free apps we use, just those that I found most beneficial. Honorable mentions:
- Mint – Tracks our finances
- Tickspot – Tracks our time spent on projects (useful for uncovering avoidable time sinks)
- Highrise – Tracks contacts
- Vimeo / YouTube – Storing videos of our apps using SimFinger
Outside of this list, what free tools do you find invaluable to your business? What paid tools do you use?
Hello. Thank you for this great info! Keep up the good job!
johnny
7 Aug 09 at 1:59 am
Hey Lads,
Roar kicks arse! Just wondering if you use wordpress to power the behind the scenes for that site?
Do you use mint to sort everything involved in your finances? What to you use for invoicing clients etc?
Andrew
Andrew
12 Nov 09 at 1:32 am
@Andrew
By “that site” are you referring to our homepage? If so, no, its not running on WordPress — its a custom site Rick whipped up. The blog is the only thing we have running on WordPress.
We do use Mint to keep track of our finances and we use blinksale.com to send invoices to our clients.
kevin
12 Nov 09 at 8:53 am