Those of you who own an online business have probably gotten positive or negative e-mails about your service from your visitors from time to time. While some visitors are passionate enough to write to webmasters and explain their concerns, not everyone is going to take time to do that. That’s why every website owner should put the effort to add a feedback box to his/her website. Asking for your visitors’ feedback is the best way to find out about your business’ strengths and weaknesses and take your business to the next level.

There are plenty of ways one can add a feedback box to a website. Gathering data is only a part of the process. Working with a service that lets you analyze your data is even better. The good new is you don’t have to a programming guru to add such functionality to your website. These 5 feedback tools let you do that fast:

Kampyle: a feedback analytics package that lets you add a compact feedback button to your website and start gathering some good data from your visitors. The service lets you respond to customers’ concerns, which is nice.

CrowdSound: a social feedback tool that is very attractive and very easy to install. Gives you the chance to get some instant feedback from your visitors.

Monyta: it’s a website friendly tab that sits on the top of your website at all times and gives your visitors the call to action they need to take the next step and give you their feedback. Continue reading 5 Tools to Gather Feedback From Your Visitors

Owning a content portal is not a bad way to start an online business, especially if you are into the publishing business. If you are just starting, getting videos, images, audio, and animation files to make your portal more dynamic could be a bit challenging. That’s why royalty-free content are so popular. If you want to enhance your podcast, add animation to your portal, or want to mix videos, royalty free websites can help. It does help that you won’t have to pay a fortune to get your hands on some of these items.

These 5 exciting websites can help you find the royalty free music, video, and audio files that fit your business needs:

Graphic River: as the name suggests, Graphic River is a marketplace for stock graphics. Includes textures, vectors, icons, and templates.

Active Den: has some killer Flash content for you to take advantage of on your website. Includes music players, galleries, games, and much more.

Stock Exchange: has plenty of free and royalty free images for you to choose from. A great place for bloggers and publishers to look for high quality images. Continue reading 5 Ways to Find Royalty-Free Content For Your Portal

As an online business owner, you want to spend most of your time developing business assets and less time worrying about the platform your business is operated on. Once you have a solid, reliable content management system in place, you can spend more of your time on activities that matter the most to your business. A lot of business owners decide to go with closed source content management systems. While there is nothing wrong with that approach, you may be able to get more value out of open source solutions (and the support of the community as well).

There are plenty of open CMS solutions around these days. You can pull off almost anything with some of these solutions. Having said that, here are 5 open source CMS solutions that stand out:

WordPress: it needs no introduction. This site and millions of other sites on the Internet take advantage of WordPress. The new edition of WordPress will support multi-sites, so businesses can create many websites using one install. Can do almost anything with this CMS.

Joomla: Joomla is one of my favorite open source content management solutions for business. It’s capable of handling more sophisticated portals and has a ton of plugins and templates too. Continue reading 5 Powerful Open Source CMS for Business

Small businesses do not have the funds or the resources of those large corporations. It’s tough to throw money at a problem when you do not have any to start with. That’s why no small business owner should neglect Facebook, Twitter, and other similar social networks. These services have leveled the playing field somewhat, giving small businesses the chance to gain a gathering online (using word of mouth and other types of marketing). Getting the most out of Facebook does not require you to spend a ton of money. Sure. You may have to spend a bit on ads to promote your Facebook pages or business. A professional page design could cost you a bit as well. But most tactics you can implement for free.

You can’t become a Facebook guru in one night. But there are simple steps you can take to take your business to the next level. If you are new to Facebook and have no idea how to get more out of it to take your business to the next level, here are 10 easy-to-implement tactics that should give you ideas:

1. Make a Professional-looking Facebook page: have you seen those Facebook pages that are all over the place. There is nothing wrong with that if it’s your personal Facebook profile that is messy and full of useless content. But your business page should focus on things that matter to your audience. The looks matter too. Your Facebook page could leave a long lasting impression on your prospects, so be careful what you show on your pages. It also never hurts to invest some money to put up a more professional looking Facebook page.
2. Add Interactive Applications: setting up a Facebook page should not be the only step you take to push your business. Don’t ignore some of those apps that can make it all more interactive for your Facebook fans. No silly apps though.
3. Throw Facebook Giveaways: Facebook giveaways can be very effective, if done right. We are not talking about those fake Facebook giveaways. Having exclusive giveaways for your Facebook fans can help spread the word about your business and increase your friends on the site. Don’t forget to read the terms and conditions of Facebook on contests. Continue reading Facebook 101: 10 Effective Facebook Tips for Small Business

The iPad is a very powerful device for business. While many may use the device as an entertainment tool, business owners can certainly use it to manage aspects of their business on the go and stay on track at all times. If you own an online business, you are familiar with all the things that you will have to address everyday to make your business work. So you certainly don’t want to waste your time on the road. Thankfully, there are lots of iPad apps that you can take advantage of to run your business like a pro. In fact, here are 5 business apps for iPad that are a must have for entrepreneurs:

Analytics HD: let’s face it. You can’t get enough of Google Analytics and neither can I. Analytics HD lets you watch your data wherever you are. It’s never too late to make changes and start optimizing your websites.

TweetDeck: you can’t afford not to be on Twitter if you are a business owner. It’s really as simple as that. With TweetDeck, you can manage your followers and Twitter accounts more effectively.

Things for iPad: your iPad wouldn’t be as much handy without a decent to-do list application. Things for iPad helps you manage your projects and stay on the top of your daily tasks.

Continue reading 5 Best iPad Apps for Online Businesses

Forums have been around forever or so it seems. They may be old, but they are still one of the main ways people communicate each other and create content online. Social networking websites have stolen some of their thunder, but if you own a business, you owe it to your customers to give them a way to discuss issues and questions about your product or service. If you already own a business website, adding a forum to provide support is a no-brainer. Besides, you are going to learn a lot from watching your customers communications among each other. Thankfully, there are very easy ways to get the job done (unlike a few years ago). Here are 4 ways to get it done fast:

Forum software: the no-brainer way to do it is by picking up a copy of vBulletin or PHPBB and install it on your domain. Some of these solutions require you to pay for your license. There are plenty of open source forum scripts available on the market as well. So you have some options here. If you happen to own a Wordpress blog, you can use plugins to connect your forum to your blog. So you can bring it all together and build a more solid community with your forum.

Wordpress: this is my favorite way to do it. If you do not expect your forum to grow too large, you can always rely on Wordpress to host your forum. You get all the plugins and benefits of using Wordpress. Besides, it will be much easier to customize your website when you are familiar with the platform. It does help that Wordpress is so easy to use.

BBpess: if you have used Wordpress in the past, you have probably heard of BBpress as well. It’s a forum software by the same people behind Wordpress. The platform may not be identical to Wordpress, but it does have a familiar look and feel. You can pick up a decent BBpress theme and get started with your forum on your domain fast.

BuddyPress: another innovative solution by the folks behind Wordpress that lets you start your own social network without having to spend too much money. It goes beyond your everyday forum software. This piece of software can be used to create highly sophisticated user-driven websites fast.

Adding a forum to your website is only the start. Managing it is much more complicated and challenging. At least, you can get a head start with your forum by using the above scripts.

If you have surfed the Internet enough lately, you have probably seen those websites that come with their own talking figure. Talking figures can help increase your sales or can be annoying. That’s why you want to make sure you test it out to see how it affects your conversion rates. But thanks to talking figure services that are available on the market, you won’t have to hire a model to add a talking figure to your website.

Your Website Spokesperson is one of those services that lets you add a male or female talking figure to your website fast. The website enables you to choose from various models that are available through the service. You can choose the size, look and feel, and your model’s wardrobe. You can even choose to add your own script or choose the professional quality service offered by YWS. Continue reading How To Add a Virtual Spokesperson To Your Website

Whether you are a small business owner hoping to get your business online and take it to the next level, or you are interested in building a loyal following for your blog or your mature website, you are going to need a newsletter manager to help you manage your lists easier. Online marketers have used list mangers for a long time to expand their business and make more money with less effort. These services not only make it easy for your visitors to subscribe and unsubscribe from your lists. They also help you stay compliant and reduce your liabilities as well.

As a business owner, you want to make sure you pick the right outsourcing partner to manage your e-mail lists. That means you want to choose a service that doesn’t life difficult with its interface and provides you with appropriate support. Of course, you can always manage your newsletter yourself if you have the resources. But problems will arise from time to time, so you want to be ready for it.

If you are looking for a newsletter solution for your business, here are 4 business e-mail marketing services that can come in handy:

Aweber: we may be a bit biased here, but Aweber has been a service that we have been using for years, and it continues to be a great partner for our business. The interface is very easy to get used to and the service gives us a lot of control over our forms and how we manage our lists. Managing subscribers couldn’t be easier. Besides, the service is very affordable too. If you are going to have a lot of lists, you are going to enjoy working with Aweber.

We all know how powerful a business card can be? If you happen to have gotten your business card to the right person, doors can open for you out of nowhere. But these days, you are going to need more than a business card if you want to generate leads and take your business to the next level. That’s where the Internet comes in. You can not only search for business cards online, but you can also create business and social networking cards online as well. As a business owner, you want to get your brand in front of as many people as possible. That can’t be any easier with all the services available for doing just that.

With that in mind, here are 4 exciting social/business card services that can help you better promote your business and take it to the next level:

Card.ly: an exciting social networking card service that lets you create a card based on your online profiles on Facebook, Twitter, and … It’s free and very flexible as well.

Retagger: if you happen to be a power player in the social media, you are going to love this social card generator. Lets you integrate most of your online presences and share them with the world through your e-card. Continue reading 4 Exciting Social Card Services For Businesses

In case you haven’t noticed, tax time is awfully close again. Whether you are a corporate or an individual, you only have a few months to get your tax documents in the system. Of course, the deadline could be different depending on the type of tax return you want to file. But most people will have done their tax by April. Many small business owners prefer doing their taxes by themselves. After all, that saves you a bit of money that you can spend on other things. But doing things by hand can be difficult, which is why you want to pick up proper software to help you prepare your taxes and stay on the top of legal issues associated with running your business.

To prepare your business taxes, you are going to need a decent accounting software as well as a good office suite. It would also help if you have a legal reference to go with those. With that in mind, here are 5 software kits that let you prepare your business tax more effectively:

TurboTax Business Federal + efile 2009: designed to help you prepare your business tax fast. It helps you maximize your business deductions too. It’s not perfect so don’t get too aggressive with your write offs.

Quicken Home & Business 2010: Quicken has helped me a lot with my business. It helps me keep track of incoming and outgoing funds. Of course, it’d be nice if we could get the updates for free once in a while. But the software is constantly improving, so you’ll have all you need to keep track of your business transactions. Continue reading 5 Best Tax Software For Small Businesses