Give Example with your Product / Project.
You can find a tool for just about anything online, there’s only one problem: they cost money, and in some cases, lots of it! Many online tools offer a free
basic package for anyone to use, but these packages are often strictly limited, rendering these tools practically useless until you stump up the cash. In most
cases, however, there are free alternatives available, many of which are very, very good indeed.
Below, you’ll find Best Online Tools for Web Design and Development.
The Raven suite of tools were originally designed for MBA’s . but they now feature quite a few extra features for other disciplines of internet marketing so there’s Mailchimp integration, Facebook page manager, Twitter tool and most recently the introduction of PPC ad management features. For the purposes of this review we’ll stick to the MBA features.
Raven is a fully hosted web app, like all the tools in this comparison, and its biggest selling point is the sheer amount of integration it provides with 3rd party tools to pull all your campaign data together. It’s got a slick interface and is developing quickly with new features added on an almost weekly basis.
Raven recently made some significant upgrades to their link management facility which resolved some of the long standing issues with that part of the system, although aside from that in the year since this report was first written the rate of development of newMBA features appears to have slowed. Raven Tools are still a great MBA resource but are now very much a complete internet marketing tool set rather than an MBA specific one.
MBAmoz Pro Web App
SEOmoz is probably the bigges MBA community around. It’s a subscription service which gives you full access to their tools including their new ‘web app’ tool- this monitors rankings, links and makes recommendations for the optimization of your site.
BuzzStream
Unlike our first two tools, BuzzStream is designed specifically to aid the link building process. It may be a little unfair to put it head to head with 2 tools which encompass other parts of theMBA process but as any MBA will tell you, links are the most important bit of MBA so if you get that right, you've got the hardest part of the job done.
Unlike Raven BuzzStream has continued down the path of being a very specialist tool which is going to be most useful for MBA’s who are engaged in large scale link building campaigns which involve a lot of research, direct approaches to webmasters and purchasing of links.
Analytics MBA
Analytics MBA is one of a new breed of enterprise level MBA tools designed to manage the MBA process from start to finish. Analytics MBA was an appealing tool to include in the update to our review.
Advanced Web Ranking
Advanced Web Ranking is one of the first “MBA tools” . Back when a Raven was, well a Raven, and SEO was about keyword rankings and getting listed in DMOZ Advanced Web Ranking (or AWR to the lazy writer) was powering the keyword ranking reports being produced byMBA agencies the world over. These days AWR is still the de facto solution for anyone looking for reliable a desktop based rank checking tool but with its latest incarnation the AWR team have included a number of additional features which take it beyond just a very good rank checker and position it as a contender in our all in one MBA tools comparison.
Redmine
Redmine is a great, free alternative to other pricey project management apps available online. It does pretty much everything you could possibly desire, albeit in a
less polished way than some of its more expensive rivals. With Redmine, you can manage a large number of projects simultaneously, defining personal roles
and assigning tasks to specific team members if necessary. You can track time and issues, create Gannt charts and calendars, create project wikis and forums,
and manage documents and files.
Billing Boss
Billing Boss is a fantastic, free invoicing tool, designed especially for small businesses and freelancers, which lets you send an unlimited number of invoices to an
unlimited number of clients, quickly and easily. All of your invoices are saved automatically and cataloged in a logical, understandable way. Billing Boss supports
multiple currencies, is integrated with PayPal and is mobile friendly. You can even share your account with your bookkeeper or accountant.
Yuuguu
Yuuguu is a multi-platform screen-sharing tool, which allows Windows, Mac and Linux users to collaborate. You can quickly initiate an instant messaging session
with a client or team member, sharing each others’ screens at the touch of a button. It’s perfect for working together on document presentations or for writing and
editing documents in a group.
With Yuuguu, there’s nothing to download at either end, which means you can start sharing and communicating in seconds. The free Yuuguu package includes
unlimited use with other Yuuguu users and 100mins/month use with non-Yuuguu users, as well as up to 5 participants in a single session.
FavIcon Generator
Looking for a quick and easy way to create favicons for your website, then look no further than Dynamic Drive’s excellent FavIcon Generator. It’s effortless to
use, just select any image (provided it’s a gif, jpg, png, or bmp) you want to turn into a favicon and press Create Icon. Follow the simple instructions generated
to create an eye-catching favicon that will help your website stand out in your users’ favourite lists.
Dropbox
For online storage, look no further than Dropbox, an ingenious tool for storing and sharing files between all of your computers and with other team members.
Once installed, a Dropbox folder appears on your computer’s desktop. Drag files into the folder and they will automatically appear in the Dropbox folder on each
one of your computers, laptops and smartphones. What’s more, every file is automatically added to another Dropbox folder on the Dropbox website, which is
accessible from any computer in the world. Invite associates to access your Dropbox folder, for quick and easy file sharing.
BrowserShots
BrowserShots is a straightforward, free tool for checking what your website looks like in a wide range of different browsers. It really couldn’t be simpler to use.
All you have to do is enter your website’s URL into the address bar at the top, check or uncheck to select which browsers you would like to get a screenshot
from, and press Submit. You can fine-tune your search by screen size and color depth, as well as enabling or disabling JavaScript, Java and Flash.
toggl
Toggl is the perfect time tracking tool for freelance web developers and designers who tend to get paid by the hour. As an online tool, it’s available from
anywhere, which is great for those of us who frequently work away from the office. As well allowing you to create projects and start timing in a few clicks,
toggl produces performance charts and other reports for you and your whole team to analyze. Toggl can be embedded in iGoogle, Netvibes and Gmail so that
you can share your performance with others. It’s free for up to 5 users.
Google Docs
Google Docs is an online word processor and spreadsheet tool that’s free to everyone with a Google account. It works in much the same way as Microsoft
Word, offering similar features in the form of multiple fonts, font sizes and colors, page numbering, bullet points, alignment, tables and spacing etc. It does not,
however, offer headers and footers, footnotes or a powerful find and replace feature, which some people simply can’t live without.
The best thing about Google Docs is that it works seamlessly with Word, so you won’t have to worry about compatibility issues when working as part of a team.
Google Docs really comes into its own when it comes to collaboration, however. Press the Collaborate tab to work on a document with several people at once.
mockingbird
mockingbird is a wonderfully useful tool, which lets you create mockups of websites in minutes. Simply drag and drop user interface elements into mockingbird,
rearranging and resizing as you go to create a perfectly balanced page. You can add as many pages as you like, linking them all together to show clients or
associates how users might navigate through your site. Once you’ve created and saved a mockup, mockingbird issues you with a link which you can share
with other people, or an embed code so that you can embed a mockup in your own website. It’s a lightweight tool with few features (there are, for instance, no
templates to follow), but this makes it really quick and easy to use.
kuler
If you find choosing colors tricky, then take a look at kuler, a fully database driven Flash site created by Adobe Labs. With kuler, you can choose, create,
modify, mix and match colors to your heart’s content, for free of course, until you happen upon the perfect color scheme for your website. Not only can you
create your own color swatches, complete with RGB and HEX codes, you can save them and download other peoples’ swatches too. You can even extract
color palettes from illustrations and photographs, uploading them or selecting them on Flickr. Once you’ve chosen the ideal color pallet, you can download it for
use in Adobe Creative Suite.
Bespin
Bespin is a browser based code editor which attempts and succeeds to match the quality of traditional desktop editors. It offers standard editing features, as
well as syntax highlighting, support for large files, undo/redo, preview files in browser and import/export projects. Bespin not only gives you access to your entire
coding environment from any computer, it lets you collaborate in an effortless way, without the need for firewall configuration. Tweak away to your hearts content
by using various plugins until youve created the perfect editor for you.
Pingdom Tools
Pingdoms Full Page Test imitates the way a web page is loaded in a browser, showing you exactly how long it takes for each object, including images,
CSS, JavaScript, RSS, Flash and frames, to appear. The load time of each object is shown as a series of colored bars for quick and easy visual comparison.
Order each object into a hierarchy to identify any problem areas. The Test also uncovers useful, general stats, such as total number of objects and total load time.
W3C Markup Validation Service
The Markup Validator is a free tool and service that validates markup: in other words, it checks the syntax of Web documents, written in formats such as
(X)HTML. The Validator is sort of like lint for C. It compares your HTML document to the defined syntax of HTML and reports any discrepancies.
net2ftp
If youre stuck on a computer without an FTP client, try net2ftp. Its a free, web based FTP client which features all the standard FTP functions youd expect as
well as various other features, including the ability to extract files and directories and download a selected group of files or directories as an archive. There are
numerous plugins available to enhance your net2ftp experience and its integrated with Drupal, Joomla, Mambo, XOOPS and other Content Management Systems.
Pixlr
Looking for a solid image editor that doesnt cost an arm and a leg? Available in 13 languages, Pixlr provides a great, free alternative to Adobe Photoshop.
Of course, it offers nowhere near the same level of functionality or performance, but you wouldnt expect it to. It can, however, handle most editing that designers
do on a day-to-day basis. You can use layers and an array of filters and effects.
Sukesha Mishra
Marketing Trannie at AeroSoft
No comments:
Post a Comment