I’m a big fan of using tools to help me run my business better. That’s why I love the internet. There are so many ways to make your business run smarter, faster and even on autopilot that you can literally make money without even being there.

Choosing the right tools can be a challenge for some people.

Internet Resources & Tools

Here’s a list of things to consider when choosing the resources and tools to build your business:

1. How does this help my ROI (return on investment)? In other words, will using this tool make you more money?
2. Why do you want to use it? Are you considering a tool because someone told you that you MUST have it, or do you actually need it?
3. Is it in your budget? You’d be amazed at how many free and low cost options there are out there, don’t sign up for a high-priced tool before doing your research and deciding if it really is within your budget.
4. Is it user friendly? There’s nothing worse than downloading a program you need now and finding out it’s going to take you eight months to learn it. On the other hand, investing some time in learning a program that will advance your business is a smart move.

How Can Internet Tools Improve Your Business?

There are a few ways I use internet tools to build my business strong and make more money. Here they are:

Automation - This might very well be my favorite! Automate and you don’t have to be there. Plan ahead, do the work, set it and then move on to the next thing. There are many tools that make this possible.

Organization - There are tools that help you organize files, information, passwords and more.

Speedy-ness – There are many tools you can use to do things faster online. The need for speed is great when you want to get a lot of things done in a limited amount of time! (yes and I know speedy-ness is not a real word )

Recommend Internet Resources & Tools

Now, there are many tools I use in my business and over the years I’ve learned to use them well. This is my personal list of tools I use all the time. The thing is, your business and your personality is different so all these tools probably won’t fit you. Pick and choose the ones that you need and the ones you can put to action right now.

1. Wordtracker – I use this almost every day. Free keyword research tool to find out what people are searching for online.

2. Google Adwords Keyword Tool – Another keyword research tool. It’s powerful when used in combination with Wordtracker.

3. WordPress – This blog is build on WordPress and so are most all of my other websites. It allows me to automate, organize and increase my speed all at the same time with the features of this software.

4. Aweber – I couldn’t write a list of tools without mentioning Aweber. I use this program to build my email list. Best email marketing tool in my opinion!

5. Filezilla - I use Filezilla to upload files like pdf documents, audios and videos to my website hosting so I can put them on my site or link to them. There are other good uses for filezilla.

6. Gimp – Gimp is free and it’s a great graphics program. I’ll warn you that it did take a while to really learn this program. It’s one you need a bit of time to master but well worth the savings over a graphics person if you’re on a tight budget.

7. Feeddemon – I read and comment on blogs for a few reasons: to learn, to network and to get incoming links back to my site. I use Feeddemon to keep everything organized.

8. FreeMind – Sometimes I need to put my work into a mind map. FreeMind is another free tool that let’s you create these maps to help plan out your business.

9. Basecamp – Anyone who does freelancing could benefit from Basecamp. It is the ultimate in online project management. You can have multiple team members on a project, to-do lists, due dates and much more.

10. Freshbooks – When I started using Freshbooks for my client billing I shaved hours of my monthly invoicing to clients. Very useful and it also integrates time tracking and billing together.

11. Gmail – I couldn’t forget Gmail! Having a well-organized email inbox is probably one of the best things you can do for your business productivity. Gmail is an amazing tool for organizing, sorting and quickly responding to email.

12. Roboform – I posted about Roboform earlier this week. I can even think of running my online business without this tool – what a mess that would be! Hundreds of passwords but only one to remember, that’s how Roboform keeps me sane.

It’s all about the mojo! Find what works for you, do it and then make it work better.

p.s. It would be a bit of overwhelm if you decided to download and try using all these new tools at once. If you want to start with just one check out Roboform to save hours upon hours storing and trying to remember your login information. Plus Roboform automatically fills forms to save you time in more than one way. Click here to download a free trial of Roboform