Online Tools Review Blog by The 2 Tech Divas!

FreshBooks is ALL That!

Tech Diva Kirsten — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:57:12 +0000

Tech Diva Kirsten here every month I would drag my feet when it came to invoicing my clients which makes no sense as invoicing is how I get paid! But it does make sense because each month I would take the billable hours from the timing tool and drop it into my billing system, time consuming boring and just a pain so…I would drag my feet each month to get it done.

Not anymore…I found the perfect tool it is a timer and invoice system and I can even link it to my PayPal Account. So at the end of the month when I shut off the timer for the final minutes of the month I simply click generate invoice and the time is converted to an invoice for me which is then emailed to my clients, there is even an option to have the system send a hard copy invoice.

Oh did I mention EXCELLENT customer service!!!!! The day I signed up I received a call and three days later I received a hard copy invoice for $0.00 as an example. This was sent so I could see what my invoices would look like if I opted for hard copy mailing, but I’m all about virtual so I opt to email my invoices. On more than one occasion I have submitted help tickets on line around 2:00 am, and have received a call by 9:30 am. (Yes up late and up early makes for a long day a habit that I am trying to get out of) The support team is very helpful and will walk you through your issue step by step.

I can’t say enough great things about this service …check them out and let us know what you think.

www.freshbooks.com

OpenOffice instead of Microsoft Office

2 Tech Divas — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:34:57 +0000

Now Tech Diva Donna can get a little shopping crazy when it comes to electronic gadgets, but for some reason I can’t seem to shell out hundreds and hundreds of dollars for software. I bought a new PC that has Vista (which is slowly growing on me, but not completely), the trial version to Microsoft Office just expired! I don’t feel like spending money on that, but I need to work on a document. What did I do? I just went online and downloaded the next best thing. OpenOffice by Sun Microsystems. They even have a premium version called StarOffice that’s only $35 bucks! It works with Vista, and it will get you out of a jam and you can work with Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents easily. Hey it’s a recession! Check it out if you are in need of a Microsoft Office substitute. http://www.openoffice.org/

An easy to use tool to survey your clients

Tech Diva Kirsten — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 00:10:32 +0000

Tech Diva Kirsten here with an easy to use tool for creating surveys and polls.

I have used other survey tools and when comparing the ease of use I have to say Poll Daddy gets my vote. If you took part in our Social Networking Survey you experienced Poll Daddy firsthand.

In addition to using Poll Daddy to create surveys you can also use it to create a poll like the one below. (take the poll)

The tool provides response reports that are easily understood and can be exported. There is even a report that tells you what Country respondents reside in.

This is a Diva’s must have tool!

Oh … I almost forgot to mention …Poll Daddy is FREE!

Too Many Twitters, Too Little Time!

2 Tech Divas — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:35:39 +0000

Tech Diva Donna here with a cool tool that I just discovered the other day. I don’t know how many of you are using Twitter, but I am having a ball using it. I have set up one for the 2 Tech Divas of course, one for my other business The Soul Pitt and one for a top secret site that I am working on.

So that’s 3 twitter accounts to log in and out of every day. Well if you use www.tweet3.com you can manage more than one twitter account from one screen without logging into each one seperately. I love it and it is such a time saver… And of course it’s free! A true Diva wouldn’t have it any other way

Animoto is cool for video

2 Tech Divas — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 21:08:21 +0000

Tech Diva Donna here after a lonnnng hiatus. But during that time, I have found a cool video tool that I know you will love. It is so easy “a caveman can do it”! Upload your photos, upload text, pick out a song from their list or upload your own and let Animoto do its thing! It will put a cool video together using your photos with special effects and everything – leaving you looking like a Tech Diva pro! You can then share the video, put it on your site, and even upgrade to the paid version for longer videos and other options. This has to be one of the BEST FREE video online tools I have seen yet! Check it out at http://animoto.com/

Organize a Meeting in 5

2 Tech Divas — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 14:04:04 +0000

Ok, Tech Diva Donna again with a tool that I just used to organize a meeting with my group. I tend to get annoyed by going back and forth with email messages to see who can make the meeting or even calling around to get everyone together. This cool FREE tool can get your meeting organized in 5 steps:

1. Enter the details of your proposed meeting into Diarised, including the meeting invitees and the possible times and dates for the meeting.
2. Diarised sends out emails to all invitees.
3. The invitees choose the times that suit them best.
4. Once the invitees have chosen their preferred meeting dates, Diarised will give you a summary of the best dates for you to choose from.
5. All meeting invitees will be sent an email confirming the chosen date and time

Now you have no excuse to get all the divas together! Check it out at www.diarised.com

Share Your Vyew

2 Tech Divas — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 13:28:02 +0000

Tech Diva Donna here, after taking a break to catch up on all of our other projects. The other day I needed to train someone on how to do something and used this tool. Vyew is a FREE…let me repeat that, Vyew is a FREE tool that works very similar to GoToMeeting! I was able to send the client a link to click on and once they clicked the link they were able to see my screen and everything I was doing on my end. The view on their end wasn’t a complete full screen view, and the delay was a few seconds, but none the less it worked great and the client was able to fully understand what I needed to show them right from their own PC. I would definitely use Vyew when doing online demo of a site or a “how to” webinar. Works well with one on one or small groups. You can also save the work from the online meeting and then share it on a web site or blog. Vyew is also connected with Free Conference Call! Check it out at www.vyew.com

Make money on the phone!

2 Tech Divas — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:53:21 +0000

Tech Diva Donna here and I can’t wait for you to try out one of my favorite tools. Don’t you hate it when someone calls you and asks you for advice and how to do this, and how to do that, and next thing you know you have spent almost 30 minutes on the phone…giving out advice for free! Don’t you wish you could charge people by the minute to share your knowledge, offer consultations, give taro card readings over the phone, tax advice, or what ever floats your boat? Well there is a service called Ether that will do that AND more…for FREE. Well they do take a small percentage of what you make on the call, but there is no monthly fees, sign up fees or anything. I absolutely love this service and recommend it to anyone that would like to have a toll free 1-888 number to give out to clients for billable calls that charges the client as soon as you are finished and puts the money in your paypal account! Think of some creative ways you can use this tool. Check it out at www.ether.com

Stay Organized with AirSet

Tech Diva Kirsten — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:40:23 +0000

Hey there it’s Tech Diva Kirsten and have I got a tool for you!

AirSet is a great tool that is first and foremost FREE yes FREE. This is a great tool for those individuals that are looking for a way to collaborate with others online and get and stay organized.

Airset allows you to share your files, calendar, contacts, photos and even your favorite music with friends, family and business colleagues. The information you upload is only accessible to those individuals that you invite. This is a great way to free up space on your pc as the information is stored on the AirSet server and can be accessed 24/7 from any pc.

One of the features I love is the appointment reminders which are automatically sent to my pc and cell phone! Okay so now for what I don’t like, when you first log in to the tool it takes a while to load, once it loads it moves pretty fast. Other than that I haven’t experienced any problems with the tool and I have several AirSet pages meaning, I have separate pages that I share with different people for example I have a page that I share with Tech Diva Donna that only she and I can see, I have a page that I share with a client that she and the rest of her team can see, I also have a family page that I share with my husband. What’s really good is I only have to log in one place to see and have access to all of the pages :) I could go on and on about the tool but I won’t take a minute and check it out and let us know what you think.

Contacts with Keepm!

2 Tech Divas — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:16:30 +0000

Keepm is a free, simple contact management tool. Gone are the days of business cards piling up and sticky notes on your desk, Keepm makes everyone you know searchable, shareable, and always accessible. It also offers a mass import from Gmail, AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail and LinkedIn.

Keepm - The Best Way to Manage Your Contacts!
Create, Manage, and Search Unlimited Contacts
Share contacts with any email address
Download and View contacts on your phone, laptop, or iPod
Best of all, it’s FREE to use!

PS - This is tool #18 from our ebook “199 Online Tools. . .”