Here are the websites & software tools that I've found helpful for my business.

I used to have affiliate links on this page, but I've now decided not to.  Now I share only links I believe in, without any financial incentive.

May you benefit from this page of resources!   ~ George Kao

My Staple Productivity Tools

• Focusmate -- virtual co-working for accountability
• Coach.me -- I use the free version for habit tracking and social accountability
• Todoist -- task-management software. Simple and fast.
• Google Inbox -- email, business and personal (how I manage email)
• Google Calendar -- personal and business calendars
• Google Voice -- separate accounts for business / personal
• AcuityScheduling -- scheduling appointments with people. If you don't need to send automated reminder and follow-up emails, also try Calendly.
• OneTab -- to simplify the many tabs that are open on a browser -- try it!
• Timers -- Tomato Timer for pomodoros, otherwise Timer-Tab is flexible
• Eternity App -- time logging. Also try aTimeLogger.
• ​Sounds -- Pandora -- Relaxing ambience and guitar and sometimes rhythmic electronic music. 

Learning / Content Curation

• YouTube™ Thumbnail Rating Bar -- searching Youtube is one of the quickest ways to learn anything. This Chrome browser plug-in helps you quickly see if a video is well-rated, before you click on it.
• Refind -- Once you sign in, there's a search box at the top. Type in any topic you'd like to learn about, to find some of the best articles available. Usually higher quality stuff than a Google search.
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Money Tools

• For USA -- Mint is what I use.  Clients also like YouNeedABudget.
• For Canada -- Mint.ca
• For AU and NZ -- Getpocketbook  
• Other Countries -- Xero  
• Send money internationally using TransferWise for better exchange rates
• Healthy Money (my thoughts and methodology on money management)
  
  
  

Website Tools

• Google Domains or alternatively, Hover.com (for registering your own domain name, e.g. YourBrand.com; reliable and more ethical than GoDaddy)
• Weebly (for easily creating your own website, like this one.  I've used it since 2009 and it's worked well. This very website is built on weebly.)
• Alternatives used & liked by clients: Squarespace, Wix, Yola, or even Google Sites.
• QuackIt (Online HTML editor -- for formatting web text with no tech knowledge)
• WorkMark.it -- my favorite website for comparing fonts, and to actually use it, try Google Fonts.

Getting Help For Your Website, Copy Editing, Graphic Design & Technical Needs

• Fiverr (For $5 to $50 you can get logos and graphics created, as well as many other little jobs done.  Could be a good place to find contractors for bigger projects too, by testing their skill with smaller ones.  Here's my video on how I use fiverr.)
• Upwork (my favorite freelancer directory -- click here for my video on how to use it)
• TaskRabbit (makes it easy to hire local help)

Mailing List Management
(otherwise known as Email Marketing, Email List, or Email Newsletter)

• MailChimp (free for up to 2,000 subscribers). Up-and-coming competitors to also look into: Seva (formerly ConvertKit -- people tell me it's much better than Mailchimp) and ActiveCampaign 
• MailboxForwarding (I haven't used this yet, but would if I needed to get a different business mailing address.)

Online Shopping Cart
(for customers to pay you via credit card online)

• ​Paypal (worldwide)
• Other shopping carts worth looking into: Amazon Pay and gumroad

Conference, Teleclass, Webinar Technology
(For Teleclasses & Teleseminars Small and Large)

• Zoom.us -- what I use for all my private video conferencing, as well as group calls of up to 100 participants.  They have video breakout rooms. Here's my video tutorial on how to use zoom. 
• Uberconference.com -- an innovative conference calling service, at a reasonable price
• ​Google Slides -- if you need to create a slideshow

Podcasting Resources

• Libsyn -- what I used to host my podcast.  If I were starting over I would probably use something more modern, e.g. Simplecast, Spreaker, Podomatic, or Podbean.
• Fiverr -- what I used for my podcast artwork.
• My mindmap on how to do podcasting

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Online Ideas Collaboration

• Google Drive -- documents, presentations, spreadsheets
• MindMeister -- my favorite mindmap tool. My public mindmaps.
• MindMup -- free mindmapping
• Workflowy -- fast, simple outlining

Online Survey Tools

• Google Forms (for tutorials, click here.)
• Clients have also liked TypeForm.

Online File Sharing

• Google Drive -- what I use for file sharing with clients and public audiences.
• Dropbox -- when I'm uploading a very large file (e.g. over 1 gig) this tends to be faster, more reliable than Google Drive.

Image Tools

• Pablo -- what I use to easily create image quotes. Here's how I use it.
• Canva -- much more full-featured than Pablo
• Creative Commons Free Image Search -- to learn how to use this, click here.
• Where to get awesome free images
• Compressor.io -- reduce file size of images so they're faster to load online
• uMarkOnline -- add a watermark to your images for free
• Creately -- make venn diagrams, flow charts, etc.
• Techsmith Jing -- Free Screen Capture and Call-Outs

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Audio Tools

• Vocaroo.com -- Easily Record Short Audio
• Audacity -- Free Audio Editing and Recording (tutorials here)
• The Levelator -- Level The Volume Of All Teleclass Speakers (Levelator)
• Speakpipe -- allow website visitors to leave you voicemail without the phone
• Convert2MP3 -- convert a Youtube video to an MP3 file, without having to download a converter file  

Video Tools

• Screencast-o-matic -- how I make my screencasts, e.g. my Zoom tutorial.

Automation Tools

• Mailchimp -- for sending newsletters & email autoresponders
• Zapier -- for linking together many tools, e.g. Mailchimp, Paypal, Spreadsheets, Gmail, Trello, etc etc. Lots of possibilities in how to automate your virtual tasks.
• IFTTT -- a free alternative to Zapier

Feel free to share this webpage with others.  The link to send, or post on social media, is: www.georgekao.com/tools