10 of My Favorites

June 27, 2008
Volume 2 Issue #11 

When I managed real estate offices, everyone always wanted to know who my favorite agents were or decided I had favorites and spread rumors as to who they were. OK, I’m human. I think it is time to reveal 10 of my favorites.

My 10 favorites are ones I count on every day or at least frequently. They always come through when I need them. Most of them are pretty easy to be around. They are not always glamorous, but I really like them just the same. Getting to know them may even help you somewhere along the line.

One more thing before I reveal this list of my 10 favorites... I do have other favorites but you may not care to get to know them. Some of my other favorites are capable of doing great things but they can be a little complex or don’t always play well with others. After you meet the list of 10, if you want more, you can call me or email me and I will introduce you to the appropriate ones.

Our staff consists of myself and my wife, Sarah, also known as the graphics department. So these 10 favorites of mine are programs or websites rather than people, which if you think about it, is appropriate given our line of work. They are given to you in no specific order but I’m sure some people will speculate that one is more favorite than another.

1- Snagit. Snagit, a program I use almost every day, will capture anything on your screen or even off your screen and save it in lots of different formats (including .jpg, .PDF and many others.) It will resize pictures, change them to different formats, let you add text to pictures and more. Best of all, it is easy to use. Need a picture of the home page of your website?- use Snagit. It costs around $50.00 and you can try it before you buy at Techsmith.com

2- StatCounter. This is a free program which will give you statistics about your website. It is extremely easy to use, works on almost any individual website and will even send you an email once a week telling you how many visitors you had. If you want you can find out a huge amount of information including what pages were visited the most and least, this is your program. Website is Statcounter.com.

3- SitePal. This site isn’t for everyone but when used right can keep visitors on your site and set you apart. SitePal lets you put talking characters on your site like the ones we have on our site, NextLevelSolutionsForRealEstate.com. You can record the “talking” and design the appearance of the character. Prices start at just $9.95 per month. Website is SitePal.com

4- Outlook. Outlook is a program from Microsoft to handle email and more. Actually you can use Outlook or other specific email programs. I think it is fine to have AOL or Gmail accounts but using a business like email address and a program like Outlook is the way to go.

5- 1and1. I suggest registering domain names at 1and1.com. It only costs $6.99 per year for a .com domain which compared favorably to GoDaddy and many others at the time this was written. Website is 1and1.com

6- Antivirus. Not glamorous but necessary as you need to have some kind of antivirus software. Not only do you need the software but you need to make sure it is constantly updated. The brand of antivirus software that you choose is up to you. If you purchased a computer that had antivirus software and haven’t done anything since then, your protection is probably out-of-date.

7- Pixie. Pixie is a very simple free program that will tell you any color you see on your screen so that you can duplicate it for use somewhere else. It gives you the color in several different formats so that you will have the correct color for just about any program. This is the favorite of our “Graphics Arts Department” where it is used all the time; plus it has “such a cute name.”  (Sarah) Website is Nattyware.com/pixie.html

8- Diskeeper. Diskeeper is a program that helps your computer running faster by doing something called defragging. Diskeeper is a more powerful version of what is included with Windows. If you don’t buy this program, you should use the defrag tool in Windows system tools periodically.

9- Network Magic. Network Magic is probably the most complicated of my favorites but it really is not that hard to set up and there are real people working in their tech support department. This program will let several computers share printers and files. In the summer we sometimes will work on the screened-in porch and use one of the printers in our World Headquarters through Network Magic. Website is Networkmagic.com

10- Phrase Express. This program allows you to store and insert commonly used phrases in any program. It is free for personal use. Once you start to think about the number of things that you type over and over, you will come to love this program. Website is Phraseexpress.com

You may not feel the way I do about my 10 favorites but somewhere along the way, one or two of them will become your friend. If you have favorites, we’d love to hear about them. Disclaimer- I use all of these programs but I don’t work for them, so if you have a problem with one of them you can’t be mad at me.

Monthly Tech Tip
Try one of my favorites. See if you can save time, money or aggravation. Technology should make things easier.