Recommended Links

Need I say more?  These recommended links are really recommended! They are as much for you as for me coz they are valuable!

Recommended links include links to useful IT & Web related sites as well as a Miscellaneous section that includes tangentially related sites like e-cards.

Quick Index of Recommended Links

ANALYTICS

• cutroni.com/blog/ : Analytics Talk: Digital Analytics for Business (by Justin Cutroni)
• gatipoftheday.com : Google Analytics Tip of the Day
• Google Analytics Academy: Digital Analytics Fundamentals
• Google Analytics: Google Analytics Solutions Gallery  (bundled solutions e.g. dashboards, custom reports, segments) for newbies or gurus. Great help to learn GA and get started.
• support.google.com: Google Analytics Help Center
• support.google.com: Google Analytics URL builder (tool/form to help add parameters to URLs for use in your Custom Campaigns).

ARTICLES DIRECTORY – Submission/Free Content

• 1888articles.com – 188Articles
• allbestarticles.com – AllBestArticles
• articleclick.com – ArticleClick
• articledashboard.com – Article Dashboard (17/08/13 Discovery Note: can join but seems have to now pay a one-time fee of $47)
• articlegeek.com – ArticleGeek Free content as well as free article submission
• article-hut.com – Article Hut Offers free article submission
• articlesbase.com – ArticlesBase “Free online articles directory”
• article.getblogs.com – Articles @ GetBlogs.com
• buzzle.com – Buzzle – Discovered on 17/08/13, no longer accepting new submissions.
• ezinearticles.com – Ezine Articles
• goarticles.com –  GO Articles
• hubpages.com – HubPages Can also include your blog’s RSS. More of a Content site.
• podcastdirectory.org – PodCast Directory Upload audio MP3s
• podcastingnews.com – PodCastingNews Upload audio MP3s
• slideshare.net – SlideShare Upload your PowerPoint
• squidoo.com – Squidoo Can also include your blog’s RSS. More of a Content site.

AUTHORITY Sites & Sites of Interest

• mattcutts.com.com – Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO
• slate.com – Technology

COLOR

• colorschemedesigner.com –   Color Scheme Designer – Fantastic online color chooser tool.  For web color scheme or artistic endeavours. Simple to use yet complex enough to give detailed useful variations. Highly recommended.

CONTENT SPINNERS

• jetspinner.com – JetSpinner Recommended by Richard Legg

DOMAINS & REGISTRAS

• whoismydomain.com.au –   WhoIsMyDomain – (http://www.whoismydomain.com.au/) I found this much more useful (i.e had results) than whois.net or whois.ausregistry.com.au

GOOGLE Products

Note: If you are logged on to any Google products, e.g. Gmail – then you will be logged on to Google’s ecosystem (i.e. all its related products). In that case, when you click on some of the product links below, it will take you directly to your account.

• • Google Photos – to your Google Photos
  • Google Photos Help – basic help topics for Google Photos
  • Google Storage: to your Google Account’s Storage Space – At a glance the amount you have used up of the 15GB that Google gives you with their Google account (includes Google Drive, Gmail, “original size” Google Photos)

HTML Resources

• reference.sitepoint.com –  HTML Elements – really useful quick reference of all the HTML elements

INTERNET MARKETING

• waystoavoidscamsonline.com – Ways To Avoid Scams Online Seems like a good place to turn to if in doubt about any online program.  The site owner seems willing to assist.

MISCELLANEOUS

• Free-e-cards-online.com – Free E-Cards Online. I have not used this site extensively but it does seem to have a big number of free e-cards. And we all know that there are occasions when having a selection of (free) e-cards is extremely useful.

RSS

• feedage.com – Feedage RSS Aggregators. Submit your RSS feed.
• feedraider.com – FeedRaider RSS Aggregators. Submit your RSS feed.

SEO

• bing.com – Bing Keyword Research (free tool.  You have to sign in to your Bing or Microsoft account to use)
• google.com – Google Keyword Planner (free tool.  But you need to have a (free) AdWords account to use it. Recommended tool. )
• semrush.com – SemRush free keyword tool (recommended but only a few free keyword searches per day. Otherwise it is pretty pricey: US$69.95 per month)
• spyfu.com – SpyFu for Free SEM (Search Engine Marketers) tool, a PPC (Pay Per Click) analysis tool, giving estimates what people (competitors) are currently paying per click for various keywords and phrases
• theupperranks.com – How Many Backlinks Does it Take to Rand a New Website (Link Building Case Study). Interesting case study on 2 fairly young sites and their backlink strategies which helped them achieve significant organic traffic.
• ubersuggest.org – UberSuggest (great to generate keyword alternatives whenever you need to create a list of possible keywords)

SOCIAL MEDIA and NETWORKS

• allfacebookemoticons.com – All Facebook Emoticons A list of shortcodes for emoticons that can be used generally on Facebook
• socialmarker.com – SocialMarker A Social Bookmarking site
• youTube MP3 – free online download. Quick and easy. Recommended.

TOP BLOGGERS (“Guru Sites”)

• becomeablogger.com – Become a Blogger
• copyblogger.com – Tools and Training for Smarter Content Management (Totally Recommended!)
• entrepreneurs-journey.com – Entrepreneurs-Journey by Yaro Stark
• problogger.net – Problogger by Darren Rowse
• strategicprofits.com – Strategic Profits by Rich Schefren
• richard-legg.com – Richard-Legg.com

WEB DESIGN & Development

• css-tricks.com – CSS TRICKS Great site for css tips and tricks. Recommended.
• designcontest.com – a platform (for running design contests) where you can get designers to design for you within your budget. Or if you are a designer, to submit your work to projects of your choice. Intriguing & interesting concept.
• firstsiteguide.com – useful blog and resources on how to develop your website. (Addendum Jan 2017: in particular, pay attention to their new section: Online How-to Guides.  They look very useful indeed!)
• getbootstrap.com – Bootstrap The official site where you can download everything needed for bootstrap.
• hostingfacts.com – .htaccess Generator  A super handy tool to quickly generate code for your .htaccess and htpassword files.  Just fill in a few fields and it will generate code for you.  (N.B.  I have not used it myself but it sure looks handy. I will definitely be turning to this the next time I need to do something in this area! )
• htmlkit.com – Favicon from Pics Free online tool to convert pic of your choice into a favicon
• lab.maltewassermann.com –   Viewport Resizer – GREAT bookmarklet.  Allows you to view the layout responsiveness of  site for on different devices – phones, laptops, desktops, etc. Recommended. 
• material.io – Icons Great place for free icons.  Lots of clean line icons.  ♥
• onextrapixel.com – How to use Twitter Bootstrap to Create a Responsive Website Design
• sitepoint.com – Twitter Bootstrap Tutorial – Handling Complex Designs
• webdesign.tutsplus.com – Twitter Bootstrap 101: Introduction

WEB UTILITIES

• • CamStudio.org – CamStudio Free Streaming Video Software (PC only)
  • seositecheckup.com: Sitemap Test – very handy online tool. Quickly check if your site has a sitemap.  Also get some health stats of your sitemap. But it does only one sitemap and then requires you to wait 57 minutes or register 🙁
  • –

WORDPRESS

GENESIS by StudioPress

• briangardner.com –  Code Snippets (listed by Brian Gardner)
• studiopress.com –  Code Snippets (if you have bought from StudioPress) or you can also try this StudioPress code snippets page
• studiopress.com –  StudioPress – the creators of the Genesis Framework  and StudioPress Theme (<= yes, yes!  Affiliate link. I love it unashamedly, so!).  This site runs on Genesis.
• StudioPress.TV  (aff link) – watch step-by-step video tutorials on Genesis or even get latest videos delivered to your email address for free.