If you're running a small business, you're probably looking for tools that will make it easier for you to bill invoices, track payments, and collect your accounts receivable.
You can always use offline standbys like Peachtree or Intuit QuickBooks, but you might be happy to know that there are some nice online tools that perform basic functions. Let's take a look.
Get some cash flow
Blinksale Unlike some of the better services in this roundup, Blinksale doesn't provide a free option for those with small companies who don't need all the bells and whistles. That's unfortunate, but the service is still worth checking out.
Perhaps Blinksale's best feature is its design. The service makes moving around the different modules quick and easy. It creates an intuitive environment in which to work. And when you get to work, you should be happy with what you find. The site features invoice creation tools, invoice tracking, the ability to follow up with clients from within the app, and more. It's a full-featured product that should appeal to the small-business owner who wants to do a little more than send invoices.
Although there aren't any free options, Blinksale is one of the more affordable services in this roundup. Prices range from $6 per month up to $24 per month. There's just one catch: some services charge based on the number of clients, but Blinksale charges based on the number of invoices you send. Its cheapest plan allows you to send six invoices per month.
Blinksale lets you quickly edit your invoices.
(Credit: Blinksale)Chargify Chargify is a recurring billing system that should help you manage your invoices and collections without much trouble.
Chargify does things a little differently than many of the services in this roundup. Instead of simply allowing you to create invoices and track them until payment, Chargify lets you input all the products or services your company sells, then dynamically change prices as you offer free trial periods, promotions, or refunds. The service can also be integrated into a retail site, providing you with information on the number of sign-ups or cancellations your company is experienced.
Unlike so many of the services in this roundup, Chargify won't cost you any money, if you're not generating revenue. The service is even free up to your first 50 customers. Beyond that, you'll pay anywhere between $49 per month for 500 customers, up to $2,499 per month for an unlimited number of customers. One word of caution: Chargify is ideally suited for online businesses.
Chargify helps you chart your success.
(Credit: Chargify)
Online streaming video service Stickam announced that its offering is now available to all Java-enabled phones. Users will be able to stream video over the Web from their mobile phones with the help of the company's app, Stickam Mobile. According to the company, Stickam Mobile is now available to more than 100 Java-enabled devices, including models from RIM, LG, Nokia, and HTC. The Android-based G1 from T-Mobile is also supported.
Online photo-editing service Picnik announced Monday that it has inked a deal with social-publishing platform Wetpaint. According to the company, Wetpaint's publishing offering will now feature Picnik's photo-editing services. Once Wetpaint users click "edit photo," they will have full access to Picnik's tools. The integrated service is available now to all Wetpaint users.
Cooliris, a company that provides online 3D services, announced that it has raised $15 million in its second round of funding. The round was led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers. It plans to use the funding to expand its new "3D Wall" service, which allows users to browse media online in 3D.
Online ad network Collective Media announced that it has closed a $20 million round of funding. The round was led by Accel Partners. The company plans to use the funding to "fuel organic growth" and explore acquisitions both domestically and abroad. So far, there is no word on possible acquisition targets Collective Media might be courting.
(Credit:
Criterion.com)
Highbrow film company The Criterion Collection has launched Criterion.com, an "online cinematheque" for people who want to watch movies, delve into some editorial content, and socialize with other fans.
Perhaps the most notable aspect of the new site is the fact that you can rent many Criterion films (a melange of old and newish, domestic and foreign) for $5 per stream, and that $5 will be deducted if you then choose to purchase the flick on DVD. Kind of a cool model that nobody seems to be using yet.
Criterion has also teamed up with a new film-centric social site, The Auteurs, to host a monthly "film festival" that makes a handful of Criterion films available for temporary free streaming and discussion. November's picks, sponsored by IFC, follow a "cruel stories of youth" theme and feature the World War II drama Au revoir les enfants as well as the quintessential nasty-kids story, Lord of the Flies, among others. No, there's no Mean Girls.
I know, I know, it's all a bit pretentious. Now go put on a scarf and down a few macchiatos and think about something deep.
Collective Intellect, a Boulder, Colo.-based analytics firm that specializes in crunching the discussion on blogs, forums, and social networks, announced Wednesday that it has netted $6.6 million in Series B venture capital. The investment round was led by Grotech Capital Ventures and included funding from Crawley Hatfield Capital as well as existing investors Appian Ventures and Croghan Investments.
With the fresh cash, Collective Intellect said it will beef up its marketing and sales campaigns to pull in more clients and revenue. The company's Series A round, $2.6 million in February 2006, was led by Appian Ventures.
Social-media analytics firms have been emerging recently as advertising turns an eye to the likes of MySpace.com and Twitter as an alternative to "traditional" Internet advertising, with the added possibility of uber-targeting along with social networks' reputation for being where the Web's "cool kids" currently reside. Facebook has even released its own rudimentary analytics feature, called Facebook Lexicon.
At the same time, there's the common knowledge that marketing campaigns on social networks aren't exactly cash cows. Whether or not specialized analytics firms like Collective Intellect are actually any good at boosting those ad dollars--it's really still too nascent a field to tell--there are probably more than a few nervous advertisers who want to make sure they don't miss this bandwagon.
That whole "Facebook" thing is a pretty big deal, after all.
I got the rundown on CollectiveX's new 2.0 product, Groupsites, yesterday. It's a customizable workgroup and social network site, and it's got some nice features. There's a lot on the service that's quite good. I would have no problem recommending Groupsites to someone who wants to build a professional or a social site. I don't think the service will bite or frustrate its users. But it might not excite too many people, either.
A groupsites site: clean and clear.
(Credit: CNET Networks)The big selling point of today's version 2.0 launch is that login credentials can work across its sites. Say you're a member of a professional group for work, a social club, and a parents' group. With Groupsites, you only have to log on once to get access to all the sites. Moreover, you only have to create your profile once, and if you like, you can create both business and social profiles, and select which one you want to use on each site you're a member of.
The service offers the groups themselves some nice features: Forums, a group calendar, a file library (although with limited storage), an email broadcast manager, and an activity log not unlike the Facebook mini-feed. Groupsite navigation is simple and clear. And there are some clever touches. For example, when users are setting up their professional profiles, the system can automatically write a bio based upon questions that they answer.
As a business tool (which it was originally designed for), the service is solid, if basic. There's no wiki and no open API to build custom apps. The API is 30 days out, CEO Clarence Wooten told me. In the meantime, you can put custom elements on pages, Myspace style.
The service will be compared to Ning (review), which is fair. Ning is a great tool for building mini social nets, and it's being used for both personal and professional groups. Wooten says Groupsites could also be called a "build your own Facebook," but until the Groupsites user base grows quite a bit, that's more aspirational than accurate. The service can also be compared to Microsoft SharePoint, Yahoo Groups, and Google Groups.
I like Groupsites, but its free service isn't radically better than its competitors. Business users looking to control access and branding, though, might want to seriously consider it. You can redirect custom domains to Groupsites, and for reasonable fees, you can strip out the default ads and skin the site to look just the way you like.
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Flickr is a popular photo-sharing and hosting service with advanced and powerful features. It supports an active and engaged community where people share and explore each other's photos. You can share and host hundreds of your own pictures on Flickr without paying a dime. There's also a pro service that gets you unlimited storage and sharing for about $2 a month, making it one of the cheapest hosting sites around (more on that later).
Flickr was created by a small Canadian development team in 2002 before being acquired by Yahoo a year later. Many other photo sites (including Yahoo Photos) are easier to use, but none offer Flickr's interesting features or its cohesive community of enthusiasts.
If you have the Flickr uploader installed, you can upload any picture with a right-click.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Adding your photos to Flickr
First step: Get your photos into the service. Flickr has a few options to get photos from your camera into your account, the easiest one being a little uploader app you can install on your PC or Mac (there's also a Linux version.) When it's installed on a PC, you can right-click on any photo and send it straight to Flickr. You also can use this uploader to create albums (Flickr calls albums sets) for your pictures. You can install software that lets you publish from any folder in Windows XP, without the need to use the uploading program. If you're using a Mac, there's also a plug-in for iPhoto.
If you're not keen on downloading a piece of software, Flickr lets you upload six individual photos at a time. This might work for some weekend shots, but if you've got more than 20 shots it's worth trying out the batch uploader. We recommend using the downloader software, or if you've got Yahoo's Widgets Engine installed, the latest version comes with a widget that doubles as a photo viewer and uploading tool.
Continue reading to learn how to tag and organize photos, add notes, geotag, create albums, find out if you need a premium membership, and our list of Flickr users worth checking out.
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