5 Websites I Go To Every Day of the Week (not including Facebook)
As someone who spends a good deal of his time in front of a computer (that coincidentally is next to another smaller computer) I spend a lot of my time online. While there are a whole variety of websites I might use on a semi-regular basis to manage my life, inspire my imagination, or simply pass the time while I’m waiting for a .zip file to download – there are a handful of sites that have become so valuable to me, that I can’t imagine going through a single day without them. Similar to the way I ponder how anyone managed to find a particular location before GPS or at the very least MapQuest – I’m beginning to forget how on Earth I accomplished any tasks before I started using these website.
LogMeIn
www.logmein.com
cost: FREE
In a perfect world I would have one computer in a mystical realm of the internet, and at home and at work and everywhere in between, I would just have monitors and keyboards that could connect to my computer – and so all my files and applications would be available from any location, any time I needed them. While that world is rapidly approaching – in our current moment I would often find myself getting home only to discover I had forgotten a file I needed back at the studio. I have struggled with .Mac accounts, MobileMe accounts, and iDisk accounts – and nines times out of ten the file I needed was never where I needed it.
With LogMeIn I simply register my various computers (currently three of them) with my account – and once logged in, I can control the desktop of any of those machines through the web browser. I close down applications I may have left running – I can post or email files that are only on one machine – I can even use software that I only have a single license for. I’ve converted video files, for example, using my Mac Pro in the studio, from a web browser on my MacBook at home.
There is also a paid version of the website that has more features – like being able to drag files onto the browser to place on another machine – or creating a virtual network between all your machines online. However – I’ve been fine with the free version.
FunctionFox – TimeFox
www.functionfox.com
cost: $35/month
Time is money as they say. Never is that expression more true than when you run your own services business such as myself. While we typically quote a flat price for larger projects such as websites or branding packages – much of our time is actually spent making smaller updates to websites and applications we’ve created for clients in the past.
On any given day I might do work for 6 or 7 different clients. Some of these might be multi-hour tasks, while others might take as little as 10 minutes. However – over the course of a month those smaller tasks add up – and if you’re not counting them, you’ve just lost a good deal of revenue.
There are a lot of Time Tracking applications and websites out there and I’ve used a variety of them over the years. But I haven’t found anything that works for my needs like Timefox. It is purposely under-designed and under-featured, to handle the one thing I need it to do – record my time for various projects from numerous clients. It is then super easy to generate a variety of reports, so I can quickly determine what I need to invoice each of my clients – or how we are doing on a particular project based on initial estimates, and what time we’ve put in to date.
Plus – about a year ago my colleague Jessica and I were contacted by the CEO of the company, Mary-Lynn Bellamy-Willms because she was going to be in Portland and wanted to take a few of the long-time customers out to breakfast at The Heathman. Now I’ve spent a lot of money on a lot of services over the years – and never received so much as a thank you – let alone a complimentary breakfast and some great conversation. Take a tip from a Canadian company – that simple breakfast not only made me a customer for life – but also a part-time sales rep, as I now recommend FunctionFox even more than I did before.
Mint
www.mint.com
cost: FREE
While I can’t say I’ve been the best accountant for my ever growing small-business (and as of 2010 have handed most of those reigns over to a spectacular new CPA) I have always been good about keeping track of every expense and income the business made, using Quickbooks. It is a pain sometimes to muscle my way through it, but since the very beginning I have known exactly what my business made and where that money went – and that knowledge was vital.
When it came to my personal life, however – that was another story. The closest thing I had to records was my monthly statement from my bank – and when I went paperless a year ago – I all but lost any record of where my money was going. I was like the federal government – only without the capacity to print more money. That’s where Mint.com stepped in.
Mint is like a very slimmed down version of Quickbooks (and as of late last year, is owned by the same company). You attach your various personal checking and savings accounts, any credits cards or investments, car payments, etc. – and Mint.com does most of the rest. I was able to quickly create a monthly budget by entering in the various recurring bills (rent, cell phone, netflix, etc.). When those transactions occur – Mint.com updates my monthly budget so I know how much I’ve spent in the various areas of my life. Once you’ve identified what type of an expense each transaction is (and it actually does a pretty good job guessing) – the next time you go back to that vendor, it fills in that information for you.
Best of all, Mint.com is free!
So now I can very easily determine how much I’ve spent on food, or utilities, or even beer. It’s a lot easier to understand what you’ve been doing (or at least spending your money on) when your personal life is broken into a pie chart. Other tools on the site help you to create strategies for working off debt, building a saving and more.
Smashing Magazine
www.smashingmagazine.com
cost: FREE
There are a lot of great websites out there to gain inspiration from in my field. I’m lucky to be a part of an industry that is rapidly changing at every moment and in almost every facet. New trends form in web design almost every day – and the trap of falling into your same style or layouts is always present. That’s why I start out almost every day checking out Smashing Magazine.
Not only does their Twitter feed drag me to their site several times a day – but anytime I find myself hung-up on a technique, or trying to find a simple design solution for an eNewsletter or campaign site – their lists of “Best Of”s always have something that solves my dilemma. And no – I’m not just saying this because they featured our website for Aviation Gin on a blog post about websites for the alcohol beverage industry.
Some of my favorite posts have been:
25 Mac Apps That Will Boost Your Productivity
50 Fresh Portfolio Sites For Your Inspiration
Expecting Rain
www.expectingrain.com
cost: FREE
This is probably the site I go to every day that would be the least useful to anyone else. That is unless they happen to be a fanatical Bob Dylan fan. Expecting Rain takes its name from a line in Dylan’s classic “Desolation Row” (Everybody is making love. Or else expecting rain.) The site is a collection of all Bob Dylan news stories and ramblings from across the internets. On any given day, 15-20 links will appear, ranging from blog posts on obscure bootlegs to concert reviews from German press outlets. It never ceases to amaze me that one man could have so much written about him on a daily basis – but apparently the world of Bob Dylan never stops.
The site also posts links to stories about Dylan collaborators, cover songs and great YouTube clips (which are usually removed from YouTube a few days later at the request of Columbia Records). Certainly not for the casual fan – but for those with a bit of a Bob Dylan obsession – this site is a life saver.
Leave a Reply