GMAIL USERS: We hope you’ll join the discussion over on Mashable’s Google Buzz account.

We’ve discussed how you can integrate Buzz with your other social networks, but what about integrating Buzz with your blog? If you use a self-hosted WordPress blog (sorry, WordPress.com users), there are already a variety of Google Buzz plugins and add-ons available.

While it’s clear that people are really taking to using Buzz to share content and communicate, the service will undoubtedly reach more users as its sharing tools are integrated into other social sites. From buttons to social stream in your side bar, here’s how you can integrate Buzz with your WordPress blog.

Google Buzz Buttons

Mashable started sporting some nifty Buzz buttons a few days ago and lots of our readers have wanted to know how to add a similar feature to their own blogs. As it stands right now, how our Google Buzz buttons work (and how the buttons other sites are using also work) is that they create a share link from that post to Google Reader. As long as Google Reader is connected with your Google Buzz account, your publicly shared items will also be shared on Buzz.

Already, a number of enterprising WordPress plugin developers have answered the call to add Google Buzz buttons to WordPress posts.

Let’s take a look:

Google Buzz Button

Internet Techies created the Google Buzz Button plugin that allows you to add a “Buzz This” button to each of your WordPress posts. That icon probably looks pretty familiar — that’s because the button was designed here at Mashable (though it isn’t the same plugin).

The plugin options are relatively limited — you can choose what “rel” attribute you include with the link (the default is “nofollow”) and you can choose to display the button before or after your post content. You can also specify the icon’s height and width. Making some changes to your WordPress theme’s CSS options, you could further customize the appearance of the button, but as it stands, it’s a pretty basic (and easy) way to add a Buzz button. If you want to add Buzz manually to only certain posts, there is a template tag that you can add to those posts.

WP Google-buzz

Another button plugin option is WP Google-buzz from Arpit Shah. This button is extremely similar to the Google Buzz Button plugin, but it adds a few more options. You can choose to show the button before or after content or to add it to posts manually, but there are also options for what style button you want to use. Depending on how you have your blog setup, you might want to use a different size or style of button.

WPBuzzer

Hameedulah’s WPBuzzer is the most robust of the Google Buzz button plugins as of right now. The style of the button is almost identical to what Mashable and the Google Buzz Button use (albeit, not quite as clean), but the options are where this plugin really shines.

You can choose where you want your buttons to appear (on posts, on pages, on the home page, in your RSS feed), whether your want the button to appear before or after the post, the target for the button (a new window or a pop-up share option) and even the CSS style. You can also choose to use a small or large button.

The biggest feature is that you can track share counts (just like we do at Mashable) if you have a Bit.ly API key and login.

Light Social

The Light Social plugin takes a slightly different approach to the Google Buzz button. Light Social is a plugin that inserts a set of social share links at the bottom of each of your WordPress posts. This way links to Digg, Reddit, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are all automatically at the bottom of the post. The developer of Light Social updated the plugin to include a Google Buzz icon and share link as well. If you want to add lots of social options to your posts — Light Social is a good approach.

Buzz In Your Sidebar

It’s one thing to let other people share your content to their buzz accounts, but a big advantage of Buzz is that you can aggregate your social activities into one place as well. Check out these options for adding some Buzz to your sidebar!

Google Buzz ER

If you want to share your Buzz content on your blog, check out the Google Buzz ER plugin. Google Buzz ER is extremely cool. It’s a widget that will display your public Buzz content. Just enter in your username and define how many Buzz entries you want to display and drag the widget to your designated choice in your blog.

That’s it! Now you have Buzz in your sidebar! Plus, as an added benefit, other users can click on “comment” to immediately respond to what you share. As of right now, the Buzz API doesn’t allow other people’s comments to become viewable, so only your public content is going to appear on your blog.

BuzzCounter.net

Another option for adding a Buzz widget to your blog (WordPress or otherwise) is BuzzCounter.net. Just fill in your username and you can generate the JavaScript to paste onto your website or blog!

Buzz Your Comments

There are a number of different all-inclusive comment solutions for WordPress — there’s Echo, Disqus (which we use here at Mashable) and IntenseDebate. IntenseDebate is owned by Automattic, the people behind WordPress.com and some of the main contributors to the WordPress.org project. So it probably shouldn’t be a surprise that it’s the first of the solutions to offer Buzz integration into its service.

If you use IntenseDebate on your blog, you can now easily add a Buzz It button to the top of your comment form. This won’t let people Buzz their own comments (we expect something like that will come in the future), but it adds another “Share on Buzz” option for your post to your visitors. If you use IntenseDebate, you can activate the Google Buzz This plugin by enabling it in the Plugins Directory.

Keep Your Eyes Peeled

As Google Buzz continues to evolve (remember, it isn’t even a week old), more and more integration options are going to sprout up. Let us know what sort of integration options you’d like to see in the future in the comments! If we missed one of your favorite Buzz plugins, let us know!

Tags: buzz, Google, google buzz, how to, List, Lists, Wordpress, wordpress plugins

Ross Kimbarovsky is the co-founder of crowdSPRING, a community of 43,000+ graphic designers that helps small businesses from around the world with graphic design needs. You can follow Ross on Twitter @rosskimbarovsky and @crowdSPRING.

Capacity – especially to plan and execute effective marketing strategies – is a big challenge for every small business. In this post, I’ll offer 10 suggestions for how small businesses can supercharge their marketing efforts by leveraging social media. For each suggestion, I will discuss a basic strategy – for those who simply want to get their toes wet, as well as an advanced strategy – for those who want to spend a bit more time and go a bit deeper in their social media marketing efforts. These tips are based on my experience leveraging social media marketing for my company, crowdSPRING.

I suggest you begin by outlining clear goals for your social media marketing efforts and figuring out how you’ll measure success. Once you’ve outlined your goals, let’s look at 10 great ways you can begin to leverage social media for your marketing efforts.

1. Facebook

Facebook offers exceptional, low cost marketing opportunities for small business. Facebook now has over 300 million users, and while that seems like an outrageous number for small businesses to be targeting, Facebook offers a very powerful platform on which to build a presence. If you’re not already active on Facebook; you should get started right away.

Basic Strategy: If you haven’t signed up for Facebook yet, you absolutely should as soon as possible. Once you’ve signed up, you should also consider securing your company’s username. Be aware, however, that if you reserve your company name for your personal account, you won’t be able to use it for your Business Fan Page (more on those in the Advanced Strategy), so you may want to create a Page before registering your company’s name. Fan Pages have special rules regarding usernames, which you can read here.

You should do one other thing: search for your competitors and evaluate their Facebook presence. What types of Pages have they built? How many fans or “friends” do they have? Spend 15 minutes (per competitor) looking at their posts, photos and/or videos to understand how they’re using Facebook.

Advanced Strategy: You may already have a personal Facebook account, but how do you extend that presence for your business? You have several options. You can register a Business Account – which is designed for a very simple presence on Facebook. There are many limitations on such accounts (read the FAQ here), however, so you’ll most likely prefer to have a Business Fan Page. A Business Fan Page lets you create a page where customers or fans of your business can register as a “fan” — expanding the presence of your business (because your updates will also flow to their pages). You might also want to consider running hyper-local ads on Facebook.

2. Twitter

Twitter has grown tremendously over the past year. For some small businesses, it offers an incredible marketing platform. BusinessWeek’s recent profile of 20 ways businesses use Twitter might give you some ideas about how you can leverage Twitter for your business.

Basic Strategy: If you haven’t signed up on Twitter yet, you should sign up today and reserve an account in the name of your business. While you might ultimately tweet in your own name, you’ll want to have the option to tweet from a business account. More importantly, you don’t want your competitors to register your business name. Twitter has put together a simple guide to help you understand what Twitter can do for business. You can also check out Mashable’s Twitter Guide.

Next, you should spend 15-30 minutes on Twitter’s homepage, doing basic searches to become familiar with the type of content available on the service. For example, if you are operating a small gift basket business, do some searches for various terms and phrases such as “gift basket,” “gifts,” “gift basket business,” etc. You should also search for the names of your competitors to see whether they’re on Twitter and if they are, how they’re using it. And don’t forget to search for your small business name – your customers may already be talking about you! Once you become comfortable with the content that’s already available and how your competitors are using Twitter, you can begin thinking about a strategy for how you’ll leverage Twitter for your business.

Advanced Strategy: To truly leverage Twitter, you’ll want to learn and use a few more advanced tools. This includes desktop and mobile Twitter clients like TweetDeck, Seesmic, and Tweetie. Desktop clients give you more flexibility and more control over your Twitter strategy than you’ll have on the Twitter website. Among other things, you’ll be able to pre-define searches (so that you can monitor certain keywords, including your business name) and group people you follow so that you can minimize the noise and focus on the real content. You might also consider using a web tool like Twitterfall, which will allow you to define (and color-code) various custom searches that you can review from time to time, and also to follow trending topics. For example, I use Twitterfall to identify helpful graphic design and industrial design resources to share with the crowdSPRING community.

3. Company Blog

Although there’s more attention focused today on social networks than on company blogs, blogs continue to offer great value for small businesses.

Basic Strategy: At a minimum, you should consider reserving a domain name for your blog – if you don’t already have a custom domain for your business. If you’re comfortable enough to set up your own blog, that’s generally the best way to proceed – although this requires a bit more technical knowledge (many hosting providers offer a 1 step easy setup for blogs that will automatically install WordPress for you). You can also setup a blog directly at WordPress.com (it’s easier to do, but you don’t have full control over everything that you would on your own site).

One easy alternative is to set up a simple blog at Posterous – a place to post stories, photos, videos, MP3s, and files. There are pluses and minuses to all of these options – you should take some time to compare them and do what makes sense for your business. I caution you only about spreading yourself too thin.

Advanced Strategy: Now that you’ve decided to start or improve your small business blog, how do you build an audience for it? It all starts with great content. Decide on a focus for your blog, and write awesome content that people will enjoy. For example, some months ago at my company, we decided that we wanted to write more about small business issues, so we’ve been writing original posts focusing on issues affecting small businesses. Think about your expertise and more importantly, think about the things that you’re interested in writing about. A blog requires a long term investment of time (and resources), and you don’t want to be stuck writing about things that bore you.

You’ll also want to consider how you can make it easier for your readers to help promote your content. For example, install helpful plug-ins, such as a TweetMeme button, which makes it easy for people to retweet your posts on Twitter. Don’t be afraid to experiment with plugins to add to the functionality of your blog, but keep it simple. You want to keep the blog focused, and easy for your readers to use.

4. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a business oriented social network for professionals, and it’s huge, with nearly 50 million users from over 200 countries.

Basic Strategy: Once again, you’ll want to at least reserve your business name (or your personal name) so that others can’t use it. Similar to the way you might start exploring Facebook and Twitter, you should look around on LinkedIn to see how your competitors are using the service. You might also look up your customers and connect with them.

Advanced Strategy: LinkedIn has some powerful features that most people don’t use. For example, you can encourage your customers, clients or vendors to give you a “recommendation” on your profile. Recommendations are useful because they’ll make you and your business more credible with new customers. If you’re a roofer, for example, ask your customers to recommend you after a successful job. You’ll find such recommendations useful – particularly since your LinkedIn profile will come up high in search engine results. I recommend that you read Chris Brogan’s post from last year discussing the elements of a good LinkedIn recommendation.

Another strategy involves the many subject matter groups on LinkedIn. Find some groups that have a connection to your small business and become involved in the conversations. Answer questions when you can, and help to establish yourself as knowledgeable about specific topics related to your business. There are many small business and general marketing groups that will be very useful resources for you, and if there isn’t a group that interests you, consider starting one.

5. Participate On Other Blogs

It might seem counter-intuitive for you to spend your valuable time by participating in discussions on other people’s blogs, but the payoff can be very valuable. Remember that it takes time to build a reputation and establish your credibility, and you can’t always expect everyone to come to you. Sometimes, you have to go out and build your own credibility and reputation.

Basic Strategy: Identify 2-3 blogs in your industry, or those that focus on small business, and get into the habit of regularly reading the content and participating in the discussions. Whenever you can, try to add value by sharing a personal story about what has/has not worked for you. Get to know the writers – they’ll be valuable contacts for you. One strategy for identifying good blogs is to use Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop, which is a directory of popular blogs across many different subject areas. For example, for blogs focused on crafts, you might follow this page on Alltop. If you want to participate in blogs focusing on small business issues, you might start at Technorati’s list of the Top 100 Small Business blogs.

Advanced Strategy: Once you’ve spent some time on other blogs and have participated in discussions, you’ll find that you’ve built a level of credibility and trust, based on your participation. You should consider reaching out to the blog owners and asking whether they’d allow you to guest post an article on their blog (kind of like this post). This is a nice way for you to get in front of a bigger audience, and many blog owners will invite guests to post from time to time. Agree on a topic in advance and provide a draft of your post sufficiently in advance of the publication date to give them an opportunity to review.

Alternatively, ask if they would consider guest posting on your blog. Since you’re looking to attract more readers (and more potential customers), either option works well for that purpose. Don’t worry so much about going after the A-list blogs right away. There are many excellent blogs and it might take a bit of time to build your reputation to such a level that you’ll have opportunities to post in the top blogs. That doesn’t mean you should wait, though – make opportunities for yourself and offer to guest write whenever you can find a new audience. I recommend you read How To Guest Post To Promote Your Blog from blogging expert Darren Rowse.

6. Mobile Social Networks and other Local Strategies

Yelp publishes millions of reviews about local businesses. Foursquare is a combination city-guide, friend finder and competitive game. It allows users to “check in” by cell phone at a local venue and announce this via other social networks such as Twitter.

Basic Strategy: Yelp, Foursquare, and other mobile social networks can be powerful marketing channels for small businesses. You should at the very least register accounts on the popular services and get to know them. If you have a restaurant or a retail store, for example, you’ll want to get to know Yelp pretty well. You can set up a business account on Yelp (no cost), which will let you answer questions about your business, track how many Yelp users view your business page, add information about your business, and announce special promotions. Similarly, you’ll want to sign up with Foursquare to take advantage of local advertising opportunities. Using Foursquare, you’ll be able to push promotions to potential customers who’re in the vicinity of your business.

You should also consider other local strategies. For example, you can add your business to Google Maps, or update your listing to include additional details. You can do the same on Bing.

Advanced Strategy: If you believe that your business can truly benefit from a presence on Yelp, Foursquare, or similar networks, you’ll want to do more than just register accounts with those services. For example, Yelp allows you to include a website URL for your business. Nearly all sites will let you upload photos to your profile, and photos will make your profile more trustworthy.

You can also proactively use Yelp and other similar services to promote your business. Ask your customers, friends and family who have used your services for a review on Yelp. You can encourage reviews by running promotions or discounts – offering free appetizers, for example, to a customer who will write a review about their meal at your restaurant (or to one who already wrote a review), or a small discount to a customer who hires you for carpentry work and mentions that they found you through Yelp.

Similarly, you can find ways to promote your business using Foursquare and similar networks. If you have a TV display in your store connected to a computer, you can display the people who are checking in. You can offer specials or discounts to the person who visits your location the most (this is similar to frequent buyer cards that many businesses have used for years).

Don’t forget to also consider how you can improve your use of other basic local strategies. For example, many small business websites are optimized for specific keywords or subject areas, but are rarely optimized for local searches. If you have a gift basket business, you’ll want to be sure that users searching for gift baskets in your geographic area will find you.

7. Comments and Conversations About Your Company

Whether or not you are a party to the conversations, people will talk about your company. How do you monitor and, when appropriate, join those discussions?

Basic Strategy: There are five simple steps you can take today to begin paying attention to conversations about your business.

First, set up Google Alerts. Google Alerts are free email updates from Google search results about any topic you’re interested in tracking. For example, I track, among other alerts, the names of our competitors, the name of our company, and certain other terms I believe are important to my business. Anytime Google adds something to its index that mentions my company or the other terms I’m tracking, I receive an immediate email notification with a link to that item. Alerts can be set up for web, blog, news, video, or groups searches.

Second, review the results in your web analytics data. At my company, we use Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a free tool from Google that provides detailed and very useful information about your website traffic and the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. When we run social media campaigns, we’ll often attach tracking tags to those campaigns so that we can properly monitor them in Google Analytics. This is important because without such data it will be nearly impossible for you to evaluate the success of your social media marketing efforts. But analytics are important for another reason: they’ll tell you which sites are sending traffic to your site.

Third, search Facebook. In August, Facebook rolled out a real-time search engine (the search box is on the top right of any Facebook page). One effective way to take advantage of Facebook search is to search for your company’s name to see who is talking about your company and what they’re saying. In several months, you’ll be able to search Facebook updates directly from Bing, which will be integrating Facebook public updates into Bing’s search results.

Fourth, search Twitter. You currently can search Twitter for real-time results (if you’re not logged in, just go to Twitter’s homepage). One easy way to monitor conversations about your company is to search for your company’s name. You can also currently do this on Bing, which is indexing Twitter updates. Very soon, you’ll also be able to search Twitter updates (and other social media content) via Google’s Social Search (Social Search was rolled out to Google Labs recently, as an experimental product). You can also use Twitter clients like TweetDeck or Seesmic to save searches and monitor in real-time whenever someone uses a specific word or phrase in a tweet.

Finally, take advantage of services that will, similar to Google Alerts, push data to you. I use and like BackType, which is a real-time search engine that indexes online conversations in thousands of blogs and social networks. I use BackType primarily to keep up with conversations in blogs. Every day, I receive emails from BackType with links to comments that include the keywords I’m monitoring. Without these alerts, I would be unable to monitor so many blogs, and my ability to respond to posts about my company would be very limited.

Advanced Strategy: If you’re having trouble keeping track of your various search strategies, you should consolidate your efforts and leverage one of the many applications that will help you monitor the social web. I have not personally used these services, but they appear to be held in high esteem by knowledgeable people who have. For example, truVOICE provides keyword monitoring of the social web with an emphasis on blogs and forums, while Radian6 pulls in a lot of information from the social web, analyzes it, and provides consumer sentiment ratings for your brand. A good resource to learn about paid social media monitoring tools is Mashable’s post Top 10 Reputation Tracking Tools Worth Paying For.

In addition to monitoring, you’ll need to decide how, when, and where you’ll engage in conversations. It’ll be very difficult for you to engage in conversations everywhere, so you should spend some time learning the various networks and deciding where you should focus your efforts. Looking at your website analytics data — if you own an online business — will help a great deal because it’ll help you to better understand where your traffic is coming from. If much of your traffic originates from Twitter and Facebook, for example, you’ll want to spend more time on those services.

8. Multimedia

Multimedia (video, photos, audio) is a bit more complicated for many small businesses to execute, but can provide excellent social media marketing opportunities.

Basic Strategy: YouTube has been constantly evolving and adding features that make it an attractive social site for small businesses. Although you don’t have to produce videos to participate on YouTube, you should consider whether simple videos can help your marketing efforts. For example, if you’re already posting videos to your blog, you can upload them to YouTube to reach a broader audience, and embed the video content in your blog posts. YouTube has also been adding more comprehensive activity updates for its users and has made pretty powerful analytics tools available so that you can evaluate the effectiveness of your video content.

Similarly, you could start a Flickr account for your business and post photos of your customers or your products (or both). Flickr offers a place where people can share photos with others, but also has discussion groups, many focused on local markets, that offer additional opportunities for you to market your business. You can also consider setting up your own Internet radio talk show using BlogTalkRadio, which is another way to use multimedia to speak directly to your customers. Get creative with it — own a restaurant? Start a call-in show for people to ask cooking questions. Are you a piano teacher? Perhaps you could start a show to talk about classical music.

Advanced Strategy: Advanced strategies using multimedia are complicated and typically benefit from using experienced consultants. One effective way to leverage video, for example, is to create content that has the potential to become viral. While I don’t believe you can set out to make a viral video (an incredible amount of luck is typically involved), there are a number of things you can typically do to build awareness about your small business using viral video (these strategies are beyond the scope of this post). Once you’ve created good content, you’ll want to distribute it using as many social networks as you can.

When you consider how you can leverage social networks, think about whether each network provides an audience or a technology solution (or both). For example, YouTube provides both a huge audience and a solution for uploading video files. Flickr can also provide both an audience and a technology solution, but not for every business. While your customers might not be on Flickr, you can still use Flickr as a place to store and tag your photos, and then distribute those photos to other social networks where you prefer to invest more time and effort.

9. Maintain Brand Consistency

We’ve discussed only a small handful of social networks. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of others, and new ones spring up every day. That means that your customers will have many different ways to find you. But they won’t find you if your brand is scattered across social networks using different usernames and profiles. Let’s review some strategies for making sure that your brand is consistent across social networks.

Basic Strategy: Usernames and user profiles are already showing up in search results. Do a search for your company’s name on Google right now — if you also have a Twitter account with the same name, odds are pretty good that the Twitter account will appear very high in the search results. This means that having a consistent username across the various social networks is very important. At a minimum, if you haven’t registered your company name on the major networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.), you should do that today. For many small businesses, their user accounts on social networks will be the highest ranked pages in search results.

You should also evaluate your email and web presence strategies. For example, are you using a Gmail email address when you can very easily be using a custom email address with your company name as your domain? Compare: restaurantname@gmail.com with john@restaurantname.com — which looks more professional? Similarly, are you hosting your blog at WordPress.com instead of on your own custom domain? Little details can make a difference.

Advanced Strategy: Things get a bit more complicated when you consider that there are many different social networks, and it’s tough to predict which of them will become popular and which will fail. Use a service such as namechk or KnowEm to see whether your username is available on dozens of popular social networks and if it’s not, to see which username could be registered across all social networks.

Maintaining name consistency is important, but isn’t enough by itself. You’ll also want to make sure that your brand speaks with a common “voice” across the social networks. This may be easier said than done. Social networks differ in significant ways from one another and present unique challenges for interacting with customers and potential customers on those networks.

Speaking with a common “voice” doesn’t mean that only one person should execute your company’s social media marketing strategy, but it does mean that everyone who speaks on behalf of your company in social media reflects your brand in a consistent way. I recommend you read Shel Israel’s recently published book “Twitterville,” for excellent tips and stories focusing on how large and small businesses can develop a consistent voice in social media.

10. Leverage Combinations of Social Media Tools

One of the best ways for small businesses to leverage social media marketing is to use various social networks in combination with each other.

Basic Strategy: At a minimum, you should do several things today to cross-market across the various social networks you’re most likely already using. Here are three suggestions:

First, connect your Twitter account to Facebook so that your tweets will appear in your public updates on Facebook. This will let you leverage your time on Twitter to also update your Facebook fans.

Second, connect your LinkedIn profile to your WordPress blog. LinkedIn allows you to publish, in your profile, synopses of the most recent blog posts on your blog. This application will automatically update your LinkedIn profile with your most recent blog posts.

Third, integrate Twitter tools into your blog. I like and use the TweetMeme retweet button on my blogs to make it easier for users to tweet about the blog posts. I also use the ShareThis tool to enable readers to quickly share content on multiple social networks.

Advanced Strategy: Advanced strategies require careful planning/execution and appropriate tools. In nearly all cases, your goal is to maximize the value of your content. For example, if you’re posting videos on YouTube or Vimeo, you can blog about those videos on your company’s blog. Then, you can tweet about the blog posts on Twitter (which I assume is integrated with your Facebook account). This way, you’ve taken one piece of content and found a way to leverage it across multiple social networks.

You’ll also want to consider ways that you can optimize the distribution to multiple social networks at the same time. Leverage tools to help you do this. For example, Ping.fm lets you update multiple social networks all in one go. Keep in mind that not all social networks will make sense for every business. Learn which networks are best for your business and find ways to leverage combinations of those networks to make your marketing more effective.

Conclusion

Social media marketing can be a phenomenal marketing channel for small businesses. I hope that the strategies I’ve outlined above provide a starting point for you to explore how you can leverage social media marketing for your small business.

And if you have additional resources to share or other helpful advice that’s worked for your small business (or thoughts about things to avoid), please take a minute and leave a comment. We’d love to hear from you.

More business resources from Mashable:

- 5 Advanced Social Media Marketing Strategies for Small Business
- Top 5 Business Blogging Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
- 10 of the Best Social Media Tools for Entrepreneurs
- 6 Must-Follow Steps for Selling in Any Economy
- 5 Easy Social Media Wins for Your Small Business

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, studiovision

Tags: business, List, Lists, small business, social media

This series is supported by Grasshopper, the Virtual Phone System designed for entrepreneurs. Learn more about Grasshopper at Grasshopper.com.

Whether your company is just starting out, just starting to turn a profit or already on the verge of an acquisition, as an entrepreneur you’ll be constantly evaluating the tools that will help get your business to the next stage.

Even if the ink on the business plan isn’t dry yet, you want to be armed with the social media tools that will play an important role in company communication, product and brand promotions, and business development for your startup. Some of the tools in this list will be familiar, but it’s worth taking a moment to reframe how they might become power tools in a business context.

10. Monitter

As an entrepreneur, you need to know what people are saying about your company as well as your competitors. Enter Monitter, a service that monitors Twitter mentions in real-time in a multi-column interface reminiscent of TweetDeck. Simply input a search term into a column, add or remove columns as desired, and get an automatically-refreshing picture of what people are saying about your brand or competing brands in your space.

Pro Tip: By default, the Monitter interface is gray on black, which can be hard on the eyes. You can switch to a more typical color scheme by selecting the “light” theme in the menu at the upper right.

9. YouTube

You already know about YouTube, but have you thought about how it could help your business? Could your product benefit from an awesome video walkthrough? Could your marketing strategy include a viral video strategy that gets you lots of exposure at relatively low cost?

And now with Promoted Videos getting placement in AdSense units around the web, there’s even more incentive to think about leveraging social video as a brand exposure tool. If you can create interesting content that’s relevant to your brand or products, a positive visual association with your company can attract new interest, build company culture, turn inquiries into sales, and give back significant brand dividends over time.

Pro Tip: The most obvious and frequent business use of YouTube is for marketing and advertising, but don’t overlook other ways in which your company can leverage YouTube. Visual walkthroughs and FAQs can be a great boon to customer service. Videos of you and your team giving public presentations, speaking at conferences or engaging with the media can establish and enhance your company’s reputation as a thought leader. And don’t forget the utility of private videos for use in executive and new employee trainings and recording company events; access can be shared with only the people who should be able to see each item.

8. UserVoice

As a small business, it’s hard to juggle building and improving your products with supporting what’s already out there. That’s where UserVoice can help.

From bug reports to feature requests, UserVoice can help track and manage the feedback of your users and customers. Not only does it assure your userbase that you care about what they have to say, but it can potentially leverage the best suggestions from the people who are actually using your tool or service. Since users can vote on the ideas of other users, you can start to get a picture of the most-requested features and fixes for your app or service to feed back into your products’ lifecycles.

Pro Tip: You can also use UserVoice to get feedback on a limited release or beta version of a product by setting up a private forum or forums. You can send invites to specific email addresses, or limit your feedback to company-wide participants by restricting access by email domain.

7. MailChimp

Most reports and punditry on the death of email are a bit premature. The good old fashioned mailing list is still a good way to maintain relationships with customers, especially when done well.

The web-based mailing list manager MailChimp offers list management, tracking and analysis, and custom HTML templates for up to 500 subscribers and 3000 emails a month for free. Paid plans kick in at larger subscriber numbers. Featuring integration with WordPress, Twitter, Salesforce and more, MailChimp is the list manager of choice for an impressive list of heavyweights including Mozilla, Intel, Canon, Fujitsu, Staples and more.

Pro Tip: MailChimp has a well-documented API that allows you to integrate the service with your own existing applications, tools, content management system or CRM solution. There’s a growing list of plug-ins already created for a number of platforms.

[Disclosure: Mailchimp is a sponsor of Mashable]

6. Get Satisfaction

Great customer support is important, but it can also be time-consuming and costly. Get Satisfaction aims to help by leveraging the strength of your user community and cutting down on repetitive support costs.

Get Satisfaction provides a forum where your customers can get answers to questions, solutions to problems, and submit feature and new product requests. Those answers and solutions are stored and searchable over time, cutting down on support costs and building trust with your userbase.

Used by small businesses and large popular brands alike, Get Satisfaction gets rave reviews for human customer service and helping to build communities around brands and products.

Pro Tip: Embeddable widgets allow you to bring the conversation back to your own company’s site or even within your products themselves. Drop a searchable FAQ or a feedback tab or page right into your website or service to integrate the customer service experience right where your users need it.

5. Twitter

What would this list be without our favorite microblogging service? From best practices for brands to tips for executives to using Twitter for customer service, there’s no shortage of creative ideas for leveraging Twitter for your business.

Even if you’re not in a technically-oriented industry, you’ll want to know which influencers in your domain are on Twitter and which of your potential clients and customers are there (hint: probably a bunch). You’ll want to wrap your head around hashtags for business, and more certainly check out Twitter’s own guidebook for businesses (as well as our own guidebook, of course!).

Pro Tip: Try not to use Twitter as a purely broadcast medium; whether one person or several posts to your official account, make sure your company is listening and interacting as well as simply posting. Strive for authenticity in your company’s tweets and try to think of it as taking part in a conversation, not just another soapbox platform.

4. Facebook

Facebook is the other social networking giant you’ll want to be sure your business has a presence on. It’s another powerful tool for building relationships, raising visibility for your brand, and targeting your customer niche.

With a robust and relatively low-cost advertising platform, you can connect directly to the potential customers or clients who might want to know about you. Optimization tools help you fine-tune and target your ads more intelligently, and get detailed insight into who is responding to your ads.

Pro Tip: Authenticity is key here too for maximum impact. With changes that made Facebook Pages more like personal pages, your brand’s home on Facebook is no longer relegated to fairly static profile information. Since the Wall Feed is usually the main point of entry for your fans and visitors, think of it as an opportunity to provide some sort of utility to your visitors, whether it be information, entertainment, or relevant expressions of your company’s culture and mission.

3. Basecamp

If you’re like most startups, you’ve got a heck of a lot going on. You need to keep on top of your projects and open loops, not just internally but with your clients, partners, and customers as well. That’s where a good project management tool comes in.

Basecamp from 37signals is a great and cost-effective web-based tool for project management and collaboration. Featuring to-do lists, milestones for important due-dates, file sharing, blog-style messaging, wiki-style writeboards, time tracking, and integration with the excellent group chat product Campfire, basic plans for small businesses start at $24 a month.

Pro Tip: Add extra functionality to your Basecamp environment or integrate it with your existing systems in the extras and add-ons department. For example if you use Freshbooks, you can even invoice your Basecamp projects via Freshbooks.

2. LinkedIn

From hiring to networking with cohorts and potential clients to participating in groups and question threads, LinkedIn is a powerful social network for entrepreneurs and business professionals of all stripes. It’s a great place to both discover and research potential job candidates (with a reported 75% of hiring managers using it over Facebook and Twitter), as well as both keeping up with and extending your network.

Pro Tip: Although it’s not an overnight success solution, positioning yourself as an expert in the LinkedIn Answers domain(s) relevant to your business can be a great way to increase your authority and drive new interest to your business. Don’t underestimate the power of asking for advice here as well.

1. Google Apps for Domains

Startup costs for outfitting an office with networking and computing equipment are staggering enough as it is without even taking into account the software and maintenance components. One area for adventurous entrepreneurs to cut costs in the latter department lies in the realm of typical office staples: email, calendaring and the office suites businesses typically need to use to prepare documents, spreadsheets and presentations.

Instead of paying an IT staff to set up, host and maintain your own mail servers, Google Apps for Domains can handle custom email addresses at your own company’s URL. As an alternative to Microsoft Outlook worth considering, Gmail also integrates nicely with Google Calendar for your group calendaring needs.

And whereas once Microsoft Office was one of your only choices in the office suites department, Google Documents now handles document, spreadsheet and presentation preparation with aplomb — all the while making it easy to share and collaborate with colleagues without having to email documents around or check items out of a central repository.

Pro Tip: For the truly frugal, you can even opt for the totally free Standard Edition which includes basic Gmail, calendaring, Google Docs and Google Sites. Premier Edition will run you $50 per user per year, but increases user email storage to 25GB, adds more security features and guarantees you uptime and support.

Sound more professional and stay connected with Grasshopper, the Virtual Phone System designed for entrepreneurs. Grasshopper works just like a traditional phone system, but requires no hardware to purchase – it’s all managed online or by phone. Callers reach you whether you’re in the office, on your cell, or at home.

Get a toll free or local number, create extensions for employees, forward calls, get voicemails via email, and more – starting at only $9.95 a month.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, cmcderm1

Tags: basecamp, entrepreneurs, facebook, google apps, google docs, linkedin, Lists, monitter, Skype, small business, social media, startups, twitter, uservoice, youtube

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times — but in the age of both wisdom and foolishness, somehow it always seems like the latter is what gets caught on video.

It may not be as highbrow as the works of Shakespeare are perceived now, but surely even the Bard could not resist a chuckle at some of the finest fails YouTube has to offer. And if laughter is truly the best medicine, we hope you enjoy this dose.

10. Skateboard Fail

9. Ski Jump Fail

8. Border Patrol Fail

7. Driving Test Fail

6. Law Enforcement Fail

5. Slingshot Fail

4. Catapult Fail

3. Carwash Fail

2. Parking Fail

1. Summertime Fails

Why is human failure so fascinating? And do you have any other great examples of it? Let us know in the comments!

Tags: fail, funny, video, youtube

Dan Schawbel is the author of Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success (Kaplan, April 09), and owner of the award winning Personal Branding Blog.

Looking for a job? Consider creating your own. There are a number of social resources to help you connect with other entrepreneurs and get your business ideas off the ground.

Here are the top 10 social networks for entrepreneurs. Each helps entrepreneurs succeed by providing them with the guidance, tools and resources they need to setup their company and gain exposure.

Have another social site to add to this list? Tell us about it in the comments.

1. Entrepreneur Connect

Entrepreneur Media, the company that produces Entrepreneur Magazine, started a social network over a year ago specifically for entrepreneurs and small business owners called Entrepreneur Connect.   Like all social networks, you have the opportunity to create your own profile, explore the community, share ideas with other entrepreneurs and network. Unlike most social networks, this one frowns upon too much self-promotion and applauds idea sharing. 

You can use this network to connect to service providers, suppliers, advisers and colleagues.  Just like LinkedIn and Facebook, there are professional groups that you can join or create.  Another cool feature is that you’re able to start your own blog and possibly have it appear on the main page.  This is similar to what Fast Company has done with their website.

2. PartnerUp

PartnerUp is a social network for entrepreneurs who are searching for people and resources for business opportunities.  Anyone can join, but business partners, co-founders, executives and board members will get the most out of this one.  In this network, you can ask or offer advice, find commercial real estate and find service providers like accountants and marketers for your business. 

The big differentiator with this social network is the commercial real estate “MoveUpSM” program that serves entrepreneurs who have experienced a hard time trying to find office space for their business.  They also have a Resource Directory that allows small and mid-sized businesses to advertise their services.

3.  StartupNation

Most social networks neglect the content aspect that makes StartupNation so useful.  With articles, forums, blogs, on-demand seminars, and podcasts, entrepreneurs will be better prepared for their ventures and have the resources required to make better business decisions. 

There are a wide range of topics being discussed on StartupNation right now, including business planning, marketing and web-based business.  The site also offers a series of competitions, such as a dorm-based 20 contest and an elevator pitch competition. If you’re an entrepreneur or hope to become one, this site is definitely one you can’t miss out on.

4.  LinkedIn

It’s difficult to leave LinkedIn off of any social networking list because it’s so useful for anyone who’s either searching for a job, is trying to network with like-minded individuals, or building a company.  LinkedIn offers many resources for entrepreneurs, such as groups, including the very popular “On Startups” group that has over 54,000 members. 

Entrepreneurs on LinkedIn should brand themselves properly so they can attract the right kind of business opportunities, and perform searches to find service providers or partners.  As an entrepreneur, you should also be looking to participate in LinkedIn Answers, events and applications to spruce up your profile and become a valuable member to your community.

5. Biznik

This isn’t another LinkedIn clone.  Instead, Biznik brands itself as a social network that “doesn’t suck.”  The Biznik community is composed of freelancers, CEOs, and the self-employed.  Like the other networks, this is a place for you to share ideas, instead of posting your resume.  It is mandatory for all members to use their real names and provide real data, and Biznik editors actually review all profiles to ensure compliance with that policy.  There are three levels of membership, including basic, active ($10 a month for an enhanced profile) and supporting ($24 a month for increased visibility).

6.  Perfect Business

If you want to meet thousands of serious entrepreneurs, experts and investors from a variety of industries, then Perfect Business might be the perfect social network for you.  The type of people you’ll find are potential business partners, potential clients and advisers. Additionally, the site has leading business partners like Entrepreneur and Virgin Money.

From business networking to a video center where you can learn from successful entrepreneurs, a business plan builder and even an investor center, you’ll have most of the resources you need to create or regenerate your business. There is a free basic membership and a gold membership that costs $29.99 per month.

7.  Go BIG Network

The Go BIG Network embraces job seekers, in addition to funding sources, service providers and entrepreneurs.  In this social network, you post requests for help, which are then routed to other people in the network that can answer your questions or support you.  Members of this social network can search through profiles of other members, contact them or post a request (a classified ad) to talk about what they are looking for (such as a business partner).  The profiles on this network are targeted and specific so it’s easy to find an investor in a particular region.

8.  Cofoundr

The Cofoundr network is made up of idea makers, entrepreneurs, programmers, web designers, investors, freelancers and executives.  The primary purpose of joining this network is to start a new web venture.  Unlike most of the social networks already listed here, Cofoundr is a strictly private network, which means that you can’t view member profiles before you register for an account. 

Membership requires having a valid university or work email address, which means high schools students and younger aren’t allowed.  The first thing you have to do is sign up, then specify your abilities and the people you are trying to network with and finally, post your idea on the bulletin board or in the forum.

9.   The Funded

The Funded is an online community of entrepreneurs who research, rate and review funding sources.  Entrepreneurs can view and share terms sheets to assist each other in finding good investors, as well as discuss the inner workings of operating a business.  General benefits of this site include viewing facts, reviews and commentary on funding resources, and accessing RSS feeds of the most recent public comments by members. 

By joining the site, you have access to detailed fund profiles with specialty, reference investments, and investment criteria, in addition to accessing partner vCards that have full contact information of all partners at venture funds.  In order to get any value out of this social network, you pretty much have to become a member.

10.  Young Entrepreneur

If you’re young, entrepreneurial and socially active or just curious, then Young Entrepreneur is a great starting point for you.  This community appears as a discussion forum, with topics such as e-commerce, search engine optimization, marketing, IT & Internet, and franchising.  Aside from their main forum and threads, there is a popular blog and some great videos. 

More business resources from Mashable:

- 5 Startup Tips From the Founder of Gmail and FriendFeed
- Startup Hacks: 7 Ideas for Building Your Team
- Startup Hacks: An Early Stage Checklist

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, askhamdesigns

Deciding to become a freelance worker can be a scary proposition. Sure there is an allure to picking what projects you work on, but it can also be stressful not knowing where your next paycheck will come from. Luckily there are numerous resources out there that not only help you find more work, but also loads of tools to help you do your job more efficiently with a professional edge.

We’ve gathered over 85 tools and job sites for a variety of freelancers and web workers. While a lot of these items are focused on web design elements such as photography, programming and writing, we made sure to include something for everyone.

Have more resources to recommend? Tell us about them in the comments.

Work Tools

It’s important for freelance workers to be as organized as possible. After all, it’s up to you to track your time, individual projects, create your own invoices, and more. There are tons of great tools to simplify this for you. For example, GetHarvest.com can help you keep track of your time spent on projects in differing locations, and Zoho Invoices can help you create professional looking invoices to send to clients.

Adobe AIR Apps

AgileTracker – Allows you to keep track of time spent on projects by client, and if you are using AgileAgenda, you can sync them with each other.

Google Calendar Invoice Creator – Allows you to use Google Calendar as a way to keep track of your hours and then import that data into this app to automatically generate invoices.

Klok – Klok allows you to easily keep track of your time spent on multiple projects. You can easily start and stop tracking by just clicking a button for each project. You’re able to generate multiple reports based off of this information.

Ora Time and Expense – Ora allows you to track expenses, keep a list of your tasks, run a timer on your tasks and more.

Sundial – Keeps track of time spent on multiple projects & clients and allows you to generate reports based on any time period.

Timeloc – Offers multiple features such as running several clients with different billing rates per account, setting different timing intervals, audible alerts and much more.

Vertabase Timer – You can track time on projects for various clients and then export that data to other systems so you can generate reports and invoices.

Invoicing

BillMyClients.com – Has import & export capabilities, allows you to save invoices locally at any time, HTML customization for better branding, recurring invoicing, PayPal integration and other features.

Blinksale.com – Create invoices from their templates, or you can use your own CSS to custom design one of your own.  Also allows you to import clients from Basecamp, create tags for better organization, set up recurring invoices and more.

CannyBill.com – CannyBill can help you accept credit cards, export data to QuickBooks, automate invoicing and late payment notices and a host of other tools.

CitrusBill.com – You can automate late payment notices as well as customize the look and feel of your invoices while managing all of your payments.

CurdBee.com – A simple and straightforward invoicing solution that also integrates with PayPal and Google Checkout.

Endeve.com – Endeve allows you to customize invoices, import clients from Outlook, track which clients owe you money and a whole lot more.

Fluttervoice.co.uk – A UK-based invoicing service that allows you to generate new invoices and keep track of your payments.  Your clients can also login to see all of their invoices with you at a glance.

FreeAgentCentral.com – Helps you to invoice your clients, keep track of billing, prepare your taxes, and more.  Focused on freelancers in the UK.

FreshBooks.com – FreshBooks allows you to automate late payment reminders, track your time and expenses, customize the look of your tools for a full branded experience and more.

GoToBilling.com – Get paid from an emailed invoice, keep track of your clients, use marketing tools to gain new ones and more.

InLattice.net – Give your clients web access to their invoices and receive confirmation that your customer has viewed an invoice. InLattice integrates with major online payment systems and other tools.

InvoiceJournal.com – InvoiceJournal allows you to send invoices for free via email or print them out to be sent by snail mail.  Also allows you to use multiple currencies.

InvoiceMachine.com – Customize your invoices with logos and colors, use their built-in timer to track your billable hours, create PDFs of your invoices and more.

InvoicePlace.com – InvoicePlace lets you send invoices, track all payments, generate reports, export to Word & Excel and more.

Invoicera.com – Invoicera offers you several time saving features such as automatic repeating invoices for frequent clients, integration with multiple payment gateways, printing, management and more.

InvoicesMadeEasy.com – This service allows you to email or physically mail invoices yourself, or you can pay as little as a $1.00 each to have them mail invoices for you.  Offers all of the usual features to boot.

Invotrak.com – Allows you to track your time sheets, generate invoices, see who has paid you, generate various reports to see how you are performing and more.

LiteAccounting.com – Create invoices you can send via email, save them as PDFs, set up recurring invoices, and more features.

SimplyBill.com – Save your invoices as PDFs, create quotes for work that you can later convert to invoices, get alerted when an invoice is overdue and numerous other features.

SimplyInvoices.com – SimplyInvoices integrates with the Basecamp API to give you full integration with your account and allow for easy invoicing based on your Basecamp activities.

Winkbill.com – Set up recurring billing, export invoices as PDFs, accept payments via PayPal, multiple templates to choose from and more features.

Zoho Invoices – The popular Zoho online office suite has an invoicing feature that can be used for free for a few invoices a month, but you’ll have to pay if you have numerous payment requests to make.  Allows you to import and export data, set up templates, set up recurring billing and more.

Time Tracking

GetHarvest.com – Harvest offers pricing plans from free to premium, but offers an amazing array of platform integrations such as iPhone, Basecamp, Beanstalk, a WordPress plugin and more.  Offers both time tracking and invoicing.

MyClientSpot.com – Helps you keep track of your billable hours, staying organized, tracking leads and numerous other features.

Tickspot.com – Allows you to keep track of your time spent on a project and even see how close you are to using up your client’s allotted budget.  Also offers a free iPhone application.

Time59.com – Keep track of your time and expenses and generate invoices that you can send to your clients.

TimeIQ.com – Keep track of your billable hours. Allows for exporting of data, generating reports at your own specified intervals, and several more features.

Toggl.com – Toogl allows you to manually keep track of your time or use their timer.  They also offer both an online version or a Windows-based download that you can use on your desktop.

Miscellaneous Tools

Bizzvo.com – Allows you to import contacts, keep to-do lists, take notes, log phone calls with clients, create invoices and more.

Cashboard -A Basecamp compatible tool that allows you to use Mac OSX, Windows and iPhone applications to update your customers on projects, send invoices, accept payments and more.

CreativeProOffice.com – CreativePro Office allows you to manage your clients, projects, tasks, invoicing and more all in one easy web application.

FreelanceSwitch.com Rates Calculator – Have no clue what you should be charging for your hourly rate as a freelancer?  This rates calculator asks you a series of questions about your working situation, how much you want to make and so on, and then gives you a suggestion of how much to charge per hour.

Homecourtx.com – Gives you a customer management system as well as the ability to pass files back and forth and invoice.

SimplifyThis.com – SimplifyThis is both an appointment book for keeping track of your meetings, and any of those that might be billable, as well as a full invoicing service with payment gateway integrations.

So you’ve got the tools to do your job, but do you have the work to do?  Photographers have tons of places like iStockphoto where they can open an account and sell their images with little to no hassle.  For writers there are places such as Helium.com, where you can write any time you’d like, on any subject. While places like FreelanceWriting.com will help you find steadier work.  And if you’re a programmer, there are sites like GetAFreelancer.com, where it seems people will always need workers for more highly technical jobs.

Freelance Photography

123rf.com – 123 Royalty Free pays you a 50% commission on downloaded images, and also allows you to earn money for referring subscribers and new photographers alike.

BigStockPhoto.com – BigStockPhoto pays you between $.50 and $3.00 per download for your photos, and even higher for special requests.

Dreamstime.com – Photographers can place their images here for a sale and receive between 50% and 80% commission.

Fotolia.com – Commissions range from 33% to 64% depending on your exclusivity and your ranking based on the total number of downloads you’ve sold.

FreelancePhotoJobs.com – Find all sorts of freelance photography jobs for magazines, weddings, websites and more.

ImageCatalog.com – Depending on licensing, ImageCatalog pays photographers anywhere from $.40 to $40.00 per download.

iStockphoto – Photographers can earn from 20 – 40% commissions on each photo they sell through this royalty free site.  (Disclosure: Mashable has a partnership with iStockphoto)

PhotoStockPlus.com – You can earn commissions up to 85% with a 3.25% processing fee for both photos you sell as well as products you put your images on such as mugs and other products.

Shutterstock.com – Shutterstock pays a flat rate of $.25 a download and increases it to $.30 per download when you hit $500 in a pay period.  You can also earn commissions for referring others to the service.

Freelance Programmers & Web Designers

DesignQuote.net – Potential clients with design and graphic art work post jobs that freelancers can browse through and post bids on to win contracts.

FreelanceAuction.com – Allows you to bid on listed jobs for all aspects of programming and design.  Numerous listings for Web coding and design work such as logos.

GetAFreelancer.com – Focused on a wide selection of computer related work from basic site design to developing full sites for Joomla, OsCommerce, WordPress and more.

LimeExchange.com – Offers jobs that freelancers can bid on, and then you can continue to use the service to check in with one another throughout the lifespan of the project.

oDesk.com – A marketplace for freelancers to meet up with clients and look for work.  Clients can leave ratings and reviews for any freelancers they hire to help them get future work.

ozLance.com.au – Focused on Australia, ozLance has listings for Web development, content writing, audio/visual work and more.

Project4Hire.com – Contractors post technical programming or blogging jobs they have available and freelancers bid for the work.

RentACoder.com – Has thousands of open coding projects and a newsletter you can subscribe to so that you receive daily notifications of new projects as they come available.

ScriptLance.com – ScriptLance focuses heavily on programming assignments, but also features some listings for blog content creation.

SearchWebJobs.com – A job site focused on Web related jobs with a section dedicated to freelance engagements that indicate if you must live near the office or if you can work from anywhere.

Freelance Writers

BloggerJobs.biz – Numerous blogging jobs from all different styles of blogs that range from freelance to full-time.

FreelancePortfolios.com -A resource allowing writers to set up portfolios to show off their work and skills to potential employers.  Also has some job listings for people looking for work.

FreelanceWriting.com – FreelanceWriting.com features a mixture of articles and resources to help people break into freelance writing, and also offers some job listings and links to other resources.

Helium.com – While not so much freelance writing as writing “on spec,” you are free to write articles on any subject and then you can earn revenue from a portion of their advertising sales related to your articles.

Jobs.ProBlogger.net – A jobs board over at the well known ProBlogger for freelance and full-time bloggers looking for work.

JournalismJobs.com – Features job listings for blogs, newspapers, magazines, newswires and other forms of print and online media.

Online-Writing-Jobs.com – Offers all sorts of freelance writing job listings for magazines, reviews, resume writing, blogs and more.

Suite101.com – Freelance writers of all stripes can write articles on just about any subject of their choice and get paid a share of the advertising for the entire life of the article.

WritersWeekly.com – A weekly ezine dedicated to freelance writing that features articles and some listings for jobs.

WritingBids.com – A site that allows various online and offline publishers to post writing gigs that freelancers can bid on in an attempt to win.

WritingCareer.com – Features listings of freelance writing jobs as well as guides and advice for aspiring writers.

Miscellaneous Freelancers

AllFreelanceWork.com – AllFreelanceWork offers a support community as well as a jobs board for people looking for work in web design, sales, marketing and more.

Amazon Mechanical Turk – Run by Amazon.com, Mechanical Turk offers all sorts of quick freelance work from simple things such as doing searches for Creative Commons licensed photography to writing full articles for web sites.

BizReef.com – Contractors post their jobs and freelancers bid on the work in a number of fields such as graphic design, marketing, photography and more.

ContractedWork.com – Businesses needing work done post their projects and then freelancers can bid for the work.  Has a heavy concentration on web site related work, but does also have listings for other fields.

Elance.com -A well known freelancing website with just about every type of job you can think of from high end coding projects to engineering, finance, copy writing and a lot more.  Freelancers can set up profile pages listing all of their skills and what services they offer.

FreelanceJobs.org – Freelancers can set up a profile explaining their background while employers can post jobs for computer workers, Web designers, writers, translators and many more fields.

FreelanceWar.com – Listings for editors, writers, web designers, journalists, copywriters and pretty much everything else you can think of.

Freelancers Union – In addition to providing excellent resources for freelancers, the Freelancers Union offers a “Gigs” section.

GoFreelance.com – Has job listings for writers, sales, photography, marketing and several other fields.

Guru.com – Freelance work in every field including things such as fashion, broadcasting, illustration, Web design and more.

iFreelance.com – Site for freelancers and employers looking to connect for numerous types of freelance work such as writing, design work, Web programming and more.

ProZ.com – Focused on translators and translation services, ProZ also offers message boards for freelance translators to talk about issues concerning their business.

Skillance.com – Enter what your skills are, set up a profile, and let contractors search for the people that best fit their project.

Sologig.com – Listings of freelance consulting jobs from around the United States in numerous fields such as aerospace, sales, legal and numerous other fields.

TheFreelanceNation.com – This site pulls together listings from 119 different freelance job boards with listings for legal work, web design, photographers, PR and many, many more fields.

Vois – This virtual outsourcing site allows users to find a wide range of projects from simple logo design to full websites, SEO help, and more. In addition to finding projects, you can collaborate with clients on the site.

More freelance and web worker resources from Mashable:

- 7 Productivity Tips for Freelancers & Web Workers
- 40+ Places to Sell Your Designs Online
- 6 Ways to Publish Your Own Book
- 6 Reasons to Start Coworking
- CAREER TOOLBOX: 100+ Places to Find Jobs

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, kutaytanir

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6 Ways to Publish Your Own Book
Mashable NextUp NYC Debuts This Tuesday
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If you have a website or blog you’re probably interested in who’s visiting your site and what they’re doing while they’re there. Way back in 2007 we did a post on web analytics but a lot has changed since then. Most analytics packages are now focusing on real-time tracking and graphical representations of visitor data. Below are more than fifty analytics tools to help you monitor and analyze your web traffic.

How do you monitor and analyze your web traffic? Tell us more in the comments.

Analytics Software Packages

VisiStat – Real-time tracking with graphical and intuitive reporting features.

Google Analytics – Mentioned in our first list, Google offers free analytics software. Includes tight integration with AdWords (see also: 27 Features that Make Google Analytics Best of Breed). Unlike some enterprise apps, the stats are usually on a delay of a few hours.

mviSPY – Real-time analytics that track conversions and visitor identities.

Webstats BASIC – A free analytics program that tracks visitors and trends and has exportable reports.

Webstats PRO – A full-featured analytics package that includes click path analysis, campaign tracking, and complete traffic monitoring capabilities.

LoadStats – Provides two different packages that include basic page view and visitor tracking along with geo-location, ad tracking, and more.

Opentracker.net – Real-time visitor monitoring and web statistics.

eWebAnalytics – Comprehensive, free package that tracks unique visitors, conversions, average click-paths, traffic history, bounce rates, and virtually everything else that you could want in an analytics solution.

MetaTraffic – Web analytics program that installs quickly and has the ability to track ad campaigns, downloads, and multimedia file traffic.

ShinyStat – Web analytics with three available packages that range from a free package that is basically a souped-up hit counter to a full-featured business edition with conversion and campaign tracking.

Lyris HQ – Analytics that include campaign ROI tracking and the ability to segment your historical data in any way you want.

W3Counter – Analytics that include a real-time visitor map to show where your visitors are coming from as they arrive.

Blizzard Tracker – Intuitive web analytics that include web stats in real time.

StatsAdvisor – Web analytics that help you track both online and offline advertising efforts.

Clicky – Shows you every action a visitor makes and offers a dedicated iPhone version.

Logdy.com – A free and paid analytics program with real-time reporting.

Pagealizer – Web analytics that actually suggest changes and optimizations for your pages.

Sometrics – Analytics that measure your social advertising efforts.

Piwik – Open source web analytics that you put on your own server.

FireStats – A downloadable web analytics program that’s free for non-commercial use.

Snoop – Analytics that give you real-time notification of events that happen on your website (like orders, unique visitors, comments, and more).

Yahoo! Web Analytics – Formerly IndexTools, this package provides real-time enterprise site stats.

BBClone – A PHP based stats package.

Woopra – Analytics suite that includes click-to-chat functionality and real-time notifications.

MochiBot.com – Flash content analytics.

Grape Web Statistics – A free and open source analytics package that includes the ability to query historical data and is compatible with both PHP 4 and 5.

Stuffed Tracker – Track form submissions, downloads, and other visitor actions, calculate conversions and ROI, analyze landing page effectiveness and more.

GoingUp – Complete analytics package with comprehensive visitor and performance tracking.

PHP-Stats – A complete analytics program built in PHP.

Shortstat Beta 3 – A simple analytics program that includes search engine keyword tracking and more.

SlimStat – Based on Shortstat but includes a number of other features including the ability to filter out search engine crawlers and showing visits and unique IPs instead of just hits.

JAWStats – A free, open-source analytics package that displays your stats using charts, graphs, and tables.

Histats.com – Free web stats in real time that include referrer information, detailed visitor information and more.

StatCounter – A highly configurable stats program that’s free.

Brandgrow Website Analytics – Analytics that include website segmentation, competitor analysis, industry benchmarking, and more.

Sawmill 8 – Analytics with real-time alerts and clickstream analysis.

XPLG – Analytics package that lets you monitor and analyze any type of IT data.

FuseStats – Web statistics that include customizable heatmaps, ad campaign management, multiple site tracking and more.

Enquisite – A search analytics program that includes visual search analysis and helps you optimize your site’s longtail search referrals.

Web Traffic Visualization

clickdensity – Heat maps with real-time visitor data to help you optimize your link and ad placement and enhance your site’s stickiness.

nextSTAT – Complete analytics package that includes graphical visitor detail path reports.

ClickTale – Watch movies of what your visitors do while on your site, view heatmaps and every interaction that a visitor has on your site including hovers, hesitations, and even which form fields are causing visitors to leave.

ClickHeat – A free click heatmap generator.

Other Tools

WASP – Web Analytics Solution Profiler is a Firefox extension that helps you understand how your web analytics solution is being implemented.

SiteScan – A Google Analytics diagnostic tool that audits your Analytics setup to make sure it’s properly configured.

Fire Analytics – A Firefox extension that lets you view your Google Analytics reports from Firefox.

Cownter App – Shows visitors to your site how many people are currently on each page.

Market Research Data and Site Rankings

popuri.us – A tool to check your ranking and popularity on a variety of sites including Alexa, Google PageRank and more.

socialmeter – Check your website’s social popularity on sites like Digg, Furl, Jots, and more.

Statsaholic – Compare rankings and other information on up to three websites at a time.

SiteVolume – Compare how often keywords show up on any site you select.

Webslub – Compare your site’s performance to any other site.

Interested in more analytics resources? Check these out:

- 27 Features That Make Google Analytics Best of Breed
- HOW TO: Measure Social Media ROI for Business
- Analytics Toolbox: 50+ Ways to Track Website Traffic

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, adventtr

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Last year we did a post on 50+ tools for Web design. A lot has changed in the past year, and there are tons of new tools available to designers. Whether you’re just starting out and need a drag-and-drop builder or you’ve been coding for years and need tools to help you be more efficient, there’s something on this list for you. Here are over 130 tools to make you a better and faster designer. Feel free to add more in the comments.

Beginner Resources

YAML Builder – Easy to use YAML (Yet Another Multicolumn Layout) XHTML/CSS site layout builder.

Sky CSS Tool – JavaScript CSS authoring app.

The Box Office – CSS formatting tool for wrapping text around images.

CSSTXT – Online CSS text style generator.

izzyMenu.com – Free CSS menu builder.

pForm – HTML form builder.

Roxer – Drag and drop website creator.

Wirenode – Create your own mobile websites.

doodlekit – Online website builder and CMS that includes a form builder, PayPal shopping cart, interchangeable layouts & graphics, and a built in stock photo/image repository. Has both paid and free plans.

dotemplate – Template site that allows you to customize templates before downloading them.

templatr – Online tool for creating website templates.

Agency of Record – A website design and hosting platform for creative professionals.

Typechart – Browse different typefaces and styles and grab the CSS of the ones you want.

CSS Type Set – Create custom CSS type styles with this tool.

CSSType – Experiment with Web safe typography and then get the CSS for it.

CSS Builder – Generate stylesheets on the fly and then copy the code for your site.

Firdamatic – A free tool to create tableless 2- or 3-column blog designs.

PsycHo – A blog template creator.

folionow – Easily and affordably create websites for yourself or others.

CSStxt – Create custom CSS text styles.

Viviti – Easy to use website builder.

ComfyPage – Easy to use, free website builder that lets you customize a template and add as many pages as you want.

LetsEat.at – Free website builder and hosting for restaurants that includes customizable menus, daily specials, printable coupons, and more.

webon – Free, ad-free website builder that lets you have a blog, photo album, video gallery and more.

infogami – Create a website with one-click editing, customizable templates, and more.

edicy – Create a website and publish it on your own domain.

Jimdo – Create your own website with as many pages as you want and integrate images, video and more.

Webnode – Create a personal or business website for free with drag and drop technology, tagging, and free hosting.

iompi – E-commerce website builder.

easysite.com – Website creator that includes photos, videos, blogs, and includes free telephone support.

myfamily.com – Free family website creator with unlimited storage space.

MomentVille – Free wedding website builder.

SeeYouThen! – A wedding website creator that includes a high-res photo exchange, private messaging, guest profiles, and more.

GoHoster – Another free website builder that includes a subdomain.

BlinkWeb – Free website builder with drag and drop functionality and e-commerce options.

Macrocasa – Website builder for the real estate industry that includes an agent messaging system and client management features.

Pixie – A free, open-source website creator that includes an intuitive interface and easy installation.

Squarespace – A powerful website creator that includes XHTML validation, WYSIWYG editing, a blogging platform and more.

NicEdit – Cross-platform content editor that lets you edit the content of your website right in your browser.

WordPress Theme Generator – Create your own completely custom WordPress theme with this online tool.

Resources for More Advanced Users and Professionals

CSS Superdouche – Strip unneeded content and redundant calls from your CSS, reducing its size and complexity.

Code Beautifier – Format and optimize your CSS code.

CSSFly – In-browser editing of (X)HTML and CSS.

CSS Drive CSS Compressor – Decrease your CSS file size and loading speed with this tool.

Clean CSS – Another CSS optimization tool for reducing your CSS file size.

EM Calculator – Converts your pixel-based sizes to em units for more scalable and accessible CSS design.

CSS Redundancy Checker – Eliminate unused CSS selectors automatically as well as check for redundancy in your CSS files.

GrayBit – Accessibility testing tool that displays a full-color Web page in grayscale.

ProtoShare – Create a clickable website prototype and get feedback, ideas and suggestions from your team members.

Most Sliced – A directory of image slicing services that includes reviews and ratings from users.

Inserit – A code-free CMS for Web designers.

LightCMS – A CMS for Web designers that lets you create websites your clients can manage themselves.

clickbooq – A website creation and portfolio management tool.

jumpchart – Website planning app that lets you export clean CSS/XHTML.

inblogit – A blogging tool for Web designers that can be integrated into any website design.

Reflect – A website platform and hosting service for Web designers that lets them and their clients create and manage websites.

Carbonmade – An online portfolio site for designers with free and paid plans.

ThemesPress – Automatically convert your template files into WordPress themes.

Feng GUI – Generates heatmaps for your website by simulating human vision during the first five seconds of viewing your website.

Text Generator – Generates lorem ipsum-like text.

webvanta – Free business website builder and hosting aimed at providing design professionals a quicker way to build websites.

Tuplix – Easy to use website authoring tool that works for new or existing websites.

FolioSnap – Website portfolio builder for creative professionals.

Frontfriend – CMS for designers that lets them build forms and templates and then lets their clients fill in their own information.

Graphics, Page Elements and Design Tools

ScrnShots – Host, share and tag your screenshots.

flickrSLiDR – Create and embed a flickr slideshow on your website or blog.

websnapr 2.0 – Online tool for capturing thumbnail of websites.

StyleIgnite – Design snippets (CSS, HTML, and more) for contact forms, layouts, and more that you can use on your sites.

BgPatterns – Background pattern creation tool with live preview.

The Effect Generator – Create animated slideshows, buttons, and more with this tool.

The Color Wizard – Submit a color and this tool will bring back matching colors.

ColorJack – A color scheme gallery that also explores color theory.

My cool button – Web 2.0 button creator.

[ws] Color Scheme Generator 2 – An easy to use color scheme creator.

Cornershop – Get the CSS and images to put rounded corners on your website.

CSSround – Another tool to create rounded corners on your website.

Color Hunter – A color palette creation tool that lets you pull color palettes from images.

Web Graphics Maker – A free tool to create backgrounds, lines and bullets for your website.

As Button Generator – Free Web button creator.

Picreflect – A free tool to create reflections for your photos.

Bradicon! – Create icons from any image.

TabCreatr – Create CSS tabbed navigation for your site.

List-u-Like CSS Generator – A tool to create list-based navigation bars.

text2PNG.com – Convert text headers and navigation to PNG files.

IconsPedia – Free, huge collection of icons.

Genfavicon – A free favicon generator.

QuickRibbon.com – Create custom ribbons with or without links for your site.

Glassy Buttons – Create custom glassy style buttons.

Website Ribbon Generator – Create free ribbons for your site with or without hyperlinks.

4096 Color Wheel – A color scheme generator that shows you Web-safe, Web-smart and unsafe colors.

Web 2.0 Free Logo Generator – Create your own custom Web 2.0 logo.

colordb – Another color palette generator, though this one is much more in depth than most.

colorcombos.com – A huge library of color combinations.

ColorToy 2.0 – A Flash-based color palette generator.

Accessibility Color Wheel – Check the readability of your background and text color combinations. This tool will tell you if there is enough contrast between the two.

Artypapers Buttons – Customize buttons and collect them on your website.

freshbadge – Create Web 2.0 badges for your site.

Favicon Generator Tool – Free favicon creator from Dagon Design.

Favicon Generator – Another free favicon generator.

favicon maker v1 – A free, basic favicon creator that lets you create a favicon from scratch or an existing image.

Stripe Designer – Create background stripes for your website.

Favicon Tool – A free and easy to use favicon generator.

Favicon Generator & Gallery – Create your own favicon or browse those created by others.

Web Script Lab Favicon Generator – Another free favicon generator.

Ajax Loading GIF Generator – Easy to use loading gif generator.

Loader Generator – A tool to create loading spinners.

Gradient Image Maker – A free tool to create image gradients.

Rainmaker – Tag cloud creator.

favicon.cc – Another free favicon creator.

FavIcon from Pics – Create a favicon from an image.

TagCrowd – A free tag cloud creator.

ConvertIcon – Converts ICO to PNG and vice versa.

My Timelines – Create AJAX timelines for your blog or website.

Cymbolism – A color tool that includes information on what emotions and words are associated with different colors.

Color Palette Generator – A tool that creates a color palette based on an image you upload.

Wordle – Create word or tag clouds from any text.

Screedbot – Create animated scrolling text.

Badged.net – Create badges and add them to your website.

Form Style Generator – Create your own CSS-styled Web forms.

reflectionmaker.com – Creates image reflections.

blogsticker – A social sticker directory.

Instant Eyedropper – Grab the color code of any color on the Web with a single mouse click.

Inspiration, Collaboration and Other Resources

FullSingle – A gallery of really awesome single-page websites.

We Love WP – A showcase of WordPress powered websites (not just blogs).

One Page Love – Another showcase of great one-page websites.

Screenalicio.us – A Web design gallery with more than 10,000 screenshots.

CSS Mania – A gallery of almost 12,000 CSS website designs.

The Best Designs – A huge showcase of Web designs and designers.

Pattern Tap – Design gallery of different website elements (headers, 404 pages, and the like).

eduStyle – A Web design gallery specifically featuring academic websites.

finalcrit.com – Free portfolio site for designers.

Should Redesign? – Get feedback on whether or not a redesign is needed for your site.

Designflavr – Design galleries for all sorts of artwork, including Flash and CSS websites.

View – Showcase of website that can be sorted by color or other criteria.

InspirationKing – A searchable gallery of websites for inspiration.

DesignerSource – A website design gallery that is browsable by topic or color.

BestWebGallery – Tagged website design showcase.

StyleVault – Another Web design gallery that lets you rate designs.

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Not many Web sites allow you to create your own pages, but many do allow you to create segments of HTML. What if you wanted to allow this on your own site? Do you write your own editor? Well, with the capabilities offered by these six embedded HTML editors, there really is no need to write your own.

If you already use embeddable HTML editors, tell us more about your experiences with them in the comments.

WYMEditor

URL: http://www.wymeditor.org
Required Libraries: Distributed with jQuery 1.1.3
Extensibility: Plugin creation available
Markup Validation: Produces strict XHTML
Code View: Dual pane code view
License: MIT & GPL licensing
Support and Community: Forums
Ease of Configuration: Easy configuration, only a few lines of javascript are needed.
Theme/Skin support: Skinnable, and creating a custom skin based on the default skins is simple.
Verdict: It is a fairly easy editor to setup, skin and customize. The plugin capabilities are fairly limited, but do give you enough to modify the edited text.

TinyMCE

URL: http://tinymce.moxiecode.com/
Required Libraries: Distributed with Scriptaculous, and you need to load tiny_mce.js before any other scriptaculous.js includes.
Extensibility: Plugin creation available
Markup Validation: No validation or standards compliant code generation.
Code View: Code view appears in a popup
License: LGPL
Support and Community: Forums
Ease of Configuration: Easy to setup a standard installation, but the configuration gets a little harder when you start including more plugins.
Theme/Skin support: Themes and skins can be created.
Verdict: TinyMCE is probably the best known of the group, as it is the main editor for WordPress. It has advanced table editing like merge or split rows and columns. Overall, it is very powerful. However, there is no guarantee that it generates quality XHTML or even standard HTML, mainly because of the ability to customize the HTML output.

Kupu

URL: http://kupu.oscom.org/
Required Libraries: None
Extensibility: Extension creation available.
Markup Validation: Creates well-formed XML
Code View: Code view with div switching
License: Free, copyright
Support and Community: There is minimal documentation and a developer mailing list
Ease of Configuration: Configuration of Kupu is difficult. The examples use a lot of code to create the buttons and toolbars in addition to the general configuration.
Theme/Skin support: Skins are supported, but the limited documentation makes it difficult to create.
Verdict: Kupu runs under IE or FireFox only. It seems meant to be the main editor for a CMS as it takes over the entire page. The configuration (or just the example) is very hard to figure out, but the example works right out of the box.

CB RTE

URL: http://www.kevinroth.com/rte/
Required Libraries: None
Extensibility: No plugin or extension framework available.
Markup Validation: Generates XHTML
Code View: Code view with div switching when clicking a checkbox
License: Creative Commons
Support and Community: There is minimal documentation, almost none.
Ease of Configuration: Very easy configuration, mainly because not much can be changed.
Theme/Skin support: RTE is not skinnable, you can replace the standard stylesheet
Verdict: RTE has a very minimalist user interface. There is no customization or extension model. Otherwise, it is a bare bones HTML editor.

Xinha

URL: http://xinha.webfactional.com/
Required Libraries: None
Extensibility: Plugin creation available
Markup Validation: Produces valid XHTML code
Code View: Code view with div switching
License: BSD-based
Support and Community: Forums
Ease of Configuration: Moderately difficult configuration as there are a lot of possible options.
Theme/Skin support: Skinnable, and creating a custom skin based on the default skins is simple.
Verdict: Xinha (pronounced Xena) must be installed on a server, so it does not work on a local file. It has advanced table editing like merging and splitting rows and columns.

NicEdit

URL: http://nicedit.com/
Required Libraries: None
Extensibility: Plugin creation available
Markup Validation: Produces valid XHTML code
Code View: Code view with a hover div
License: MIT
Support and Community: Forums
Ease of Configuration: Easy configuration as there are not many options to change.
Theme/Skin support: NicEdit is not skinnable, but you can replace the default stylesheet.
Verdict: No table editing is available as it is meant to be a simpler editor, and the author notes that the html generation is bad.

Imagery provided by iStockPhoto/Leontura

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Last year we did a post on Web development tools. A lot has changed in the past year, and there are tons of new tools available to developers. Options include drag-and-drop application builders, code repositories, project management and testing apps, and frameworks for working with a variety of coding languages, from Ajax to Ruby to Python.

Which do you use? Tell us more about your experiences in the comments.

Application Builders

DreamFace – Framework for creating personalized Web apps.

Organic Incentive – Tools for creating viral widgets with a drag-and-drop interface.

dbFLEX – On-demand business application development platform.

app2you – Online tool for creating custom Web applications.

Qrimp – An affordable database platform that builds applications around your data (which you can upload in an Excel spreadsheet).

Lightspoke – Application builder with drag-and-drop application design, dynamic filtering and sorting, and a true relational database backend.

Tersus – Visual application creator with no coding or scripting required.

Qt – Cross-platform application framework that lets you develop applications and user interfaces simultaneously.

Code Snippets, Search Engines and Repositories

byteMyCode – Code snippet search engine.

Snipplr – A code repository where you can store and organize all of your code snippets.

ErrorKey – Error code search engine.

findJAR.com – JAR file search engine.

github – Code repository that includes both public and private repositories (the private repositories are only accessibly through SSH and SSL, providing extra security for your code).

merobase – Search engine to find components for your development projects.

Codebase – Code repository, ticketing support and deployment tracking app.

CONFiles – Online storage and sharing for your configuration files.

CodeSnippets – Public source code repository that also allows users to keep private repositories.

GWT-Ext – Free, downloadable widget library.

Development Environments, Platforms and Frameworks

SocialGO – A social networking hosting platform that includes messaging, video chat, custom member profiles, photo sharing, blogging and more.

Pringo – Social networking platform with a variety of features, including video and MP3 support, galleries, groups, podcasting, and more.

slinkset – Hosted platform for creating custom social news sites.

iWidgets – A turnkey “Social Syndication Platform” that allows you to syndicate your content to social networks and portals.

WackWall – A hosted social networking platform.

WhiteLabelDating.com – Platform for creating your own branded dating, social networking or community site.

ONEsite – Social networking platform and hosting that includes blogging, photo & video galleries, rating & tagging, message boards, private messages and more.

jinity – Free social networking platform and hosting that includes message boards, chat, groups, journals, polls, news, and more.

Magnify.net – Website video platform with a full suite of media tools.

ShoutEm – Microblogging social networking platform and hosting.

Soceeo – Social networking platform and hosting that includes file sharing, news, polls and more.

Swift – A mobile website creator that includes multiple design options, RSS feed support, multimedia support and more.

SnappVille – Social networking platform that includes groups, blogging tools, instant messaging, and more.

Ning – Social networking platform and hosting that includes custom branding, member profiles, event listings, and even Facebook integration.

mixxt – Social networking platform that includes events, forums and more.

zembly – A platform for creating social apps. Currently in private beta.

Yuku – Community platform and hosting solution that is customizable and has powerful administration tools.

SocialEngine – PHP-based social networking platform that features multi-part profiles, subnetworks, search-friendly URLs, blogs, groups, and more.

Cappuccino – Open source framework for creating desktop-quality Web apps.

Jaws – A user-friendly framework and CMS for dynamic Web sites.

General Development Tools

Tabifier – A tool that automatically puts the proper indents in your source code.

Sms2do – A free tool to demonstrate and evaluate SMS applications.

Pretty Printer – A source code formatter that works with PHP, JavaScript, CSS and more.

Jitterbit – Open source integration solution that improves scalability and performance.

Bitizer – Conversion tool for Binary, Decimal, Hex, Base 36 and ASCII.

thmbnl – Show thumbnail images of pages being linked to from your site.

ID Selector – OpenID utility that helps increase logins by helping your users memorize their OpenID.

consoleFISH – Free Web-based SSH server access.

form site – Web form builder and hosting that offers free and paid plans.

99Polls – Create custom surveys and polls to get feedback on your site.

Warehouse – Subversion browser with multiple repository support and fine grain permissions settings.

rendur 2.1 – Sandbox app that renders your page as you code.

Languify – Translation management system for dealing with multiple language support in agile software projects.

ROR Sitemap Generator – As the name says, this site creates a ROR format sitemap with up to 1,000 URLs for your website.

MicroMaps – Create interactive maps (geographic, facility, or others) to put on your websites.

Newsfeed Maker – Create a custom newsfeed to include on your blog or website.

WriteMaps – Online sitemap builder.

Project Kenai – Free hosting of open source projects and code that includes collaboration and issue tracking.

Launch Splash – Free tool to create a pre-launch page to put on your website.

Browser Shell – Browser-based SSH tool.

foigo – Create customizable forms, surveys and databases.

AggData – Premade lists for your development projects.

SnapCasa – Free, easy to implement website thumbnail provider.

Versionshelf – Secure subversion repository that includes one-click backups.

Mashups and APIs

The Echo Nest – APIs for a host of different music-related development services (including in-depth artist information and music recommendations).

Zeep Mobile – An API to add text messaging to your site.

Clickatell – An SMS gateway that lets your website send messages worldwide through a number of different connection options.

Nonoba – A multiplayer API for online game developers.

Zong – Mobile payment platform with a developer API.

Web Shots Pro – API for developers to add website screenshots to their apps.

Pushpin – Easy to use online mapping API that allows for thousands of markers (pushpins) and other advanced features.

Datamash – Create widgets and mashups for your site with information anywhere on the Web.

Spicy Pipes – Mashup builder.

Reference and General Resources

COfundOS – Platform for discussing open-source software ideas and finding funding.

Mac Yenta – Social network for independent Mac developers.

CorkDump – An online cork board for keeping commonly used resources (code snippets, CSS, Flash, etc.) handy.

All Developers Network – Social news network for developers.

CodePlex – Open source project hosting site from Microsoft.

UnmatchList – A resource directory for developers and designers.

developerAnalytics – Social media ratings and report services that help you find the hottest up and coming social media applications before they get big, find out who’s making the most money, how your competition is doing and more.

CollabFinder – A place for designers and developers to collaborate.

Testing, Monitoring, Bug Tracking and Project Management

CloudStatus – Independent monitoring of some of the Web’s most popular cloud services.

BetaBitz – A site that helps you solicit beta testers and increase the visibility of your site.

observu – Free website and server monitoring service.

UserFix – Report bugs or request features for any website.

OctaGate SiteTimer – A tool to see how long it takes your site to load.

Cuzillion – Simple page testing and checking app.

Mob4Hire – Crowdsource your mobile application testing.

Beanstalk – Hosted system that makes it easy to setup, browse, and track Subversion, including built-in integration with sites like Basecamp and Campfire.

BUGtrack – Project management and bug tracking.

UserZoom – User experience testing platform.

devunity – This used to be betabug, but has undergone a facelift and is now a social development platform.

BuiltWith – Technical analysis and SEO information for any website.

fixx – Issue and bug tracking software that includes filtering, a mobile interface, and collaboration.

BugWiki – Simplified bug tracking application.

litmus – Web-based testing app for checking your designs across different browsers.

Bugtagger – Bug tracking with tagging capabilities for reviewing how your bugs are related (even between projects).

FEED Validator – Validate your Atom, RSS and KML feeds.

pastebin – Debugging tool that allows you to work collaboratively on solving issues.

JUnit.org – A testing framework for writing and performing automated testing programs.

Ruby & Ruby on Rails Resources & Tools

Open Source Rails – A showcase of open source Ruby on Rails sites.

Exceptional – Exceptional tracking and management utility for Rails apps.

TuneUp – Check the performance of your applications using this Rails plugin.

heroku – Ruby on Rails platform that requires no setup or configuration, allows coding right in your browser, and has elastic scaling.

RSpec 1.1.8 – Development framework for Ruby that includes a Scenario Framework and a Code Example Framework.

Lovd By Less – An open-source, Ruby on Rails social networking platform.

Merb – A Ruby framework that includes comprehensive features.

Camping – A Ruby on Rails microframework.

Ajax, Java & JavaScript Resources & Tools

Javxs – Online tool for converting HTML to JavaScript.

frevvo – Ajax form creator that includes full XML support and drag and drop controls.

AjaxDaddy – Ajax application demo showcase.

WaveMaker – A visual, open-source Ajax WYSIWYG editor.

AppJet – JavaScript app programming platform.

SproutCore – JavaScript framework for creating desktop-quality Web apps.

Bungee Connect – Ajax Web app platform that is cross-browser compatible and instantly scalable.

Spring – Enterprise Java application framework that aims to increase development productivity and application quality.

jQuery – JavaScript library for rapid Web development with Ajax.

KSS – Develop your UI without writing any JavaScript with this framework.

PHP Resources & Tools

Flow3 – A PHP framework initially developed as the foundation for TYPO3 5.0, but that can be used independently.

Prado – A component-based programming framework for PHP 5 that is object-oriented and event-driven.

Perl Resources & Tools

Mason – A Web site development engine that’s Perl-based and includes tools to handle debugging, templating, and more.

Flash Resources & Tools

OpenLaszlo – A rich Internet platform that lets you compile to both Flash and DHTML while only writing once.

Python Resources & Tools

GTK+ – A toolkit for creating GUIs that works with Python among others.

Wing IDE – A professional Python development environment that offers a free 30-day trial.

Cheetah – An open source, Python-based template engine and code generation tool.

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