Web Tools and Resources for Small Business

Small business owners don’t have a lot of leisure time to surf the Web looking for, well, much of anything really. Fortunately, our small business marketing expert excels at finding useful, affordable Web tools to help you get things done for less.







3 Handy Web Tools for Small Business 


Alexa


If you’re in business on the Internet, or if you do business on the Internet, you need to know about Alexa.com.  Alexa ranks and rates the websites on the Internet, and basically it will tell you what the traffic is for individual sites. 


The whole success matrix in the Internet business boom is based on whether or not the Internet superhighway passes in front of your business, or in front of your website.  And Alexa tells you how much traffic passes by.


The first thing Alexa shows you is a search box. Type in the URL of any website — try yours — to see where it ranks among the millions of sites on the Internet. For example, SmallBusinessComputing.com has an Alexa traffic rank in the U.S. of 12,012. And my site, HelpMyBusiness.com ranks at 33,772 in the U.S.


Under Top Sites you’ll find the top 500 sites on the entire worldwide Web.  Google is #1, followed by Yahoo, YouTube and Facebook.  What’s Hot lists the most popular pages on the Internet, and Site Tools can help you learn how to drive traffic to your business. You can even download an Alexa Toolbars for Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome to help you keep up to date on Web page traffic, page popularity and hot topics.






LegalZoom.com, Web tools
LegalZoom.com
(Click for larger image)
.

LegalZoom


It’s unfortunate that we need to have lawyers, but every business needs legal advice at some point.


LegalZoom.com is one of the best resources I’ve discovered to take the pain out of the process of creating legal documents. It’s fast, and you’ll save a LOT of money. For example, a typical trademark application would cost around $1,400 if you used a lawyer. Handling the task online with LegalZoom will cost you around $525 including all government fees.


What kind of services are on offer? You can create a business entity, form a will or a trust, handle trademarks, patents and copyrights, file for bankruptcy, and process a small claim. I’m very impressed with this service — it fills a real need in the marketplace.







Edicy


If you’re a non-technical person who wants to get your own Web site, then you’ll love Edicy.com. It’s genuinely one of the easiest ways to create a good-looking Web site, and it’s free. Free is good. Head over to edicy.com and start by taking the overview tour.


Then, to get started, simply enter your email address. No other information is required. Enter the text, add some images – it’s a drag-and-drop style interface, and you can even include a blog. You can have a fancy new Web site in a matter of minutes, so now there’s no excuse for not having a presence online.



You’ll find lots more small business marketing tips and resources from Andrew Lock in our Small Business In-Depth series, Lock in Your Marketing Resources.

Andrew Lock is a self-described maverick marketer and the creator and host of Help! My Business Sucks, a free, weekly Web TV show full of practical small business marketing tips, advice and resources to help small businesses “get more done and have more fun.”





Do you have a comment or question about this article or other small business topics in general? Speak out in the SmallBusinessComputing.com Forums. Join the discussion today!

Must Read

Get the Free Newsletter!

Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends, and analysis.