Category Archives: Cool Tools

Cool tools are just what it says. These are apps, websites, widgets, and places on the web that help creatives, web developers, and small business owners do their jobs better. Sometimes, they’re just for fun.

For everyone, there are productivity tools to help you manage your time better. Use the mind-mapping tools to brainstorm ideas, create a web site structure, or plot an editorial calendar for your blog.

Creatives and web designers will find font-finders, alternatives to boring lorem ipsum, color meters, and image finders.

Website owners can use the site analytics tools, and several lists of online marketing tools.

There is also a big list of cheap (or even free) sources of photos to use on your website or other online marketing channels. Just follow the restrictions on copyright and don’t use photos that aren’t specifically marked for re-use.

Tuesday Travels: Cool Tools for Freelancers

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CreativeTools.se - PackshotCreator - Pens

Image by Creative Tools via Flickr

This month’s cool tools range from live chat to a dashboard widget.

Olark Add live chat to your website. You can talk to prospects or readers, and answer questions.

Gaget A dashboard widget that lets you see your Google Analytics data right on your desktop (Mac only).

Submit my press release/ A twist on the usual press service, this one lets you include video, distribution on their Facebook page, and inclusion in their Twitter stream.

Auditorium Notes An iPad app that lets you save both written and audio notes from a presentation or a conference. It has audio bookmarks so you can take note of important points and easily find them later.

Tuesday Travels: Fun Tools for Freelancers

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Mission Statement

Image by dipfan via Flickr

How to write (or not write) 404 error pages, mission statements, and make your own mini “movies” (no actual skill required).

Entertaining 404 pages – don’t just redirect people, show a little personality

Bad mission statement generator – write like the big, giant corporations do (or not)

Buzzword generator – you too can create gobbledygook

Text to movie – if you can type you can make a “movie”

Friday Fun: Cool Tools – The End of Boring Lorem Ipsum

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Tool rack

Image by L. Marie via Flickr

Most of the time, when I post cool tools, they’re useful business tools that help you save time or money or effort.  Not this time.  Today, they’re just plain silly (but fun).

Tired of boring filler text?  Forget “lorem ipsum” and use one of these instead.

Bacon ipsum  – pure pork, ham, and kielbasa.

Vegan ipsum – all vegetarian, meat- and egg-free

Samuel L. Ipsum – mimics his role in Pulp Fiction (warning: NSFW)

Fillerati – literary filler from truly great writers

Tuesday Travels: Cool Tools for Creatives and Freelancers

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a toolbox

Image via Wikipedia

Today’s crop of cool tools brings a button maker, an FAQ generator, and an infographics tool.

Kloud (easy interactive FAQ page)

Button Maker – free tool for making your own call to action buttons (choice of colors, fonts, and shapes)

Visual.ly – infographics are hot; here’s how to make your own

Desktop wallpaper – Free desktop wallpaper from artists around the world (Estonia, Poland, Canada, India, and Slovakia, to name a few).

Friday Fun: Cool Tools for Freelancers

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A toolbox. For general Usage as an Icon or wha...

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today’s edition of cool tools covers everything from email to Facebook to linkbait.

Unbounce: Easily design and test different landing pages. Free 30-day trial

Linkbait generator: Type in a word (singular or plural) and get an attention-grabbing headline

Ultimate Facebook guide: Speaking of linkbait (meaning writing something designed to get lots of links back to your site), here’s an extensive list of links with everything you need to know about using Facebook

Email on Acid: 60s flashback! No, not really. The name is weird, but it’s a tool that lets you preview how your HTML email will look in lots of different email apps (before you send it).