things you will need

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

There are many many options to build a website. You could code it yourself, which would probably take you forever. You would have to learn how to code your site and you would have to update it constantly which would require you to recode everything and lets face it, unless you are a web designer you are not going to spend all day updating your site.

One great site is the Cargo Collective. It is basically a bunch of people that have done all of the programing for you. You will have to apply and be juried in by the collective but if you get in it is free! Free website! They have a million different templates to choose from and you can pay and customize it even further. Here are a few sites that use Cargo.
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Click below for more info
http://cargocollective.com/#/howitworks

Another website generator that is also free and works similarly to Cargo is Carbonmade.com

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If you are feeling rich and want less to do with how your website works you can sign up for Otherpeoplespixels.com

There are some customizable settings but mostly the sites look the same. I believe it is about $16 a month. Here is an example:

Friday, January 22, 2010

Important things..

Because I am on a MAC I use iwork and in iwork there is a spreadsheet application called numbers. It exports to excel. I love it. Here is a great tutorial for learning formulas in numbers to create inventory spreadsheets to keep track of your work and supplies

For bookkeeping I use Outright.com. Outright is great because it keeps everything separate. It also links in with Paypal. I try to make all of my material purchases or shipping or any transaction with paypal. Outright will automatically take all of that information and plug it in. You can add purchases made or payments received manually as well. It also preps your taxes for you. Great free service.

Another great bookkeeping software is Chronicle for MAC. This app is a great way to organize and collect details about bills etc.

Square is a great way to accept credit cards. Not only is the app free but they also send you a card reader for free.

For printing postcards I normally use Vista Print

When self publishing I try to make things a simple as possible. There are a million self publishing tools online but I use Blurb the most. Blurb is very simple, user friendly and just really great. You don't have to learn INDESIGN or generate a PDF with custom settings. If you are not in a hurry blurb is great.

You can also archive your blog, if you have one,

Another great online publishing company is lulu. They are very similar to Blurb but they allow for more customizing and they have a great ebook publisher.