Smashing Magazine just posted what they call the best buzz-monitoring, observing and tracking tools a web-developer might be willing to use analyzing and monitoring his/her recent web-projects. Although targeted towards web developers, this list can be used by anyone who owns and runs a web site.

You’d like to

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Ever since Gmail launched, I’ve been tempted to sign up for an account. I keep getting more and more invitations from both friends and subscribers but I already have so many email addresses as it is. I don’t really need another one.

A few months back though, I noticed that I was getting more and more spam emails through one of my email accounts. And then another.

All this while, I’ve been using SpamArrest for my main email address. A person would need to click on a link and pass a Captcha test before their emails are passed on to me. And for customer support, I’ve been using a web based helpdesk.

If you’re not sure what Skype is, it is one of the most popular VoIP on the net. While Skype can be used to make and receive phone calls on your computer, there are many other ways you can use it for your business. But let’s start with the basics.

Create an international presence
If a major part of your customer base comes from a different country from where you are, a SkypeIn number in that country can be very useful. If you were based in Australia, for example, but more than 50% of your customers are from the US, you could subscribe to a US SkypeIn number for as little as AUD$4/mth (USD$3/mth). That way they could call you for customer support and pay the price of a local call. If you’re not available, you can always forward your incoming calls to another Skype user (your virtual assistant, for e.g.) or you can even forward the call to a mobile or landline number. Or just set up a voicemail.

If you’ve taken my ecourse on “How to Set Up Your Own Content Site”, you’ll know keyword research forms a big part in the profitability of your site. More and more keyword research tools and services are popping up to help make this process much easier for us.

The latest …

In last post, I wrote about the two most popular screencasting software out there in the market. I understand, however, that not many of us are willing to cough up hundreds of dollars just to create a short demo of our simple product.

Are there any alternatives out there that …

Let’s begin at the very beginning. I’ve always been a loyal Adobe Captivate user. I started using Captivate when it was called RoboDemo and owned by another company called eHelp. At the time, I was actively looking for a screencasting tool to invest in. I tried various different ones including ViewletBuilder, TurboDemo and Camtasia.

I chose RoboDemo because it had a great set of features at a reasonable price. Camtasia was at that time a bit too complicated for me, with it’s special codec etc. But Camtasia has gone a long way and with the recent release of Camtasia Studio 4.0 I’ve come to point where I have to decide whether to upgrade to the latest Captivate 2.0 or switch to Camtasia Studio 4.0 (which cost the same).

This review is going to be from my own personal experiences and needs. If you want a more detailed comparison of the two softwares check out the following reviews:

• Camtasia vs. Captivate - This review is quite dated but it still has some valid points.
• Review: Adobe Captivate and TechSmith Camtasia Studio - A much more recent comparison but still a version behind for each product. Note here that the zoom feature mentioned in the review is now also available with the release of Captivate 2.0.

Okay, now on with my review.