10 Sites I Can’t Live Without

By James Plouf

Rarely does a day go by when I don’t use all of these sites at least once in a 24-hour period. I group these 10 sites into three categories: Social networks, information tools and blogs.

1. Facebook
Facebook is so useful in so many ways that it is hard to know where to start. My number one benefit from the site is in the marketing and advertising features. You didn’t see that coming did you!

2. Youtube
Again. So useful in so many ways that my head spins. Last month I used it to fix my toilet. On a day-to-day basis it rocks as a marketing and community building tool. Used properly, Youtube is like the equivalent of free advertising on television. Video is a compelling way to communicate a message to the masses. Why? Because most people are lazy and do not want to read. They would rather consume by watching a video.

3. Twitter
If you are into listing building then Twitter is like a field of gold. When I explain Twitter to people I always compare it to Facebook. Here is the difference. On Facebook you make friends. I can only follow people that follow me back. On Twitter I can follow anybody I want. They don’t have to approve me. If you are into community building you can follow people in your field of interest and then follow all their followers. Roughly 25% of them will follow you back. Keep on doing this and you can build a huge following at record speed and at no cost. If you do this on a huge scale there is software to help you with the process. This just in: You can now get paid to tweet to your followers. Check out Ad.ly. Imaging getting paid $1000 for one tweet.

4. Bit.ly
This one is so simple but so useful. Bit.ly is a URL shortener. Take any long URL, plug it in Bit.ly and it shortens it. Extremely useful for twitter which limits you to 140 characters. The other feature that I enjoy is the analytics. Bit.ly tells you instantly how many clicks you are getting to your URL.

5. Passpack
The best free online password manager. When you register on hundreds of sites per year like I do you have to have something like this to keep everything straight. It’s simple, powerful and has a great design.

6. Compete
Thank you compete.com for helping me spy on my competitors and for keeping people honest that call bragging about their site traffic and pageviews. Compete helps me sleep at night because I can see threats coming. I prefer it to Quantcast. All the other services like this charge for the data.

7. Gmail
Hands down the best online email program. And, this is only going to get better. I find Yahoo slow and cumbersome.

8. Wordpress
The most extensible blogging platform out there. If you are a writer you need to start learning about Wordpress. So, so powerful once you get into the plug-ins. Please: make an action plan and start a blog (if not just for the purpose of learning Wordpress).

9. Delicious
Still my favorite online bookmarking site. There are other out there. I just have not explored them. Tell me if you have a better option than Delicious.

10. TechCrunch
Read this blog and learn about what is going on in the online world. I ask everyone I interview if they read TechCrunch. Huge strike against them if they say no.

Share you top ten in the comments.