Making Money

1. Google Apps Standard Edition

This collection of software tools for businesses and organizations can really save you some money and enable you and your staff to be productive even while working from home or on the road.

Google tries to steer everyone to the Google Apps Premier edition, which costs $50 per user per year and delivers a few additional features. However, the Standard Edition (which is free of charge) already delivers quite a few services you may currently be paying for and therefore moving to the Google Apps Standard edition may save you several thousand dollars in software licensing, maintenance, and IT service fees.

For publishers with small teams, Google Apps can be a godsend because you don't have to worry about buying servers, dealing with backups, and hiring or managing an IT team for this part of your business.

Here is what you get out of Google Apps Standard Edition:

• Gmail-like Group Email
• Replaces your existing hosting company / or internal mail server
• Easily "map" your domain to their email services
• Group and Individual Calendaring for each user
• Google Docs (a decent replacement for Microsoft's suite of Office software)
• Storage of these documents online

With Google's system, everything is saved "in the cloud" so your files are kept on Google's servers on the internet at all times. You can invite colleagues within your company (or freelancers) to share copies of documents, which allows you to collaborate without having to be send people documents. In fact, the only time you would actually want to save a local copy is if you want to send the file to someone such as a client.

We think this service is great. Give it a try!

2. eFax

Do you really want to call the office to check whether faxes have arrived or print out every fax that is sent to you? Why even have a fax machine?

With eFax's cloud computing service, you can fax any PDF or Microsoft Office documents from any computer that has web access.

Faxes sent to your eFax number (they have numbers available for virtually every country and area code in the world) is converted into .pdf format and sent to one or several emails you designate. Like Google Apps, this means you can be traveling or at home and still read your important faxes. If you have to send a regular (such as a signed) document, simply scan and send it via the eFax website or optional software client. If you don't have a scanner, your digital camera (and a steady hand) is a good substitute. We think eFax is well worth the $12.95 per month.

3. Highrise

What does your sales process look like? Is it really a process? If you have been sitting on the sidelines or are using an old personal version of software like ACT! it's time to collaborate in the cloud!

Try Highrise a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system that is easy to learn and helps you track any communication with clients.

Anytime you send an email, send a bcc to your Highrise email dropbox. Anytime you give a client a call, create a short note about your conversation such as what kind of advertising a client was particularly interested in. Via the "Dashboard" you can then see any communication (unless it's been marked private) between your sales team and your potential and active clients.

This is accomplished by adding a special email address given to you by Highrise to any emails you send to your clients. You can also assign tasks which can be made visible to your fellow sales team as well as marked private.