Grassroots.org

As we open the toolbox to all African countries, one Grassroots.org nonprofit already stands out for its dedication to African-based principles, art and culture.

For 12 years, Cleveland-based African Soul International has used everything from drum circles to West African Dance performances to expose youth to African culture and professional development opportunities. Ultimately, the organization seeks solutions to educational and societal problems in inner city communities, said Founder and President Jewel Jackson.

African Soul was one of the first members to receive free web design, and Jackson said that online presence allows the nonprofit to touch diverse audiences.

“We now get calls from all over the country,” Jackson said. “We are able to connect ourselves to people that otherwise we would not have had access to without that electronic presence.”

In the end, it’s all about the kids.

“It’s a great level of exposure and professionalism to have a great website that is worth more than what we have to pay at this time,” Jackson said. “It has given us the time to really focus on quality and the development of young people in a professional way”

Welcome to this week's edition of "Grassroots.org Tool of the Week": our growing list of tech tool reviews from Mike Mann's Web Development Best Practices. Check the archives for our previous reviews, and come back next week for more insight on the web’s best tools for nonprofits.

What kind of tool is Google AdWords?

The easiest way to describe Google AdWords: The "Nutrisystem" mention that pops up next to search results for the word "diet." The more tech-savvy definition is a keyword-based pay-per-click advertising system that places sponsored links next to relevant search results.

The program lets any users, from start-up bloggers to major corporations, create simple, effective text-based advertising campaigns that link back to their websites. For instance, a nutrition blogger might select the phrase "food groups." Each time someone searches those two words, an ad for the nutrition blog appears next to those results. If a visitor clicks the link, the writer pays a small fee based on the popularity of the phrase.

How have we used Google AdWords at Grassroots.org?
One way for Google to "do no evil": Give nonprofits boatloads of free advertising services. Through its Google Grants program, the search engine donates nearly an average of $300 in ads to each grant recipient every month. We've scored at least $36,000 in ads this year.

How should nonprofits use Google AdWords?

All nonprofits should apply for a Google Grant! Any registered 501(c)3 organization — as long as its mission is not specifically religious or political — is eligible for the program.

How can my organization sign up for Google AdWords?

Visit Google Grants or Google AdWords.

A big thanks to My Business Journals, an online publication that covers business trends, for showcasing us on their site this week. The interview covers the need for technology tools in the nonprofit industry and encourages business partners, volunteers and donors to support our mission.

Check out the article!

As Port Au Prince residents grapple with the aftermath of its Jan. 12 earthquake, one of our members is making sure the nation’s kids get to cut loose, at least a little.

The Haiti Soccer Project, based in Long Island, NY, supplies leagues across Haiti with soccer balls, uniforms and cleats. After the quake, the need for consistency and a few endorphins is even greater, said Lesly Williams, founder of the project.

“The people of Haiti have endured the worst disaster in their history…” Williams said. “Over the past few days, as we have seen on television, some kids have resorted to something they are very passionate about — shooting a soccer ball. We’re committed to supporting the youth of Haiti, as well as assisting in the restoration of some normalcy in their lives.”

The Haiti Soccer Project uses several of our web tools, but ultimately Williams’ commitment to Haiti prompted us to select the Haiti Soccer Project as our January Member of the Month.

“Most Haitian children love the game,” Williams said. “They kick just about anything that resembles a soccer ball. It is everywhere, but despite having the desire to play the game, most children are not able to participate in organized leagues with the proper equipment… Soccer offers unique opportunities to promote health, tolerance, teamwork, fair play, cooperation and unity.”

Attention New York members!

Here's a great opportunity to screen a movie and learn how you can turn information into action. Grassrootscamp.org and Organizing20.org are teaming up to present the global launch of 10 Tactics for Turning Information Into Action, a film by Tactical Technology Collective that includes stories from 25 rights advocates around the world who have successfully used information and digital technologies to create positive change.

After the film, you'll have the chance to join a panel discussion and post-event networking.

Preview the film, and RSVP for a seat at the event! Details are below:

Date/Time: February 17, 7:00pm
Location: The Tank Theater, 354 West 45th Street, New York, NY 10036
Cost: $5 in advance, $10 at the door
RSVP at: http://www.grassrootscamp.org

For more information, visit GrassrootsCamp's calendar. Please email Aliceif you have any questions or if for any reason, you're unable to pay for the event.

If you're an avid follower of the Grassroots.org blog, you know that over the next few months, our staff will review one web tool each week. Each tool comes from this list of Web Development Best Practices from Grassroots.org founder Mike Mann. So check back for advice, insight and information on the web’s best technologies for nonprofits.

What kind of tool is Twitter?
Twitter is a social media tool that relies exclusively on 140-character mini-blogs. Similar to the status update feature on Facebook, Twitter allows users to shout out quick, snappy messages to a set list of followers. It has become a popular tool in most industries, but marketing, media, entertainment and nonprofit professionals have especially latched on to the network.

How have we used Twitter at Grassroots.org?
Twitter's usefulness is threefold: We learn about other organizations, stay up-to-date on nonprofit news and events, and gain exposure.

On a practical level, Twitter is an excellent source for archiving articles and resources. We follow a range of organizations, including marketing experts, start-up nonprofits, and major news outlets. Often, our Twitter feed reads like a mini news page, with links to articles on everything from technology to nonprofit news to humanitarian services.

The most tangible outcome on Twitter is publicity. We've gone from zero followers to nearly 3,000 since joining, and it's helped us gain exposure and connect with other organizations. Our cast of followers is diverse and includes everyone from member organizations to reporters for major media outlets. How does that translate to more publicity? At least 10 new accounts follow us every day, which has made Twitter our top referencing site for Grassroots.org

How should my nonprofit use Twitter?
All nonprofits should sign up for a Twitter account. It's an easy, free and fun way to network and snag some free publicity.

After signing up, search for followers. Typically, it's best to seek out organizations or individuals who identify with your cause. Once you collect a substantial follower list, begin Tweeting. The best way to find followers is to be an active Twitter participant. Re-tweet interesting articles, respond directly to individuals, and write a few messages each day.

As your Twitter presence grows, consider a tool such as Hoot Suiteto manage your account. Hoot Suite lets users connect Facebook and Twitter accounts, schedule Twitter feeds and analyze growth statistics.

How can my nonprofit sign up for the tool?
Go to the Twitter homepage, and start chirping.

By Mike Mann and Grassroots.org

……for your own projects, or to help with ours at listed at http://Aux.com/ and http://MikeMann.com/, in coordination with best business practices from http://MakeMillions.com/audio/

Great tools and ideas are necessary to research and develop for any organization that wants to be successful online — either for profit or for charitable organizations. Please comment on the products below that you've used. Read about, ask about, and test out others over time; tell us what we are missing and what to remove (email me: mikemann at mikemann dot com). Collectively, on this site, we are documenting the best Internet applications to leverage in our respective ventures. Feel free to re-post and link to this document, and use it to get rich. Thanks for helping out in this critical project to change the world.

Project Management
Going Viral
Interactive Marketing
Content Management
Marketing
Marketing Brainstorming
Public Relations
Web Development
Tech

Use Basecamp for 1-79 below. Briefly describe your theory for each test, the testing process, feedback from your trials, and any next steps.

Project Management
1. What special offers are you testing to enhance conversion rates? (Real, high-quality, branded products and services, delivered free or cheap that will convert and go viral. Many ideas tested thoroughly over time.)
2. What are the key metrics you are tracking for your site and company? (For example, web visitors, revenue by service area, new customers, total customers by service area, gross margins, free cashflow, etc.)
3. What are the changes in metrics since last period? Tracking where, deviating where? (Distribute links to your data on schedule via email; automate in analytics software.)
4. Do you have stable HR, legal, and accountancy? New programmers? Employee reporting procedures and reports? New products to train staff on and market to customers and prospects?
5. Can you and all your staff clearly describe the products, services, and up-to-date special offers that your company provides? (Everyone should have an "elevator pitch" for each product. Practice in teams.) Is it clear and simple on your website and all your printed and digital marketing materials, or should the productization marketing text and processes be fixed now so they are the best in your market?

Going Viral
6. Install viral software like Octazen (or competitors), and place viral links at key points in your Web pages, emails, and other user interfaces. Decide on all the best touch points to attempt to make viral linkages: within sign-up pages, emails, internal control panels spots, in newsletters, blogs, unique PPC/SEO landing pages, etc. Associate this viral component with great special offers mentioned above and cutting edge "Conversion Funnel" processes that should be a constant focus of your studies and relationships.
7. How do you or can you leverage Facebook, Twitter, iPhone apps, Blackberry apps, YouTube, LinkedIn,SalesForce.com, Digg, etc.? This encompasses multiple, critical, long-term technology and marketing processes that should be ambitiously evolved and documented in BaseCamp over many line items, whereas some are simpler, short-term ideas. What else are you testing or should you be testing in the social media sharing spaces? Are there any widgets/middleware/APIs that you want to develop for your organization to go more viral?
8. How can you successfully leverage sharing media/blogging? Develop an extensive list of blogger contacts in your market spaces, and get them to agree to redistribute your blogging via RSS. Choose which apps are good for you: Ping.fm, Googlealerts, Splitweet, Sharethis, Addthis, Tweetdeck, Messagepub.com, Docstoc, Docstor, Knol.Google, fliiby, and edocs? Newsletters/VideoBlogs etc. Vbulletin/PHPbb/BlogTV?
9. Using crowdsourcing for crowdmarketing; testing your sites, products, and services; the crowd is "secret shopping" your site and providing valuable feedback, while you are exposing your offerings to their community. For example go to mturk.com, have them do market research on your products and services and provide feedback; maybe some will convert to customers and finance the operation. In any event, the research is quick, cheap and possibly valuable.
10. Try Upsellit and Magento, and optimize if viable.

Interactive Marketing
11. What opportunities and apps are there for Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising, and Cost Per Action (CPA)? This area of study could create perpetual, huge, and very valuable strategic advantages. Pay attention for the big bucks.
12. What more can be tried with PPC? Why shouldn't you increase your PPC investing? Develop relationships with Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, ReachLocal, ServiceMagic, Oversee, Skenzo, ThoughtConvergence, Parked.com, and others if applicable.
13. Create theories for conversion funnels; test them out. If successful, your cost of new customers should constantly decrease.
14. Try A/B multivariate testing of the SEM, SEO, and LPO strategies that you should be developing.
15. Test and utilize relevant features of these Google tools: Analytics (incl. heat maps), Wave, Insights,Trends,Searchwiki, Website optimizer, Adwords, AdSense. Familiarize yourself with your Google spidering index level (ie Pr5/Pr4)… and plan accordingly.
16. Have you tested the relevant features of these tools? (There are a lot of them, so read reviews, and try the best. Don’t neglect to review things that might add huge value.): Yield Software, Trendeley, BlvdStatus, Quantcast, Alexa, Compete.com, CrazyEgg.com, VerticalResponse, Inquisite, Woopra, AWstats, Comscore, Hitwise, Spyfu, Wordtracker, Clickable, WebsiteOutlook, Kwiclick, SmarterTools.com,Viral Heat, RoiRevolution.com, HosterStats.com, Statbrain.
17. Is your Salesforce.com contact management system integrated with your web site, PDAs, and PCs? (or SugarCRM, IntelliCRM, HighRise, Act)
18. Logo brainstorming and best practices:http://logoblink.com/2008/03/24/explaining-web20-logos/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/stabilo-boss/101793494/sizes/o/

Content Management
19. Crowdsourcing for content, SEO tagging, designs, apps, voice, administrative and data entry. Be creative, this is a whole new paradigm of opportunity. Some sources are: Mechanical Turk, Elance, Rentacoder.com, Crowdspring, Sitebuilder, Sitepoint, 99designs.com, Guru.com, Voices.com, etc. Hire experts on crowdsourcing.
20. WordPress is standard to manage your site and content and blogs, but also review Movable Type, DotNetNuke.com, and Drupal to see what else should be integrated. Study CMS environment options at OpenSourceCMS.com
21. What is your overall content strategy? What is your multimedia strategy, and what applications do you use for web, email, thumbdrives, pdas, DVRs? (Photo, video, music, voice, radio and texts). Your content library should have it all to pull from when needed for web and elsewhere.
22. Content sources to review: Constant-Content, Shopping.com, Associated Content, AffiliateSummit.com, others?
23. Consider other affiliate marketing or content generating ideas with partners; syndicated content; sources for more compelling content to drive traffic and conversions; cross linking partnerships.
24. Productize everything with unique landing pages.
25. Consider a media gallery like Cooliris, which allows for 3D navigation with YouTube and Flickr, etc.
26. Consider these Customer Service tools: RequestTracker, EZ-Ticket, PHP Ticket, Help Desk Pilot, Kayako, and Hdeskonclick, Revelation Help Desk.

Marketing
27. Develop a vision, processes, and controls; establish a narrative on marketing, presentation, perception, and branding, with ties to to-do list and weekly conferences.
28. Report on top new prospects for affiliate channel building to get leverage, such as multilevel marketing. How can you improve old ones, too? Updated marketing material for prospective channel partners?
29. Look into and sign up for relevant affiliate service bureaus like Commission Junction, Linktrust.com, Linkshare, Tradedoubler, and Oddcast.com.
30. Don’t forget professional groups, especially Meetups in your local market! Boards of Trade/Chambers, online groups and associations, local tech events, MindShare, YEO/YPO, AngelCap, Technet.org. Which are keepers? What else is missing?
31. Would GeoIP tagging be useful for your organization?
32. Will using flash cookies/(Local) Shared Objects enhance your visitors’ experiences?
33. Engage these web marketing communities, which are often full of geniuses giving free advice (how can you go wrong?): MarketingSherpa, MarketingExperiments, Makeuseof.com, Mashable, Marketingprofs.com, Digitalppoint, Webtalkforums, Webmaster Forum, Webmaster Forums Online, Warrior Forums, The V7, 5Star Affiliate Forum, MediaBistro.

Marketing Brainstorming
34. Which are useful for your organization? Conferences, communities, groups, profiles, games, comments, messaging, calendars of events, news channel/ticker, video archives, classifieds, search of site, polls/surveys, ecards, secret shopper, gift certificates, contests, sweepstakes, celebs backing site, athlete sponsorships, Groupon.com and collective buying, gift/wish list widget, ad specialty trinkets, print ads, bookmarking site, biz cards with special coupons, wikipedia listings, demographic questionnaires with incentives.
35. How can you leverage webinars like Gotowebinar.com, for example? Other online events?
36. Are you following up by phone from web commerce forms that were abandoned before being completed by potential new customers?
37. Create a flash or Powerpoint product presentation explaining your business to prospective clients.
38. Update a PDF “one pager” explaining your business.
39. Product fulfillment: Drop shipping? One vendor or multivendor xml integration with white label when possible? Or can you own and white label your own brand(s)?
40. Email resources to test: ConstantContact, MailerMailer, and MailChimp.

Public Relations
41. Develop a press plan: Clear messaging globally, special messages for each service and notable timely items, current newsworthy activity.
42. Develop a list of reporters in your market space who will spin your press releases or interview you. Put it in SalesForce.com, and keep in touch with them.

Web Development
43. Ecommerce tools: XCart, Merchant accounts, Pay Pal, PayPal creditcards, PayPalx (x.com), PaySimple, RetailMeNot, Authorize.net, e-checks, Amazon Payment, Google Checkout, Magento, Expression Engine, OSCommerce, Zen Cart, Stormpay, Comodo, RadarBlue, E-Directory.com. Which are keepers?
44. Try UserTesting.com and UserVoice.com. What did they tell you? What similar sites are there to try?
45. Consider: Layout, functionality, wire, framework, ontology, navigation, taxonomy, sitemap, UI, search and browse, administrator modules, control panels, APIs, widgets, design database, timelines, approval processes, and staff assignments.
46. Check cross browser compatibility with Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, iPhone, etc, with varying speeds and technologies, and keep ping on network services.
47. Questionpro.com for surveys.
48. Make it clean and easy for consumers to do what they want, find and buy what they want, when they want, from anywhere, for any product or service.
49. Create flash tour storyboards, flash sites overall, and flash presentations
50. Do you need an investor presentation?
51. What is your mission, audience, and value proposition or your site or organization?
52. What do you want each person to do when they get to your site? What is the end goal of the visit?
53. Integrate charity and partner logos/text.
54. Consider and comment on LivePerson, LiveHelp, and BoldChat.
55. Look into Flash tools for flash site tours and various presentations.
56. Try Animoto for one great, simple flash option.
57. Which sites and forums do you follow for SEO, LPO, Webdev?
58. Crowdsource market research for your product and service ideas in detail with mturk, Facebook,Twitter, your email list, etc.
59. Put case studies, called “Success Stories,” on your website.
60. Develop and post customer and partner testimonials. Try CustomerLobby.
61. Consider the relevance of setting up your platform on Socialengine.com or Ning, etc.
62. "Ize" on the future: Incentivize, Socialize, Optimize, Customize, Localize, Personalize.

Tech
63. Look into a usability review for your website (Benevolabs.com, UserCentric.com, UserTesting, UserVoice).
64. Test telecom related apps, and integrate relevant ones in to your site and business flow: Phone.com,GoogleVoice, Ooma, MagicJack, Iotum.
65. Look into app development tools, such as Codeigniter and Zend LAMP platform.
66. With Webkit your app immediately integrates with iphone, android, Palm...
67. How can you dynamically deliver your site content for varying users and subscribers?
68. In what manner are you deploying LAMP, PHP, Ajax, Flex, Ruby, Dojo, RSS, XML, server side includes, iframes? Other ?
69. Are there Truste/Thawte/Verisign/encrypted pieces of site?
70. What are your long-term plans for hosting and bandwidth, network infrastructures?
71. Do you have backups, redundancy, monitoring, code repositories, version control?
72. PC Management: Backups (Acronis True Image/Carbonite/ BESR/Network Backup)
73. For remote access, visit http://www.zolved.com/remote_control or GoToMyPC - Sharing large files try YouSendit or DropBox.
74. Do you have Virus/Firewall Control or ZoneAlarm?
75. Investigate flash timelines, such as http://www.dipity.com/timetube/YouTube_Nirvana_Videos.
76. What is your document testing methodology, functional, load, performance, stress, volume, security, usability, localization, data migration and automated tests?
77. Is the domain up to date? Are there ancillary domains for protection? Is there any other IP dev or protection?
78. Do you have control and backups of all your code and intellectual property, clear title? Do you have the ability to sublicense or reuse for other sites?
79. Look into Spam Assassin and SORBS lists if you manage a mail server for your site.

If you're an avid follower of the Grassroots.org blog, you already know that over the next few months, our staff will be reviewing one web tool each week. Each tech tool comes from this list of Web Development Best Practices from Grassroots.org founder Mike Mann. So check back and read this weekly series for advice, insight and information on the web’s best technologies for nonprofits.

What kind of service is HootSuite?

Simply put, Hoot Suite streamlines social media editing by letting users update multiple Twitter accounts from one website. The customizable dashboard integrates the social network’s main functions, including direct messaging and status updates, and adds tools such as link shrinking to speed up the process.

Beyond basic Tweeting, HootSuite offers two main advantages: The flexibility to schedule Tweets in advance and the ability to register multiple logins under one Hoot Suite account. That means if your entire staff Tweets professionally, Hoot Suite can house each of those logins under one account.

How have we used HootSuite at Grassroots.org?

Because we only have one Twitter name (@grassroots_org), we use HootSuite to space out our messages. Each time a new member signs up for free web tools, we send a thank you out on Twitter. With HootSuite, we time these updates so that repeat Tweets don’t annoy our followers.

On weekends, HootSuite lets us keep our profile active without spending Saturdays in front of the computer. We schedule two days worth of updates each Friday so that our social media accounts stay busy, even when we’re relaxing.

How should nonprofits use Hoot Suite?

Any nonprofit on Twitter should consider Hoot Suite. The tool is incredibly useful for managing thousands of followers, shrinking links and reaching diverse audiences.

If your Twitter activity is light, Hoot Suite makes it easy to search for new followers, re-Tweet interesting articles and track your stats. It’s not only an effective way to manage a current account but also an easy way to watch your organization grow.

How can my organization get Hoot Suite?

It’s easy and free! Just head to HootSuite and sign up for an account.

Kudos to our Member of the Month, the Maryland Community Connection, for landing a mention on the CHVBlog. Based in Cheverly, MD, the site usually focuses on food and drinks, but they made room to highlight the charity’s efforts to help people with disabilities reach their goals. Check out the post online.

Download a PDF of the article.

By Mike Mann and Grassroots.org

Great tools and ideas are necessary to research and develop for any organization that wants to be successful online — either for profit, or for charitable organizations. Please comment on the products you've used below and tell us what we are missing (mikemann at mikemann dot com). Feel free to repost and link this document. Thanks.

Project Management
Going Viral
Other Advertising and Marketing
Content Management
E-Commerce Tools and Ideas
Customer Service
Marketing
Web Development
Tech
Public Relations

Project Management (Use Basecamp for all line items)
1. What special offers are you testing to enhance conversion rates?
2. What are the key metrics you are tracking for your site and company?
3. What are the changes since last period? Tracking where, deviating where? (Distribute links to your data on schedule via email; automate in analytics software)
4. Do you have stable HR, legal and accountantancy? New programmers? Establish employee reporting and to-do lists.

Going Viral:
4. Install Octazen and/or its competitors at various points in site navigation/UI; associate this viral component with special offers, signup/conversion processes, links in emails, etc. (Octazen Power.com, Contact Mines, ImproSys, IpInvite, Contact Grabber, ParaInvite)
5. Test Magento and optimize if viable
6. How can you leverage Facebook, Twitter, iPhone apps, Blackberry apps, YouTube, LinkedIn, SalesForce, Digg, etc.?
7. Are there any widgets/middleware/APIs that you want to develop for your organization to go more viral?
8. How can you successfully leverage sharing media/blogging? RSS apps, Ping.fm, Google alerts,Splitweet, Sharethis, Addthis, Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, Messagepub.com, Docstoc, docstr, Knol.Google, fliiby, and edocs. Newsletters/VideoBlogs etc., try Vbulletin/PHPbb/Blogtv.
9. Email resources to test: ConstantContact, MailerMailer, MailChimp
10. Using crowdsourcing for crowdmarketing instead; testing your sites, products, and services; they are secret shopping you and providing valuable feedback, while you are exposing your offerings to their community.
11. Consider the relevance of setting up your platform on Socialengine.com or Ning etc.
12. The “Ize”: Incentivize, Socialize, Optimize, Customize, Localize, Personalize

Other Advertising and Marketing:
13. What opportunities and apps are there for Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising, and Cost Per Action (CPA): Adsense, Adwords, RoiRevolution.com, dynamic banners, etc.
14. Develop relationships with Google, ReachLocal, ServiceMagic, and other advertising and marketing groups and sites.
15. What more can be tried with PPC? Why shouldn't you increase your PPC investing?
16. Create a "conversion funnel" or theories for multiple conversion funnels; if successful your cost of new customers should constantly decrease
17. Try A/B multivariate testing of some SEM SEO LPO conversion strategies
18. Try UserTesting.com and UserVoice.com What did they tell you? What similar sites are there to try?
19. Have you thoroughly tested all the relevant features of these Google tools: Analytics (incl. heat maps), Wave, Insights,, Trends,Searchwiki, Website optimizer, Adwords, AdSense, Index level (ie Pr5/Pr4… and plans therein)
20. Have you thoroughly tested all the relevant features of these other tools: Yield Software, Trendeley, BlvdStatus, Quantcast, Alexa, Compete.com, CrazyEgg.com, VerticalResponse, Inquisite, Woopra, AWstats, Comscore, Hitwise, Spyfu, Wordtracker, Clickable, WebsiteOutlook
21. Is your Salesforce.com contact management system integrated with your web site, PDAs, and PCs? (or SugarCRM, IntelliCRM, HighRise, Act)
22. Consider and comment on LivePerson, LiveHelp, BoldChat
23. Try Upsellit
24. Look into Flash tools for flash site tours and various presentations. Try Animoto
25. Which sites and forums do you follow for SEO, LPO, Webdev?
26. Crowdsourcing market research in detail
27. Put case studies, called “Success Stories,” on your website
28. Develop and post customer and partner testimonials - Try CustomerLobby
29. Investigate your top prospects for new partnerships. How can you improve old ones?

Content Management
30. Crowdsourcing for content, SEO tagging, designs, apps, voice, administrative and data entry. Be creative, this is a whole new paradigm of opportunity:Mechanical Turk, Elance, Rentacoder.com, Crowdspring, Sitebuilder, Sitepoint, 99designs.com, Guru.com, Voices.com, etc., and hire experts on crowdsource
31. WordPress is standard and review Magento, Movable Type, DotNetNuke.com, Drupal. Study environment at OpenSourceCMS.com
32. What is your overall content strategy? What is your multimedia strategy, and what applications do you use for web, email, thumbdrives, pdas, DVRs? (Photo, video, music, voice, radio and texts)
33. Content sources to review: Constant-Content, shopping.com, Associated Content, Affiliatesummit.com, other?
34. Consider other affiliate marketing or content generating ideas with partners; syndicated content; sources for more compelling content to drive traffic and conversions; cross linking partnerships.
35. Productize everything with unique landing pages
36. Consider a media gallery like Cooliris, which allows for 3D navigation with YouTube and Flickr

Ecommerce Tools and Ideas
37. Ecommerce tools: XCart, Merchant accounts, Pay Pal, PayPal creditcards, PayPalx (x.com), PaySimple, RetailMeNot, Authorize.net, e-checks, Amazon Payment, Google Checkout, Magento, Expression Engine, OSCommerce, Zen Cart, Stormpay, Commodo, RadarBlue. Which are keepers?

Customer Service:
38. Consider these popular tools: EZ-Ticket, PHP Ticket, Help Desk Pilot, Kayako, and Hdeskonclick, Revelation Help Desk

Marketing:
39. Develop a vision, processes and controls; establish a narrative on marketing, presentation, perception, branding, with ties to to-do list and weekly conferences
40. Look into Commission Junction, Linktrust.com, Linkshare and Tradedoubler or Oddcast.com.
41. Don’t forget professional online groups! Some of the most popular include, Meetups, Boards of Trade, Chambers, online associations, local tech events, MindShare, YEO, YPO, AngelCap, Technet.org, SeptemberThird, Tedco, MDHitech.
42. Develop a list of bloggers in your market who will carry your RSS
43. If you’re interested in text message marketing, look into Trumpia or other email/SMS marketing services
44. Would GeoIP tagging be useful for your organization?
45. Will using flash cookies/(Local) Shared Objects enhance your visitors’ experience?
46. Marketing sites to work with:
MarketingSherpa, MarketingExperiments, Makeuseof.com, Mashable, Marketingprofs.com, Digitalppoint, Webtalkforums, Webmaster Forum, Webmaster Forums Online, Warrior Forums, The V7, 5Star Affiliate Forum, MediaBistro
47. Marketing brainstorming — which tools are useful for your organization? Conferences , communities, groups, profiles, games, comments, messaging, Calendars of events, News channel/ticker, Video archives, Classifieds, Search of site, Polls/Surveys , Ecards, secret shopper, gift certificates, Widget strategy for us and outside providers and users, iFrames of other sites to converge content, Special offers, Contests, Sweepstakes, Celebs backing site, athlete sponsorships, Gift/Wish list widget, Ad specialty trinkets, Print ads, Bookmarking site, Biz cards with special offers, Wikipedia listings, demographic questionnaires with incentives
48. How can you leverage webinars like Gotowebinar.com, for example? Other online events?
49. Are you following up by phone from web commerce forms that were abandoned before being completed by potential new customers?
50. Create a flash or Powerpoint product presentation explaining your business to prospective clients
51. Update a PDF “One pager” explaining your business
52. Product fulfillment: drop shipping? one vendor or multivendor xml integration with white label when possible? or can you own and white label your own brand(s)?

Web Development:
53. Consider: Layout, functionality, wire, framework, ontology, navigation, taxonomy, sitemap, UI, search and browse, administrator modules, control panels, APIs, widgets, design database, timelines, approval processes and staff assignments
54. Check cross browser compatibility with Internet Explore 6, Internet Explorer 7, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, iPhone, etc, with varying speeds and technologies, and keep ping on network services
55. E-Directory.com
56. Make it clean and easy for consumers to do what they want, find and buy what they want, when they want, from anywhere, for any product or service
57. Create flash tour storyboards, flash sites overall, and flash presentations
58. Do you need an investor presentation?
59. What is your mission, audience and value proposition or your site or organization?
60. What do you want each person to do when they get to your site? What is the end goal of the visit?
61. Integrate charity and investor logos/text.

Public Relations:
62. Develop a press plan: Clear messaging globally; special messages for each service and notable timely items; current newsworthy activity?
63. Develop a list of reporters in your market space who will spin your press releases or interview you - put it in SalesForce.com and keep in touch with them

Tech:
64. Look into app development tools, such as Codeigniter and Zend LAMP platform
65. With Webkit your app immediately integrates with iphone, android, Palm Pre...
66. How can you dynamically deliver your site content for varying users and subscribers? Could they see a different home page, could other components be customized for disparate audiences?
67. In what manner are you deploying LAMP, PHP, Ajax, Flex, Ruby, Dojo, RSS, XML, server side includes, iframes? Other ?
68. Are there Truste/Thawte/Verisign/encrypted pieces of site?
69. What are your long term plans for hosting and bandwidth, network infrastructures?
70. Do you have backups, redundancy, monitoring, code repositories, version control?
71. PC Management: Backups (Acronis True Image/Carbonite/ BESR/Network Backup)
72. For remote access, visit http://www.zolved.com/remote_control or GoToMyPC
73. Do you have Virus/Firewall Control or ZoneAlarm?
74. Investigate flash timelines, such as http://www.dipity.com/timetube/YouTube_Nirvana_Videos
75. What is your document testing methodology, functional, load, performance, stress, volume, security, usability, localization, data migration and automated tests?
76. Is the domain up to date? Are there ancillary domains for protection? Is there any other IP dev or protection?
77. Do you have control and backups of all your code and intellectual property, clear title? Do you have the ability to sublicense or reuse for other sites?
78. Look into Spam Assassin and SORBS lists.
79. Look into a usability review for your website (Benevolabs.com, UserCentric.com, UserTesting, UserVoice)