Free For All: Programs for Penny-Pinchers By Michelle Megna
October 18, 2006
Everyone loves a bargain — especially small business owners. And though there's plenty of free tools on the Internet that you can use to help your site thrive, finding what truly works takes time, and if time is money, well then you're still paying a price. Enter InternetAuctionResources.com. The company just released its annual list of the top free e-commerce tools, based on experience in teaching clients how to set up Web shops.
Most are applications that will optimize your site, others are shopping services that can benefit you if your store is listed. A few of the utilities are designed for online consumers, but online business owners in-the-know should be aware of them, and perhaps link to them if it serves them well.
Of this year's list, Kirk Meyer, of InternetAuctionResources, says, "I'm fortunate to have testers. This helps me get the real winners and helps save our students tons of money and time." Now you can, too.
SEO Link Exchange: An automatic link-exchange tool that helps improve page ranks. It offers lots of additional features, including profiles of newly added sites, link history reports sorted by category, customizable link performance reports, automatic deletion of 60-day old requests and the ability to approve or deny link requests individually or in groups.
AuctionMapper: This search engine presents eBay search results on maps to help locate the nearest sellers. In addition to mapping functionality, search results are broken down by various levels into category trees, making it easier to look at only the items of interest. If shoppers are looking for something big that would be difficult to ship, it helps them find locally-based items. They can map the nearest 25 items by dragging a category to the map. The site also works with eBay's Item Finder, so merchants should be sure to supply that additional information when listing merchandise or else it won't show up there.
Dealio: Here's how Dealio, a comparison shopping toolbar that helps buyers find products, helps merchants: Acting as a shopping companion, buyers can visit their favorite stores, comparison shopping sites, product review sites, or manufacturer sites as usual. As soon as they visit a specific product page, Dealio alerts them to prices it finds at other leading stores. The shopper can click the best price alert to open a convenient sidebar, where it's easy to compare prices side by side. As a Dealio merchant, your product listing appears in the sidebar-and when the shopper clicks on your listing, Dealio takes them right to your product page.
Doba: This reputable drop-shipping company provides access to 250,000 wholesale products and helps you fill orders. Shop owners can research the top-selling products and use integrated selling tools such as product management dashboards and catalog feeds. (The catch is that Doba does cost money, but you can try it for free for one week by signing up here; for more information on Doba, read our recent story on drop-shipping).
Café Press: Through the CafePress.com Create and Sell service, you're able to open an online shop to transform your artwork and ideas into products — all with no upfront costs and no inventory to manage. You can create customized merchandise online using the company's print-on-demand and e-commerce services.
Cniper: The motto of this bidding utility is "state your max and relax." Cniper will automatically place a bid just high enough to win an auction, up to your maximum amount.
Honesty: This new site is run by Andale, a company that sells advanced auction management and eBay research tools for sellers who need to know how to determine and set prices accurately. Honesty is set up to help shoppers find bargains on eBay by determining their worth based on certain criteria, including price range, statistical distribution of those prices and other factors.
ZDNet's Software Directory: Most software companies offer free trial versions of their programs, for instance image-editing applications, and many can be found here, along with shareware.
Do you have a comment or question about this article or other e-commerce topics in general? Speak out in the SmallBusinessComputing.com E-Commerce Forum. Join the discussion today!
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