I’ve been subscribed to Marketing Sherpas various email lists for 6 months or so now and have found them incredibly useful. They provide tons of free marketing advice for online businesses and often send you case studies with useful stats.

For example the most recent email I received was:

” How to Get 34% More Consumers to Register Online With You

SUMMARY: Want more of your site visitors to fill out registration forms? Here’s an exclusive new Case Study with before-and-after test results (and screenshots) for you.

Turns out the *last* question you should ask a consumer for on your form is their contact information. Instead, ask them everything else you can think of first…”

This stuff is gold dust for ecommerce store owners and other online businesses - sign up today, it free.

Some of you may have heard of Firefox - an alternative browser to Internet Explorer. It’s an open source software with some really nify features such as the ability to have tabbed browsing. It seems that around 10% of people are now viewing my sites using it and this has been increasing over the last 12 months.

It’s free to download so why not give it a try - it also imports all of your favourites and settings from your Internet Explorer which is great!

Firefox Browser

Their description:

“The wait is over. Firefox empowers you to browse faster, more safely and more efficiently than with any other browser. Join more than 100 million others and make the switch today — Firefox imports your Favorites, settings and other information, so you have nothing to lose.”

I’ve come across a great peice of mid “mapping software” software called Mind Manager Pro 6 from Mindjet.com. Basically it’s a great way to layout all your plans and ideas into a logical format that you can print out and modify whenever you want.

The description of the software from Mindjet is:

“Mindjet® MindManager® Pro 6 transforms brainstorming ideas, strategic thinking, and business information into blueprints for action, enabling teams and organizations to work faster, smarter, and with greater coordination. It extends core mapping functionality with a host of simple tools–collaboration, distribution, administration–making it easy for business professionals to quickly deliver bottom–line benefits enterprise–wide. ”

I’m using it to plan my new venture, Classified Free Ads and it’s succuessfully stopped my head from spinning and beats notepad as a to do list maker!

You can download a free trial from their Website and the cost to buy is around £149.95 for the basic edition that may be all you require.