Resources for Webmasters, Bloggers, and Businesses

10 minutes

The Tools utilized at Kitemare.com and Why

This Page

Why this Page?
Web Hosting
Design Software
Education Lynda
Accepting Credit Card Payments
Communication: Phone, Voicemail
Streaming Flash Audio Audio
Protecting Your Valuable Data Back it up!
Fitness
Recommended Reading

Why this Page?

We've been in business and online since the year 2000 and have learned a lot though experience and wanted to share what works.

Web Hosting

Our Web hosting Provider of choice is Fatcow. The last time I checked their price was only $88 per year and they were offering the first year for $66 with Unlimited bandwidth. Their tech support has always been there 24/7 when we needed them. Recommended for sure.

Design Software

We've used Frontpage, Expressions Web 2 and 3, and are now using Dreamweaver CS4.
Dreamweaver can be intimidating when you first begin using it, but if you use some training videos like the ones provided by Lynda.com you can learn it pretty quick. Many people are now recommending to use a content management system (CMS) like Joomla rather than web design software.

Education

Lynda.com For $25 a month, no contract, and Unlimited access of endless training videos on almost every software you can think of. Lynda offers HUGE value. There is over 20 hours of training on for dreamweaver alone! Plus Training for: Photoshop, Windows 7, Onenote, Outlook, Moviemaker, Excel, Joomla, Drupal, Flash, AutoCad, iphone, quickbooks, ebay, etc.
They have free mini lessons within each full coarse, so better to click the link above and see it for yourself.

If you want to learn the ins and out of a popular software titles, that's the place to go.

Expressions Web Tutorial / One on one tutoring. Kelly mainly teaches others how to use Microsofts Expressions web Software, but she is also very familiar and helpful with Dreamweaver. Online lessons are are great, but its nice to have someone who can work with you one on one. Kelleys prices are very reasonable and she was a huge asset in helping us to begin and make fast progress on the remodeling of our site. Thanks Kelly!!!

Smashing Magazine: Excellent articles about web design.

Accepting Credit Card Payments

Choosing to use Paypal is NOT a question of Merchant account or Paypal. You can use both.
We've been using Paypal for as long as I can remember and very happy with the service.
Highly recommended.

After using both a traditional merchant account and PayPal. We're "glad we switched!"
Paypal is easier to use, zero headache and provides customer service that makes life easy.
Paypal for Business

Communication: Phone, Voicemail

Skype has come a long way over a past few years. Calls are clear and static free, as long
as your Internet connection is fast and steady. If you use a wifi router, beware of the microwave!
Both operate on 2.4 Ghz, so if you noticed connection problems near meal times you'll now know why!

Streaming Flash Audio

Some love the audio, and some hate it. We obviously are part of the first group.
If you do use it, be cautious of "auto play" in most cases you'll want to select " play only
when clicked". We've tried Self hosting audio's, AudioGenerator, AudioAcrobat, BYOAudio, Talk Stream, and Evoca, and posted detailed Comparison for streaming Flash Audio services on its own page. If you are wondering which received the best review after our testing,
you can read the details or save time and just go straight for our favorite, AudioAcrobat, which is being used on this page and on other pages on our site.

Protecting Your Valuable Data Back it up!

I remember someone once telling me... " That it's not a matter of IF you will every need a back-up, but a matter of WHEN" Should have listened. Buy an external hard-drive like the "Western Digital Passport" or similar and use it.

Fitness

A gym membership is always nice but you don't need it. You can get great results without the machines. You can do it all with a bench, an exercise ball, and dumbbells. The Cables are a nice bonus. If your schedule is tight, the workout outlined in the book "5-factor fitness" is quick and effective.