I spent a trillion dollars, but I'm not going to tell you where ...

What the hell is going on there? At least Belgium is small enough so they can't hide what goes on with our money (... I hope).

Cloud tools for cool websites

I've been working on my hobbysite www.mototravel.be over the last months, and found a number of practical "cloud-based" tools that have a surprisingly high level of professionality at a low cost or completely for free.

Here's my favourites list:

Mad Mimi email marketing

What: A tool with limited features but everything you really need for sending out professional emailings and following up on results.

Highlights:
- Embedable registration forms for your site
- Wonderfull drag and drop interface for building mailings
- Seamless integration with google analytics configured in literaly 6 seconds
Cost: Variable depending on the number addresses stored
URL: http://madmimi.com/

Animoto

What: Builds great looking slideshow-movies based on a set of pictures you upload, wich can then be embedded on the site.
Highlights:
- Get the same presentation in HD at a small cost
- Add royalty free music in a click
- If you pics are somewhat chronological you can really tell a story (e.g. unpack party )
Cost: Free for web-use, pay for high quality movies
Site: http://animoto.com/

Addthis

What: An embedable button for bookmarking the site on all major social sites.
Highlights:
- Also includes a send to a friend link
- Provides stats on clicks and what people use this link for
Cost: Free
Site: http://www.addthis.com/

Yuntaa.com

What: An online storage solution that gives you loads of space and great sharing features. Also comes in handy to backup you complete disk:
- First 1 Gig is free, unlimited space if you need it
- Yuntaa manager automatically backs up your complete disk (Windows only)
Cost: Free under 1 Gig, 9,99 euro/month for unlimited space
Site: http://www.Yuntaa.com/

Routeyou.com

What: A routing tool that makes it easy to map out a tourist (car, bike, foot) and add information to this route. Next the route can be embedded in your site.
Highlights:
- Shows icons with additional information you added, including pictures
- Shows a graph with altitude differences
- Has intelligence build-in to automatically choose the most interresting route for your
Cost: Free
Site: http://www.routeyou.com

Lefore.com

What: A hosted forum solution with a reasonable number of customisation possibilities.
Highlights:
- Setup procedure takes about 10 minutes
- Has a traditional look but also a more modern look that is more upto today's standards.
Cost: Free, but they include google ads so it's difficult to add your own
Site: http://www.lefora.com/

Google docs integration

What: Use pages you update through Google Docs in your site by including the HTML published version of that page.
Higlights:
- Take advantage of the collaboration power of Google Docs to update your site with multiple people
- Changes happen instantly, no "publish-process" needed.
- I use RapidWeaver as a webbuilding tool and it has a plugin that used the API to included Google Docs pages seamlessly.
Cost: Free
Site: http://docs.google.com

Google analytics

What: Professional visitor statistics for your website
Highlights:
- Advanced segments let you compare the behaviour of different types of visitor groups
- Seamless integration with Mad Mimi
Cost: Free
Site: http://www.google.com/analytics/

Google maps

What: Embed maps of whatever in the world on your site.
Highlights:
- Choose map or sattelite picture integration
Cost: Free
Site: http://maps.google.com/

YouTube & Vimeo

What: Host your movies for free and embed them in your site.

Highlights:

- Profit from the traffic on these sites to promoto your stuff and attract traffic to your site. I guess YouTube is better for this, but Vimeo has better quality and a nicer player to embed.

Cost: Free
Site: http://www.youtube.com http://www.vimeo.com/

+ some revenue generators

- Google Adsense
- Bol.com ads
- Tradedoubler ads
- Amanzon.co.uk ads

Twitter isn't always as interresting

Ask me a question ... maar niet in 't Nederlands

The new year brought two changes to my blogging life:

1. I've made a second blog in dutch, so I can quickly publish anything I write in Dutch for other purposes without having to go through the hassle of translating everything. Check it out: iBert in het Nederlands
2. I added a cool widget from Mahalo (one of my favourite web companies). Check out the sidebar of this blog and ask me a question. How it works I have not really figured out but I think the questions are also stored (and accessible) at Mahalo.com. And so are the answers of course.