5 resources every webmaster needs.
Being able to do a job well is one thing. Being able to do it super efficiently can set you apart from the competition - a fact no individual or business can afford to dismiss. Besides honing your technical expertise, this means using the best tools of the trade - those secret weapons that save you time, money and enhance your business rep. Here are our top resources for webmasters as well as marketers, bloggers and anyone else managing websites.
#1 Editor
For many, Notepad++ is the editing tool of choice when coding in straight source code. Running on Windows, Notepad++ supports multi-programming languages and features user defined syntax highlighting and folding and a graphical user interface (GUI) that is entirely customisable. Other points that get our thumbs up include a zoom in and out function and multi-document views. Download Version 6.3.3 for optimised start-up performance and a raft of new features.
#2 Image editors
If you have access to Adobe Creative Suite, you’ll probably want to use Photoshop, but with Adobe’s recent price changes, you may want to find another way to edit images if you don’t need the whole suite. Sites such as Photoscape, Inkscape (vector graphics), Picasa, GIMP and Pixlr can all help you adapt images quickly and for free, making it ideal for bloggers, editors, instagrammers and anyone else posting to cyberspace.
#3 Image resources
Photos can make or break website design but if commissioning photography isn’t an option, photo libraries are your best bet. While many of these are fee-paying, there are a growing number of free stock photography sites with photos that can be used for commercial use. These include Stock-Xchng (now owned by Getty images), RGBStock, Morguefile and Freerange. You can also search for royalty-free imagery on Flickr. Go to Advanced~ Search > Creative Commons content > Find content to use commercially.
#4 FTP
There’s no shortage of FTP clients to choose from but as the name suggests, FileZilla Client is king of the jungle, not least in terms of the number of downloads. Armed with a wealth of features and an intuitive graphical user interface, this free FTP client supports FTP, FTP over SSL/TLS (FTPS) and SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) and makes file management seriously untechy. It is also generally faster and easier to use than web-based file managers.
#5 Google Webmaster Tools
Knowledge is power as they say, so with this in mind use Google Webmaster Tools to get the inside scoop on your site’s health. Providing detailed reports about your pages’ visibility on Google, Google Webmaster Tools gives you data, tools and diagnostics for a healthy, Google-friendly site. Combine with Google Analytics for greater insight on visitor traffic - especially useful in helping you generate relevant content.
Look out for our follow up to this article.