One of the promising newer theme providers around is Wpzoom. The company started as a blog about WordPress themes in 2008. Almost a year later, the very first theme was released under the Wpzoom name. From then, the company changed its direction towards commercially providing themes for various websites.

As a relatively new provider, their portfolio of themes is not as extensive as those companies who have been around longer. With more than 50 themes to offer, it is arguably big enough a selection that a significant number of people will find a few designs suited to their tastes or needs. These themes are divided into four main categories: Business, Magazine/News, Portfolio, and Multimedia.

In terms of what the company provides, it is acceptable. There are areas that might be attractive to some customers such as the monthly cost for subscription. The framework they use is a good and stable one but not superlative in any sense. The company has potential, however. With continued growth, they may become an excellent option for larger scale web designers.

Value

The way their products are priced appears as if they are trying to compete with their more established competitor WooThemes. For instance, buying a single theme from Wpzoom will cost $69 compared to $70 for a WooThemes theme. The customer will get a better deal with the latter because they may select two additional bonus themes to Wpzooms one bonus theme per single purchase.

Those seeking a bargain will find their $99 price tag for two themes somewhat attractive. Additionally, the customer will also get one bonus theme for each of the themes purchased, making a total of four themes acquired. On the other hand, a would-be customer can obtain the same number of themes from ThemeForest at the same price, or possibly even lower. When taken in this light, its appeal as a bargain becomes is lessened.

Their Developer theme package is also priced a dollar less than the comparable WooThemes product. It also provides one less bonus theme. Both companies provide Photoshop document (PSD) files access with their Developer packages whether it is single theme or club subscription. This further substantiates the suspicion that they are trying to compete directly with WooThemes or at least consider them the competition to beat.

In terms of Club subscription, Wpzooms monthly fee is one of the lowest around. Their Standard membership in particular, which provides access to all 50+ themes, has a monthly fee of only $9. The Developer membership is more expensive at $19. This, though, is still lower than other companies with similar offers.

The sign-up fee for these subscriptions is too high when weighed against the limited number of themes that goes with full access. Customers pay $199 for Standard membership and $299 for the Developer equivalent. This makes the first year of membership rather expensive. In the succeeding years, however, the drop in cost is attractive. Web designers who really like the themes they provide and plan to have a long-term relationship from the company will gain in the long run.

At the moment, the club membership cost is too high for a measly 50+ themes. There is potential though because the company continues to release new themes every now and then. There may be a point in the future where they will really be capable of giving WooThemes, or some of the more popular theme companies, real competition.

Functionality And Framework

The designs offered are geared towards four areas. These are business, magazines (and news), portfolio, and multimedia. Several features are common to all themes that they offer, with the exception of the free themes. These features include customizable menus, custom widgets, search engine optimization options, custom page templates, automatic image resizing, a facility for adding a logo into the theme, threaded comments, and an options panel called Zoom Framework. These options are more or less standard with other theme providers as well.

The Zoom Framework they provide enables their themes to be easily updated with a click of a button. Its update page shows the current version being used and the newer version available for download. This gives the customer a choice of whether to go with the update or to keep the older framework.

Wpzoom has made customizing color considerably easier. They provide each theme with a very user-friendly color picker. All the customer has to do is move the cursor to the specific hue and shade desired and the code is edited accordingly. This removes the hassle of having to edit the actual code itself for every color change.

Each theme is also ready for translation into other languages. Support for the different alphabet styles of several countries use is already integrated into the themes themselves. This is very attractive for those who are designing their websites to cater not only to English speaking countries but other countries as well.

Aside from the facilitated color customization, translation-readiness, and the ease with which their framework can be updated, there is nothing that really stands out in terms of features and functionality. This does not make it a bad tool. It does make it good enough although not really something special to brag about comparatively speaking.

Theme Support

Forums, tutorials and theme documentation are the support Wpzoom provides for their customers. They do not give assistance in customizing the themes they provide. Those who would like to discuss specific customizations not covered by the basics are referred to other developers whom they acknowledge as having sufficient familiarity with their themes. Of course, the customer will then have to pay these other developers for the customization they require.

Their response time to each query or issue voiced in their Support Forum is a maximum of ten hours. There are instances when they do take longer than this. There is a mixed response regarding how good they are at solving problems with their themes. This is expected considering they have only a handful of staff who can work on these problems. Most of the time, if the problem is more related to customization, they refer the client to either Root Design Works or WerkPress. This means additional cost to the customer and has made quite a number of them unhappy.

The Verdict

Wpzoom is a somewhat better than average theme provider in terms of pricing and theme features. Many, however, are dissatisfied with their theme support “but that goes with having too few staff to solve such problems. Their referring of customization issues to other developers has had a mixed response but it appears to be an acceptable compromise. However, the additional cost to the customer will not make them happy unless their problem was solved spectacularly. It is an acceptable choice overall with the potential of becoming a better one in the future.

Company Website: http://www.wpzoom.com

Making a website or blog that uses the WordPress framework pleasing to look at and functional is a daunting task. It appears especially difficult for those who know little about programming and theme design. For this reason, many people resort to the various customizable themes sold on the internet and try to configure them to fit their needs. Due to their lack of expertise, this is often a costly and time-consuming endeavor. Those who have tried Elegant Themes discover that it is indeed an exception in terms of cost. Their yearly subscription cost is at the very least half the price of their closest competitors.

Elegant Themes give their customers access to all 70+ beautifully designed themes in their portfolio, as opposed to the one or two themes offered by their competition. These designs have many of the same features provided by other more expensive theme providers. The number of people utilizing it, numbering more than 100,000, also gives credence to the usability of the product and the service the company provides. Unfortunately, the company’s theme and customer support is terribly weak. Fixing issues usually takes too long. This is what frustrates a lot of their clients and lowers their overall satisfaction rating.

The Packages

There are two types of package to choose from. The first, which costs $39 annually, is the Personal package. It allows the customer to utilize any number of themes the company offers on as many websites as they want. This may seem like too much for those who need only one or two themes. However, the price still makes it a bargain compared to their competitors who sell one or two themes at almost twice the price.

The other package offered by Elegant Themes is the Developer package. It costs $89 and has additional features more suited to website developers. For instance, although logo Photoshop document (PSD) files are available in both packages, only the Developer package allows the customer full design access to PSD files. Furthermore, more theme support ” a glaring weakness of the Personal package ” is said to be available.

Competing companies who offer similar access to all their themes generally charge their customers monthly fees on top of the start-up fee. This amounts to at least few hundred dollars. The price for Elegant Themes packages look inconsequential beside such.

If the customer is dissatisfied with the product for any reason, a refund will be given as long as the request is made within 30 days of the purchase. There are instances where refunds were also provided because the customer gave compelling enough reasons that the companys management deemed acceptable.

Customizability

Each theme may be customized using the ePanel theme options page. These options are more or less the same in all the themes offered and cover general settings, navigation, advertisement management, colorization, search engine optimization, integration and support documents. The choices, however, under each of these options are few and will reduce design possibilities accordingly. Thus, customers with specific ideas about their websites theme will find themselves severely limited by this. On the other hand, those who with little or no expertise in theme design and programming find these pre-made theme designs friendly because they are not swamped them with difficult to understand options.

A number of plugins are also provided with each theme. What is nice about these is that they can be used with other themes. This increases the number of possibilities to tailor the theme to ones needs. Other features included in each theme are the widget-ready sidebar, the search bar, gravatar and thumbnail images. Footer display and layout customizations are free with the Developer package. Customers who need this may opt for an upgrade.

Support

Elegant Themes provides email support for their product. But many complain that they do not respond in a timely fashion. They provide fixes that should supposedly solve an issue but in many cases worsen it. This is largely due to the small staff supporting the themes compared to the customer base. Elegant Themes is run by only four people. As a result, a significant number of their customers resort to finding solutions on their own instead of waiting for a response.

Fortunately, most solutions to the various problems encountered can be found in their forums. Each of the 70+ themes has their own thread. Searching through these, though, is a time-consuming task. Many requests for assistance through this support medium are ignored. The excuse given is that the solutions are already there and the customer just needs to look for it. This speaks volumes about the companys attitude towards customer support and may in time weaken their client base.

Furthermore, an auto-updater does not come with any of the two packages. Customers are notified about updates via email. They do have a newsletter that explains of the new options, fixes, plugins and such. It is important for anyone who purchases Elegant Themes packages to follow these in case they encounter some unforeseen difficulty. However, unless the customer is interested in theme development, following emails and newsletters will look like a waste of time. Until they have a problem.

Another major weakness is the ineffectiveness of Elegant Themes tutorial support, particularly their ePanel tutorials. What appears to be fairly easy and straightforward in the demo is confusing when one actually begins customizing the chosen theme. Also, certain theme-specific options are hard to find and not pointed out in the tutorials. This makes it rather difficult and frustrating for the customer to set up the theme satisfactorily. Those who are after a specific look” will find this frustrating, especially if they have little or no experience with theme design and programming.

In Summary

People seeking beautiful themes but do not have programming or design skills may find Elegant Themes very attractive and straightforward. There are fewer design options available when compared to more expensive themes in the market so some ideas might not be possible. What needs a lot of improvement is their theme support which is rudimentary at best. Considering the low price of their packages, this is somewhat to be expected.

Company Website: http://www.elegantthemes.com

At more than a quarter of a million users, WooThemes is one of the largest and most widely used set of premium themes today. The company’s services provide a good balance between price, functionality, and theme support. They offer a wide array of themes designed for various website types such as commerce, blogs, magazine, portfolio, and multimedia. In total, there are more than 90 themes to choose from. This number is increasing at a rate of about one new theme per month.

Pricing

There are two main categories, the Package and Club Subscription. Each category further divides into two main subcategories, Standard and Developer. All of these categories allow the customer to use these themes in an unlimited number of concurrent domains. The customer may also choose from a number of bonus themes that are also included. It is important to note, however, that the bonus themes that the customer may pick are limited to non-app themes and non-child themes.

The Standard Package, which costs $70, allows the customer to use one theme plus two additional bonus themes, also of the customers choice. This package allows access to support and theme updates but does not include access to the layered Photoshop document (PSD) files. These PSD files may only be used through the Developer Package, which costs $150 and has three bonus themes. There is an additional category called App Themes. The price of these themes varies from $100 to $200 depending on the advanced functionality the customers chosen App theme has. What is good about these packages is that they do not expire.

Those who want access to all 90+ themes may opt to purchase a Subscription. The cost entails a start-up fee and monthly subscription fees. The only feature present in the Developer subscription but absent in the Standard package is access to PSD files. Similar to the packages, only the Developer subscription allows use of the PSDs. Start-up fees are $125 and $200 for the Standard and Developer subscriptions respectively. The monthly fees are $20 and $25 for Standard and Developer correspondingly. This is rather expensive and adds up to a minimum of more than $480 a year.

The company has no return policy. Once a package or subscription is purchased, the customer has to work with it regardless of any complaints or dissatisfaction with the product.

Theme Features

There are several features common in almost all themes developed by WooThemes. First, all themes have an attached blog. This is an essential feature for search engine optimization these days. At least one or more sliders are available per theme. These sliders can be configured in a variety of different styles to suit the purpose for which the slider is going to be used as well as the taste of the customer. The themes can also be integrated easily with the various widgets available for download on the Internet.

The various themes available on the website are also highly customizable. This makes a website appear to have a unique theme in comparison to others using the same WooTheme product. The general setting alone can help attain this unique feel by allowing the customer to adjust, to a certain extent, the themes style, header, typography (fonts), layout, homepage slider, image sizes, and footer. Social media integration and the placement of advertisements can also be easily modified using the requisite options.

All the themes can make use of the WooCommerce plug-in with some additional integration. About a quarter of them, though, are already optimized for use with this plug-in. This allows the user to easily configure the theme to accommodate shopping carts, billing, and payment gateways such as PayPal, Amazon, Google Checkout, and the like.

Theme Support

All products purchased from WooThemes enjoy lifetime support even if the subscription is cancelled. The support they provide is in the form of separate member and public forums. These forums do not have a private messaging feature common to most theme companies. They also do not provide email support like their competitors PageLines and Elegant Themes.

What the company has is a large staff numbering more than 20. The majority of these are support technicians or designers who also assist with customer support in the forums. This ensures that a large portion of the questions and problems posted get answers or fixes. Some do get overlooked and some fixes fail. But considering the number of clients they have, this is understandable. The majority, however, appear to be satisfied with the level of support they get. This is what makes their theme support one of the best around.

In Summary

WooThemes is an excellent choice for websites developed to sell products on the Internet. You can also look at some comparison of the framework before making a pulling the trigger on their themes. The cost of their Theme Packages may not be the cheapest around, but it is reasonable and affordable. The Club subscriptions, however, are a bit exorbitant and would only be attractive for medium- and large-scale web developers. Despite their support being limited to forums, this appears to be their most attractive asset.

Founded in 2006 by Collis Ta’eed, Cyan Ta’eed, and Jun Rung, Themeforest.net has grown into one of the largest web development resources on the Internet in a matter of years. This success has not come cheaply since Themeforest entered the pre-packed website template marketplace facing established competitors such as Templatemonster.com.

Bloggers, marketers, and webmasters can take advantage of the sheer size of the Themeforest marketplace. Themeforest features over two million marketplace items in the Envato network, Themeforest’s parent company, which also includes sites such as Codecanyon, Graphicriver, and Audio Jungle. Themeforest customers can definitely take advantage of the massive size of Envato’s product line.

Themeforest Products

As touched upon above, the number of available templates on Themeforest is impressive, to say the least. The caveat with this facet of the website is functional organization. The novice blogger or website developer may be lost in the sea of options available on Themeforest.

Themeforest has accomplished this feat relatively well, but the organization of the products does leave room for improvement. For instance, Themeforest highlights 2,128 WordPress templates, but the website’s developers do not place all of the templates in one category exclusively. Customers can find the same template in different categories, which can be confusing at first glance.

The website provides a very brief list of each item’s key features, but Themeforest only provides minimal information. Advanced users surely require more details on each template’s functionality than browser compatibility and file types included in the product.

Customers have to be aware that a very large proportion of the website templates available through Themeforest are not customizable. The layouts of the products are fixed unless marked otherwise. Bloggers in particular should be wary of purchasing a fixed layout template. Themeforest leaves little room for tweaking a template’s sub-pages, for example.

Still, the large number of themes is impressive when comparing Themeforest to its competitors. The benefit of using the Envato network is taking advantage of the millions of products available. Themeforest customers have a world of web development options at their disposal.

Themeforest Customer Support

Finding a website with reliable customer support is a difficult task. Some might say that customer support services online always leave much to be desired. Themeforest is no different from this flaw of online shopping.

Reviews in the past have blasted Themeforest for its sub-par customer support services. During the nascent years of Themeforest, if customers had a legitimate question on a product, little recourse was available. Today, this drawback of Themeforest has been corrected to a certain degree.

Themeforest now features a large community forum geared towards loyal customers who need assistance navigating the shortcomings of the themes available. Themeforest still has no way for customers to contact template authors directly. If a popular WordPress plug-in does not function properly with a given theme, customers will have to try their luck with Themeforest’s author support forum, hoping for the best outcome.

Envato does provide a minimal amount of assistance for beginners, but unless customers already possess a decent knowledge base, this support is not very effective. If customers purchase a Themeforest template and have a very specific, defined problem, finding a specific, defined answer is next to impossible unless the theme’s author responds in a timely manner.

Also, Themeforest does not guarantee that the theme’s author will even be able to answer the question well. Essentially, customers are at the mercy of the competency of the theme’s author. Novice webmasters simply cannot afford to purchase a theme and find themselves lost in a broad sea of convoluted forum posts, scavenging for the best answer possible.

Themeforest Functionality

Themeforest has been rather beautifully designed. Specifically, the website features an impressive preview functionality that sets Themeforest apart from its competitors’ websites.

In fact, the best aspect of Themeforest’s functionality is the ability of customers to view live previews of the products before purchasing an item. This gives customers the opportunity to see the template’s layout in action. The problem is the final product may or may not work as well as the live preview, and customers should be aware of this caveat.

On the other side of the marketplace, theme authors benefit from the website’s smooth functionality as well. Themeforest gives authors room to manage their own social network strategy in addition to the ability to gain a loyal following of webmasters.

Surprisingly, the website’s site map is one of the best aspects of the website’s functionality. It presents the amount of products in a straightforward, organized fashion by category of product. The primary way to navigate through Themeforest looks phenomenal, but nonetheless, customers interested in the finer details of each theme must endure plenty of vanity marketing.

The final verdict of Themeforest is positive. The prices of the themes featured on Themeforest are reasonable, considering the amount of support services available through the website’s forum. Overall, the biggest benefit of purchasing templates from Themeforest is the sheer size of the Envato marketplace.

What is Linode?

Linode is a Virtual Private Server (VPS) and Virtual Dedicated Server (VDS) hosting service. What this means is that all virtual machines running on Linodes physical computers are, for all intents and purposes, equivalent to unique and separate physical computers devoted entirely to the needs of their respective clients.

Why Use VPS/VDS Hosting Services?

There are many advantages to using VPS and VDS hosting services. For one thing, the cost is much lower as opposed to assembling a private physical server. For another, VPS hosting services will be the ones to deal with any problems that may occur, whether they be software or hardware related.

VPS/VDS hosting services are especially useful for small start-up businesses that need dedicated servers but do not have the capital to purchase the physical hardware requirements.

Despite all the perks, though, not all hosting services are created equal.

Why Linode?

Linode (short for Linux Node,) is one of the VPS/VDS hosting services vying for the honor of being named the best, and with good reason. Linode is a very powerful service, offering the client total flexibility with the virtual machine while also providing thorough technical support.

Does Linode have coupons and promotion codes in 2012?

Not that we know of at the moment. Currently we don’t see and coupons or special offers but if a deal becomes available, we will be sure to post it.

Getting Started

Signing up for Linode is very easy and straightforward. Clients will choose from plans to see what best fits their needs. Some may only need a basic Linode 512 plan, which offers 20 GB of storage and 200 GB of transfer space, while others may opt for the high-end Linode 20 GB plan, with 800 GB of storage allocation and 2000 GB of transfer allocation. It will really depend on the clients needs.

Linode comes with basic installation of Linux, which should be obvious. Clients are then allowed to choose what operating system to work with. These include the popular Ubuntu, as well as Debian Lenny, Fedora, and Gentoo. While most VPS hosting services offer these very same operating systems, Linode offers them in 32-bit installations. This is a huge advantage, as the memory footprint of a 32-bit operating system is significantly less than that of a 64-bit OS.

Beginner-Friendly?

One issue users may have with Linode, though, is its lack of a control panel. Many bloggers and web developers are used to using something like cPanel or Plesk. Linode offers neither of those things. All that users will have to work with is the command line. This will not be an issue for experienced developers who know just how powerful a tool the command line can be, but it will not be surprising if many new developers get a little intimidated. Installing and configuring MySQL, Apache, and all the other things needed to get things running can be a daunting task for newbies to take on without any help.

Support

Fortunately, newbies will have help. The Linode Library contains an exceptionally comprehensive library of tutorials detailing exactly what has to be done and how to do it in any given situation. The Linode IRC channel is also full of people who are more than happy to answer any questions users may have about the service. The services support team is also on hand 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to answer any questions users may have.

Performance

While support and user-friendliness are both very important factors to consider in choosing a hosting service, nothing should carry more weight than that services performance. Linode is an incredibly fast hosting service, much faster and more responsive than its rival services, such as Slicehost. Linode also guarantees 99% uptime and will actually reimburse users if downtime exceeds that 1%.

One reason Linode performs so well is that they do not oversell their servers. Clients will only be accommodated while servers can handle the load. This means that users will get all the bandwidth they pay for, not just a close approximation. The resources they have paid for are allocated for their use only.

Another reason Linode boasts almost 100% uptime is because the company has invested the hardware for the job. By making sure that their hardware is up to standard, Linode lowers the risks of hardware failure, effectively reducing the chances of downtime.

Other Features

Aside from the outstanding performance and support that Linode offers, it also has many useful features. The Linode API allows users to create and delete new Linode VPSs aside from managing a users DNS.

Another is the StackScripts feature. StackScripts allows users to create custom stacks by simply answering a few questions. StackScripts can then be deployed and let the scripts run as instructed. Users can also share their custom StackScripts with the entire Linode community, and all StackScripts can be managed through the Linode API.

One of the most important things to consider when choosing a hosting service is its ability to back up valuable data. Many clients of cheap hosting services lose all their data because they put their faith in unreliable data backup services. Sometimes, the maintenance and administrative work becomes too much for them. Linode offers a backup service that simply just works. Clients just need to enroll in the program, and they can sleep easy knowing that their data is safe.

One other reason to go with Linode is that once around every year, clients get a free upgrade on their services at no extra charge.

Conclusion

To sum it up, Linode is a reliable VPS/VDS hosting service backed up by industry standard hardware and 24/7 technical support. It outperforms most of its competitors in terms of speed and uptime and even offers to reimburse clients when downtime is experienced.

The service is also user-friendly. New users may be a little daunted at first, but with the help of support tools such as the Linode Library, they should get acclimated to the interface in no time. It also does not hurt that the support people in the IRC forums are always ready to help Linode users out.

Overall, Linode allows users to have a server they can truly call their own. Servers are fully customizable, so clients can pick and choose only the features and capacity they need. It truly offers the best bang for a users buck among all the hosting services available on the market.

Company Website: http://www.linode.com

Who is AWeber Communications?

AWeber is a marketing and news delivery engine that lets small businesses and companies build and manage contact lists and communications. Its offerings are designed to enable firms to easily keep in touch with current customers and contacts, while providing metrics and analytics to assist with finding new customers.

AWeber currently operates out of Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania, and has been named as an up-and-coming place to work. The company now serves a portfolio of slightly more than 100,000 customers with a variety of email marketing tools, analytics tools, and application tie-ins. Unlike larger rivals, AWeber is a privately owned company and the companys stock is not traded publicly.

Primary Features and Benefits

AWebers stated goal is to provide sophisticated email marketing which brings prospects and customers in directly to businesses at a very low cost, while intertwined perfectly with social media. The e-mail tools that the company offers are supposed to help drive new traffic to a business and raise its brand awareness, providing ways to grow their customer base.

The biggest core service that is offered by AWeber Communications is its suite of e-mail marketing services. In order for its customers to develop email newsletters, AWeber offers over 150 templates that can be used for initial designs. Each of the templates can be modified by customers to incorporate logos, branding, custom colors and other changes that can help make email newsletters stand out when received by targeted users.

The email marketing tools are easy to use, for the most part. Upon selecting a template to use for a targeted mailing, a wizard will help AWebers customers develop the content that should be sent to potential customers. The wizard provides steps for integrating customized content, including a company logo or custom colors. Users are able to drag and drop content into the one-column or two-column template of their choosing, with simple instruction provided by built-in automated help.

The tools also allow for Awebers users to bring in web forms for signing up new users that it targets. The web form templates gallery that AWeber offers flows well with the email design templates already housed on the site. Most importantly, as a result, users can customize signup forms, newsletters and pages with the same design. This allows for a professionally done look that will convince new and potential customers of the companys ability to do business well. Having a common, integrated look will make a company appear more professional, and help bring in more customers with a much more polished appearance.

Automatic responses can also be enabled as parts of a companys email marketing campaign and social media attempts. These automatic responses can also be configured with the same sort of design used in the initial newsletters and other types of correspondence. These responses can also be customized based on the referral link used (such as newsletter type), geography and stated interest.

2013 Coupon Codes for Aweber

Unfrotunately there currently are no coupons or promo codes available for Aweber. Check back soon for the deals widget.

Social Media Tools

AWeber offers integration with a number of social media tools, which of course are becoming more and more necessary to compete in todays marketplace. Customers can develop newsletters to be emailed out, and include connections to Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networks. Even better, those pages and tags can also provide potential customers with special offers, allowing AWebers customers more ways to build up its customer base through new and exciting offers.

In addition, AWeber provides some integration with select third-party partners. The site works with Yahoo! Small Business, NexTag, and PayPal among other vendors. These kinds of partnerships can help AWebers customers build a larger customer base and target potential new customers.

Analytics

One area where AWeber stands out is in the area of data analytics. AWebers customers are able to track the number of subscribers that are brought in from various email newsletters and social campaigns. Graphs are available on customers dashboards that track the number of readers, number and types of click-throughs, and volume and source of subscribers. AWebers customers can therefore see not just how their total numbers are doing, but also what methods of building business seem to be working better than others. They can track new users who have requested information, special offers that have been taken, and services that have been purchased and determine what is most appealing to current and potential customers.

This sort of performance tracking is normally a feature for which customers would need to use another service. This sort of analysis can provide great value to AWebers customers thanks to its integration with developed campaigns.

Support and Customer Service

AWeber offers many templates for its customers to use, but does not provide round-the-clock support for its templates and services. Phone, email and online chat support are offered Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM EST. Email and chat support are offered on the weekend from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM EST ” phone is not available. When compared to competitors that offer service and support for their products 24 hours a day, seven days a week, AWeber falls far short.

Pricing

AWebers suite of services starts off at just $19 per month. Additional features as described above can be added on, but a base package of services is quite affordable. They do offer trial periods for just one dollar, which last for the first month of service. If the services turn out to be exactly what is needed with regards to marketing, then it is a good cheap method for building a business. However, if a lot of hand-holding is needed, this might not be the best service to use.

Conclusion

Overall, AWebers offerings are fairly well priced for smaller companies. Their offerings are very cheap, but customers need to understand that the support they may receive is limited ” especially if they are trying to develop materials and campaigns after hours. Still, the templates offered by AWeber can meet many different customers needs, and the demonstrations provided can help answer many of its customers questions. The most appealing items to new buyers of AWebers services are its analytics and ability to offer correlated, well-designed pieces that flow well with one another. Overall, it is pretty good value for potential customers.

Company Website: http://www.aweber.com

iContact is an e-mail marketing service that allows small- to medium-sized business, as well as individual professionals and freelancers, to find and target potential new customers with their products or services. Founded in 2003, iContact has been trying to help these sorts of businesses share products and ideas via e-mail and, more recently, through social marketing efforts.

iContact is a wholly owned subsidiary of Vocus, a company that provides cloud-based marketing and public relations software to businesses. The company has approximately 120,000 customers worldwide, with its services available in multiple languages. The company trades on the NASDAQ exchange under the ticker symbol VOCS.

Coupons and Promotions for 2013

Often times iContact will over a 2013 coupon that reduces the price of the service. Deals like this should never be passed up. Simply grab a promo code from a coupon widget and apply the offer.

Building the Right Message

The iContact site allows users to develop newsletters and marketing materials without much prior experience or knowledge in HTML or coding. It offers several tools for its customers to develop materials, regardless of past experience. All of the templates are laid out so that users can easily add and manipulate content by using drag-and-drop techniques that allow for simple customization. There are hundreds of templates available to choose from to develop just the sort of message that will catch the attention of targeted customers.

The beginner-level tool is known as MessageBuilder. This tool is best for users who are not familiar with HTML development or who have little experience using it. This tool will walk users through letter and material creation with easy toolbars and templates, with links to guidance tools embedded right on the creation page. The templates can be easily customized with assistance from video tutorials and reference guides available on the side of every screen throughout the content development process. For the beginner user, having this sort of assistance available with just one click can make a tremendous difference.

For more advanced users, iContact offers the MessageCoder service, MessageCoder works for customers who have more experience in graphic design, HTML, and coding. Code can be imported from other templates or internal resources by advanced users. If desired, the user can even begin developing their newsletters and materials completely from scratch. This can be an extremely useful feature if the customer wants to develop targeted campaigns to track the reach and success of different types of materials.

iContact offers integration with current e-mail distribution lists, with tools in place to allow marketing materials and newsletters to the right audience. These tools will help customers messages get past spam filters and reach those customers who may be interested in materials or who have already signed up to receive newsletters. iContact’s customers can put forth e-mails and newsletters with the same template, and design sign-up forms for new customers that go well with the design chosen. These e-mails can also be put forth into social media, with links to the most popular social media sites and networks included and enabled within these developed materials.

Lastly, iContact offers some simple tracking tools for its customers, to help determine best practices. The graphs, while somewhat simple, provide at least a basic view into the types of messages and offers that generate the most interest. The site will allow users to see basic information — delivery percentages, reading percentages, some segmentation, and number of likes or re-tweets or shares within social media applications. Furthermore, advanced users can also embed specific tags that can allow for the tracking to dive a bit deeper to see what works and what does not work, providing for much better segmentation and tracking of various marketing efforts.

Support and Customer Service

The iContact site offers a lot of resources to its customers in terms of support and assistance. While they do not offer 24/7 customer service, they do offer many different methods for their customers to feel secure in developing, managing, and delivering content to their targeted subscribers and potential users.

First off, their support site offers a page of frequently asked questions to take care of most basic inquiries. They also offer full e-mail marketing and social media marketing guides that really get into the important aspects — not just the how-to, but also answering why it is important to have effective campaigns and why certain practices are better than others. They show best practices that other customers have used in developing campaigns in order to assist iContact users in campaign and newsletter development.

The iContact site goes beyond these basics in providing resources, however. Their support site also offers pre-loaded webinars and video tutorials so customers can watch, step by step, the techniques that other successful clients have previously used. There is also a link to a marketing blog, where tips and tricks are shared with all of iContacts users to keep them aware of trends and helpful hints in continuing to build an audience. As a result, even if there is no round-the-clock customer support offered, iContact customers have plenty of resources to ensure that even if they cant find an answer, they will be able to exhaust almost every effort on their own thanks to the resources already provided.

Now, if the situation arises that all the resources provided do not give a customer an answer, there are advisors who can deal with customers one on one to find out where the problem lies. Whether the solution lies in developing a highly customized template, importing complex address lists, or something else, the advisor can work with the customer until a resolution is reached and agreed upon by all parties.

Pricing

The pricing offered by iContact is quite affordable, starting as low as $15 per month. Its pricing plans vary based on the number of subscribers, not on the number of e-mails sent out. These sorts of plans allow for customers of iContact to spread as wide a net as possible to bring in possible new customers.

Even better, iContact allows new users to use their services for one month for free. Its a great way for companies and business owners to get an idea of the full range of services that iContact can provide. It allows potential customers of iContact to take the time to try out their products and figure out if they will work. And if things dont work out, they can cut off their services within the 30-day timeframe. Its a highly trusting move on the part of iContact, allowing its potential customers to try out its services and letting their products speak for themselves.

Conclusion

iContact offers its services at a fairly priced option for small businesses and individual professionals and freelancers. The real value for iContact customers lies in the vast array of resources and training made available for customers to learn at their own pace during the free trial period. That facet of iContacts business is enough to warrant a look when deciding what direction to take a businesss e-mail marketing efforts.

Company Website: http://www.icontact.com

What is Constant Contact?

Constant Contact is an integrated sales and marketing tool that allows individuals and small business owners to easily manage and communicate with tens of thousands of people with little effort at all. It uses many different online marketing tools and features to connect business proprietors with potential new customers in an attempt to build lasting and profitable customer relationships.

History of Constant Contact

Constant Contact began offering its services from its Waltham, Massachusetts office in 1998, with its primary focus being e-mail marketing tools. After a couple years of operation, the firm added online survey tools to its offerings. Since then, event marketing and social media tools have been added to Constant Contacts portfolio of services for customers. As of 2013, the company has almost half a million customers, both small business and larger companies, taking advantage of its various services, and has several offices throughout the U.S. as well as an office in London, England.

Does Constant Contact Offer Coupons?

In 2013 we have found several special promotion codes for Constant Contact but currently there are none available. We will be installing a new coupon code widget soon and updates will come in automatically.

Primary Features and Benefits

Constant Contacts stated goal is to help small businesses and organizations find new customers, bring in repeat business, and generate new referrals from existing contacts. The tools it offers are supposed to help drive new traffic to a business and raise its brand awareness, thus allowing users of Constant Contact to expand their customer base. Utilizing these tools is a rather easy matter, thankfully, so customers have less to worry about in putting their materials together for targeted customers.

The e-mail marketing tools are well-guided and very easy to use. Users can select from several hundred different templates to use in their mailing, or they can look into creating a unique template for mailings. It is very simple to drag and drop items and text into the template without having to use any complex macros or coding. Even if a user runs into design problems, online support is constantly available with just one click from any screen within the program. The support area can help with those issues. For those users who have an idea of what they want but are not so sure how to make it happen, support also provides help in designing customized e-mail templates.

The e-mail marketing service also provides users with a clear step-by-step process for importing contacts, whether from an Excel spreadsheet, an e-mail address book, or other type of database. Users can also target specific groups of e-mails based on location, subject preference, or signup date in order to send targeted e-mail blasts and newsletters to specific groups. Finally, the e-mails can be programmed to be sent in the future on a set schedule.

As a nice little extra, users can also set up automatic responses in order to send immediate thank-you notes or other acknowledgements to current and potential new customers. Its a nice feature that can mean a lot to new customers just getting interested in the companys services. All these tools are offered as part of Constant Contacts standard e-mail marketing package.

Online Surveys

The online survey tool is fairly simple to set up and use as well. It uses a lot of the same template development and address importing techniques that are used in the e-mail marketing tool. It also has wizards that allow users to easily set up their questions (and conditional questions, based on previous answers) and targeted audience.

Beyond just setting up a survey to gather answers, the survey tool also provides some simple analysis of responses. Users can see how many were successfully delivered and how many answerers opted out of receiving future e-mails. Users can also analyze the answers received from completed surveys and dive down into cross-sections of data to find possible correlations between certain user groups and certain answer trends. While the analysis is fairly simple, it does provide users with some insight into motives behind the responses, which can then prove useful for shaping future advertising or marketing campaigns.

Event Marketing

Taking the next step from online surveys and questionnaires, the Constant Contact site also allows its customers to set up events and advertise to specific audiences. Called EventSpot, this tool provides event creation, promotion, invitation, management, payment processing, and RSVP management. Event types are not limited to physical, bricks-and-mortar gatherings; EventSpot can also be used to create online, virtual meetings and get-togethers. The event, once created, can be shared on many different social media platforms to attract additional people beyond those targeted by e-mail distributions.

Social Media Tools

Over the past few years, Constant Contact has also attempted to help its customer establish a better presence within social media. Customers are able to develop their first social media campaign for free through Constant Contact, which is helpful for trying to get an idea of what works and what doesnt. Users can customize pages within news feeds on Twitter or LinkedIn or within Facebook timelines to gain maximum exposure to potential customers based on noted profile interests, geographic location, common hash tags, and the like. The landing pages can showcase great offers to customers to draw them in as actual customers rather than possible targets.

One drawback, however, is that there does not seem to be as much support available in developing social media campaigns. While it is nice that the first campaign is free, it might be more helpful to have a similar level of support for social media that there is for e-mail, online surveys, and event planning.

Pricing

Constant Contacts services are fairly well-priced. Most of its solutions are quite economical for small businesses and independent professionals. All of the services described here either have a set free trial (30 or 60 days, depending on the service) or allow a trial run of the service to see how well it works.

Conclusion

Overall, Constant Contacts offerings are fairly well-priced and well-supported for the value delivered. While there are some aspects (as cited above with support and analytics) that could use some improvement, it is hard to complain about the value that can be gained just by trying out each of the services offered by the company. Overall, it provides a worthwhile suite of services that can help small businesses and professionals find a wider audience and grow their customer base (and profits) significantly.

Dropbox is an online data backup utility that provides backup services to users. The service lets users access and share files from any computer or mobile device. Dropbox offers a free trial service that allows users to test the product before purchasing the full version for up to $49.99 depending on the storage capacity desired.

The free version of Dropbox is limited in the amount of space that users have access to and only allows a small amount of storage space. The full version offers up to 500GB or more for the price of $49.99. Special arrangements can be made for users who need a much larger storage space or who need to access more than one account. This is somewhat pricey compared to similar products available in this genre.

How to get 2013 Coupon Codes

Currently our Dropbox coupon section is coming up empty. Once a new discount or promotion becomes available this will be the first spot to find it.

Users get 2GB of storage for free in the basic version of Dropbox. As an added perk for referring friends to use Dropbox via social media, users can earn additional storage space. Users get 500MB per person up to 16GB. That means users have the potential to gain a good amount of free storage space just for referring friends.

Dropbox Pro is the services paid version. There are several different options available for paid pricing depending on the amount of storage the individual needs and on whether they opt to pay annually or by month. Users can pay $9.99 per month ($99 per year) for 100GB of storage, $19.99 per month ($199 per year) for 200GB of storage, or $49.99 per month ($499 per year) for 500GB of storage.

Dropbox Teams is also available for small businesses and offers 1TB of storage for $795 per year for up to 5 users. Teams receive an additional 200GB for every additional user added at the cost of $125 extra per year. Another perk for Dropbox Team users is that of administrative tools and technical support via telephone.

Dropbox offers users a way to sync files across multiple platforms and access them from virtually anywhere. It is a convenient tool that makes syncing data an effortless task. Even though Dropbox is pricier than its competitors, the amount of features available and its trusted security make it worth the price”not to mention the free storage space users get for referring friends.

The application is easy to install and takes literally no time to learn how to use. It is simply a matter of dragging and dropping files into the Dropbox folder. It is so simple that even the most novice users can figure it out in no time. One of the biggest advantages of using Dropbox is the ease of use and convenience it provides its users.

Dropbox has an easy to use interface that is clean and straightforward, making it simple to use. Users can conveniently access anything they’ve stored in Dropbox from any place that has Internet access by logging into their Dropbox account. Documents, pictures, and files are stored on secure servers and cannot be accessed by anyone who isn’t given a direct link by the user themselves.

Other features worth mentioning include the ability to set up scheduled, automatic backup. Users can also control bandwidth automatically using the automated services. Dropbox also provides an offline file manager that is easy to use and simplifies the organization of data. Users can also set up email alerts, view data on any virtual machine on the net, and keep all their files synced.

Not only is this a great tool for backing up data, Dropbox is also a convenient tool for work. Users have access to any files they save in Dropbox so they can easily access their work documents wherever they are provided that they have access to the Internet.

Users can save and access their files from a variety of platforms. For example, a user can save a document on the Apple computer at their office, come home and work on it via their PC, and then view it on their iPhone. The document’s latest version syncs when the file is saved to Dropbox.

Another unique feature of Dropbox is that users have the ability to share their photo galleries and documents with friends and colleagues by sending them a link to a public folder. This makes sharing and collaborating with others even easier with a click of a link. All of the data saved on Dropbox is encrypted and secure, so users don’t have to worry about their files being accessed by anyone who doesn’t have a direct link.

In fact, Dropbox uses AES-256Bit encryption to secure saved files. This level of security is comparable to what a bank would use. Only people who have been given a direct link will be able to view any files of other users.

The only true disadvantages to using Dropbox are its price compared to competitors who are equally stacked with features, and the limited amount of human support available. Dropbox is lacking when it comes to support. The website doesn’t list any numbers to contact them directly and only offers support through FAQ and email.

Users are expected to email tech support with any questions. When it comes to paying for a
product, users like to have direct access to tech support. Billing issues, as well as technical support issues, as well as technical support issues, should be handled via direct phone conversation. Users may find it frustrating if their questions aren’t addressed in the FAQ style support page. Likewise, users may also find it frustrating to wait on an emailed response to help them troubleshoot an issue.

Luckily, Dropbox is a stable application that is easy to set up, even for novice users. It is also an application that can be trusted not to rip off the customers, which is more than can be said for some of the other apps of this kind that are designed solely for this purpose. Overall, Dropbox is a reliable, safe way to back up files and access them from virtually anywhere.