WorkHappy.net: killer resources for entrepreneurs

Google Alerts

February 20, 2007 in 3 out of 5 stars, A service, Free

What is it?

Google Alerts: A service where Google will send you an email anytime a term you specify is found by its crawler. In other words: roughly any time a certain term is used on the Internet.

Who makes it?

Google

Why is it the killerest?

Because you can use it to watch what others are saying about you, your business, your industry or whatever else would give you a competitive advantage.

If desired, you can narrow it down to just what blogs, or the news say about a search term. You can also limit how often it emails you. From as-it-happens to once a week.

This service use to be horrible, inaccurate, incomplete, and late when it worked at all. About a month ago something magic happened and suddenly it works as advertised.

How much does it cost?

Free

Rating?

Reviewed by Carson McComas

WorkHappy.net teams with Authentic Jobs

February 5, 2007 in WorkHappy.net Advertiser

It's been unofficial for a while now, last month we made it official.

You may have noticed the jobs listing which has taken up residence at the top of the sidebar here on WorkHappy.net. Because I saw it providing a useful service for those of you hunting for talent (been there!), and those of you hunting for web design/development work (been there!) -- I placed it on the site as a service (without compensation) for a couple months. Last month Authentic Jobs made me an honest man.

Authentic Jobs is a job board run by the highly influential web design trend-setter, Cameron Moll.  If you're looking for top web designer or web developer talent for your venture, a post here should hook you up.

To sweeten the pot, AJ offers a 100% money back guarantee (find the talent you need, or your money back). Which is a great reason to start your candidate search there. If that doesn't work out, you can reinvest on a competing board.

Postings cost $250 for full-time or $75 for freelance.

Here are a few fun success stories from other employers who have found success using the board.

If you're a web designer or developer, you probably already know about the board, but if not -- head over to see if your next gig awaits.

Here are a few recent postings:

Full Time:
Information Architect (Interaction - Experience Designer) at Los Angeles Times.
CSS Designer at SonyBMG Music Entertainment.
Sr. Rails Developer at JibJab Media Inc

Freelance Gigs:
Interactive Designer - Web2.0 at Mogulus
Flash Developer at Gifford Media

I hope you find this useful.

Happy Quote

February 5, 2007 in Happy Quotes

"We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about."
— Charles Kingsley

Fat Free Cart

February 1, 2007 in 4 out of 5 stars, e-Commerce Solutions, Hosted software

What is it?

Fat Free Cart: The Fat Free Cart is a simple low-cost shopping cart solution that integrates with PayPal, GoogleCheckout, ClickBank and 2Checkout. It offers secure digital downloads, in addition to offering standard shopping-cart checkout for physical goods including shipping calculation.

Who makes it?

E-Junkie (they have other great ecommerce offerings too)

Why is it the killerest?

It's an economical and slick way to integrate a checkout into your site. To get started, you simply register, then drop some HTML code into your site where you want the "add to cart" and the "view cart" buttons -- and it works. The whole thing is very smoothly integrated into your site and your customers don't have to leave until they go to check out.

Robin K. the lead developer seems to handle most support requests and is insanely timely and helpful. Including help with getting PayPal and Google Checkout set up properly for easy integration if you need a hand.

The Administration interface is very easy to use as well.  They layout is clean and everything is intuitive.  Even novices can maintain their own shopping cart.

In summary: It's an affordable, configurable shopping cart system from a company with a solid reputation of customer support (I had several email to share their positive experiences) and it offers the ability to sell both digital and physical goods including calculating shipping.

If you need a quick, easy, affordable way to sell something off your existing site - this might be the solution for you.

How much does it cost?

Plans start at $5 per month

Rating?

Reviewed by Carson McComas