Shop208 Beta

The Prizes

Grand Prize: 16 GB iPod Nano

The new iPod Nano is probably my favorite iPod. With the new video and FM radio it has a lot of great functionality. We are giving out one to our grand prize winner. Winner may choose any color. (Retail value: $179)

More details on the Apple Website

Second Place: $25 iTunes Gift Card

Movies, books, music. Use it for whatever most entertains you. (Retail value: $25. Obviously.)

How to Enter

You don’t have to do any nonsense that doesn’t relate to the site or community. We want to keep it simple to participate, so here are the details.

Create a free profile on Shop208 Beta and fill out your basic profile information. This would include:

• Name (use a real name)
• A profile photo
• city (You must live in Idaho)
• Favorites

Any profiles that are left empty won’t qualify for the contest. If you already have a profile, just make sure that you filled out enough information and you will qualify for the contest. Winners will be chosen November 27, 2009. So enter right away. Pretty simple!

Winners will be chosen at random from the qualifying profiles. Get started:

Enter the Contest

Oh, and don’t forget to add me (Nathan Barry) as a friend once you join.

1. WordPress

Easily publish and manage your website and blog. Most people think of WordPress strictly as a blog platform, but it is really a web publishing platform. This makes it capable of powering sites ranging from blogs, to CMS systems, and even (if heavily customized) social networking sites like Shop208.

Visit WordPress.org

2. Google Apps

Email, Calendar, Docs, Spreadsheets, Pages, etc. Google Apps is the core of my business management. We use the Gmail interface for all our emails (including the mobile features for syncing with the mobile phones). The chat comes in handy when planning products and managing products remotely. Having all of this available with a single login is invaluable.

The best part is that for certain uses it is free!

Google Apps sign-up

3. Akismet

Spam on sites and blogs is a huge time waster if you are having to moderate and deal with each spam comment individually. It just takes the fun out of blogging. Akismet fixes that. With plugins and the API you can integrate it with almost any web app (either proprietary or open source).

Visit Akismet.com

4. Google Analytics

So now you have your site setup (spam free of course), but you need to do some tracking. Though there are plenty of other applications for statistics, Google Analytics is by far the industry leader (helps that it is free). It has some very advanced features (that I hardly use), but is still very easy to understand and setup on your site.

Also it is very nice to use a single login for this and Google Apps.

Google Analytics

5. MailChimp

Email marketing can be very powerful (once you overcome low open rates). In this space you can chose from lots of companies to help you run your email campaigns. MailChimp is my personal favorite. It is straight forward and easy to use, from building the list, to sending the emails, and last of all it provides great reports afterwards.

My favorite thing is that the interface teaches you as you go. Not just how to use the app, but also how to write and send more successful email campaigns. After 500 subscribers you have to start paying, but most people won’t reach that limit for quite a while.

Learn more about MailChimp

Also their Halloween-themed login page is well designed: https://login.mailchimp.com

6. Tumblr

Tumblr is so easy to use they even have the sign-up form on the homepage. They claim to be the easiest way to blog. From what I have seen and heard from friends that use it, I would have to agree. If you are going for quick setup, writing short posts, and don’t need that robust of software, then go with Tumblr. Though if you want more robust (though still easy to use) software WordPress is a better option.

Learn more about Tumblr

7. After the Deadline

After the Deadline adds intelligent grammar and spell checking to your content management system or blog. It is constantly telling me to use simpler words, write clearer, and to use the correct homonym. Yes, it can distinguish the correct word based on context.

Try it out here: polishmywriting.com

Learn more and Download at AfterTheDeadline.com

What applications do you find useful?

Share with us in the comments!

Like this site?

If you like this site (and live / work within the 208 area code) then sign-up for a free account on Shop208!

I am happy to announce that members now have the ability to upload photos to their profiles!

We are still working on adding more functionality like multiple galleries, bulk photo upload, and more. But in the mean time go to your profile and click on Album to start uploading photos.

For an example of this functionality you can take a look at some photos I just uploaded:

http://shop208beta.com/members/nathan.barry/album

Enjoy!

If you don’t already have a Shop208 profile you can request an invite at Shop208.com. We look forward to having you join our community.

This video does a great job of illustrating a lot of ideas behind this site. The reasons why we are building it, and working everyday to get businesses involved in social media. Not just setting up a Twitter or Facebook account, but effectively participating in a way that adds value for their clients and customers.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8]

Sometimes I feel like these ideas and videos are a lot of hype, but when you sit down and actually look at trends and research, this truly is a groundbreaking time. I believe it changes the way businesses communicate.

What do you think?

Wow. We made it. It is really exciting to see the first version of Shop208 go live. Even if it doesn’t yet have all the features and is only in beta.

We know the site has some bugs that still need to be worked out. What we ask from you is that you help identify them so we can make improvements quickly and efficiently. We truly believe Shop208 will be a great platform for local business and appreciate you for jumping on board early.