With all the information online about tools and techniques available to help someone effective manage and run an online business, how do you ever decide which ones are truly useful to have in your business management toolkit? Here's my listing of the 20 indispensable management and productivity tools that I cannot live without:

1. Article Marketing: 

SubmitYourArticle.com automates the article

submission process by allowing you to submit up

to eight articles each month and then

distributes the articles to hundreds of web

sites, article directories and ezine publishers.

Without a doubt, this has been my most effective

online marketing tool that has produced

tremendous results for my business.

2. Audio Recording/Podcasting:

AudioAcrobat.com makes audio streaming fast

and simple, whether you want to add an audio

greeting, audio testimonials, podcast or videos

to your website or send out an audio postcard or

record a teleclass.

3. Backup: 

Carbonite.com offers an unlimited amount of

data storage for $50 per year.  Carbonite is

very intuitive and went directly to my email

files and Roboform files to back them up without

me having to manual select the backup files.  I

frequently use this service to find the original

version of a file that I've accidentally

overwritten, as well.

4. Blogging: 

Typepad.com is both simple to use and

powerful.  You can set up as many blogs as you

desire with a Pro account, and you can customize

your blog in an infinite number of ways.  Once

it's set up, the online interface makes it a

snap to make new posts to your blog.

5. Bookmark Manager: 

SPURL.net

makes managing a moderate to massive amount of

bookmarks very easy. You create any number of

categories in which to file your favorites, and

adding a favorite website is as easy as clicking

a button.

6. Color Matching: 

Pixie is

a tool that I use daily to help me match a color

exactly for a document that I'm creating or a

color I'm trying to replicate on a website. Run

it, simply point to a color and it will tell you

the hex, RGB, HTML, CMYK and HSV values of that

color.

7. Content Management:

Edit.com is a website maintenance service

that makes your current website editable so you

can change the content yourself. They handle

everything to get your site set up and provide

you with a phone training to walk you through

your first edits. There is no software to

install because it just uses your web browser.

At no charge, you can have them review your

website to ensure that your site is compatible

with their service.

8. Email List Management/Autoresponders: 

aWeber.com is a great service for creating,

mailing and reporting back on the success of

your newsletter as well as to subscribe your

readers to a sequential autoresponder, either

associated with your newsletter or with another

product. I love to be able to see how many

readers opened my newsletter, who opened the

newsletter, and what links they clicked on from

the newsletters.

9. Fax:

MaxEmail.com lets you send a receive faxes

through the Internet/email and makes your need

for a fax machine obsolete.  The faxes arrive in

PDF format, so you can easily share you faxes

with others as needed. They also offer voice

mail on your fax line, and the voicemail message

arrives as an audio file in your email inbox.

10. Graphics Program:

SnagIt.com

lets you show someone exactly what you see on

your screen. Select and capture your screen

image. and send it to SnagIt's editor to add

professional effects, edit the image (resize,

adjust color), and or drop it into your favorite

application. 

11. Hosting: 

Aaces.com

offers the ability to buy a hosting plan in

which you can host and manage a large number of

websites through one account rather than buying

multiple hosting plans for each website for your

business.  And, their customer service can't be

beat.

12. Idea Management:  With

EverNote.com

you can easily store and quickly access typed

and handwritten memos, webpage excerpts, emails,

phone messages, addresses, passwords,

brainstorms, sketches, documents and more!  A

free version or a 30-day trial of the paid

version is available for download.

13. Merchant Account: 

PracticePaySolutions.com offers an

all-in-one ecommerce solution that helps you

take payment online.  The coolest feature that

they offer in this service is the ability to do

batch uploads of charges, so if you have a

number of clients on retainer that you invoice

every month, you can simply create a spreadsheet

and batch upload the data rather than entering

each client's information individually.  

14. Publicity Tracker: 

Google

Alerts let you type in an unlimited number

of search terms, like your name, your company

name, your industry, the name of your

competitors, etc.  Google will then deliver an

email alert for any mention of your search term

online.  This is a wonderful way to track your

own PR as well as industry trends.

15. Password Management: 

Roboform.com is the top-rated password

manager and web form filler that completely

automates password entering and form filling.

You'll never have to remember a password again!

I maintain both my passwords and user info and

that of my clients in this program.

16. Shopping Cart: 

KickstartCart.com is easy to use and setup,

and offers the ability to create affiliate

programs, follow up with prospective and current

customers with autoresponders, create coupons

for limited-time offers, as well as enable

buyers to immediately download electronic

purchases (ebooks, audio files). There is a free

30-day trial, but don't sign up until you have

the time to test drive it--30 days goes by

fast!  Get your free ebook here, How to Pick a

Shopping Cart System That Makes You Money.

17. Spyware: 

CounterSpy.com will protect your computer

from spyware, adware, Trojans and other malware

threats.

18. Teleconference Line: 

TheBasementVentures.com lets you meet

with colleagues, associates or even family

members through a teleconference bridge line

that can bring up to 250 people together at one

place over a teleconference phone line.  You can

use the line to conduct classes and training and

record your calls, as well as manage your

participants from an online interface.

19. Time Tracker:

TraxTime.com

has helped me keep track of my consulting

projects for years.  You simply create projects

and clock into and out of them, with the ability

to write memos about how you've used your time.

20. To Do List Management:

Accomplice.com works online and offline,

integrates with Outlook and other software you

already use, and syncs with your PDA. What I

love most about this software is that I can

create in-depth, hierarchical to-do lists (tasks

and sub-tasks of a bigger project) very easily,

and add additional tasks on the fly as they

occur to me. I can see at any point what are my

more important tasks and what is coming due

soon.