I’m a 50 yr old, business woman with, 2 young children (10yrs and 6yrs), 20 yr bricks and mortar business. crippled by the recession,  embracing the online world, learning how to navigate and build an online presence…but not quite there yet…so a newbie..

My best find for 2012 (apart from Social media examiner)…Google Chrome..and the free downloads, that allow me to check page rank  and the alexa traffic ranking of every website I visit.

HI @glad2be  I was a Chrome beta tester in 2008 and 2009 (Chromium devs) so watched the progress with awe. Also, was in on Rockmelt beta and Duck Duck Go too. Each browser has it’s own unique uses – I use all these, and others, but Chrome is my default for web development. Chrome is the BEST browser for general usage. You made a wise choice.

Hi Ann @annfurnivall  I  know so much about you now; just from all your posts in this club. I feel like we’ve known each other for longer than we have.  You have a unique perspective because you have a successful business offline that uses the web to enhance and grow your customer base. You’ve done well.

My best discovery for 2012?  That I like my freedom! 

1 – I was asked to re-up a writing contract with a major software development company and declined — too many short term deadlines and not enough money to justify the headaches.

2 – Dropped a client (of 8 years, no less) who depended on me for literally everything online and did not understand that “no” means NO. I can’t work more hours for the same money!

3 – I’ve been throwing out the old contracts and getting new ones written whereby clients will hold more responsibility for their online accounts.  Sometimes you come to a point where you just have “too many irons in the fire.”

There is more but I bet you get the picture – my discovery over the past year is not one of outside influences (software, web apps, etc.) but internal processes, that need to be streamlined. 

At any rate, looking back, it’s been a great year of “firsts and lasts”, but not what most folks would think of in terms of “discovery.”

Eileen

I love Google Chrome, too, but why the heckledoodles did their last update completely unhinge the Flash in IE? That was weird… and still causes me problems. Still, I love that Tool Bar and Alexa rank checker, too.

But ahrefs.com was my get-outta-here-awesome discovery. Unfortunately, after I fell in love with it, they’re cancelling out their Keyword Tool… THE most awesome little thang I’ve used. It was great for scoping your competition and getting ALL their juicy little ranking keyword phrases. I understand they’re dropping this because Google’s wagging fingers at data scrapers right now and their company wants to keep their phenomenal link-checker spotlessly clean and respected by Google… especially since it’s the best thang for backlink checking.

Aaaaaahhhhhhh, my little ahrefs keyword tool… Ima gonna miss you, honey. It closes out on January 11th, but until then… they’ve opened it up for FREE to everyone, not just to their $80-$200 month users. Of course they do have a free level membership, with 10 requests per day, but for right now until Jan 11th, you can use that KW Tool 10,000 times a day AND export your findings for free… so hurry, hurry. If you didn’t know ahrefs before this, believe me… you’re going to shed a tear saying goodbye to her. Can’t believe my greatest 2012 find is now my biggest 2013 loss. Oh, pooh!

Robin Carlisle