Parts of this were originally posted on Business Insider and reposted here with Ben Lang‘s permission.

1. Onavo

“Control your data, control your costs.”

Possibly one of the most useful apps you’ll ever download, Onavo monitors your data usage and easily lets you cut down the usage. Just a few weeks ago they raised a whopping $10M.

2. Any.DO

“Make things happen.”

Elegance and simplicity are what make this to-do list app the very best one out there. Maybe that’s why it was downloaded over 500,000 times in it’s first 30 days.

3. Wibbitz 

“The new visual experience for your site!”

Very neat service that transforms text content into interactive short videos. After adding it’s platform to Wibiya, the service has been steadily growing.

4. Tawkon

 ”Now keep talking.”

As radiation from cellphones becomes a hotter topic, this app will shine. Tawkon lets its users know how much radiation is being emmitted from their phone and how to avoid it.

5. BillGuard

“Protect your money.”

This web app is already saving its users plenty of money. Through sophisticated algorithms they are able to detect fraud and hidden charges on your credit card.

6. Shaker

“Where things happen.”

Shaker most recently won TechCrunch Disrupt, a highly coveted competition. They created a beautiful virtual world on Facebook.

7. Bizzabo

“Networking made easy.”

Bizzabo is without a doubt the best networking app out there. This app is becoming a must use at events of all kinds.

8. Magisto

“Magical video editing.”

Magisto actually makes video editing enjoyable. Their partnership with YouTube and recent iPhone app launch show plenty of growth on their roadmap.

9. Mobli

“See the world through other people’s eyes.”

This hot photo sharing startup has been ringing up downloads. Most recently Lance Armstrong announced his support for the app.

10. Fooducate

“Eat a bit better.”

This brilliant app allows users to scan any piece of food and see information on it. Recently it’s been featured all over.

There are plenty of other amazing startups I could mention, which would you suggest?

Clicktale is an Israeli company which specializes in webpage heatmaps and web analytics. After signing up and embedding their tracking code, Clicktale starts to track your visitor sessions and provide you with impressive information about your visitor sessions. The most impressive feature that Clicktale offers is recordings of your visitors sessions. Every action taken by the visitor (every mouse click and scroll is recorded!) on your website is recorded like a screen captor and can be viewed at any time. The major benefit of this to marketers is that these records can help paint a picture on why certain pages are top exit pages, or why conversion rates are below expectation.

Clicktale provides its users with an impressive range of web analytics from real-time monitoring and mouse tracking reports, to conversion funnels and link analytics.

Clicktale provides 3 standard price plans (Bronze, Silver and Gold) starting from $99/month to $990/month. Their free plan allows recordings of 400 page views per month.

Clicktale is a must for every online marketer to better understand visitor behavior and improve conversion rates. For regular updates on Clicktale’s product line and other news check out their blog.

Over the last few years social media has become a corner stone in online marketing. Hootsuite provides its users with an easy to use platform to control and handle their social media accounts. Users of Hootsuite can add their Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and many other social networks to a personalized dashboard to easily manage their social media web presence. Hootsuite’s Pro and Enterprise accounts allow for team collaboration, messaging between colllaborators and even Google Analytics integration. The most impressive aspect I found when using Hootsuite is its design and ease of use. I also liked the notifications built into the different feeds which made it easy to see updates and comments.

Social media will continue to be an integral part of online marketing which makes Hootsuite an online service every marketer should be using.

Twitter has become one of the most important weapons in the online marketing arsenal, but using Twitter effectively can be challenging. A recent study conducted by Kissmetrics.com, showed that tweeting in the afternoon resulted in the highest percentage of retweets compared to any other time of the day. The study also showed that tweeting between 1-4 times within an hour resulted in the highest click-through-rate. Buffer is an easy to use, free tool which allows users to send out tweets at a pre-defined time and frequency. Buffer helps prevent you from spamming your followers and results in your tweets receiving more attention.

Twitter continues to grow in size and importance online and as a result Buffer is a online service every marketer should be using.

Note: I have not received any financial benefits for promoting these companies.

The truth is, running a web site does not need to be difficult or expensive. Here are some of the most typical myths surrounding the design and management of business web sites, and why they do not hold water.

Myth 1: a business website has to cost a thousands of pounds

Granted, the price of one’s new web site will depend on how big it’s and just how much development is required. But generally speaking, you should not be paying the earth for small business websites.

If your web site is simply a handful of static pages, with some information about who you are, what you do and where you are based, even if you are paying for a bespoke design, the final cost shouldn’t be in the tens of thousands of pounds category.

Myth 2: Build it and they will come

If you’re thinking about freshening up a web presence – then thats a good thing, it shows your proactive and want to build your business. However, if you think that putting a new website out there will see instant results, then you’re mistaken. Unless you have a totally unique product, chances are there are several competitors all vying for the same business as you – so you have to stand out, by making sure customers find you first ahead of the rest. To do this you need to look at online advertising methods such as SEO or Pay per click.

Myth 3: I can save money by using a friend to design it

Unless your friend is a professional web designer then you have to rule this method out instantly. Whilst as pointed out above a website doesn’t have to cost thousands, you still need to make sure it looks the part. 9 times out of 10 taking this route results in something that lacks credibility, and ultimately ends up costing you more money.

Myth 4: I need to splash out on bespoke expensive backend software

Most web software programs will not cost you a penny. The great thing about the totally free options is that they’re not the most popular options because they are totally free, but because they are often the very best solutions.

For example, you are able to use WordPress for your website, OpenCart for the online shop, phpBB for the forum and osTicket for the support.

Myth 5: You need to pay somebody to install Google Analytics on your web site

If any internet designer or agency wants to charge you for installing Google Analytics on to your website, they’re really trying to make money off you.

Google Analytics is totally free software and also the installation ought to be included in the web design work at no additional price. If they intend to invoice you for the it as a separate cost they’re trying to trade on your lack of knowledge in this area. Adding the tracking code to a internet page is at most a 15 second job, and that’s if they do it slowly.

What other myths have you come across?

Anyways.

The New Year shouldn’t be about promising yourself all the great things you’re going to do during the next 12 months. The main problem here is the question of: how do you know what is truly worth doing and what isn’t?

If you’re an online business owner then among your resolutions a thing like “develop a new product” might find its place.

But how do you know that it truly is what you should focus on? How do you know that taking care of upgrading your current products isn’t a better choice? Or focusing more on the promotional side of things?

The possibilities are endless for any kind of field, no matter if online business or not. So is there even a point in creating any kind of resolutions list?

Things to ask yourself before committing to any kind of resolutions

Well, there still is some sense in creating resolutions. They can give you this additional drive to take action, but only if you know what you’re doing and why you’ve chosen that specific set of resolutions over all the other possibilities.

This is where a helpful list of questions comes into play. So what I advise you to do is start by answering the following questions, and then compile your list of resolutions for the New Year afterwards. Resolutions that actually make sense.

Just a short note. We’re talking business here. So every question is highly business-related. But you may as well take it from a completely different perspective. For example, answer the questions from a personal standpoint, or your guitar learning passion, or anything else. It’s up to you.

What’s working?

If you’ve been doing your thing for a while I’m sure you can point out things that have been working for you exceptionally well during the last 12 months.

If you have an online business it may be things like creating new products, promoting existing products, finding new customers, focusing on existing customers, creating multiple websites, focusing all your efforts on one website.

Whatever it is, you know best. Now just create some resolutions around things that are working for you. Doing more of what works is always a good strategy.

What’s not working?

There’s always the other side – things that are not working. I’m sure that during the last 12 months you had many ideas. And inevitably, some of those ideas ended up to not perform at all.

List them all and try to find some common characteristics for all of them. There surely are some. Maybe they all have to do with focusing on wrong kind of customers, or developing wrong type of products, or spending your marketing money badly. Again, you know best.

Once you have the list of things that are not working simply make sure not to create any resolutions involving things that are somehow similar to them. They are most likely to fail as well.

What do you really like doing?

There are some things that maybe don’t bring the biggest results, or any kind of measurable effects, but you still love doing them anyway.

The day when you stop doing what you love is the day you stop loving your work. Always do as much of the things you like as possible. Now is the time to create some resolutions around these things.

If, for example, you enjoy interacting in forums then promise yourself to write X number of posts every day, or something. If you love recording guitar videos, then … you know, same story.

What you seriously don’t like doing?

Unfortunately, there are things that work (for us or our businesses), but at the same time we truly despise doing them. They are too mundane, too boring, or too time consuming, or whatever other reason.

If you have such things on your to-do list then they are bound to be procrastinated upon. That’s just the way it is. I’m sure you can relate.

What’s the solution? You can either stop doing them or find some help (outsource). If you stop doing these things you will be able to find more time for things that both work and are enjoyable. If you outsource this then same thing goes – you’ll have more time for the interesting stuff, AND also the boring stuff will get done too.

Anyway, create a resolution to solve this, no matter what approach you end up taking.

What has the greatest potential to work?

There’s another group of “things” – ones that have potential to work but haven’t been tested that carefully yet. Maybe it’s something you’ve only done a handful of times or haven’t done at all yet.

This is a good moment to set some resolutions to test this stuff out. To find out if they will really work or not so much.

Of course, these still need to be things that you think you’ll enjoy doing. Don’t fall into a trap of testing something you don’t actually like (the previous question on the list).

Some things that are likely to find their place here: techniques your competition is using, techniques your friends are using in different niches, things your mentors tell you to do, things your mom tells you not to do, things the authorities in your market advise to do, etc.

Who can help you?

It doesn’t have to be anyone who can actually help you right from the get go. But is there someone worth reaching out to? A mentor maybe? Or simply someone who seems like they might be a worthy partner in crime.

I’m sure you’ve stumbled upon some people that are simply interesting to you. Set some resolutions to reach out to them and get to know them personally.

Remember, it’s always about who you know not what you know.

Who do you hate dealing with?

Of course, there’s the other group of people; ones you’ve tried reaching out to, or even doing business with but it just didn’t seem to work. Don’t waste your time on dealing with those people.

Life is too short to spend it around people who don’t make your day better. And whatever you do, don’t force yourself to deal with some people just because you think you have to. You can always fill their place with someone truly valuable.

Can you make things happen on your own?

There are many things you can do in your online business or in whatever else you’re involved in. That’s just a fact. So the question is: can you make these things happen on your own?

If so, great! Do it, then!

If there are too many things, and you just don’t have that many hours in a day then try to find some help. There are many possibilities, and many sites where you can hire people or find partners.

Do you want to do it on your own?

But here’s another thing … maybe you have the time, but you simply don’t want to take care of everything on your own.

This is nothing bad. Even when you love what you do you still might want to have some extra time for sports, socializing with your friends or whatever else. This is a great moment to look for help too.

Ask yourself these two last questions and then create some resolutions regarding them.

I don’t have any more questions at this moment, but I think that the set above is more than enough to get a pretty large resolutions list out of it. And this is what I encourage you to do. Take this list, be honest when answering the questions, and when you’re done create your tailor-made resolutions for the New Year.

Also, are there any more questions worth answering? Let me know.

There are two types of entrepreneurs. Social entrepreneurs and lifestyle entrepreneurs. Wikipedia lists a third, but you can’t start out as a serial entrepreneur, which is a type of entrepreneur who continuously comes up with new ideas and starts new businesses. So you fall in one of two buckets. You’re either working to help, improve and transform social, environmental, educational and economic conditions or you’re combining personal interests and talent to earn enough to sustain a desired lifestyle. Depending on the type of entrepreneur, the motive for starting a business may be different, but one fact remains: The product or service has to make meaning for the customers if it’s to be successful.

You don’t have to come up with a product or service that radically changes peoples’ lives (although it could), but your product does have to make meaning in at least one of three ways. It has to either increase the quality of someone’s life, right a wrong, or prevent the end of something good.

You increase the quality of life for someone when your product or service brings greater personal satisfaction to his or her life. You know you’re product does this when you can satisfactorily answer the question, “Does this product/service make people fitter, wiser, smarter, or closer?” A perfect example would be Facebook. Facebook allows users to continuously stay in touch with friends, relatives and other acquaintances wherever they are in the world, as long as there is access to the Internet. For many, Facebook has increased their quality of life.

You right a wrong when your product/service solves what the customer considers to be an injustice. Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS Shoes, made it his mission to give every child in the world in need a pair of shoes. Talk about a Big Hairy Audacious Goal. But that’s exactly what Blake is doing, having achieved a 1:1 ratio of shoes sold to shoes given away. And yeah, he’s doing alright financially as well. But money wasn’t his motivation. Otherwise, TOMS would just be one of the thousands of companies making shoes. But it’s not; it’s righting a wrong.

Whatever the case may be, a lot of people do not like change. Every time a new technology comes out, it replaces the one before it. But there are always people seeking to buy vintage products because of the memories that they associate with the products. If you can produce or acquire high-quality products of old, then your product will be among Coca Cola’s glass bottles, Polaroid’s restored SX-70 camera, and Nike’s Air Jordan Retro sneakers.

I agree with the comment that Apple’s former chief evangelist, Guy Kawasaki, made to a group of Stanford students when he said, “It is my naive and romantic belief that if you make meaning then you’ll probably make money. But if you set out to make money, you will probably not make meaning and you won’t make money.” If you would like to see some of my own examples of entrepreneurship, feel free to check out my blog.

Michael earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from Yale University, where he focused his studies on American government. While at Yale, he served on the executive committee of Focus on New Haven, Black Student Alliance, Yale Political Union and The New Journal.

How and where did you get the idea for your companys?

Justin.tv – my friend/co-founder justin kan’s idea – he was trying to figure out what startup to build next and thought other people might be interested in listening in on the conversation. Then he thought other people might be interested in “listening in” on his life. That is how he came up with the idea of broadcasting his life 24/7. After launching this we all realized that other people are more interesting that Justin. So we focused on building a platform for others to broadcast live video.

Socialcam – we build an iPhone app that allowed people to broadcast live video from their phones. People used it to take video clips and share them with there friends. We talked to these users and realized that it was hard to share videos from your phone.

Who’s one person you’ve always looked up to?

Bill Clinton – executed a long term plan to become president
Michael Jordan – universally recognized as the best in his sport

What’s the most important action you took that you believe brought success to your business?

Deciding to start – this is the step that prevents 99.9999% of business from succeeding

What’s the number one tip you would offer to a young entrepreneur?

Think about everything on your todo list. Whatever gives you the biggest stomach ache is what you should work on first.

What are your 5 favorite online tools?

• Priority inbox (gmail)
• Google tasks
• Pivotal tracker
• Socialcam custom stats dashboard
• Mixpanel

TVs From Samsung and LG

It goes without saying, but LED TVs are the future. And two of the biggest TV companies, Samsung and LG, revealed jaw-dropping 55-inch TVs. And the best part is that they were super thin (LG’s was just 4mm thin).

But Samsung’s TV does stand out for the fact that it will feature an app store with more than 1,000 apps. These TVs are going to be up for sale very soon and will definitely be the example that other TV makers should be following

Windows Phone Steals The Spotlight From Android Phones

If you were walking around centeral hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center, you would’ve seen a huge crowd around Microsoft’s booth. More specifically, the table where Windows phones were on display.

In fact, the most popular Windows phone came from what most would consider a phone maker of the past: Nokia. The Nokia Lumia 900, which is set for release in March, was the phone demoed at Microsoft’s last CES keynote. The Windows phone interface was surprisingly fast and seamless. The demo went perfectly and I have a feeling that some people rethought their current phones.

The Tablet Field Just Got A Little More Crowded

Between Samsung’s Galaxy Tablets (8 & 10 inch models were revealed) and Panasonic ToughPad (I’m guessing for construction workers), the android tablet market saw a lot of new models last week. All of the with one goal: destroy the competition (i.e. Apple).

And even the Windows tablets were impressive. Although there weren’t many they were still super sleek and fast.

I think it’s safe to say that tablets were the second biggest things at this year’s CES.

Ultrabooks Made a Splash

I swear, whenever I asked people what their favorite computer was at CES, they all answered the new Ultrabooks from manufacturers like Toshiba, Samsung, LG, and even Dell (who didn’t have a booth, but did announce new products).

The term “ultrabook” was coined by Intel who are apparently really wanting to crush Apple’s Macbook Air. Most of the ultrabooks were incredibly sleek and fast (solid-state hard drives allow for faster boot-up times). But, one area that they clearly weren’t competing with the Air was ij price. Most of the Ultrabooks on display will end up costing anywhere from $800-$2,500.

What I Blogged About During CES 2012:

I chose to blog about some of the more unseen product launches and announcements. Here are all of the posts I did on CES on my blog:

• Can Ultra-D From StreamTV Become the New Standard for 3D Technology?
• Panasonic Unveils Smart Solutions & Myspace Partnership At Their 2012 CES Keynote
• Microsoft’s Last Keynote: Ballmer Stresses That Windows Metro Layout Is The Future
• The Best of CES Day 1
• Large Companies Fail to Innovate, But These Small Companies Reigned Supreme

How and where did you get the idea for your company(s)?

One of my friends had a semester @ UPenn and I wanted to go for a visit. The whole proccess of issuing a visa was just too complex. Coming to think about it, many of the daily things we do could be easily automated.

Who’s one person you’ve always looked up to?

Never had just one person. People I’m currently looking up to are: Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey, Jeff Bazos, Reid Hoffman.

What’s the most important action you took that you believe brought success to your business?

Assembling a kick-ass team behind this HUGE problem, from co-founders to employees to investors and advisers.

What’s the number one tip you would offer to a young entrepreneur?

“Be the change you want to see in the world” (Mahatma Gandhi)

What are your 5 favorite online tools? (Productivity, organization, communication, social…)

• Gmail (obviously)
• Boomerang (Gmail addon)
• Rapportive (Gmail addon)
• Facebook messenger
• Any.DO (of course)

 Awesome TVs

The lineup of sleek and sexy TVs at this year’s CES is plentiful. From LG’s 55-inch LED to similar innovations by Sharp, Panasonic, and others. You can expect to see most, if not all, of these TVs become smarter as well. This is definitely something I’m excited about.

 Smartphones & Tablets

Smartphones and Tablets have changed drastically since slast year’s CES. And this year, there is expected to be a huge filed of tablets and smartphones to chose from. In fact, Toshiba is set to show off the world thinnest tablet, The Toshiba Excite.

No More Mice

One of the coolest things I’ve been hearing about is the idea of navigating around your computer without a mouse. Yes, we’re talking about eye tracking. Rumor is that mouse tracking technology will be on show here and put to the test in front of atendees.

UltraBooks

Laptops are nice but they don’t have naything on sleek Ultrabooks that will be on display from companies like Toshiba, Samsung, and more. These ultrabooks will try to take a jab at Apple’s Air line of notebooks. They will be fast, powerful, and most likely cost less.

 Keep Up With Our CES Coverage

EpicLaunch will be tweeting and posting Facebook updates throughout the day.

Make sure to follow our coverage on:

• Facebook
• Twitter

Maybe you want to build the most comfortable computer chair in the world; or maybe you’re looking to create an innovative new mobile application. No matter what your project is, abiding by a few ground rules will increase your chances of a successful campaign. Here are the keys:

Post a video or multimedia presentation outlining your project. Most successful Kickstarter pages feature a video or some form of entertaining media (perhaps a flash animation) that illustrate the salient details of the project. Whether you’re trying to fund your short film or you’re creating a social network for earthworm fanatics, moving images and sound are invaluable as attention-drawers and for marketing purposes. It also helps you to give more shape and clarity to your goals.

Clearly describe who is undertaking the project and what their experience is. You should have at least a couple paragraphs giving biographical information about the authors of the project and what their job history is. Potential funders will want to know how you are qualified to carry out your endeavor before they donate money to you and your associates. You don’t have to put your resume or CVS or anything like that, but you should be able to write a glowing review of yourself (a good skill to have in life no matter how modest you are).

Target a realistic financial number. Don’t ask for too much and don’t ask for too little. Figure out how much funding you need to complete you project and ask for that amount. Describe why you need this money. What are your production debts, your overhead costs, etc. Make a spreadsheet if you have to. The more professional your budget looks, the more likely people will want to entrust you with their money. If you appear to have put minimal work into the financial side of your endeavor, funders might suspect you’re likely to waste the money.

Advertise your Kickstarter page on Facebook and Twitter. Social media is a must. While there is a vibrant community on Kickstarter, the success of a campaign is largely dependent on how many eyeballs you get looking at your page. If you have a couple hundred Facebook friends and manage to get a few shares, that’s potentially an additional thousand people looking at your project. Twitter, used effectively, can position your project in a variety of niche communities. For example, if your project concerns gardening, a #gardening hashtag might generate dozens of retweets and another thousand views.

The fate of your Kickstarter campaign will ultimately depend on how much work you put into it. Your visual presentation, clarity of description, financial homework, and social media use will all help you to run a successful campaign and hit your target.