Cover Story: 101 Best Business Sites

As published in winmag.com in June of 1999

101 Best Business Sites Cover Story

101 Best Business Sites
Don't surf in the dark. This guide to the best business sites helps keep you on the path to profitability.
--by Nick Soave, Chitra Vemuri and Rita Wallace

Services

74. Broadcast.com (http://www.broadcast.com/) Beyond this site's consumer facade are some extraordinary services for large and small companies. The Business Services section provides corporations with a wide range of Internet video broadcasting options, while the SimpleNet subsidiary offers quick and painless solutions-from Web hosting services to e-commerce-for bringing your small business online.

75. eBoz Learn how to design, build and market an e-commerce Web site. This site is a Web directory, search engine, information library and interactive forum all rolled into one. You'll find articles, links to other useful sites, expert advice, tips and a community for discussions and advice.

76. E-Stamp.com (http://www.estamp.com/) Can't get to the post office? At E-Stamp.com you can buy postage without leaving your desk. Just connect to the Internet using E-Stamp's software, enter an address, and the software automatically verifies the address, calculates the correct postage, and prints a stamp onto an envelope, label or document. At press time the software was in beta, but you could sign up to be a beta tester and receive $25 in free postage.

77. Faxaway (http://www.faxaway.com/) Send faxes over the Internet from any Windows application. You're billed for the time it takes to send the fax. Billing is done in 6-second increments; within the United States, the rate is 11 cents per minute. Faxaway offers special services for corporate customers, such as e-mail to fax, a Web-based fax-back you can integrate into your Web site or intranet and broadcast fax service.

78. Internet News Bureau (http://www.newsbureau.com/) Get the word out to the media like a real pro. This fee-based service will write professional press releases for you-or tell you how to do it yourself-then distribute them to 1,300 journalists who subscribe to receive Web-related news tips. You can also target journalists tracking specific industries.

79. NetMechanic (http://www.netmechanic.com/) NetMechanic sells software to aid in Web site creation, but the company's site also offers some free services for sites with 200 or fewer pages. For example, you can test your site to make sure popular browsers support its HTML coding, spell check your site, test how fast your site's pages load, check for broken links and more-all for free.

80. Yahoo Store (http://www.store.yahoo.com/) Build an online store in just minutes? That's the claim and it's true. This point-and-click Erector Set for the virtual economy sure beats messing around with bricks and mortar. An easy tutorial will get you set up, while Yahoo's extensive tracking and processing services will help you analyze traffic and manage your online business.