Marketing Type

Survey Tools: Comparing SurveyMonkey and SurveyGizmo

Like it or not, a high percentage of marketing projects will require doing some sort of survey at one point or another.  For simple needs, I've generally used SurveyMonkey for the past few years. It's quick and easy and I've always found it sufficient, but on the other hand I'm not a terrifically sophisticated survey designer. A colleague whose survey experience dates back many, many years prior to the Internet tried SurveyMonkey recently and told me he found it limiting. In the interest of experimentation, I'm about to design a survey using a relative newcomer to the scene, SurveyGizmo. Specialized tools like these may be somewhat obsolete given the expanding functionality of CRM applications like SalesForce.com, but they're still tremendously useful to service-providers like me.

For a more or less side-by-side comparison of SurveyMonkey and SurveyGizmo, see these two feature charts:

SurveyMonkey                            SurveyGizmo

Three Books For The Entrepreneur

Starting a business, like writing a book, requires more than a good idea. It also requires more than talent. The most elusive component of success is knowing what not to do. In that vein, below are three books you must read if you run or want to run your own business.

Concept:

Getting Real: the smarter, faster, easier way to build a successful web application, by the team from 37Signals

Design:

Beautiful Evidence, by Edward Tufte

Marketing

Selling the Invisible, by Harry Beckwith