EchoSign 'Tools I Can't Live Without' Contest Winners

We've been getting caught up on some contest winners in the last few days and today is no exception. Today we're going all the way back to May and bringing you the Winners of the EchoSign 'Tools I Can't Live Without' Contest.

As is the case with any contest we run where we ultimately decide to pick winners, it's a ridiculously hard thing to do. We have so many great writers and in this case, there were so many great tools that you shared with us.

There were a fair share of people that chose to write about electronic signatures as their tool, and who wouldn't think a product like EchoSign is a great timesaver? It gives you so much more flexibility with your time and where you (or your documents) need to be to get things accomplished. If you aren't using electronic signatures in your business, what the heck are you doing?

You can check EchoSign out here and get a free account to try out electronic signatures and catch your business up to 2012.

And with no further ado (was reading some Shakespeare last night.....HA! Not!), here are the winners from May:

Hardware:

1st Place and winner of $150 Visa gift card: Anita Clark and her super cool signs. Yep, signs! There are some things that technology can make better but never completely replace.

2nd Place and winner of a $100 Visa gift card: Fred Griffin doesn't need a WIFI hotspot, he is a WIFI hotspot with his Verizon jetpack. He's the guy you hope is sitting next to you at the next conference where the WIFI is running like a 56K modem.

3rd Place and winner of a $50 Visa gift card: Karen Hawkins and her TomTom GPS. Granted, many of our smartphones have GPS but should you really be looking at your phone while driving? And plus, can your phone tell you 'the end is near' in the voice of Darth Vader? (it was Vader that sealed the deal for me!). Now if Tom Tom could just figure out that whole light speed thing!

Software/Websites:

1st Place and winner of a $150 Visa gift card: Dianne Goode got the first listing she came across when she used Snagit . She can take any image she wants and create cool graphics and text on the image. Of course she still gives credit to the MLS but her graphs are taking her listing presentation to a new level....and Snagit is allowing her to do it.

2nd Place and winner of a $100 Visa gift card: Chris Hardy isn't floating away....but he's in the cloud. He'll never have to worry about his computer crashing or accessing something when he left the laptop at home. Being in the cloud allows Chris complete data freedom.

3rd Place and winner of a $50 Visa gift card: Jeana Cowie is a photoshop pro......OK, maybe not a pro, but she is transforming pictures for her listings into something just a little bit better and in the process helping to better market her clients properties. We all need more tools that help sell houses!

Apps:

This one was a little more challenging because there weren't many entries or many of the apps came up when someone was talking about the hardware on which they use the app. And one of the entries I just didn't know what category to put it in but I thought the tool was awesome.....and even better, how she uses it! So here goes Apps...

1st Place and the winner of a $150 Visa gift card: Dianna Ivanov shares with us a free app she uses at every open house. She sings the praises of Open House Pro to anyone that will listen. Well we were listening Dianna. Thanks for sharing a great app.

2nd Place and winner of a $100 Visa gift card: Joan Cox tells us about 10 different apps that she's discovered that make her life so much easier. Ever need a flashlight in those dank basements? She has that and 9 other cools apps that she'll be lost without from now on.

3rd Place and winner of a $50 Visa gift card: Ellen Caruso and her pencil. Yes, a number 2 pencil. You remember what one of those looks like, right? I know, it's not an app. And it probably fits better in hardware, but guess what? I make the rules. I loved her post and I love that her most invaluable business tool is still her #2 pencil. Technology be damned! There are some things that never should have went out of style!

~Bob