1. Mysql Format Date

MySQL Format Date helps you to format your dates using the MySQL DATE_FORMAT function. Just select a common date format and then change it to your suit your needs. The MySQL DATE_FORMAT code will be generated at the bottom of the page which you can then copy into your query.

2. Em Chart

I never been a fan of ems in CSS files, but sometimes you have to deal with it. In that case, Em chart will translate ems to pixels so you’ll save time and hassle.

3. Browser Sandbox

Cross browser compatibility is definitely one of the biggest problems a web developer has to face in his daily job. The browser sandbox lets you run any Windows browser from the web. The only bad thing is that you must run a Windows machine: The app does not work on Macs and GNU/Linux.

4. Twitter API Explorer

If you’re using the Twitter API in the site you build, you’ll for sure enjoy this very handy website which allow you to search through the Twitter API. Even better, the website can generate ready-to-use code snippets. A real time gain for you and your clients!

5. PHP Forms

Web forms are one of the most important part of a website, but creating them is also very time-consuming. So, what about using a website that can speed up your form development for free?
PHP forms allows you to create advanced forms that can fit the needs of most websites.

6. Smush it!

Images may be worth a thousand words, they’re also well known to use a lot of bandwidth. Images can be optimized for the web using programs like Photoshop; but if you don’t own a copy of this software or simply don’t have a clue how to do it, smush.it is what you need.
Brought to you by Yahoo developers network, Smush.it is an online tool that will reduce your image size without reducing their quality.
For WordPress users, a very handy plugin for your favorite blogging engine is available here.

7. Test everything

This site is a definitive must-have for your bookmarks: As the name says, Test everything allows you to test lot of things such as XHTML and CSS markup, PageRank, back-links, and a lot more.

8. CSS Compressor

Especially on site with many different page layouts, CSS files can become huge and use a lot of server bandwidth. This tool, named CSS Compressor, can consequently reduce the size of any CSS file by removing comments, indentation and more.
Even better, compression level can be configured to fit your needs.

9 .htaccess editor

A .htaccess file is a must have for any website. Don’t know how to write one? No problem, just visit this site to create your .htaccess file using a wizard. It doesn’t allow very advanced stuff, but the results are great for 95% of the websites you’ll make.

10. Script Src

Are you tired of hunting the Internet in order to find the script tag for the latest version of the Javascript library of your choice? ScriptSrc.net has compiled all the latest versions of jQuery, Mootools, Prototype and more in a single page which lets you copy it in your browser clipboard with a single click.

1. Email - Knowing how to check your email, and how to write an effective email are two entirely different topics – but both are useful to know! Your email provider should have a “How To” on checking your email through webmail and setting up an email client on almost any platform, but if it’s over your head, consider using a flexible, free service like Gmail, and forwarding your old email to your new one. Although almost any email address can be configured so that it’s accessible over the web via browser or smartphone, Gmail apps make it easy for even the non-technically inclined to access their email anywhere.

On the writing effective emails front, check out mindtools.com’s article on Writing Effective Emails.

2. Networks and Wi-Fi – Being unable to connect to the internet can derail a remote worker’s entire day. Being able to troubleshoot basic network and wi-fi problems is a must. Also, consider a backup plan, if a tree falls on the telecom lines outside your house, where is the closest wi-fi hot spot?

C-Net has a good primer video on basic wi-fi troubleshooting, which is worth a view if your productivity (and your paycheck) is dependent upon a wireless
connection.

3. “Instant” Communication, Skype, IM, etc. - Availability via IM can be either a blessing or a curse for a remote worker. Consider separating your business and personal life with separate logins for IM services so that you can tune out the chatter from friends, harness this tool for productivity, and gain a sense of “being there” with your colleagues even if you’re far away.

4. Tele- and Web conferencing – Be sure to familiarize yourself with your client’s preferred method of meeting. You can’t blame it on traffic when you’re late to a virtual meeting, and depending on your field, citing technical difficulties might make you look incompetent.

5. Collaborative Tools – Whether its as simple as Google Docs, or as involved as project management tools like BaseCamp, it’s important that you can effectively use the tools that you have at your disposal.

For more a quick primer on Google Apps, check out Google’s very own Google Apps Training Tutorial, and for some quick tips on how to use Basecamp more effectively, see Flatsourcing’s “We <3 Basecamp. How we use it effectively.”

6. Document creation and sharing – Being able to generate clear and concise documents, create the necessary delivery formats (ie, .doc, .pdf, .jpg), and share them via email attachment, web, ftp, or the collaborative tools mentioned above is an essential skill for any remote worker. A great free tool for creating PDF files is CutePDF, it’s free and, once installed, is as simple as clicking “print”.

7. Digital organization – Since the majority of remote work is digital, your computer desktop and local file structures are just as important as the desktop and filing cabinet you would keep at the office. It’s easy – create new folders by right clicking on the desktop, select “New”, select Folder, name it, put files and other folders in side of it according to the organizational structure that makes sense to you.

8. Screencasts/Screenshots - Sometimes its easier to just show someone what your talking about rather than trying to explain it. Being able to take a screenshot, circle part of the image and write notes can be a helpful way to illustrate a point. For explanations of more in-depth procedures, screencasts can be invaluable.

For more info, see About.com’s How To Capture a Screen Shot of your Desktop or the Active Window in  Windows.

For getting started quickly and easily with screencasts, check out NorthStarNerd.org’s Tutorial on Camstudio.

9. Maintenance - Keeping a good eye on the health of your computer can prevent disastrous delays. Anti-virus and anti-malware are a great start, but your hardware’s health is important too. Don’t ignore noisy fans and cranky sounding hard drives! Most hardware failures give warning signs, don’t ignore them.

For more info on computer maintenance see, Optimizing Computer Performance for Online Work Success, featured previous on the oDesk blog. For more advanced users, consider a hardware monitoring tool like SpeedFan, which can help you monitor CPU temperature, and overall hard drive health.

10. Security - Keep your sensitive data private. Run a good firewall, and keep your OS and browser up to date with security updates. For more security tips see, Securing Your Home Network, featured previous on the oDesk blog.

Alexa

• Alexa-Ranking
  Alexa page-rank-and-rating-results

Backlink

• Anchor Text Backlink Checker
  This tool is to check your backlinks and the anchor text used in those backlinks.
• Backlink Analyzer
  Research and analyze websites for link quality. Checks for Indexed Pages, Links to Website, EDU & .GOV Links, Domain Age & Expiration, Google PageRank, Alexa Traffic Rank, DMOZ Listing
• Backlink Anchor Text Analyzer
  This tools help you determine the backlinks of your website and link text used by your backlinks to Link to your website
• Backlink Builder
  Building Quality backlinks is one of the most important factors in Search Engine Optimization…

Domain Popularity, Domain Stats Tools…

• Domain Age Tool
  This tools displays the approximate age of a website on the Internet and allows you to view how the website looked when it first started
• Domain Dossier
  Investigate domains and IP addresses
• Domain Popularity
  This tool shows you all backlinks for the given domain, including up to 10 subpages per backlinking domain, host IP and Google PageRank
• Domain Stats Tool
  This tool helps you get all kind of statistics of your competitor’s domains. The statistics include Alexa Taffic Rank, Age of the domains, Yahoo WebRank, Dmoz listings, count of backlinks and number of pages indexed in Search Engines like Google, Yahoo, Msn etc.
• HTTP / HTTPS Header Check
  This tools allow you to inspect the HTTP headers that the web server returns when requesting a URL. Works with HTTP and HTTPS URLs
• View HTTP Headers
  This little tool lets you view the HTTP headers for a HTTP request
• View HTTP Path
  This little tool lets you view the path/redirects a request takes to get fulfilled

Google Page Rank Checker, Adwords Keyword Tools,Google Banned Tools…

• Advanced Google searches
  Use this tool to search google in many special ways. A useful resource for search engine optimization (especially keyword research) among other things
• Check Google Pagerank
  Now you can check the Google PageRank of any web page without installing the Google toolbar
• Check PageRank by Google data center
  With this tool you can check the PageRank from different data centers
• Free Google Adsense Keywords & YPN Keywords Search Tool
  With the ability to search a growing database of tens of thousands of high-dollar Adsense keywords, Iotaweb allows publishers to find the keywords and key phrases that will allow them to focus their content to monetize their site most effectively.
• Google Adwords Keyword Tool
  Keyword tool from Google that provides Specific and Similar keywords.
• Google Banned Tool
  This tool uses two methods to check to see if a URL you enter is in the Google database. Its a great way to check to see if you have been banned by Google for various reasons….
• Google Keyword Ranking Tool
  Search with list of keywords from differnet Google search sites
• Google Page Rank Checker
  Instantly check the PageRank of any website or web page
• Google Page Rank Checker
  A simple tool that checks and your PageRank so you can display it on your website
• Google Sets
  Automatically create sets of items from a few examples.
• PageRank Authenticity Check
  This tool shows you the PageRank of a given domain. Also the PageRank will be checked of authenticity
• Page Rank Tool
  Our PageRank Tool will query and return the Google PageRank values for submitted URL from various Google datacenters…
• Visual PageRank
  The Visual PageRank – Tool shows all links and there corresponding PageRanks

Keyword Analysis Tool, Keyword Density, Keyword Suggestion Tools…

• McDar Keyword Analysis Tool
  Enter URL and keyword, it will display Pagerank and Back links pages for the Top 10 websites.
• Keyword Density
  This tool shows you how often appears which word in content of given domain
• Keyword Density
  The keyword density tool is useful for helping webmasters and SEOs achieve their optimum keyword density for a set of key terms.
• Keyword Density Checker
  Keyword Density is the percentage of occurrence of your keywords to the text in the rest of your webpage. This tool will crawl the specified URL, extract text as a search engine would, remove common stop words and Analyze the density of the keywords.
• Keyword Difficulty Tool
  The keyword difficulty tool is used to analyze the competitive landscape of a particular search term or phrase, this tool issues a percentage score and provides a detailed analysis of the top ranking sites at Google and Yahoo…
• KwMap.net
  A Keyword Map For the Whole Internet
• Keyword Suggestion Tool
  This keyword suggestion tool will help you with the choosing of the right keywords for your website. You can see which keyword combinations are more popular and also get ideas for more keyword combinations..
• Website Keyword Suggestions
  This tools tries to determine the theme of your website and provides keyword suggestions along with keyword traffic estimates.
• Ontology Finder
  Related Keywords Lookup Tool

Link Popularity Check, Site Link Analyzer, Link Value…

• Deep Link Ratio Tool
  This tool was created to analyze how the deep link ratio of a site affects its rank in search engines. We can use this tool to compare the DLRs for the best ranking sites for a search phrase.
• Link Popularity Check
  Link popularity check is one of the best ways to quantifiably and independently measure your website’s online awareness and overall visibility…
• Link Popularity Checker
  The Link Popularity Checker tells you how many websites are linking to yours…
• LINK VALIDATION SPIDER
  Free Online Broken Link Checker
• Link Price Calculator
  This tools will help you determine the approximate amount you should be paying (or charging) per month for a text link (ad) from each and every page of the specified website
• Link Value
  This tool calculates the link value per month of a given website.
• Reciprocal Link Check
  This tool helps you ensure that your link partners are linking back to your website. It also determines the anchor text used by your link partners to link to your website.
• Site Link Analyzer
  This tool will analyze a given web page and return a table of data containing columns of outbound links and their associated anchor text…
• The Link Reputation Measurement Tool
  Reveals backlinks pointing to your target url along with the following: Link Survey – Link Reputation Score – Text used in links pointing to you – Alexa traffic analysis for the site corresponding to each backlink
• Outbound Links
  This tool shows every outgoing link from the given domain. Separated in external and internal links

Meta Tag Generators

• Meta Tag Generator
  Our Meta Tag Generator will read the page you specify, remove common words from it, and pick the most used words on the page. It will then generate a Meta Keywords tag using the words it has found…
• Meta Tag Generator
  Use this tool to generate a search engine friendly Head Tag for your web site
• Title & Meta Tags Generator
  his code generator will build the title and meta tags for your site to help improve your website’s search engine ranking using our Meta Tag Generator

Miscellaneous Tools

• Directory Submission Manager
  Use this free tool to track your submissions to various web directories….
• Copyscape
  Search for copies of your page on the Web
• Site Analysis including Link Popularity
  This tool generates a complete site analysis e.g. amount of backlinks, indexed sites, Google PageRank and also if your domain is listed in DMOZ and Yahoo directory
• Sitemap Generator
  Create your Google Sitemap Online
• Similar Page Checker
  Search Engines are known to penalize websites that contain Duplicate / Similar content. Your content could be similar to other websites on the Internet, or pages from within your own website could be similar to each other. This tool allows you to determine the percentage of similarity between two pages
• Speedtester
  This tool shows the duration of a given website. This value can be used for showing how long a website take to load and if it is better to optimize the website or change a (slow) ISP.
• mod_rewrite RewriteRule Generator
  Our mod_rewrite RewriteRule generator will take a dynamic url given to it, and generate the correct syntax to place in a .htaccess file to allow the url to be rewritten in a spiderable format
• URL Rewrite (mod_rewrite)
  With this tool you can generate dynamic urls to search engine friendly urls..
• URL Rewriting Tool
  Create Search Engine Friendly URLs
• User Agent Cloaking Detector
  This tool simulates the Googlebot (based on User-Agent) to detect cloaked content
• What is Hosted on that IP
  This little tool lets you view the virtual hosts on a particular IP

Search Engine Position Checker, Spider Simulator, Ranking Report, SERP Tracker

• Google vs Yahoo Graph
  This tool looks at the results from Yahoo and Google, finds the similarities and then gives you a graphical display of what results are in both search engines
• Search Engine Position Checker
  The Search Engine Position Checker tool will automatically query the search engines you specify and check if your URL appears in the first 50 results for your chosen keywords….
• Search Engine Spider Simulator
  With this tool you see all informations a search engine spider receive from a website.
• Marketleap Search Engine Verification Tool
  Our verification tool checks to see if your site is in the top three pages of a search engine result for a specific keyword
• Number of pages indexed
  This tool will generate a report showing how many pages of your website has been indexed by the search engines so far. It supports all major search engines: Google, Yahoo, MSN, Alltheweb, Hotbot and AltaVista.
• Search Engine Ranking Report
  Input key phrase list get Google rankings
• Serps Position
  Use this tool to find out, on which position your domain is ranked for the given keyword and compare the first 100 results by Google, search.MSN and Yahoo.
• SERP Tracker
  The SERP Tracker reports on search engine results and charts performance over time

SEO Analyzer, Scanner

• Free SEO Tools
  SEOToolSet
• Cool SEO Tool!
  This internet marketing tool checks the top 10 sites that rank in Google. After that, it checks to see how those 10 sites rank in Yahoo and in MSN….
• SEO Analyzer
  The SEO Analyzer is a FREE tool that uses a sophisticated algorithm that detects how optimized your web design is for search engines
• SEO Scanner
  An all-in-one advanced SEO analysis, tracking, and reporting tool
• Siteopsys
  Another An all-in-one advanced SEO analysis, tracking, and reporting tool

Robots.txt Tools

• Robots Txt Generator
  Use this tool to generate a simple robots file for your website…
• Robots.txt syntax checker
  This robots.txt syntax checker checks the contents of a site’s robots.txt…

1. Use a Reset Stylesheet

Different browsers are free to set default styles for font sizes, margins, and so forth. It’s a silly part of the specification but there you go. Rather than trying to eliminate these differences on a case-by-case basis, many web developers now make use of a reset stylesheet to set all margins to zero, remove all borders, standardize all font sizes, and so forth.

There’s dispute over which particular features need to be reset; but to be honest having any one of them is going to be better than none. Here’s a few examples:

• Eric Meyer
• Yahoo!
• Crucial

2. Use a Browser Development Plug-In

When you’re learning it’s useful to be able to visualise “invisible” parts of your web-page – margins, padding, parent positions, and so forth. Unless you fancy setting debugging background and border styles, or guessing why your functions stop half-way through, I’d recommend getting a web development plug-in for your browser.

Most plug-ins will let you dig trough your DOM, debug JavaScript functions, and provide statistics about document load times.

• Firebug – plug-in for Firefox. This is an absolutely fantastic and invaluable tool for web development.
• Yahoo!’s YSlow – plug-in for the Firebug plug-in. Analyzes web pages and tells you why they’re slow.
• Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar – plug-in for Internet Explorer. It feels like it was written in an afternoon by someone who had no idea what web development involves, but there isn’t really any alternative for IE.

3. Learn JavaScript

Learning JavaScript is still a work-in-progress for me. When I started web design I assumed (please note that word “assumed”!) that JavaScript was a toy language, suitable only for pointless browser effects. Boy was I wrong!

JavaScript, especially with the rise of AJAX, is becoming less an optional add-on, and more and more a vital part of modern web applications. It’s an elegant language, possibly let down by poor IDE support, and used correctly, will let you jump your browser through hoops. Imaging Google Maps or Yahoo! Pipes without it.

4. Pick a JavaScript Framework, and Learn It

Learning JavaScript is all well and good, but once you start trying to use it in anger you soon learn that each browser has a subtly different DOM API (or not so subtly different in the case of Internet Explorer).

You could re-invent the wheel and spend ages handling these different edge cases, or, I’d suggest, you could learn a framework and let it do all the heavy lifting.

Not convinced? How about this jQuery code to stripe table rows (details omitted for clarity):

$(function() {
  $('.stripe tr:even').addClass('alt');
});

(Yes I know in theory you should be able to do that in CSS. As always, Internet Explorer raises its middle finger to CSS theory).

Here’s a few links to some major frameworks:

• jQuery
• MooTools
• Prototype
• YUI
• script.aculo.us

5. Learn Photoshop

Ahhh, Photoshop. If you’ve only used simple paint programs before, using Photoshop is like emerging from a cave into the sunlight. (OK, that’s a bit of an exageration).

Traditional paint applications work on the basis that you want to change the color of pixels. Photoshop (at least for web design) works on the basis that you define regions, which are then styled. Pixels are assigned colors as a side-effect. The rules are:

• Layers are king;
• Selections are queen;
• Nothing should ever be destroyed or lost.

So as a little example, if something needs a drop-shadow, you don’t start trying to draw one. (That would destroy or change the original thing). You simply make sure the thing is in its own layer, and apply a drop-shadow style.

6. Use Semantic HTML – And No Cutting Corners

Web design usually starts with graphic design, but really it should start with the content and proceed from there. If you start with the visuals, it’s all too easy to fixate on why things don’t look right, and from there it’s slippery slope to using non-semantic elements and inline styles.

Start with the content; use appropriate elements without regard for style; and only once you’ve done that should you move on to writing an appropriate stylesheet. (Of course, you may sometimes need to add stylistic divs… although you’d be better off using JavaScript to modify the DOM, rather than modifying the source itself).

A corollary of this point is that tables should only be used for tabular data – there’s no usual need to use them for layout.

7. Find Out Why It Doesn’t Work – Don’t Shotgun-Debug

The HTML/CSS visual model is pretty complex: inline vs block elements; different position modes; and so forth. What makes matters worse is that there’s no definitive reference HTML renderer implementation: you can never be sure whether your page doesn’t look right because you’ve made a mistake, or whether it’s some browser bug.

This state of affairs can lead to shotgun-debugging: tweaking a value to see if it fixes the problem; tweaking another value and checking again; and so on and so on…

Obviously this way of learning isn’t ideal. If you ever want to learn, I’ve found that you need to be predicting the effects of your changes. Before you make a change, you should have an idea in your head of the expected effect. If the actual effect isn’t the intended effect, you need to find out why. Is your understanding of HTML/CSS wrong, or is it a browser bug? Test on more browsers, and if your understanding is wrong, correct it. (Of course, if it’s a browser bug, then you’ve learnt something afterall).

8. Test on Internet Explorer Earlier

You might have noticed from my snide comments about Internet Explorer that it’s not exactly my favorite browser. If I’m going to be fair, IE7 isn’t too bad, and IE8 promises to actually be standards compliant (gasp!). What bugs me is that (at the time of writing) about 30% of the world is still using an eight-year-old browser that doesn’t even get the basics of the HTML box model correct, and we web developers are expected to support it.

Anyway… I didn’t intend this paragraph to be a rant, so deep breath… and… we have to live with the situation as it is. Firefox has great standards compliance and great developer tools, so it’s tempting to use it as your primary development platform until right at the end, when you do cross-browser testing.

Don’t do this. I’ve learnt the hard way: you need to test your work at each stage, on all browsers. Even as recently as six months ago I was caught out by this: I spent a lot of time coding some web code that relied on z-indexing, only to discover that IE7 doesn’t support this feature fully. In the end I was able to bludgeon Internet Explorer into working properly with some JavaScript, but it wasn’t fun. Lesson learned: check each feature is going to work properly on IE before coding it completely.

9. Don’t Be Afraid of AJAX

Normal web-pages are pretty easy to understand. The browser makes a request; the web server sends back some HTML. AJAX is a little more difficult to understand, so I steered clear of it for two years.

I finally got stuck in when we started writing EasyAs123Web.com. I wanted the user to be able to edit the website in-place, so that forced the issue.

When you get down to it, AJAX is pretty simple.

1. User does something (eg clicks) in the browser;
2. JavaScript makes request to server (in a thread);
3. Server replies with an XML document describing what to do;
4. JavaScript received the reply and modifies the DOM based on that XML.

Of course, the devil is in the details, but a decent AJAX library hides most of that for you.

10. Charge For Old Browser Support

Asking a client if they need Internet Explorer 6 (or earlier) support is a recipe for extra work. They’re hardly going to say no when you phrase it like that. You then sit down and make a working website, and test it in IE6. Argh! Scrambled website! Eventually, you get it working, and you find that you’ve spent twice as long on the actual HTML/CSS as you planned to. Bad times.

Here’s my suggestion: treat older browser support the same as any other feature: as a chargeable item. Explain to the client that since older browsers work in a different way to modern ones (which they do), that’s extra work and hence extra cost. (I’d suggest approximately 10% on top). Explain that IE6 has approximately 25-30% market share, and let them make the cost/benefit call. Money has an amazing focusing effect: it forces people to really think about what they want and need.

1. ieCapture
a free tool for getting screen shots from websites in Internet Explorer. It’s very simple, just enter a URL and in a moment your screen shot will appear.

2. IE Tester from debugBar
this is  a free web browser that allows you to have the rendering and JavaScript engines of IE8 beta 2, IE7 IE 6 and IE5.5 on Vista and XP, as well as the installed IE in the same process.

3. Litmus

provides testing on all major browsers and also produces bug reporting to help you identify and correct any errors. Once the testing is complete you can produce a compatibility report to share with clients. In addition to website testing, Litmus also offers testing of HTML emails in all major email clients, and also runs your messages through spam filters and identifies any problems so you can get more of your messages read.

There is a limited version of Litmus available for free. Additionally, there is a day pass with full access (minus spam analysis) for $24, an individual subscription for $49 per month, or a team subscription for $199 per month.

4. BrowserCam
provides several different services for browser testing. There is a browser capture option that will give you screen shots from any browser and any operating system. There is also a device capture option for working with Blackberry and PDAs. The Remote Access service will test JavaScript DHTML, forms and other dynamic functionality on any platform.

BroswerCam is a paid service with options for daily, monthly, or yearly. They also offer a free trial that will allow you to test the screen capture service by getting up to 200 screen captures within the 24-hour trial.

5. Browsershots
a popular free service that will provide screen shots of a page from just about any browser from all of the common operating systems. All you have to do is enter your URL and select the browsers and operating systems that you want to test. Browsershots will then enter your information into the queue, and in a few minutes you should have the screen shots.

There is a paid option that will give you priority over the free requests. When the service is busy it can take a while to get the free screen shots, but you can pay $15 per month for priority processing.

6. iPhoney
a free iPhone web simulator for designers. To use iPhoney you’ll have to download the program, but there is no cost.

7. IE NetRenderer
free tool that’s great for testing websites in Internet Explorer, typically the most troublesome browser. With IE NetRenderer all you have to do is choose a version of IE and enter the URL that you want to test, and you’ll instantly get a screen shot of the page being tested.

8. Brower Photo
a paid service from NetMechanic that will allow you to test different versions of Internet Explorer, Opera, Firefox and Safari on Windows, Mac and Linux. You can test on various screen resolutions as well.

Browser Photo has a nice print-friendly feature that will help you to show clients or bosses how you’ve test the site and how it appears on different browsers. You can get Browser Photo for $15 for one-time use, or $150 per domain per year for unlimited use

9. CrossBrowserTesting.com
allow you to test your website, including AJAX and JavaScript. The service is free for less than 5 minutes per session, or you can buy credits for additional minutes. There are no monthly subscription fees, just pay for what you use.

10. BrowserCamp
allows you to test the compatibility of your design with Mac OS X browsers. You can quickly enter the URL that you want to test and get a full length screen shot at several different screen widths. Additionally, for full testing you can pay $3 for a two-day subscription, or $99 for a one-year subscription, with a few options in between.