ReadWriteBiz

For small and medium-sized businesses, there's no shortage of Web-based software out there designed to help them collaborate, market themselves and get things done. In fact, the selection can be a little overwhelming. This comparison chart on Wikipedia, for example, breaks down 132 project management software options for businesses. And that's just project management.

Recognizing that smaller operations seldom have the time or patience to sift through hundreds of options, serial entrepreneur Rachel Blankstein launched Comparz, a site that combines expert and user reviews for an variety of Web-based tools for SMBs.

Keeping up with every tech headline is hard enough for anybody, let alone busy professionals. To help, ReadWriteBiz rounds up the week's most important tech news and insights for small- and medium-sized businesses.

This week, Microsoft's search engine Bing launched a profile management portal for businesses much like Google and Yelp have offered for some time. The Bing Business Portal gives companies the ability to edit and enhance their business's listings on the site, as well as publish special offers and deals for customers.

While much of the focus in online marketing has been on social media over the last few years, there's still something to be said for the value of good, old fashioned email. Marketing via email can be highly effective, but smaller companies don't necessarily need all the bells and whistles offered by most email marketing service providers.

In an effort to attract more small business and nonprofit customers, email and social marketing platform iContact is now offering a free version of their service.

Despite the cries of email overload and email's demise, email marketing remains an important way for small businesses to stay in contact with customers. But crafting then formatting an email newsletter can be time-consuming, particularly if it involves having to learn how to use yet another online platform.

The microblogging site Posterous is known for making blogging as simple as sending an email, and now you can use that same service to transfer that blog content back into an email newsletter.