I stumbled upon (and I'm not talking about the site) on this free ebook that offers the ultimate collection of free and paid Internet Marketing tools and WordPress plugins.
Even though this blog is to review Social Media sites and apps, I think this ebook offers a lot of value for my Social Media friends. A lot of tools mentioned here are not only used for Internet Marketing but also for blogging, social networks, graphic design, and so many other things that I thought not offering this ebook on my blog would be a disservice to you all.
The ebook is called "The Ultimate Toolkit for Internet Marketers" and it's composed of 37 free tools, 23 paid tools, and 30 top WordPress Plugins. The author Peter Downs really did a great job and compiling this ebook.
You can download the ebook and thank me later :O)
Do you have any resources you would like to share with us? Share them in the comment section below.
In this day and age there are so many programs available for free that it's just not necessary to spend any money. In this post I'm giving you some alternatives to PhotoShop, MsOffice, and Antivirus/Security programs that will be of great benefit.
Two free alternatives to MsOffice Suite OpenOffice - This suite has applications that look very similar to MsOffice. They have Writer (Word), Impress (PowerPoint), Math (Excel), and Base (Access).
The best part is that you can even save your documents as MsOffice documents so anyone with MsOffice can open and work on the documents. It's a very easy suite to learn if you know MsOffice because even the menus look similar.
Just like MsOffice, OpenOffice has templates available within the applications and also has more available online for you to download for free.
Google Docs - Is a free suite that has also similar types of documents as MsOffice as well.
This suite is available by logging into your online Google account and any documents you create are saved online. The great thing about Google Docs is that you also have the option to save the documents on your PC as either as PDF, PPT, Doc, XLS and other types. Just like MsOffice, Google Docs has over 400 templates available for you to use.
You can also manage your documents through facebook by adding the Google Docs application. If the login credentials are the same for facebook and Google when you add the application it will automatically interface with your Google Docs account.
Another great feature Google Docs is the share feature. You can share your documents with others and allow them to edit the documents.
Since this is an online application you also have the advantage of being able to organize your documents by folders just like in your e-mail inbox.
Check out Google Docs in Plain English video.
Two free alternatives to PhotoShop
PhotoShop is a great application for those that really need to edit images and photos. For the average person that only needs to do some minor changes and effects to their photos or graphics there are other solutions that work very well and that are free.
Picnik - This is a great online photo and graphic editor. They have a free version and also a paid version ($24.95 a year) but trust me, the free version is enough.
With Picnik you can crop, resize, rotate, apply special effects, fine-tune your results and all of this is working from on your browser, there is nothing to download.
You can select photos available either on your PC or available on any of your accounts in MySpace, flickr, facebook, photobucket, Picasa, Webshots, and Webs.
Everything is saved to your online Library, but you also have the option to save it on your PC as well or to share it on other sites such as Twitter, facebook, flickr, etc...
Picnik is available as an application on facebook and you can manage both your online account photos and your facebook photos. Just remember to Sign in if you need to access your online photos.
SplashUp - is another great alternative to PhotoShop and it's probably the one that has the most common features as well. SplashUp is another online editor with a twist. Sign up for a free account but don't be discouraged by the tools showcased on the home page, that's nothing.
When you click on Jump Right In on the Home page, a new window pops up with the editor which looks very similar to it's contender.
The nifty online editor has multiple image editing, pixel-level control and layers. You can work on images located on your PC or on facebook, Picasa, flickr, SmugMug, photobucket or display an image by URL. You can also save your images on these sites as well.
Three Free Alternatives for Antivirus/Security Software
There are several free alternatives available that work just as good as any paid Antivirus and Security software.
The following two were recommended by Consumer Reports as Best Buys even though they are free :O)
Avira AntiVir Personal - This software includes AntiSpam, AntiSpyware, Firewall, EMail protection and Parental control.
Microsoft Windows Defender - This software protects your PC against pop-ups, slow performance and security threats caused by spyware and other potentially unwanted software. This comes automatically with Windows Vista and it's also compatible to Windows XP.
Avast Home Edition - Great full AntiVirus software. The only thing some people may not like is that when you initially register the software you receive a license key only good for 60 days and then you need to register again to get license key good for 1 year, and you must register annually after that. But hey the software is free!
Some recommendations for finding free software:
Before you buy any software search on sites like download.com, tucows.com, and Freeware Files. You can also do a search on Google for example, search for free antivirus software. Chances are you will find a free version of it.
After you find names of free software, search for reviews on it. Even though it's free you don't want to use something that doesn't work, right?
Am I the only one that thinks everything that Google develops is awesome? I'm not saying this because I really want to work there (my dream job), it's just that I really think they know what they are doing.
Not only are they developing great products but they make them available to the public for free, what a concept? Another great thing about their products is the ease of use. You can pretty much figure out their more complex products in a couple of hours and that's with some bells and whistles. OK, I know. Enough about the company let me tell you what my top 10 favorite products are.
Google Search - What can't you find using their search engine? You can also create your own custom search tailored to your needs.
Blogger - This is my favorite blogging service because of the ease of use and it's not restrictive. You can customize pretty much anything and add almost anything to your blog, actually I have yet to find a restriction.
Google Analytics - Great way of tracking your site's hits, referring sites, keyword search and visitors in general.
Google Docs - No more spending hundreds of dollars on Ms Office for your home computers, do I need to say more?
Google Alerts - If you're researching a subject this is the best tool you can use to receive the latest updates on that subject.
Google Sites - excellent collaboration application and I specially like they way it connects you to other coworkers by your e-mail domain.
Google Video - A lot of video sharing sites add ads to your video so the fact that Google doesn't is a big plus.
Google Earth - Wow, just by being able to see your house is pretty incredible.
Google Notebook - Let's you take notes and save them while you search the Internet.
Google Labs - You can play with their prototypes and send your feedback to Google. I just noticed they have a new one called Lively by Google - Hangout and chat in 3D, I must check that out.
I know the title of my article is the top 10 favorites but I think these four other products should be mentioned.
YouTube - OK, this wasn't developed by Google but they have added a lot of features to it after they purchased it.
GOOG-411 - no more paying the telephone company for each 411 call when you can get it for free from Google.
Google Health - You can organize and gather your medical records in one place. You can have doctors and hospitals link their records with your account, how cool is that?
And their newest release Knol - This one is similar to Wikipedia in the sense that anyone can add information, the difference is that the author gets recognition for the article. A Knol is an article you write on a specific topic and as the writer you are tagged as the author. The other great feature is that the author can manage how the collaboration is handled, is it moderated or not?
There are so many other Google products that I don't mention here, it's not because they are not great products, these are just my top 10 favorites.
I was reading an article the other day and it mentioned this tool called "Yakitome" which is a Beta version and it triggered my curiosity. What the tool does is that it converts your text into a PodCast which you can embed in your websites. You have the option to create your PodCast in English (US) or (UK), Spanish, French, or German language and female or male voice. You also have the option to select the file output from wav or MP3. The idea of the tool is very clever but I just have one issue with it, the voices sound too creepy. I think they should give you the option to add your own voice like Voki does. The robot sounding voice just doesn't cut it.
The Yakimote website also performs very slow but again this is a Beta version. Hopefully when they launch the full version they will make some modifications because this could be a great tool for educators. Just imagine being able to paste your lecture, notes, or syllabus into this website and having an instant PodCast available for your students, that would be really cool.
A similar PodCast version of this post was created with Yakitome, click Another tool for PodCasting to listen to it.
