When you first start out running a new business, there are a lot of resources you may find yourself paying for; registering a domain name, software packages etc.
We can’t help you save money with any of those, BUT we have collated a range of resources that we’ve found helpful in keeping the initial costs of starting an online business to a minimum.
Documents and Product Creation:
OpenOffice – Edit your PLR ebooks, or create your own from scratch, and convert them into PDF, all for free.
PDF to Word Converter – Easily create editable Word Doc files from PDF content – for legit purposes only!
CopyScape – plagiarism checker
7 Zip – An open source, free alternative to WinZip for compressing and expanding large files and folders of files.
Audacity – An open source software used for recording & editing audio files.
CamStudio –Â Lets you record all screen & audio activity on your computer and create video files.
VLC Media Player –Â Media player capable of reading most audio and video formats and can also do screen recordings.
OBS –Â Free and open source software for video recording and live streaming.
Evernote – Scan your notes, receipts, etc … it will OCR the content, save it, and make it searchable.
Business and Product Name Generator – Can’t think of a name for your latest product? This will help!
Smart Mockups – Create product screenshots with just a few clicks
Placeit Mockup Creator – Create product mockups with your designs
PDF to PNG – Turn your PDF document into multiple image files to use for mockups, product galleries etc.
FontSpace – free downloads of legally licensed fonts that are perfect for your design projects, and even create your own font.
CreativeFabrica – massive repository of graphics, fonts, KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) files, mockups, Adobe Lightroom presets, photograph overlays. This is a subscription site, but if you sign up for their email newsletter, you are sent freebies every day.
Websites:
Google Keyword Planner – find keywords to rank for and that your customers are searching for in Google
WordPress – very popular website building platform, completely free to use, with lots of free or low-cost add-ons (known as plugins) to extend the functionality
GPLDL –Â repository of hundreds of premium WordPress plugins and themes, licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
FileZilla – Free FTP software for Mac or PC. Transfer your website files to your web host easily.
KompoZer – Free web page editing software
Coolers – For branding colours and palettes
Color Palette Generator – For creating branding colours and palettes
BrowserShots – Use this site to view how your website looks in various browsers.
Down For Everyone –Â Is your site down? Use this tool to see if your website is down for other people
Color Cop –Â A multi-purpose colour picker – great for web designers and programmers.
DupeFree –Â Quickly check for duplicate content & LSI keywords.
NicheBot Classic –Â Online keyword research tool helps you target the correct keywords.
OSWD –Â Open Source Web Design offers free web design templates.
Pixie –Â Great for web designers – just point to a colour and discover the code value for that colour.
Notepad ++ – Great little text editor that makes editing website files such as .html, .php and .css files easier
Pingdom – Website speed test for monitoring your website
Website Planet – Multiple website-useful tools such as checking if yours, or any other, site is down, QR code generator, and more!
Social Media and Marketing:
Hashtags.org – Organising the world’s hashtags
Buffer.com – Buffer makes it easy to manage your business’s social media accounts
Ritetags.com – Get instant hashtag suggestions for images and text
sumall.com – helps you grow your business by automating all your social media and marketing needs.
Co-Schedule Social Message Optimiser – Analyse and optimise your social media messaging.
Graphics Editing:
GIMP – Free alternative to Photoshop to edit your graphics.
Canva – Free online graphics design software
Colour Designer Gradient Generator – Choose colours, choose the number of steps between, and this free tool generates the required number of colours between the two chosen to create a gradient effect
Pixlr.com – Free online image editor, similar to Photoshop
Wordart – Create shapes and graphics using words of your choice
ribbet.com – Free online photo editing
Graphics Sources:
sitebuilderreport.com/stock-up
coverr.co – Free Stock Video Footage
DISCLAIMER; If you are going to start editing images that you find on the internet, then you must use creative commons licence images that are in the public domain. If you start using other people’s images that are under licence, you risk being sued. We accept no responsibility for the consequences of your actions.
For more done-for-you graphics at a low price, check out our Graphics Membership Club and Graphics Treasure Chest!Â
Communication:
Skype – Free calling software for conducting one-to-one consultations or group calls