Im guessing youre pretty busy. Youve got a ton of stuff to get done everyday and you dont need to waste time doing monotonous and repetitive tasks. But you also are probably pretty cost conscious and dont have money to throw away on every piece of
software that you need. Thankfully, there are several fully-functional free software packages out there that can help you and
Your business save time and money.
OpenOffice
What it is: office suite that.compatible with all other major office suites
Where to find it:
openoffice.org/ How it helps you: Are you sick of paying $500 for each copy of Microsoft Office Professional? Well, the OpenOffice suite is .completely free alternative that includes a word processor, spreadsheet, database, and more. Each program ha.comparable features to its Microsoft counterpart and i.completel.compatible with Microsoft Office files. I regularly pass .DOC and .XLS files back and forth between the two and have never had a problem. An added bonus: OpenOffice Writer lets you save your documents as .PDF files. Good luck doing that with Microsoft Word without shelling out some more dough!
Mozilla Thunderbird
What it is: email client
Where to find it:
mozilla.com/thunderbird/ How it helps you: One program that OpenOffice doesnt offer a counterpart to is Outlook. Thunderbird is more like a souped up version of Outlook Express with hundreds of free extensions
addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/ that let you do anything from change the color scheme to translate your emails to Chinese.
FeedReader
What it is: desktop RSS and ATOM aggregator
Where to find it:
feedreader.com/ How it helps you: Configuring FeedReader can literally save you hours a day of flipping threw newspapers, websites, blogs, and newsletters for news. With FeedReader, all you need to do is subscribe to your favorite RSS feeds
rss-specifications.com/ and watch all of the new.come to you. I am able to scan hundreds of news sources in a matter of seconds to find the stories that I really need. Many sites put the entire story in the feed so you dont even need to open your browser to stay connected.
Web CEO
What it is: web promotion software that promotes, analyzes, and maintains your site
Where to find it:
webceo.com/ How it helps you: It saves me a TON of time. Web CEO helps you research your keywords for your SEO campaign, analyzes your pages and gives SEO suggestions, submits your sites to hundreds of search engines and directories, analyzes your link popularity, and checks your rankings in hundreds of search engines for your keywords. All for free! Web CEO also offers a Small Business and Pro Version too, but the free version should be enough unless you want to use Web CEO to do things like site maintenance and web analytics.
Skype
What it is: PC-to-PC phone calls
Where to find it:
skype.com/ How it helps you: most businesses have a client/partner/supplier that isnt a local call. Thats just the way that our Global Economy works these days. If you talk to them regularly, why not have them download a free copy of Skype and the two of you can talk all day long for nothing at all. Until the end of 2006, Skype is also offering free calls to any phone number in the US or Canada. You can also purchase a phone number and have the calls directed to your PC. I pay $40 a year for my business phone number through Skype for unlimited calls. How much do you pay?
FeedBurner
advanced reporting, but the free account should be plenty for most people.
All of that and it didnt cost you a penny!
Adam McFarland owns
iprioritize.com/ iPrioritize - the efficient way to get organized. iPrioritize is the next evolution of list making. We take your pen and paper list and turn it into a live list that can be edited at any time from any place in the world. We make it easy for you to email and print your list, subscribe to your list via RSS, share your list with others, and check your list on your mobile phone.
