10 Free Products to Boost Your Business

Posted on April 29, 2008
Filed Under Uncategorized |

Every business could use a little extra help, right?  Take advantage of the many free business boosting tools available.  They don’t take any cash out of your budget and the profits from using them can be fantastic. 

Every business could use a little extra help, right?  Take advantage of the many free business boosting tools available.  They don’t take any cash out of your budget and the profits from using them can be fantastic. 

1. Vistaprint.com offers free business cards. While a business card isn’t going to be the core of a marketing strategy, they’re certainly important to have on hand and free business cards are a great resource.  VistaPrint enables first time customers to design their cards, upload logos, or choose from a wide variety of templates. 

2. Free invoicing services FreshBooks.com offers free invoicing.  Depending on the number of invoices you send each month, packages can be upgraded and are still very reasonably priced.  FreshBooks enables users to customize their invoices visually so that branding is consistent and it makes hiring a virtual bookkeeper easy, which is a valuable time saver for any internet business owner. 

3. http://www.zen-cart.com/  Free shopping cart software.  Shopping cart software can be one of the most expensive aspects of running an online business.  Some cost upwards of $100 a month.  Free shopping cart software therefore is a real boon!  Zen cart is simple and straightforward and it integrates with PayPal to make payments easier. 

4. http://freeautobot.com/  Free autoresponder.  Autoresponders are an excellent way to communicate with customers on a regular basis and they’re a superior customer service tool.  They enable customers to know their messages have been received and give you time to respond accordingly.  Additionally, the virtue of autoresponders is the ability to schedule email messages.  This makes setting up an ecourse, newsletter, or occasional sales messages quick and easy. 

5. http://www.constantcontact.com/index.jsp/  Free email management (free 60 day trial low cost monthly subscriptions)  Newsletters are still a viable tool to not only get people to subscribe to opt in lists but to communicate with them and provide regular value in the form of free content.  However managing subscriptions, unsubscribes and changes in information can be a real headache.  That’s where email management services come in handy!

6. http://www.free-graphics.com/  Free clip art and graphics.  These are great for blog posts, postcard marketing, logos and more.

7. Free screen recording software  http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp  Creating a quick how to, demonstration, or tip video has never been easier than with Camtasia which is used by companies large and small ? yes it’s free but it’s also worth a million!

8. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/  Free recording software.  This software can be used to create audio recordings for an audio blog post or podcast. It can also be used to record interviews or to dictate for transcription.  Like Camtasia this product is another freebie worth a million.

9. Snag it.  Free screen capture software.  Need to show a screenshot for an e-book, report , or blog post?  Need to copy an image to use in your marketing?  Snagit can do it for you with the quick click of a few buttons.  Simple and easy to use.

10. Free blogging software.  Blogging is an excellent way to communicate with prospects and customers on a very personal level.  It enables interaction like no other medium and still gives companies the ability to provide valuable content.  Both Blogger.com and wordpress.com are free blogging software programs that offer a multitude of options. 

About the author

 

Joan Finholt is a retired teacher and loves using the internet. She is co-owner of Bound and Determined books and yes, the domain name spelling is correct.

http://www.boundanddetrmined.com/

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