After a recent upgrade of Firefox, one of my favorite plugins, LeechBlock, stopped working. So I went in search of a new control system that would help me think twice before I surfed my day away. I’m now in love with K9 Web Protection, a free internet filtering service. Sure, it’s made for parents to protect their kids, but as …
chartbeat: Real-time website analytics
I first discovered chartbeat when Ashton Kutcher and CNN were competing to be the first Twitter account with one million followers. Chartbeat showed the race live, and I was hooked. For about 10 bucks a month, you can monitor the traffic on up to 5 websites in real time. I mean really real. It shows how many people are visiting, …
SurveyMonkey.com: Cheap and easy web surveys
No less than three Cheapskate Freelancer readers recommended SurveyMonkey as “worth the money” in the June Giveaway (don’t miss this month’s giveaway — register now!). SurveyMonkey lets you design surveys easily using more than a dozen question types. I’ve created simple forms for feedback from my clients as well as elaborate surveys with custom skip logic, graphic and customized filters. …
Mozy.com: Free backup software
Two Cheapskate Freelancer readers recommend MozyHome Free, which gives you 2GB of storage online at absolutely no charge. You simply set up your account, download the software, and Mozy will backup your files when you’re online. I’m actually a former (but pleased) Mozy.com subscriber at the $4.95/month level, where you get unlimited storage. When I bought a new computer, I …
Print Friendly: Make a Print Friendly Version of any Web Page
I love, love, love things that make you more productive and help the environment. Print Friendly takes any web page and reformats it for printing, making sure you don’t waste pages when the text runs off the page. You can also easily remove pictures for printing or save as a PDF. Print Friendly: Make a Print Friendly Version of any …
Identifont: Identify a mystery font online
This free tool is wonderful when you see a font you like but don’t know the name. Identifont has a step-by-step wizard that takes you through a series of questions about the font, such as where the squiggle goes on the capital “Q.” It’ll even help if you have only a few letters to work with (like a flier headline). Another …
FaxZero: Free Internet Faxing
A couple of weeks ago, I needed to fax an order form. I haven’t configured my computer to send faxes and my fax machine isn’t set up either. So I searched for a free tool to help. I was so happy when I discovered FaxZero. What a cool thing. You upload a document or PDF to fax to anyone for …
Down for everyone or just me?: Check website status
Ever have that horrible feeling when you go to your site and it’s down? HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN LIKE THIS? HOW BAD IS IT? I just had a problem with one of my client’s sites, at the exact second I was showing it to him. Ugh! I ran to the hosting site and opened a trouble ticket. Turns out, …
Sketch My Photo: Convert photos to beautiful pencil sketches
Wow! Sketch My Photo is the best tool I’ve seen for converting a photo into a pencil sketch. It’s worlds better than applying filters in your regular photo editor (ever try a neon filter? What the heck is that?) I uploaded my Twitter avatar, and Sketch My Photo came up with this perfect rendition. Saving your photo in a pretty …
Posterous: Can blogging get any easier?
This free tool falls smack dab into the “If Only I Had Known” category. It’s an instant “Beth Favorite.” Posterous is the easiest blogging tool I’ve ever seen. You simply email post@posterous.com, and they post what you’ve emailed. You can then claim a site of your own and keep posting to it. It even adds your pictures, videos, documents… anything …
hidetext.net: Turn your email into a graphic
Spammers sweep websites to collect email addresses, so many people resort to formatting their contact info as something like: bziesenis (at) avenuez (dot) net Other clever people create graphics out of their text so they can’t be swept. Ta dah! Hidetext.net does it for you! Just type in your email address or any other text, and Hidetext converts it to …
Screencast.com: Your own online library
Because Screencast.com is integrated into my Jing account, I sometimes forget that it’s a great tool on its own. Screencast.com lets you upload and share documents, Jing captures, video files, etc. into a library of your own. I just created a “playlist” that contained 4 important files for a client, sending him a link to the list instead of 4 …
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