If you don’t own Adobe Acrobat (standard full version starts at $299), working with PDFs can be painful. I’ve written before about PDFescape, my all-time favorite PDF tool, which allows you to add comments to PDFs, actually fill out forms (even if forms aren’t enabled) and lets you do some modest editing. With Adobe Reader’s new release, you can now …
PDFescape: The PDF editor I’ve been dreaming of!
Oh, I’m thrilled! I just found a PDF tool that allows you to add text, notes, form fields and more to existing PDFs. I’m often frustrated when my clients send me PDFs to edit because I have to do screenshots with Jing page by page. Don’t get me wrong — I adore Jing, but the process takes forever. But PDFescape …
Ninite: A super-cool way to download common free programs
Oh, I love free stuff, and I love people who make it easier to download free stuff. Visit the Ninite site, and check off the free applications you want on your computer, such as Firefox, Chrome, iTunes, Audacity, Skype, AVG, Adobe Reader, Gimp… The list is fantastic! (And it reminds me of all the great tools I still need to …
Elance: Freelance Database for Every Item on Your To Do List
Freelancers and small businesses from all around the world are waiting to help you on Elance. All you need to do to hire a pro is to create a project and put it out for bids. You can find providers who meet your needs and invite them specifically to bid on your projects, or you can wait and see who …
GIMP: Photoshop for free
No list of free and low-cost tools is complete without mentioning Gimp. Gimp is like a free version of Adobe Photoshop, complete with the whole gamut of tools I can’t figure out how to use. It’s downloadable and works in a whole bunch of platforms. I just read they now have a cool animation package as well. Again — all …
Search Engine Mania
UPDATED August 2018! This post comes straight from a longtime reader. Thanks for the list, Mark! A colleague just shared this list with me, and I thought this might be something to include on your list of free and low-cost tools. With so many ways to search the Internet now, you shouldn’t necessarily stop just because you don’t find what …
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 …
FastDue.com – Free Online Accounting with Contract Template Library
I’ve written before about Microsoft Office Accounting Express, which is an awesome free accounting tool (and a Beth Favorite) that works like QuickBooks, at least for amateurs like me. Someone sent me a link to FastDue, which is intriguing as well. It’s got the same kind of invoicing capabilities and also lets you accept PayPal. But the coolest thing is …
StumbleUpon: Discover new sites
I discovered StumbleUpon long, long before I discovered how it can send users to my site. Indeed — it was long before I actually had a site! This is the coolest time waster ever…. err, I mean the coolest way to discover new sites. You fill out a profile that describes the kinds of sites you’re interested in. I like …
Docstoc: Free legal forms and business templates
In today’s social media world, we’ve all come to rely on the kindness of strangers. That’s why docstoc works… people share copies of legal, business, tech and educational documents with the community, allowing other community members to download them for free. I did a quick search for an example business plan, and docstoc came back with thousands of documents. You …
Google Alerts: Track your web presence
Google has a host of fun tools that can help your business. I consider Google Alerts one of the most essential. With Google Alerts, you can track key words in the web world in news articles, blogs and other citations. I set them up for my last name, my company and key words related to my clients. Every mention is …
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