I stumbled across this article, Surprising Things You Can Get for Free (or Almost), in Women's Day Magazine (WDM) and was glad I did. The article was full of really useful online freebies, from free business cards to free classes to free computer help! The author is also a skeptic and made sure to explain why these offers are not too good to be true. I will be taking full advantage of these free online offers.
Here's a summary of the freebies-hope you find these helpful:
1. Business Cards Go to Vistaprint.com for 250 free business cards. You can choose from 42 designs with preset fonts and colors. Any changes will cost $9.99+ and to omit the Vista logo on the back of your card is an added $5.99. Before checking out, they'll try to sell you on about 10 pages of extras-decals, t-shirts, magnets, before taking you to the checkout where my shipping costs for 250 free cards was $5.45WDM also warned that you can expect to hear pretty frequently from Vistaprint once they get a hold of your contact information. Still was worth it for me and I found the perfect design for my sister-in-laws daycare business.
2. Expert Computer Help Go to protonic.com for free online computer help. Simply register to the site and then you'll be able to ask a community of computer support technicians your question.
3. Foreign Language Lessons The BBC offers free classes to learn the basics of Spanish, French, German, Italian, Greek, Chinese and Portuguese. For example, the beginning Spanish course, Spanish Steps, is 12 week interactive course that introduces you to the spoken Spanish language using games, videos and explanations all online and all free. Great if you are planning a trip abroad.
4. Business Classes Sign up for free business classes at SBA.gov, each are about 30 minutes and free and cover a range of topics: Retirement Planning, Accounting 101, How to Prepare a Business Plan.....
5. Credit Report At AnnualCreditReport.com you can get a free credit report. By law you are entitled to 1 free credit report each year. Be careful when you click through to make sure you are getting the free credit report!
6. Wi-Fi Hot SpotsThis is awesome! A directory of locations that offer free Wi-Fi. Got to WiFiFreeSpot.com and then select your state and then scroll down to see where there is free Wi-Fi offered in your town. Even my small town had some listings.
7. Time Management Organizer Check out Remember the Milk to create your own online time management reminders. You can choose to reminded by email, SMS, IM etc and can include reminders of locations to really map out your day.
8. Silver JewelrySilver Jewelry Club offers free silver jewelry and just charges the cost of shipping.
9. Online Checking AccountING Direct now has an online checking account, Electric Orange, that is paperless and completely free and with a modest interest rate of 0.49%.
11. Sheet MusicThe Mutopia Project offers free access to over 1500 sheet music editions of classical music.
12. Radio Service I first heard about Pandora on Tiphero.com. It's great, you can create free music stations based on your favorite songs and artists. Related Tip:Listen to Your Favorite Artists for Free w/Pandora
14. Photo Organizer Yet another free google product, Picasa this one keeps all your online photos organized.
15. Spam Filter Try spamato.net and download their free spam filter to help keep you inbox spam-free.
16. Directory Assistance Call 800-FREE-411 for free directory assistance, after listening to a brief ad first. Or skip the advertising and use Google's 411 service: Free Phone Information Google 411
17. Family Calendar Keeping dates straight with my family is like a game of operator, you are never sure who you told and when each event is, if only my family were all online this would be the answer -- an online family calendar merge to keep all your families events and trips straight: Famundo.com is free unless you want to upgrade to a fancier version.
