FREE Online Tools You Can’t Live Without
by: Ernest Saco
Everything is online. Our friends, our family, our business, our entertainment, everything! And if you’re anything like me, you find yourself having to do a lot of the same things over an over manually and often times don’t think about all the time it takes. Well I’m here to uncover a handful of really great FREE tools that you can use to make your life behind your computer screen easier.
1. Jing
Jing is an awesome tool that makes taking screenshots incredibly easy and flexible. In the past, if there was something on a page I wanted to capture I would have to take a screenshot of the whole screen, then upload it into paint, adjust the attributes, blah blah blah. With Jing, that’s not longer an issue! You can literally screenshot as much, or as little of a space on your page as you want! You can even create short screencast videos, add arrows pointing at areas of the screenshot and even add text. It is a HUGE time saver!
2. Canva
If you’re on social media, you NEED Canva! Canva is an amazing tool that allows you to create beautiful designs for web or print. Everything from social media post images, to book covers, to advertising. The process is incredibly simple and most images are completely free!
3. Google Keyword Planner
Trying to figure out what the world is searching for? Google Keyword Planner is where you want to be. This incredible tool will help you identify what people are searching for on Google. If you can identify these key words or phrases, you can create your content around the searches and potentially rank organically! That means more traffic for free!
4. Buffer
This smartphone app allows you to schedule your social media posts. That’s right! You no longer have to manually posts to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. With the free version of this app you can have your posts scheduled months in advance at specified days and times. This can be especially powerful when wanting to stay in front of your following, without having to be on your phone constantly. And of course, it’s free!
5. IF
Yes, IF. This convenient smartphone application is one of my all time favorites. This app will literally let you sync up what seems like hundreds of different applications on your phone. You can create what’s called “Recipes” and tell IF what to do when xyz happens. For example “IF I post to Instagram, THEN automatically share that photo on Facebook” or “IF it is raining outside, THEN send me a text to bring an umbrella.” These are just 2 examples of thousands of possibilities! This app is a MUST HAVE!
6. Google Analytics
If you have a website, you need Google Analytics. This free tool will allow you to see how much traffic you’re getting to your site, the demographic of your traffic, their age, location, interests, etc. Knowing this provides great insight as to what’s going on with your online presence and where to improve. If you have a gmail account, go sign up now!
Stop doing things manually, go get these tools now and enjoy the time and effort you’ll be saving!