There’s PLENTY of pricey web software out there that will supposedly make it a breeze to do anything and everything you need to enable you to run your sites.
But what if you’re just starting out… or don’t want to splash all that cash just yet? These days there’s actually some great free alternatives…
You like free stuff, don’t you? Everybody like free stuff! So why throw money at developers for software when you can get programs that are just as good or better for nothing? As a business, you’ll need to spend money now and then, but don’t do it on stuff if you don’t need to!
Here are some of the freebies you can make use of when putting your online empire together:
FTP
For FTP, your best choice is FileZilla (http://filezilla-project.org)! The software itself boasts several features (besides the lack of a price!) like being user-friendly, cross-platform capabilities, remote file searching, and file name filters. Just download the software (you want the CLIENT software) and you’re good to go. The FileZilla Client is for all operating systems, but the server is only for Windows, for some reason.
Another good free choice for business-related file sharing is Dropbox (http://www.dropbox.com) which you can even use from a mobile device. Dropbox doesn’t upload files to your web server, instead it allows you to have an “online file locker” that you (and other people you allow) can access from anywhere.
Images
Need to tweak some images, but don’t want to shell out for Photoshop? Not a problem. There are actually quite a few worthwhile image editing programs available at zero cost to you. Some of these include GIMP (Windows and Mac OS X), PhotoScape, and Paint.NET…these are pretty much the only good ones; all others are either only free trials or aren’t much better than MS Paint. My favorite is GIMP (http://www.gimp.org) which is very good… but it’s still free, so don’t expect the same quality as Photoshop (it costs several hundred dollars for a reason).
Not quite sure what the “dog balloons” on the GIMP homepage are for (see the pic on this page too) but still, while the creators are putting out great free software I’ll just let them get on with it! Maybe they’re like that annoying paper clip that shows up in MS Word to ‘help’ you.
HTML Code
Unless you’ve the patience beyond that of the gods themselves, or you’re a computer geek, you’re not going to want to be writing code for your site by hand. Dreamweaver costs about as much as Photoshop, so if you’re looking to not wring your wallet dry, check out some of the free alternatives – all of which are good…
Kompozer (http://www.kompozer.net) is an excellent example – it’s a small application, but it’s easy to use if you need to get a web page up fast. CoffeeCup runs a close second to Kompozer, but is a little on the large side as far as the application itself. There are OS-specific programs available too, like EditPadLite for Windows (http://www.editpadpro.com/editpadlite.html) and TextWrangler for Mac (http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/). My favorite is still Kompozer, though, as it’s the most widely used and supported.
Video
If you want video on your site, you’ll need something to tidy it up with; after all, raw video often looks rather crappy. Yeah, you can sell your body to science if you want to be able to afford Adobe’s video-editing applications like Premiere… or, get something free instead!
CamStudio (http://camstudio.org) is a great free choice for video creating and editing needs (especially the popular “screen capture” style vids); you can even turn the finished AVI files to SWF format for streaming media purposes. CamStudio is OK for user-friendliness (not as good as it’s bigger brother Camtasia, but hey it’s free!) and does have with an extensive help file in case you still don’t know what you’re doing.
Did I mention all these are free? I think I did! So download it and check it out… what do you have to lose, right? It’s for Windows only, though – sorry Mac users!
Windows users can also try Windows Movie Maker, which comes with Windows. It’s pretty basic and doesn’t do screen capture videos… but it might be just the ticket for what you need, so don’t overlook it!
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Excellent!
I’m not to swift with creating websites, etc….but i’m in the real estate related business and I do alot of Marketing. My question is if i create a flyer in Microsoft Publisher how do i publish it to the web so that i can then post it in my Icontact database and on facebook and as a distribution e-blast?
thanks
Hi Maria – I think MS Publisher has an option for you to “export” or “save as” HTML, so try that. You’ll then need to upload it to your website or iContact.
Publisher isn’t great at producing HTML web pages though – I would recommend something like Dreamweaver or Kompozer instead.
Awesome tips
Open for JV’s?
Thanks Simon – feel free to get in touch about JVs etc
I absolutely love trying out and being part of the Open Source community. There are great software packages available that have been developed in a collaborative spirit. If you like the software, become part of the community, donate, or tell others about it to show your support. SourceForge.net and OSALT.com are great sources for information and downloads.
I using Windows Live Writer to work on my blog post. While it’s a bit big on the load, it’s nonetheless an excellent tool to get your blog the way you want it. Thus it enables you to embed videos and images without all those coding. Then you might want to keep in touch with your fellow twitter followers with TweetDeck. Both also FREE!
That’s another interesting tool – you just need to check your kind of blog is supported (and be using a Windows computer!)
Great tips…also picnik.com for image editing.
thanks for info, as for me I record screen with Macvide ScreenCap (macvide.com)