11 Free Tools & Services You Will Love Using If You Have a Blog or Website
If you’re looking for free online tools and services that will allow you to act and look like a pro, I’m sure you’ll love this.
So, whether you have a blog, e-commerce website, you’re promoting affiliate programs or you just want your personal Facebook page to look better, what I’m about to show you will definitely help.
1. Royalty Free Photos (SXC) – this is a source I use quite often when I need images for my projects. Most of the pictures are free to use, even for commercial purposes (you are not allowed to sell them, though or to use them in the creation of a product that you sell, such as websites, but you are allowed to print them on a leaflet that you distribute for free, to promote your business).
No given credit is required, but the website recommends contacting the owner of the photo (or the person that uploaded the image) and let him know what you did with it.
2. Pixlr Photo Editor – is a tool that you can use in the browser and still have all the options you would get from a software installed on your computer.
I would call it an online version of Adobe Photoshop, as its design and functionality are pretty similar and delivers awesome results.
3. Canva Design – I still can’t believe that these guys are offering all this for free. You can design anything: from Facebook covers, presentations and blog graphics to posters, business cards and documents.
They have hundreds of free images available that would cover pretty much everything you need. However, if you decide that you need one of their paid photos, it would cost $1 / piece.
Their website is extremely easy to use. There are also video tutorials available, if needed.
4. TidyURL – is the best free URL shortener (and tracker) I am using. When you create an account with them, you’ll be able to shorten your URL, personalize your URL, cloak the URL, use a lead bar option to be able to manipulate the information shown when you share the link on Facebook, for example, and more.
If you run a WordPress website or blog, it gets even better. They make available a WP plugin that will allow you to track your URLs directly on your website’s WP admin panel.
When using this plugin promoting an external link to an affiliate product (for instance) the link that you shorten and track will look something like: http://YourDomain/YourAffiliateProduct, so it can make any webpage from any other website look like it is a page on your domain, even after a visitor clicks on the link.
5. Audacity – is a probably the best audio recorder and editor that you can get for free.
I don’t know if it has all the features that the professionals need in a studio, but it certainly does have everything you need to feel like a pro, at home.
This is a great tool to use when you need to mix sounds, record your voice, clean a recording and so on, in order to use them in a presentation, for example.
6. CamStudio – is a great free software to record your videos.
You have the option to record your screen or yourself, if you have a webcam. You also have total control over the quality of the video, depending on its purpose.
This can save you hundreds of dollars, if all you need is a basic recorder.
7. Content Idea Generator – do you have a blog and have no inspiration? All you need is a general subject (e.g.: business) and this will generate an unlimited number of title ideas.
All the suggestions are also optimized to increase curiosity and engagement.
8. Conversation Score – this is if you are interested in keeping up with your competition on Facebook and see how well they are doing.
Conversation score will scan your account and give you a realistic (but minimalistic) report on how well you manage your business page while letting you know what you have to improve.
9. The Readability Test Tool – does exactly what its name says – it tests the text on a web page and lets you know how readable it is.
This information would be pretty handy not only to bloggers, but to anybody that would like their content to be easily covered and understood by their readers.
10. Down for Everyone or Just Me – a page simpler than Google search has but with thousands of visitors every day.
Did it ever happen to you to go on a website just to discover that it seems to be down? Well, in most of the cases it probably is, but there are some situations when you cannot access it for some other reasons (internet provider put a restrictions, firewall, browser crash etc.).
If this ever happens to you, DownForEveryoneOrJustMe.com will let you know for sure where the issue is.
11. Avast – since you use your computer quite a lot, of course you need the best protection from viruses. You can use Avast free for 12 months when registering with them.
The same free version offers you anti-malware, anti-spyware and anti-rootkit protection.
But this is not the only reason why I added it to this list. It also installs an extension to your browser that gives you information on how safe some websites are to visit and displays a community rating on how reliable they are.
And… you may laugh… but it compares prices, as well 
(it does this automatically – if you wish to purchase a product online from a specific website, Avast will inform you if it found the very same product someplace else, at a better price).
These are some of the free tools and services that I’ve been using for quite a while and proved to be very useful in my activity. I hope you will find some value in this, too.
If you can think about other tools that may be of interest to our readers, please post a comment and the link below.