I love free stuff and am always thankful when I learn about it. Here are some websites that I use very often and they have helped me save time and money.

Slideshare.net

This is a presentation sharing website. You can upload just about any document or presentation and share it with others. I like to embed the presentations on my website. You can track how many times your presentation has been downloaded. It is also fun when your presentations are marked as favorites.

Google Docs

I use Google docs to store my documents online. Documents can be uploaded, saved, printed, and shared. Documents can also be converted to pdf files making them easier to send as email attachments. I got tired of certain documents being on my home computer and I needed them when I was at the office. No worries, now I just go to Google.

Picassa

Another great Google product. Upload your pictures to create slideshows. You can add text and music or voiceover. Google will also send it to Youtube.

Animoto.com

A very fun way to create videos from pictures. Just upload your pictures, add your text, pick your music, and Animoto does the rest. They also will send the videos to other websites for you.

TubeMogul.com

When you have a video ready, go over to TubeMogul and upload it to their site. They will send it to several other video sharing sites at the same time. This is a huge time saver.

Rmbrme.com

This is a website to make a virtual business card that you can send to others via text, or iphone users can beam the card.

Retaggr.com

Another virtual business card site. I like this one because after you make your card, you can embed it on your website, blog, or email. You can also put blog posts on the card, and all of your social media sites.

dopdf.com

This is a free download that installs itself as a virtual PDF printer driver so after a successful installation will appear in your Printers and Faxes list. To convert to PDF, you just have to print the document to doPDF, the free pdf converter. Open a document (with Microsoft Word, WordPad, NotePad or any other software), choose Print and select doPDF. It will ask you where to save the PDF file and when finished, the PDF file will be automatically opened in your default PDF viewer. I now convert a lot of my files and email them instead of faxing them.

Audacity

This is freeware that allows you to make sound files for podcasting or voiceover projects. You can upload a sound or music file, and then use a microphone to add voiceover. Some websites allow you to add audio attachments to your listings.

Flickr.com

This is a photo sharing site. Once your pictures are on Flickr, be sure to label them. They will be indexed by search engines. Your photos can also be sent to cool sites to make photo cards or picture books.

That’s it for now. I hope these sites help you and your business!

To read more from Heather Lawson, Broker at Century 21 Watson in Genoa, Illinois, click here.