INTERNET FREEBIES

Free Christmas Fonts

2010-12-02T19:21:00.002-05:00

Christmas is only a few weeks away. If you are doing any Christmas project, such as creating your own family Christmas card or holiday gift tags, here are five websites where you can download free Christmas fonts to help you express your creativity for this season. Each site contains lots of Christmas fonts that bring out the spirit of the season.

1. The Holiday Spot - My favorite fonts from this website are the Frosty and Kingthings Christmas 2 fonts. Aside from fonts, The Holiday Spot also includes free Christmas toolbar, cliparts and midi files.

2. Christmas Buzz - Similar to The Holiday Spot, this website also includes lots of free Christmas graphics including wallpapers, screensavers and e-cards. It also has free recipes to help you plan your Christmas meal.

3. Xmas Fonts - This website has unique and interesting Christmas fonts and dingbats such as Naked Monk, Skellington Bats, and Baby Jeepers.

4. Xmas Fun - This website does not really offer a lot of Christmas fonts, but it has a lot of fun free Christmas stuff including Christmas games for the family.

5. Jinglebell Junction - This website also offers free Christmas crafts, animation and avatars.

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Free Digital Scrapbook Fonts

Free Fonts

5 best websites to get free ebooks

2010-11-16T18:25:00.000-05:00

The increasing popularity of Kindle, Nook and iPad has turned many book lovers into electronic readers. It has also increased the demand for books available online, especially free e-books. So whether you own an e-reader or prefer to read a book online or on your PC, here are five best websites where you can download free e-books. These websites are a great resource to find a vast selection of free downloadable online books on a wide variety of subjects.

1. Project Gutenberg

One of the pioneers in setting up a digital library, Project Gutenberg has the oldest collection of free ebooks online. The website contains over 100,000 free e-books produced by volunteers and through its partners and affiliates. It was founded by Michael Hart, who invented ebooks in 1971.

2. Free Book Spot

Free Book Spot boasts of links to free ebooks in more than 90 categories including archaeology, environmental engineering and statistics. You can also add free ebooks to the list.

3. ManyBooks.net

As the name suggest, ManyBooks.net carries more than 28,000 free ebooks. Ebooks are sorted through authors, genre languages and titles. It also has a “Books of the Week.” Personally, I think this is the easiest free ebook website to navigate. It also has a simple and clean look. The website is maintained by Matthew McClintock. Donations are accepted to help keep the website updated.

4. Free-eBooks.net

Free-ebooks.net allows you to browse the books by author or by categories. It features the latest addition to their list of free ebooks and offers free magazines. Registration is required to access the library and download a book.

5. Bookyards.com

Bookyards.com’s goals is simple – to be the “library to the world.” And they are doing this by simply searching the web continuously for free ebooks. Aside from the free ebooks, Bookyards is also a portal to educational materials, news and blogs, videos and other web links.

Related link: Visit e-Reader Accessories for other resources on e-readers!

Free ID Card Maker

2010-11-12T00:24:00.001-05:00

Do you need to create an ID card for a class, guests or simply for yourself? With the help of BighugeLabs, a web portal that allows you to create effects on your photos, you can create an ID card, nametag or any badge in an instant. Here are the simple steps to create a customized ID card using BighugeLabs:

From the homepage, select “Badge Maker”
Once you’re on the Badge Maker page, upload a photo you’d like for your ID card. You can either upload a photo from your PC, or get it from your Facebook or Flickr account.
Choose which part of the photo you want visible in case it needs to be cropped – center, left or right
Choose the layout orientation of your ID, whether it’s landscape or portrait
Select the color you want for your ID
Fill out the information requested – name of your ID, your name and other text you want included. You also have the option to include a barcode.

When you’re done, press “Create.” The website will instantly generate your ID. Save the image if you’re satisfied with the ID design. If not, you can always go back and edit it.

Creating ID card using BighugeLabs is simple and very easy. The only thing I hope they would add to this very helpful application is a “preview” function while you are in the process of creating your ID card.

Related Link: Free name tag creator

Free Digital Scrapbook Fonts

2010-11-04T00:21:00.001-04:00

The choice of fonts you use adds impact to your design. This is especially true if you are into digital scrapbooking. Apart from the photos and embellishments, fonts help set the mood and tone, and amplify the theme of your scrapbook project. Having the right fonts would also add extra oomph when you decide on digital scrapbook printing. If you are seeking new fonts, try Scrapbooking Fonts, a website that offers free downloadable fonts.

Scrapbooking Fonts provides a wide variety of free fonts for you to use for heading, main text or photo captions of your pages. Fonts are classified according to themes such as modern, decorative, and vintage. There are also Celtic, Asian inspired and illustrated fonts, as well as holiday-themed and dingbat fonts. The website even has Disney-themed dingbats!

One of my favorite fonts was the “Cool Dots” because it reminded me of the time when I would put dots on each end of a letter to give my handwriting some extra style. Here's what it looks like:

Here are other fonts that I like: Little Trouble Girl

Lemon Chicken

Kayleigh

Scrapbooking Fonts also provides a free guide to downloading and installing fonts if you don’t know how to install them.

Aside from the free fonts, Scrapbooking Fonts offers quotes or sayings that you can use as headings or captions, such as quotes about love, inspirations, babies and families. So if you are into scrapbooking or digital scrapbook printing, check out Scrapbooking Fonts and you'll be inspired to find the perfect font.

For some more ways to improve your scrapbooking skills, take a look at these best selling books:

Related Links: Don't forget to also read my post on Free Digital Scrapbooking Kits!

Free custom watermark to protect your photos online

2010-10-24T08:00:00.001-04:00

Are you concerned about your online images being used or downloaded without your permission? We hear stories about photos being used in promotional materials or websites without the consent of the individuals in the photo. Adding a watermark to your photos would make them a little more secure. WaterMark.ws is a free tool that allows you to instantly add customized watermark on your images and makes it easy for you to put your “own stamp” on them without the need to register, verify e-mail, or install anything.

WaterMark.ws is very simple to use and works in three easy steps: Upload; Add text or image; and Download. It saves you time by allowing you to upload multiple photos at a time and do batch processing. However, each photo file size should not go over 500 kb. Once you have uploaded your photos, proceed to adding a watermark. This is where the fun starts. You can choose to either upload an image, or type a text to use as your watermark. You can use your logo, company name or website instead of the usual copyright symbol. There are also options for font, size, color, angle, or to have your watermark tiled. You can resize or compress your images to fit your purpose. For example, you can resize your image to make it suitable for a blog post. Once you have decided on the styles, click “Process Photos” and the website will immediately begin processing your photos. Depending on the number, this may be really fast; sometimes less than 20 seconds for one to two images! Finally, download the watermarked photos onto your PC.

While Watermark.ws is a very useful tool, the developers may want to consider including a link feature to social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, or to photo sharing sites like Flickr or Photobucket. This would make it more convenient to post your watermarked photos quickly.

Copyright infringement is so rampant on the web and with the “right click”, anyone can claim your images as their own. But with WaterMark.ws, you can protect your photos from unauthorized use.

Four free social media tools to update your status

2010-10-22T00:17:00.006-04:00

Social media has become a part of almost every company's publicity plan. So, it's not surprising that a lot of Internet marketers and public relations professionals have come up with an "editorial calendar" for their tweets and Facebook status updates. If part of your job is managing several Facebook pages, Twitter accounts or other social networking sites, then you might find these four free social media tools handy when scheduling your updates.

1. Later Bro

Later Bro is a very simple and very direct way of scheduling your tweets and status updates. No registration is required. Just link your Twitter and/or Facebook accounts and pre-schedule your update. It also saves your post, so you can resend it for another day. Their website is also very clean and simple. It takes you straight to what you need to do – update either your Twitter or Facebook account.

Later Bro covers only Twitter and Facebook. I’m not sure if it covers Facebook pages or groups; so for now, I would say that this is best for personal accounts and making sure that you won’t forget to post a birthday greeting on a friend’s wall.

2. Social Tomorrow

Still in its beta version, Social Tomorrow allows you to be well, social tomorrow by pre-scheduling your tweets and updates today. Social Tomorrow is similar to Later Bro in a sense that it only covers Twitter and Facebook, although this one covers Facebook Pages and Groups. It is also very easy and simple to use. A free account allows you to send 10 messages each for Twitter/Facebook Profile, Facebook Pages and Facebook Groups in a month.

3. Sendible

Sendible is another free tool to help you manage your social media accounts. Unlike Later Bro and Social Tomorrow, Sendible covers almost all the major social networking sites, from Bebo to Twitter. A free account lets you send up to 100 messages a month.

Sendible boasts itself as "a one-stop-shop for all your marketing needs" because it also covers e-mails and blogs and for paid accounts, SMS. Moreover, it provides analytics on the updates you post.

I've had a few connection errors when I used it the first time. Also, I had a hard time figuring out where to start. But as soon as I've figured out everything, it wasn't difficult at all to start scheduling my tweets and updates.

4. Hootsuite

Represented by an image of an owl, Hootsuite is similar to Sendible wherein it allows you to cover multiple social networking sites (five social media profiles for free accounts). Also, it allows you to check your accounts in one page through different tabs/streams and gives you the option to be notified by e-mail once your updates have been posted. And, if you have other people managing your accounts, you can also add them as "team members" to schedule the updates.

Since Hootsuite covers live stream, this is best for those who update their profiles and accounts actively. At first, the live stream was kind of confusing to me because I felt like there were so many things happening at once, until I've discovered that you could personalize that live stream. It worked out better for me.

I wish I had known about these free social media scheduling tools when I was managing Facebook pages and had to update them by a specific time. I don't have those fancy smart phones, so I had to use a computer with an Internet connection to update the pages. I would be in the dog park watching our beagle play with other dogs only to realize it was time to go home to update a Facebook page. If I had known about these free web tools, managing those pages would have been easier.

For detailed and unbiased reviews of the above social media tools and for more sites similar to these, check out these two articles from trustworthy links:

Article in Mashable by Erica Swallow
Social @ Blogging Tracker by Chin Ya

How to calculate the value of your charitable donations

2010-10-13T03:31:00.003-04:00

Have you ever wondered what expenses can be deducted from your taxes? For example, church tithes and donations to church projects, trips to volunteer activities, or tickets bought for a fundraising cause? Now there's a free and easy way to find out if "it's deductible." Itsdeductible.com is a free website service by Turbo Tax that is designed to help you calculate the value of your contributions.

I first learned about this free online tax calculation from a dear friend who regularly donates clothes and other items to non-profit organizations like Goodwill. So when my husband and I did some "fall cleaning" recently and ended up with eight big bags of items for donation to The Salvation Army, itsdeductible.com was very useful in calculating the values of all the items we gave away. Itsdeductible.com helps you keep track of your donations whether they are cash, bonds, items or gas mileage, so you don't need to guess their value. More importantly, the value given is in accordance with the IRS' "fair market value."

To use itsdeductible.com, simply create an account and declare your filing status and estimated income range. Once you've provided the info, the website will then calculate your estimated federal tax rate. You can now begin recording your donations. For items donated, the categories are extensive - from clothing to furniture to pet supplies. The resale values are dependent on the style and condition of your donated items. For example, a men's sweater in very good condition (described as "high") is valued at $18, while a sweater in good condition (described as "medium") is priced at $9. You can also add your own item if it's not listed in any of the categories, such as leather jackets or motorcycle helmets.

It's always nice to save money, and with tax time quickly on its way, it's never too late to follow up on your deductibles with itsdeductible.com.

Note: itsdeductible.com is only applicable to US taxpayers.

Free Certificate Templates

2010-10-04T13:58:00.011-04:00

Awarding a certificate is a great way to recognize people for their work, service or accomplishment. It’s a great motivation tool, too. And if you’re the one receiving a certificate, the experience can be rewarding.

I just stumbled upon this website called Certificate Street that contains tons of free certificate templates. All templates are grouped into categories such as sports, business, schools, etc. They also have free blank certificate templates which can be customized for different occasions and events. Furthermore, there’s a category for “relationships” which I think is a good idea. Sometimes we forget to thank those who are dearest to us and giving them a certificate can be a unique way to express our gratitude.

Certificate Street is really a great tool not only for school teachers and volunteer coordinators, but also for companies and families. I like the story of how this website was born. The web owners were looking for a certificate to hand out to their students, but couldn’t find the perfect one. So, they started to create their own. I can totally relate to their story. Most of the time, I would need a certificate for some people I’d like to thank, but I usually end up not finding the right design or the right words that match my need. I want the certificate to feel personal and not just another certificate template, so that the person receiving it would feel really special.

Certificate Street offers unique and creative certificate designs that are lively and colorful which are available in .PDF format. Their certificate designs do not contain the usual common clip arts or borders that you see on the web or in an MS Office suite. The site is also very easy to use. No need for registration, account sign in or passwords. Just download the certificate template you like, fill out the needed text and print.

I think my only two suggestions are to include the ability for the user to change the font and to include a mail merge function, which would be great for anyone giving out more than 10 certificates. Also since I love pets, maybe there should be a category for animals/pets? But then again, who am I to complain? The site is 100% free...and I love it!

Related post: For other free templates, check out my post on Free Brochure Maker and Free Name Tag Creator.

A Better Way to Land a Job

2010-09-03T12:38:00.003-04:00

Unemployment really stinks. And if you’re like me, you’ve added your resume to practically every job-searching site on the web, only to get daily emails with lists of jobs that either you’re not qualified for, or have nothing to do with your field.

So let me introduce you to something new that I've come across recently. It’s called “Weedle.” Unlike those other job-searching sites, Weedle connects you with people who need your skills, and when I say skills, I mean not only something you’ve done full-time, part-time, but even a hobby! That’d be nice, huh? Getting paid to do something you’ve done most of your life for fun?

So how does it work? According to their site, Weedle is a social networking site (much like LinkedIn, but different in that it also helps you get found on Google for your skill, versus job title). For example, say you’re a Carpenter. On Weedle, instead of mentioning your title, you’d mention your skills, like “Cabinet Maker”, “House Builder”, etc., giving people a better chance of finding you. And with all the names for jobs changing (waitress to server, stewardess to flight attendant, DJ to On-Air Talent, etc.), this could really be handy in making you stand out.

So look beyond the resumes, evaluate your skills, and discover the NEW way of searching for a job.

Related Link: How to turn your resume into a "wow resume"

Free PDF to Word Converter

2010-08-10T16:26:00.005-04:00

I was looking through the forums for Adobe PDF viewer one evening, when somebody asked a good question: "Why do we have to download 400+ MB in upgrades just to view a file? And it's the same format, just bigger update files each month or so." Good question! Especially when at most times, all you can do is read it.

PDF-to-Word offers another suggestion. PDF-to-Word conversion technology allows you to quickly and easily create editable DOC/RTF files. In other words, you’ll be able to re-use PDF content in applications, such as Word, Excel, OpenOffice, and WordPerfect.

And not only is it not a hefty-sized program, but it’s also entirely free!

Sound too good to be true? Check it out at pdftoword.com.

Related Link: Free PDF Converter

Create free wall-size posters

2010-08-09T14:11:00.003-04:00

It’s great being able to blow up your pictures on the computer, but once you print it out, it comes out on a small, single page…wonderful. But with Block Posters, you can blow up the picture and print it out as a poster! Huh? But how can you do that? Your printer only takes legal and letter-sized paper. So how do I get the poster paper into the printer?

With Block Poster, it’s as easy as 1,2,3:

Upload your image from your computer
Slice your image and choose how many sheets wide you would like your poster to be once printed. And then once you’re happy with your selection,
Download the .pdf file containing your newly created images, and print. Each page will be a section of the picture. Combine like a puzzle, and tape to the wall your new enlarged poster.

Block Poster is great for students and kids looking for ways to decorate their rooms, maps for companies, photographs, and more.

How to sleep better with the sound of the rain

2010-08-06T18:07:00.001-04:00

Having trouble sleeping?

I find that I always sleep best when it rains. I don’t understand it much, but there must be something about the way it sounds…it’s soothing, relaxing, tranquil. If only every night I could sleep as well as I do when it rains. Now I may, with “Rainy Mood”. Rainy Mood is simple, for there’s nothing to download. Just log into their site, turn up the volume, close your eyes, and relax to the sound of a constant rainstorm, the faint sound of signing birds, and occasional thunder.

“Add gentle rain to your environment. Enhance your music. Sleep better. Relax.”

Be A Star On A Magazine Cover

2010-07-30T13:34:00.001-04:00

Now everybody can be a star! With Magcover, you can be on the cover of your favorite magazine (or one similar to it). We’ve had a lot of fun with this. Magcover provides the magazine’s headline, so all you need is a picture of yourself. Next, add your own headlines, or keep the ones provided. It’s real easy and a lot of fun to create! You’ll need to register for an account if you wish to save it, print it, or send it to friends, but it’s free.

Magcover does have other options, allowing you to order high definition magazine wraps to impress or fool your friends and colleagues with. Printed on glossy photo paper, preformed to fit a perfect bound magazine (also included), and even shipped worldwide. You may also order them on shirts, mugs, and bags.

Magcover is easy, professional-looking, and best of all, it’s free (unless you make an order for it to be printed onto something).

Free Weigh Loss Secrets

2010-07-29T19:22:00.001-04:00

Trends in dieting seem to change with the season – one day you're being told to eat high protein, the next day whole grains. It all gets a little confusing. That's where Fat Secret comes in. Fat Secret is a place for overweight people who are interested in food, diet, and achieving their food, diet and exercise goals, to but don’t want to go at it alone. Fat Secret helps makes it easy to record your food and exercise, keep a lifetime record of your weight, discover recipes that are right for you are pretty special, and find buddies online to support you as you achieve these goals. You can also use your Fat Secret profile with many other services like Facebook, iGoogle and on your mobile phone.

As a helpful and encouraging community, Fat Secret takes the feedback and collective experience of members to discover what really works. Fat Secret is totally independent, and instead of giving recommendations, tries to provide the tools and framework for you to achieve your goals, as the community generates answers to all food, diet and exercise questions.

So what makes Fat Secret different from other weight loss sites? For one, Fat Secret does not promise free consultations, profiles, plans or advice only at expense of an expensive 'premium' service. Instead, Fat Secret is totally free, and neither affiliated, associated, nor in any way related to any of the diets or diet companies referenced on their site. Though Fat Secret may provide their general opinion on some aspects of these 'popular' diets, Fat Secret neither endorses nor support s them or their programs.

Free Recipes for the Bored Eater

2010-07-28T15:03:00.001-04:00

I don’t know about the rest of y'all, but when it comes to cooking, I’ve got a select number of regular dishes that I know how to prepare on the spot. I can also get creative at times, but that’s mainly what my culinary skills consist of. Lately though, I’ve become bored of these basic dishes, even to the point where I mainly just eat for the reason of survival…I’m just not enjoying my food anymore. And it’s not that I can’t cook something else, but that I don’t have any ideas of what else to cook.

For a while I’d look through my cook books, but there are only so many times I can go through it before I’ve tried everything my food allergies will allow me to eat. Then I came across food.com. At food.com, I found free recipes galore! At the top of the page, the first thing I saw was a picture that made my mouth water, a popular category, top ten recipe searches, and top-rated recipes.

To keep things new, each day food.com features a “Chef of the Day” and one of their dishes. Members (free) can post their own recipes, rate and review others’, join in discussions, and can keep updated through various networking sites, like Facebook.

Food.com also helps you calculate nutritional information on recipes by using the USDA nutritional information database.

I think maybe the only downside (so far) of food.com is that there are so many recipes and categories that I don’t know where to begin…it’s so overwhelming! :P

Free Secure Online File Sharing and Storage

2010-07-23T07:37:00.005-04:00

Have you have had that problem where you were given a company laptop to use, but you’re your main files were on your computer at home? Sure you could thumb-drive them over or email them to yourself, but then what if you updated the files on your home computer? You’d have to then email it to yourself and replace the one on the company laptop, or the opposite, all over again. Or say you have a Smartphone and want to bring up a picture that’s on your computer.
Dropbox has a solution to all of this. Instead of going through all this time-consuming trouble, you can now access your important files via the web to any computer or Smartphone, even somebody else’s if necessary. Let me explain:
First, download Dropbox's software and create a FREE account, which gives you 2 GB of space. Dropbox will put a special folder on your computer. Next, simply drop files into this folder, and they will instantly be available on any of your other computers, and the web.
If you need to access your files from someone else’s computer, simply login to www.dropbox.com. You can view, download, and upload your files securely from any web browser. Anything you put into this folder will automatically sync to your other computers with Dropbox installed, as well as get safely backed up online.
Check this out though too: You can also share any folder in your Dropbox with friends or colleagues, even if they use a different operating system from you, or don’t have Dropbox installed! In your Dropbox folder is a “Public Folder”. Any file you put in this folder gets its own internet link so that you may share it with others- even non-Dropbox users! And since your files are saved online, these links work even if your computer’s turned off.
This is especially good for when you’re blogging. For example, I was talking with a buddy the other day about something. Now I’ve got a bunch of notes on this topic on my computer, but I don’t want to copy and paste them all onto my blog for him (it’d be a really long post). But I also don’t want to just email him the files, because this is good information…others can benefit from it, too. So I simply drop my file (notes) into the Public folder, right-click/control-click the file, then choose “Dropbox, Copy Public Link”. This copies the internet link to my file. Now I can just paste the link to my blog post and share the file with others. I can also paste the link into emails, instant message conversations, etc.!
And something else I just discovered, for every friend who joins Dropbox, you both will receive 250 MB of bonus space, up to a limit of 8 Gigs!
If you’d like some more information on Dropbox, or like me, would like to check reviews before trying it out for yourself, here are a few trustworthy links:
CNET
OnlineBackupDeals
PC Magazine
For use with Android

I'd like to add something to this:
For the past week, my wife and I have been using Dropbox, and we really like it. Besides the reasons I've mentioned above, another neat thing we can do is share files with others ANYWHERE. For example, my sister in law lives in another country. She takes a lot of pictures of her toddler daughter, too many to send via email. So instead, she downloaded Dropbox, transferred (or copied) her pictures to her online Dropbox, gave my wife her pass codes for her online Dropbox, and now my wife is able to not only view the pictures, but also save some to her computer, and do the same with our pictures. It's like online file-sharing. Really cool!

Free Typing Test

2010-02-11T21:19:00.009-05:00

Here's one I've been having fun with lately: a free typing test. With the economy the way it is, many are turning to their other hidden talents as a qualification for their next job.

OK, so you're filling out the resume when you come across "Typing:____wpm". Do you know your typing speed? Seriously, when was the last time you clocked your typing speed? Sure you could guess, or play a few rounds of "Typer Shark" on Yahoo Games, but those aren't real words, and if you're real good, the game could last for hours! And if you simply guessed, what's considered a good speed? 30? 40? 50 words per minute? So how can you test your typing speed?

I suggest Typeonline. Assessed and named by both the Education Network Australia (EdNA), and the National Grid for Learning (NGfL) as "A quality educational resource", Typeonline is an easy to use, accurate, and free typing test.

When you're ready to begin the typing test, simply click the "Start the clock" button, then copy the sample text by typing in in the box below. Then when you're finished, click the "Stop the clock" button. It takes a couple quick seconds to calculate, and "Tada!" Your typing test score is revealed, as well as how well you did.

Typeonline offers free typing tests for not just words, but also for numbers, or both numbers and words. Typeonline also offers free typing lessons and posters to help you improve your typing skills.

Last time I took the typing test I got 70 wmp! I sure am glad I didn't just guess a measly 30.

Free Games

2010-02-10T17:19:00.012-05:00

AddictingGames.com provides a portal jump station to many of the most popular free online games. Games are divided into several handy categories: Action, Puzzle and Board, Arcade and Classics, Shooting Games, News Games, and more. There's also a lot of the top games to try for all ages.

A lot of the games at AddictingGames.com are harmless fun - and some are even educational - but all are very easily addictive. For example, there's a completely addicting "Minni-Putt" game where you can practice your miniature golf skills, or "50 States", where you learn geography by dropping a state onto its correct spot on a map.

Though most games are kid-friendly, I do feel the need to throw out a caution: some games on AddictingGames.com do feature obscene material, inappropriate language, and bad morals, and violence to humans and animals. So "viewer's discretion is advised", but otherwise, all the games on AddictingGames.com are very fun, very addicting, and very free.

Free Real-Time High-TechTracker

2010-01-23T01:37:00.010-05:00

Have you ever wondered who visits your site? Sure you’ve got counters and trackers to tell you where they linked to your site, but have you ever wondered stuff like who: who’s your audience? How’d they find your site? What interests them (seriously)? I’ll bet that neither your counter nor tracker gives you detailed activity information about visitors that have recently left your site. Well let me tell you, I’ve got a counter/tracker that will make yours sound like a near-sighted man looking through the wrong end of binoculars. It’s called W3Counter.

W3Counter is your free, hosted website solution for answering the key questions about your website. There's no installation, no configuration, and tracking begins as soon as you copy and paste a code onto your website. You’ll receive a dashboard for each of your websites which will give you an executive overview of the key statistics to watch.

How does W3Counter work? Check this out: It’s a real-time tracker, which means you can actually follow visitors as they browse your website (creepy, huh?). You can even watch arriving visitors appear as new info markers on the map, with a referring source and landing page for each new hit. (You're like a navy seal in the digital brush!)

And here’s a neat perk: with w3counter, you can label your visitors. That way when somebody returns to your site, instead of trying to remember their IP Address, each label will appear in your tracker reports of online and recent visitors. There you can view all the past activity of each member or customer.

Downsides: I signed up just to see w3counter work, and found 2 downsides. One is that the code for the tracker doesn’t work with some Java-based sites, like Xanga for instance. The second problem is that since I can’t use the tracker on my site, I figured I’d cancel my account. Only, I can’t find the link to do so…I’m sure it’s around someplace, but not as easy to find as one may prefer.

On the upside though, it does work for Blogger, and yes, we are tracking you now.

Free Online Picture Hosting

2010-01-18T00:07:00.013-05:00

We've all heard that if you upload your pictures to the internet, they're there forever and anybody can get a hold of them. So with that in mind, community sites like facebook, myspace, or your personal blogs are really not the safest places to share your life's experiences. But what if you want to easily and quickly share your pictures via email, chat, social network, or a message board (forum)? Or maybe you'd like to share your pictures only once, and then forget about them, never having to worry about them surfacing in some company's ad? Or maybe you'd just like to have a backup copy of your pictures stored on the internet for safe keeping? What do you do? You could pay an annual or monthly fee to one of those hard drive backup sites, or you could check out a free online picture hosting site, like "fumpr.com".

Formally known as "FixUpMyPic", "Fumpr" is "the world's fastest and easiest (free online) image host". There's no need to register, and yes, it is 100% free!

Once you upload your pictures, you'll be provided with a fast loading image and some easy ways to share them on the internet. JPG, PNG, BMP, and GIF up to 3MB are allowed, though fumpr will eventually allow additional file types and larger sizes in the future.

The ONLY way someone will see your pictures is if you share the link with them. For instance, if you want the pictures for yourself only, just don't share the link. Or if you only want one person to see them, then give them (and only them) the provided link. And everything you post will be safely stored there forever.

In terms of picture content, anything is allowed unless deemed illegal and/or inappropriate by applicable law. On that note though, if someone reports an picture, then without reason to the original uploader, fumpr will permanently remove the picture. This is also good should somebody upload an embarrassing picture of you, say from your younger years, that you don't want anybody else to see. Simply click on the "Contact or Report" link at the bottom, email fumpr the link, and "(they)" will take care of it."

Another reason fumpr.com is the best free online picture host for you and your pictures.

Free Character Names Generator

2010-01-16T17:50:00.013-05:00

Have you every wondered where Gene Roddenberry got names like Work, Spock or Klingon? Or how Street Fighter got the names of its characters' awesome moves? Whether you're writing a story, movie script or an assignment for your fiction writing class, SeventhSanctum is here to help writers of all genres conjure up intriguing, fascinating and unique names for their story characters. And, it doesn't end with just giving you free character name generators, SeventhSanctum also helps you come up with plots and ideas to make your writing more interesting.

For example, when I clicked on “Anime/Manga”, it listed off a number of possible generators, such as a “Power Generator”, which generates those crazy, multi-word, occasionally incoherent attacks our beloved anime characters yell out. So I clicked on that and I was given a number of drop-down lists to describe what I was looking for. Let’s see. I wanted “1” name generated, fitted with “Armor Piercing”, “Air”, and “Nuclear/Atomic”, with a size of two to seven words. I clicked "Generate" and read “Tornado Atomic Battler”. Hmmm...not too fancy, so I clicked “Generate” again and got “Nucleo Battler Way Atomic Crashing Beam!” Yeaaaaahhhhh! now that’s more like it!

So you get the idea here? Seventhsanctum is a free character name generator that helps battle the infamous plague known as 'writer's block'. Check out some of their other unique generators, especially ones for creating short stories. And if you still can’t seem to pinpoint the perfect antidote, try clicking on their “Random Generator”.

Seventhsanctum is truly inspiring, fun, and almost guaranteed to get your creative juices flowing!

Free Calorie Counter

2010-01-13T15:26:00.008-05:00

Whether you're trying to lose weight or gain it, counting calories is a huge part of your life.

I used to try counting calories, but since most of what I ate didn't come with a nutrition table, I lost both track and interest in that quickly. Then I came across "Calorie Connect". At Calorie Connect, just type the name of the food, and the nutrient table shows up to the right.

Unfortunately though, different brand names do have different calorie counts, and it doesn't account for different brand names. But it does give a basic idea for the food types.

Another nice feature with Calorie Connect is that, being a free online interactive nutrition and wellness service, they also provide an exercise page. This allows you to record your exercise activities and assess your progress towards weekly and monthly goals. Nice! Maybe now I can get those abs I've always wanted.

Owning (or leasing) your car just got easier!

2010-01-10T23:21:00.008-05:00

When you’re looking for a car to buy and want to know about its history, you look at Carfax. We used it when searching for our latest car, and it was very helpful.

But what if you own a car and are looking to sell? What’s it worth on the market? Would you get more by trading it in or selling it to a private owner? That’s where DriverSide comes in. Simply enter the car's make, model and year, then click “get started”. Did you know that keeping maintenance records could help you sell your car for more money? Read more car ownership tips or latest car reviews by visiting DriverSide's reviews and advice page.

Now maybe you just got a car and want to know more about it or how to better care for the car you already own or are leasing. By registering with DriverSide, you’ll be alerted when your next service is due, what needs to be done, repair price estimates, car diagnostic tools, service history logs, and digital storage of service records. Or if you have a question, ask advice from their certified mechanics (for free!).

All DriverSide can’t do is give an estimated price for your car’s sentimental value.

Blipfoto: Daily Photo Journal

2010-01-06T15:48:00.010-05:00

Blipfoto is an online daily photo journal that lets you publish one image each day, starting on the date you sign up. Most people use this as a challenge to take and publish one picture every day of their lives, while others just add entries when they feel like it, leaving empty days in between. It's the zero-fuss website that lets anyone join in and publish or record your life in pictures, improve your photography skills, or just keep in touch with your family and friends. They just insists that any pictures you upload are taken on the date you're uploading them against. In other words, if you upload a picture and date it 1st January, the picture must have been taken on 1st January.

And now, (Extra! Extra! Read All About It!):

Blipfoto has teamed up with Channel Four Television and the National Theatre of Scotland to bring you “Unstaged”, a global photographic event comprised of three consecutive contests, together which aim to expose the extraordinary aspects of daily life. The contest's first prize wins a new Canon 500D and 500 pounds cash (that’s Eurodollars).

The contest is free to enter, but to take part, you need a free blipfoto.com photo journal, and be thirteen or over.

Your contest entries will consist of five pictures with accompanying text, taken and uploaded to your journal between each contest's published start and end date. At the close of each contest, the Blipfoto community - including participants in the competition - will be given a week to nominate the finalists. The top ten nominations in each category (junior and adult) then go before a judging panel for a final decision. The contest's judging panel will include Joe Tree (Blipfoto), Stuart Cosgrove (Channel 4), Vicky Featherstone (National Theatre of Scotland) and others.

Nominations and final judging will be based on the entrant's collection as a whole; where the underlying concept is as important as the technical execution, where image aesthetics are balanced by narrative text. Unstaged is truly open to all - a winning contest entry is just as likely to come from a camera phone as an expensive digital camera. Join the community now and begin seeing the world in a completely different way!

Free Book Search and Matcher

2010-01-05T12:04:00.008-05:00

A neat idea and creation, BookLamp matches you with books according to your style. The example they use is, say you "like Stephen King's "It", but thought it was too long. Booklamp allows you to find books with a similar level of tone, tense, perspective, action, description, and dialog, while at the same time, allowing you to specify details, but only about half the length."

The interface is very smooth, attractive, and intuitive, but at the moment, their database currently only holds science fiction books and fantasy books. They emphasize that while their service isn’t very functional yet, they are working on it.

You do have to register to use BookLamp, but it’s not a lengthy process. By registering, you can compare books, post in the forums, and suggest books to be added. But because of their limited collection, signing up for BookLamp now mostly just shows interest and support for the service.

BookLamp aspires to be a “Pandora for books”. BookLamp is also looking for suggestions for their future direction, so if you explore and have ideas, feel free to suggest some to them.

Free "E-Cards That Don't Suck"

2009-11-11T14:30:00.013-05:00

E-cards. We've all seen them, whether we sent them or they were sent to us, e-cards are corny ways of getting a smile out of somebody we care about. Some sites offer many, some offer only a few unless you're a registered member, some e-cards are cute, some are eh-OK, and some are just plain stupid.

Rattlebox on the other hand, is a free e-card site that's raised the bar for e-cards. Promoting their bold statement, "E-Cards that don't suck", you'll find a new variety of cards with, let me say, and "interesting" gift of creativity.

Rattlebox's collection of online video e-cards includes pets, children, vintage film & cartoons clips, and some pretty rockin' animated styles, too, appropriate for the workplace, school, sports, travel, and every occasion.

Rattlebox greeting cards cover a range from sexy and provocative, to sweet love; funny birthday cards, thanks, apology, thinking of you, congratulations, good luck, invites, save the date, vote, new baby, couples, wedding, anniversary, relationships, sympathy, encouragement, insult, breakup, graduation, new home, new job, and many more! *Be aware though that some Rattlebox e-cards are adult-oriented, not so appropriate for children. Most are labeled with a yellow “Caution” banner across the selection, and a warning before playing (but some are not).

Although you are not required to in order to send a funny short film to your friend or loved one, free registration will allow you to create your own e-cards from your own videos, and include them in the Rattlebox online library. Cool, huh? Click here for an example from the "thinking of you" category.

Related Links:
Free superhero maker
Be on the cover of a magazine
Create your own photo messages
Funky avatar creator

Free Visual Resume Builder

2009-08-31T12:27:00.014-04:00

If you're like me, you’d like to find a second job. You could post your resume on about 10 different job sites, but with some sites requesting different information, not only can turn into more of a time-consuming project for your day off, but you’re also bound to a boring (or sloppy) resume according to their site’s format. And for an employer, looking through a bunch similar-looking resumes could be about as exciting as reading through the fine print of a legal document.

That’s what’s nice about Visualcv.com. VisualCV gives you the opportunity to create your own resume to stand out from the others! (Imagine the employer: boring resume, boring resume, boring resume, WOW!”) You can include work samples, charts and graphs, audio, video, and images. Control who sees it, and get your very own URL (www.visualcv.com/yournamehere) for easy sharing via e-mail or with your social networks. Or, you could reply to job posts with your URL link, giving them everything they need in one place (versus sending everything in bulk email).

VisualCV is also great for students and alumni, giving them tools to build a portable and customizable resume portfolio of their qualifications, offering employers greater depth, breadth and substance than traditional resumes.

Curious? Click here to watch VisualCV.com's info-video.

Free Guide to Book Summary Notes

2009-08-07T19:29:00.006-04:00

Whether you are in school now or soon will be, you know that with all the books you already have to read, even by skimming you may not get all your reading assignments done on time. But what if you didn’t have to read the whole book in order to understand it? FreeBookNotes.com is how you do it.

Producing a comprehensive guide to free book notes, free book and chapter summaries, literature notes, and study guides (like "cliff notes") for over 1600 books, plays, and poems, Freebooknotes.com is dedicated to helping you reach your reading goals. Currently, they are sporting a powerful database of links to over 2500 free cliff notes, free book notes, and free book summaries for a wide variety of literary classics from all the major study guide sites (including Pink Monkey, Barron's, SparkNotes, Classic Notes, Book Rags, BookWolf, and Campus Nut).

I wish I knew about FreeBookNotes.com when I was in school. Each individual study page shows a list of links to all the cliff notes, book summaries, book notes, and analysis for that book. This way, any time you need free literary criticism, chapter summaries, or other study help with a book, you can check here first, and they'll point you in the right direction. Also, should you have a specific question about a book, Freebooknotes.com also lists links for discussion forums and message boards, thus allowing you to discuss your book with other readers.

So whether you’re a student, a teacher, a parent who wants to know about the books your kids are reading, or just somebody who would like to read but just doesn’t have the time,

FreeBookNotes.com is a useful tool for quick book reading.

Free Spanish Lessons

2008-11-04T20:28:00.000-05:00

No habla Espanol? No problemo!

Learn basic Spanish with Study Spanish, a website that features free basic Spanish tutorials. Although the website actually sells CDs of conversational Spanish lessons, the free resources available on the website are very useful and extensive. It's a great way to start learning about one of the most spoken languages in the world.

Study Spanish presents lessons that are easy to understand. The grammar explanation is in-depth starting with the gender of nouns - the use of el and la. It also has a long list of vocabulary words which are categorized, cultural notes about the language, idiomatic expressions used in everyday conversation, and sample quizzes. It also has "Listen and Repeat" drills to help you pronounce the words like a native speaker.

The site is useful to anyone who either needs to study the basic of the language, or to just brush up on the Spanish lessons learned in high school.

Free Superhero Maker

2008-10-01T00:01:00.006-04:00

Move over Superman! Now, everyone can be a superhero with this cool application from Kodak - Make Me Super, a website that makes anybody feel like a member of the Justice League. Make Me Super transforms you into a superhero instantly with a video and picture to boot. All for free!

The website is really fun to try. I got a kick out of making a video of my "super husband." First, choose your gender. Second, enter your superhero name or what you want to be called, (Super Mom, Super Girl, etc.). Third, upload a picture that you want to be placed on the superhero face template. You can choose a picture either from your Kodak Gallery account or from your desktop. Once the picture has been uploaded, adjust the size of the picture by scaling or rotating it to fit the face template. Then click on the video button and enjoy your superhero 10 seconds of fame. You can also share the superhero video with your "super friends" through e-mail. Also as a bonus, you can download your superhero picture onto your computer!

So go ahead and see if you look good in a spandex and a cape. :)

I Love Your Blog Award

2008-09-12T12:14:00.003-04:00

Wow, I am really honored to have been awarded the I LOVE YOUR BLOG Award from The Freebie Blogger. What a joy to be considered such, even if lately I haven't been updating this blog due to my super crazy work schedule. Thank you, The Freebie Blogger!

The rules of the award are as follows:

1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of those you have nominated.

So "paying it forward", I would like to give the I Love Your Blog Award to:

Freebie Trading - legitimate ways to make money on the Internet

Me Find Home - homeless animals in the Philippines in need of help, features great photos too

Designs of Tattoos - informative and comprehensive guide to all about tattoos

Paperback Designs - offers free chic and amazing blogger templates

Tip Junkie - creative crafts and ideas for the whole family

Kay's K9s...& Kritters - artistic, unique handcrafted dogs and cats miniatures

Freebie Blogger - real guide to free goodies...(to Freebie Blogger, you don't need to write back another I Love Your Blog award :) )

Totally Fun and Free Online Games

2008-08-16T20:28:00.009-04:00

Bored? Need to kill time but do not have anything to do? Or perhaps, you need a short break from what you're doing? Visit Friv for free, fun and addicting games.

Friv offers 200 free games, from easy to difficult. The website combines some of the best flash online games, which are displayed randomly in small squares. They are neither categorized nor arranged alphabetically, but the games' titles are revealed as you point the mouse on them.

From Tetris to Sudoku, Friv's selection of games is very vast. If you get tired of playing action games, you can go back and try a puzzle game. Because of so many selection of games available, just deciding on what to try first could take a lot of your time. But surely, once you get started, you definitely won't notice the time passed by.

Free Printable Graph & Line Paper

2008-08-06T07:46:00.005-04:00

Need graph paper for a calculus project fast? Ran out of music sheet template? No worries, you can easily get some from Printable Paper, a website that offers hundreds of free lined paper to download and print.

Printable Paper is an awesome tool, especially for students who use a lot of graph and other lined papers for school projects and assignments. Its got polar, octagon and hexagon graph paper and isometric paper, while their selection of grid paper come in a variety of square dimensions and line thickness.

If you are a musically-inclined person, or someone who composes arrangements, this website offers free printable music paper that comes with various number of staves. They also have chord and tablature paper.

The website also offers free printable penmanship paper, which is useful if your child is just learning. These penmanship papers are best for handwriting practices.

All free printable paper styles are available in PDF format and come in letter, legal and A4 sizes. Also, if you see a type of graph or line paper you need, but it's not available on the website, you can always let the developers know about it, and maybe soon, they will have it on the site.

Send Free Photo Messages

2008-07-31T18:03:00.001-04:00

If you can't say your message in words, then say it in picture, Polariod style!

Using a Polaroid-style background, Photo Notes lets you send cool photo messages to your friends and loved ones for free. It is so easy to use. Even children can "play" with Photo Notes.

To start, choose a photo that you want to send and upload it. Then, choose a polariod-style frame that you want to use for that photo. Next, click on a style font and color you want. Type your message on the box provided. Be concise as possible, as you only have a maximum of 50 letters for your message. Click preview.

If you're satisfied with your photo and message, enter the e-mail address of your recipient(s). You may also import e-mail addresses from your address book. Lastly, to make sure that it's a human who is using the Photo Notes services, enter the code shown and press e-mail. Your recipient(s) will get your photo message within minutes.

I had fun using Photo Notes, and I admit it was quite addicting. Here are some photos I made from the website. These are photos of some of the lovable dogs available for adoption at the Peninsula SPCA:

Sinatra is a brindle male German Shepherd Dog and Boxer mix; Peaches is a purebred Staffordshire Bull Terrier; Muttley is a sociable black and white Labrador Retriever mix.

Send BIG files up to 2GB free!

2008-07-30T18:43:00.003-04:00

When my husband and I needed to quickly send our 1.35GB video message for my sister's wedding last month, I had a hard time looking for a website that could let me send a file that big for free. It was quite frustrating searching for a website that could do it, because most of the free file sharing applications only allow you to upload a file for a maximum of 100 MB. But alas, discovering Filemail was an answered prayer!

Filemail is a file sharing website that allows you to send documents, photos, videos and other files for up to 2GB. But what's even better is, you do not need to create an account, log in or verify an e-mail to do this. Upload your file directly on to the website (uploading can take a while depending on how big your file is), enter your recipient's e-mail address and your e-mail address. You can also include a message to your recipient.

Filemail sends your recipient an e-mail containing the link where the file(s) can be downloaded. It also mentions the number of times the file can be downloaded and the number of days it will be available on their server.

Even if it took me two hours to upload our video message. But still, using Filemail was totally worth it.

Free Birthdays & Events Reminder

2008-07-24T18:43:00.011-04:00

If you're the type of person who has difficulty remembering dates such as birthdays and anniversaries, then you need the help of Remime. It's an easy-to-use website that sends you free reminders of those special dates and appointments you don't ever want to miss. Now you can greet grandma exactly on her birthday or send a congratulatory present to a friend on time.

Remime categorizes the dates into birthdays and events. You can put as much or as little information you want about these dates. For birthdays, you can add your friend's e-mail address, mobile phone and homepage. And if you don't know their birthdays, the website allows you to send an e-mail to your friends and ask them about it. For events, you can set up the alarm type (if event is one-time or repeating) and include tags to better organize them.

Remime allows unlimited number of dates on your account, so put in as many dates and events you possibly can think of. To save the birthdays and reminders, you need to create a free account and verify it through the e-mail address you've provided them.

Because you've been reminded by Remime, you will never have to miss your child's ball game, a wedding anniversary or even a cousin's birthday.

Create a photo mosaic for free

2008-07-19T21:19:00.006-04:00

Now you can create your own photo mosaic, without the hassle of compiling thousands of photos on your favorite photo editing tool.

PicArtia lets you create free online photo mosaics in a breeze. This cool mosaic creator is fun, simple and totally easy to use. First, select a photo that you want to transform into a beautiful mosaic. You can upload a picture from your computer or from the Internet. Then, click on the gallery and select a category, which includes paintings, flowers and birds, among others. You can also view the photos of each category before deciding on choosing one. The photos from the category will compose your mosaic. After you've decided on a category, you can now finalize the setting of your mosaic.

Finally, provide a name and an e-mail address where you want the mosaic to be sent. PicArtia will send you an e-mail with a code that you will use for downloading it, which will be in high resolution. You can also share your mosaic to your friends by e-mail or by embedding it on your social networking site.

PicArtia is a fun and addictive tool. You can also use it to make unique event invitation, gifts or greeting cards to your friends and family. I only hope that in the future they will add more categories in their gallery, or include a feature where you can use your own photos as the composition for creating a mosaic.

Above mosaic is a photo of Toby, a fun-loving hound and beagle mix, that is available for adoption at the Peninsula SPCA.

Free Rhyming Tool

2008-07-17T23:47:00.004-04:00

A song, a story,
Or a poem to say sorry.
Here's a website to find a rhyme,
Even when you are pressed for time.

Whether you are a poet, a lyricist or someone simply looking for a rhyme for a word, Write Rhymes is the website you can bank on. Simple, direct and easy to use, Write Rhymes is a cool rhyming machine that does not require any registration, password or e-mail verification. It directly provides the user the rhymes for words.

To start, type in the text, press alt and click on the word that needs rhyming. The website then shows you all the words that rhyme with it, from one to three-syllable words. When you're finished, you can copy, print or save your work as text document.

So whatever piece you are working on, perhaps a song, a rap or a poem, you can rely on Write Rhymes for the "right rhymes."

By the way, does anybody know a word that rhymes with orange?

Free High Quality Wallpapers

2008-07-13T00:09:00.005-04:00

Jazz up your computer's wallpaper with free high quality wallpaper designs from the website, Your #1 Wallpapers Resource. If you're tired of seeing the same wallpaper selection from your PC, the Wallpapers Resource offers unique and interesting pictures of various wallpaper categories, such as architecture, nature, places, and my favorite, animals. It also has wallpaper of abstract, movies, cartoons and Vista-themed designs. For car enthusiasts, there're a lot of stylish car wallpapers to choose from.

Downloading the wallpaper is easy. Just right click on the wallpaper you want to download, and click "Save as..." You don't even need to register or set a password!

Designed as a blog, the site is a free wallpaper service from Share2life.com. I look forward to more wallpaper designs from this site. :)

Free Budgeting Tool

2008-07-05T23:45:00.006-04:00

While at the supermarket, my husband, who noticed that a gallon of milk cost higher than a gallon of gas, asked, “Is there a shortage of cows?” Well, there might not be, but the rising cost of gas does seem to affect the price of everything. The key to living within the means of your income and keep your spending under control is to budget. A budget helps you prioritize your spending, keep track of your savings and may keep you from having debts.

Most of the time, it is difficult to stick to a budget, and this is where Spendji comes in. As a budget-planning tool for your finances, Spendji helps you make budgeting simple and manageable. It lets you create spending plans for any activity, be it a long-term project like house renovation or an occasional event such as a birthday party.

I like the "cleanliness" of the website's layout. There are no annoying banners or pop up ads, and everything is just simple, direct and easy to navigate. If you're not sure how to begin a budget, you can click an activity listed on a cloud tag of popular things Spendji users are doing, and see suggested budget items. For example, click on vacation and the suggested budget items include airfare, airport parking, camera, entertainment, etc.

Also, if you do not want to budget alone, you can share your spendji budget plan with friends, family, or even an entire organization. Import addresses from your e-mail account (Yahoo, G-mail, Hotmail, Outlook or Plaxo) and invite your friends to collaborate with you on spending plans. You can even control their level of participation either as administrator, contributor or viewer.

Since Spendji is concerned about how to help you get the best out of your hard-earned money, the budget-website also features "Research Prices." Here, you can compare prices for travel or shopping expenses, such as airfare, car rentals, hotels, and cruises.

More than just a budgeting tool, Spendji also includes a calendar, a to-do-list and a discussion section to keep everybody in your project in sync with everything planned. It even has a money transaction feature, where you can request or receive payments which is powered by Amazon.

There is this saying that "A budget is just a method of worrying before you spend money, as well as afterward." However, with Spendji, it is not about worrying, but creating a clear guideline to spending your money wisely.

Free Classroom Management Tools for Teachers

2008-07-04T12:43:00.010-04:00

Whatever subject you're teaching, whether it is chemistry, algebra or grammar, you know that classroom management is no easy task. There are assignments to check, attendance to record and scores to compute. Instead of spending more time to prepare for the next day's lesson, the "administrative" part of being a teacher takes up a lot of your time. Surely, you deserve a reliable tool that would make managing classes more efficient. A good friend has inspired me to look for a free Internet tool that would help her, along with everyone who are into the "noblest profession of all" that is, teaching.

Engrade is a website dedicated to helping teachers with classroom management online. Its features include free online posting of the grades and attendance of your students, the assignments, and upcoming projects for your class. It is easy to use so teachers who are technically-challenged will be able to set up their own account and use the website's features with ease. As mentioned in its video demo, the website can be used by any teacher from any country and language.

To start with the class creation page, enter your class information such as the class name, school year and grading period. Set up the grading scale you want. The site has a pre-grading option which allows Engrade to automatically calculate the grades. Or, you can customize it depending on your needs.

Next, you can create assignment categories like tests, quizzes and homeworks. You may choose to include if the assignments weigh in the total grades of your students. For quizzes, for example, you can choose to say that they constitute 30% of the total grade. After that, you may start typing in the name of your students where you assign a unique number for them, which they will use as code to log in and view their grades on the website. You may use their student ID number as their code. You can always edit your classroom settings even after you've created the class page.

As mentioned, aside from the gradebook, Engrade also features an online calendar where you can display upcoming activities, projects and deadlines. You can also upload files for up to 50 MB. Now, your students do not have anymore excuse for not knowing when an assignment is due since the online calendar is accessible 24/7.

One of the great things about the website is it aids in improving communication between you and the parents of your students. Oftentimes, parents are busy with their work and do not have time to drop by the school to talk to you. With the website, you can allow parents to send you messages and let them view the grades of their children, see their progress and be up-to-date with what's going on.

Since we know that students always refer to the Internet for their research, it helps to let them know that their teacher also reaches to them online and gives them access to view their grades. If you haven't done so, it's time to bring your classroom on cyberspace through Engrade.

Free Sign-up Sheets

2008-06-29T17:54:00.009-04:00

Organizing a product launch? Throwing a birthday party for a friend or loved one? Whatever event you plan to hold, knowing the number of people who will show up is important. Instead of merely calling, why not provide your guests with an alternative way to confirm their attendance? You can count on Sign-up-sheet.com for a manageable way of keeping tab of your guests' attendance by creating free customizable sign-up sheets. Plus, if most of your guests or target audience are web-savvy, Sign-up-sheet.com might be a more convenient way for them to register to your event.

To get started, sign up by creating a free account. You will then receive a welcome e-mail from the website to confirm your e-mail address. Click on the link for confirmation and then log in. There are four steps in setting up your sheet. The first step is to input the general information of your event, such as the sheet title, description and maximum number of guests who will sign up. Whether your gig is only for 10 persons or for 1,000 guests, there's no limit as to the number of sign ups.

The next step is naming the sheet web address, which is how the users/invitees will access the sheet. The address should be in lowercase and contains no spaces. As advised on the website, try to make it simple and meaningful for your users to easily find the sheet.

The third step is setting up the time period. Click on a date on when you want the sheet posted or when you want to make it unavailable. Make sure you have the correct time zone when you were signing up to create an account.

The last step is customizing your sheet. The options include getting additional information from your users or sending them an e-mail confirmation about their attendance. It is also here where you may want to make your sheet private by creating a password. Or, you could also write a thank you message or add your own website address on the "Custom Thank You" feature.

Sign-up-sheet.com also provides icons to show your sheet's status. A plus sign means that the sheet is currently active and accepting sign ups. A sheet with a padlock icon means that it is private and requires a password to sign up. A red X on the sheet means that it is not currently posted and is not accepting sign ups. The website also has a waiting list capability and allows you to print and download the sheet onto your desktop.

Although the website's features are user friendly, very direct and with no annoying pop-up ads, I've noticed some "glitches" after I tried to register on the sample sheet I've set up. The site told me that it couldn't find the sheet, even if it has already been posted. But when I checked the sign ups, the attendance has been updated. I recommend that you enable the e-mail confirmation feature to let your guests know if their registration went through. The website also needs to be proofread as I've noticed a lot of typographical errors.

But even with these "minor errors", still Sign-up-sheet.com is a useful tool for every event planner. As organizing an event requires a lot of attention to details, the website saves you from the stress of determining if only a few or too many guests will be showing up to your event, giving you time to solve an attendance problem. So for your next shindig, you can rely on Sign-up-sheet.com for a hassle-free guest tracking.

Send video messages for free

2008-06-24T21:36:00.008-04:00

"Eye can see you!" That's what Eyejot is about. It's an e-mail, a voice mail, and a video chat rolled into one.

Eyejot takes e-mail a notch higher by letting you send video messages for free and making Internet communication more personal. Using it is as easy as sending a regular e-mail, as shown from one of its sample videos of a grandmother using Eyejot to communicate with her daughter and grandson. There's nothing to install or download. All you need is a webcam, a microphone and a fast internet connection. You can then create a free account and start recording your video messages for your friends, family or business associates. Your free account allows you to send unlimited video messages with 60-second duration. But if you want additional seconds, you may sign up for a "Pro" account.

Even if you are camera shy, Eyejot is enjoyable (and can be addicting) to use. Using the site, my husband and I sent a video message to my father-in-law showing our new apartment. He was able to view it better, instead of us just sending pictures of our new home.

From Eyejot Website:
Eyejot is the first, comprehensive, client-free online video messaging platform ideal for both personal and business communications. It offers everyone the ability to create and receive free video messages in a self-contained, spam-free environment. With no client to install, you can start using Eyejot immediately with any browser, on any platform.

100% Free Online Movies & TV Shows

2008-06-21T09:38:00.011-04:00

Treat yourself for a good movie and save on gas by instead by watching your favorite movie or show online. Hulu is a website that allows you to watch movies and TV free online. It's a collaboration of movie/TV network bigwigs like NBC, Universal and News Corp.

TV Shows and movies are arranged alphabetically, by popularity, ratings or date added, and according to networks. So if you're a fan of Comedy Central like my husband, you can watch The Colbert Report or The Daily Show with Jon Stewart online.

Although its list is not as extensive as SurftheChannel, Hulu offers better quality resolution of videos. Videos are crisp and "studio-like." You can also clip a video, embed it on your social networking site and blog, or e-mail it to your friends.

Not all movies on Hulu are full-length, some are just clips. Also, expect 7 to 30-sec advertisements in between the programs, since I think this is how the website gets its revenues.

Free Fast Online Dictionary

2008-06-19T14:11:00.005-04:00

Need to know a meaning of a word fast? You need Ninja Words, a fast free online dictionary.

With no other fancy stuff, Ninja Words is simple, easy to use, and lives up to the meaning of its name. Like a ninja, the dictionary-website gives you really fast results on searching for word meanings. Type on the search box the word that you need to define, press the look up button, and almost instantly the online dictionary provides you with a list of definitions. You you even can look up more than one word at a time. Just type in all the words and separate them with a comma. They will not take a minute to load, perhaps because the website does not contain advertisements that can cause delays.

Ninja Words also displays a history of words you've looked up so that when you want to go back and check it's meaning, you can just click on that word instead of typing it again.

Free Dance Lessons

2008-06-18T21:37:00.009-04:00

Impress your friends on the dance floor and feel like a contestant on So You Think You Can Dance by learning all the right moves on DanceJam, a website created for anyone who loves to dance or just wants to learn how. MC Hammer, late '80s-early '90s rap icon, created this website, which has been called the YouTube of dance. People from all over the world post videos of themselves or their group dancing. There's a free registration if you want to upload a video or post comments, but you can access almost all the site's main features without signing in.

DanceJam contains a comprehensive list of different dance steps, from "Breakdancing" to the New York originated "Chicken Noodle Soup." Each dance step includes interesting information about the dance and video lessons on how to do it. I was surprised to know that Krumping came from the acronym KRUMP which means Kingdom of Radically Uplifted Mighty Praise. How's that for a dance move?! From the number of videos available, Popping seems to be the most popular with over a hundred dance videos uploaded.

As DanceJam also works as a social networking site, the website offers "Battles", which is a virtual dance showdown among its members. For instance, a dancer from Illinois, USA can compete against a dancer from Netherlands. Each one uploads a video showcasing his/her dance skills. Visitors then watch each video and vote for the best one.

So if "Running Man" is the only dance step you know, dig into DanceJam to learn a new strut.

Free Hotel Bedbug Reports

2008-06-16T15:04:00.010-04:00

Traveling or staying at a hotel for a vacation can be fun and exciting! And what better way to cap off a day's trip than staying in a soft, comfy hotel bed without fear of being bitten by bedbugs? Yes, those pesky, annoying, wingless creatures that prey on us warm-bloodied creatures as we sleep. But how can you know if the hotel where you're planning on staying during your travel has been reported of bedbug infestation?

A website called Bedbug Registry was designed to help travelers check if a hotel has or hasn't been infested with bedbugs. View first-hand accounts of people who have experienced staying in a hotel with bedbugs! The website has a database of hotels' and buildings' reports from across the US and Canada. So far, I have not found any hotels that we've stayed in in the past, and that's a big relief.

Bedbug Registry guarantees anonymity to anyone who will report about a hotel with bedbug infestation. However, it also leaves a disclaimer that they cannot guarantee the veracity of bedbug reports submitted, and encourages people to contact them for any errors on the site.

More than a service to travelers, I think Bedbug Registry can also serve as a good warning to hotels in ensuring that their place is free of bedbugs, lest their hotel end up being listed on the website.

Now that summer's officially kicked in in this part of the planet, a Bedbug-free vacation could help travelers make the most out of the warm season.

Free Funky Avatar Creator

2008-06-15T19:06:00.013-04:00

Want an original and personalized avatar?

BeFunky lets you create and customized a personalized avatar for free through its Cartoonizer, Uvatar and Video Cartoonizer. Creating an avatar is made simple as it provides an animated step-by-step use of the site's features.

The Cartoonizer instantly transforms your pictures into a sketch or a digital painting. Simply upload a favorite picture from your desktop, a webcam or any website, then click "sketch" and watch the picture instantly become cartoonized. You can adjust the level of sketch, add color, or warp the picture. You can also add "goodies" like frames, jewelry, or text.

The Uvatar is my favorite feature of the avatar-creating website because of the variety of options you can do with it. Choose a picture where the whole face is visible. Using the site's tracing tool, click the areas of the face that you'll be using for the avatar. Choose a gender of your avatar and adjust the size of the face on the avatar body selected. The fun part comes in choosing the avatar's clothes, costumes and background to go with your style. When you're finished creating your avatar, you can share your avatar with friends, or post it on your favorite social network.

If it's not too late and you're still thinking of a unique (or belated) gift for your dad for Father's Day, log on to BeFunky and create an uber-unique avatar for him. The avatar picture on this entry is actually a picture that my husband and I made out of our (his) dad's picture. To us, he is truly a Super Hero!

Free Picture Editor

2008-06-12T17:22:00.011-04:00

For easy and instant adding of oomph to your pictures, Picnik is one site you could count on. It is a free online picture editor that makes picture editing as easy as, well, just going on a picnic.

Picnik is user-friendly and does not require much technical expertise. You don't have to download any software to start using it. Once you've signed up for a free account, the website lets you edit your picture that are stored on photo-sharing websites like Flickr, Facebook, or Photobucket. You may also upload your pictures directly from your computer, a webcam, or from results of a Yahoo search.

The editing tools of Picnik are very direct and properly arranged. You will not get confused or overwhelmed by what tools to use. Although most of them are standard such as cropping, sharpening, auto-fixing and rotating, there are many effects to choose from which are easy and so much fun to use. You can posterize, pixelate, add tint or even gooify your pictures. Just click on the effect you want and adjust it according to how you much effect you like. And if you're not satisfied, you can always undo the effects you've made.

My favorite part on the digital editor website is the polariod frame effect. Again, using my husband's picture when he was a child (I totally adore his child pics!), here's a sample picture I edited on the website:

Like most free online picture editors, Picnik does not have the advanced features of Photoshop. But it surely is one useful website you will want to bookmark.

Free Educational Games for Kids

2008-06-11T22:32:00.012-04:00

Welcome Tutpup, a new website for children that offers free educational online games. It's a good venue for your child to improve on his/her math and spelling skills, as the website features four types of games: Math, Spelling, Math-Mix, and Times Tables. Each game, which lasts for a minute, has several levels of difficulty ranging from "Easy Peasy" to "Smarty Pants."

Tutpup works by letting your child compete with children from other countries. Each is represented by an animal and a color of their choice. Your child can be a pink cat, a golden koala or a blue crab. This definitely can spark some imagination and creativity!

Although Tuptup allows quick games, it is still best to sign up for a free account so your child may build his/her own "Win-Wall", where the games won are displayed. The site also has a graduation feature which lets you track your child's progress on the different levels of the games.

Since Tutpup is an educational games website for kids, it is proper and very protective of its users. Your child will need to get your approval before he/she can play these educational games on the website. Once your child signs up, you will receive an e-mail from Tutpup asking for your confirmation on letting your child play their online games on their site. Also, the website does not allow its users to communicate with the other players. For example, there is no area for players to chat or send messages. I think this is good since you can never really tell if your child is up against another child or an adult.

Overall, Tutpup is a welcome addition to the few good learning online educational sites dedicated to children as it offers purely free educational games without any disturbing ads and pop ups.

Free Plagiarism Protection

2008-06-09T21:52:00.014-04:00

I put a lot of effort into my writing. Before I feature a website on this blog, I try it out first and/or sign up for it so I could write well about it. Sadly, there are some who just copy other people's writings and ideas without acknowledging the source. My best friend, who runs a website on Freebie Trading, was a victim of this. Several people copied her website verbatim! Just an example of how plagiarism has truly become a rampant problem on the Internet.

Therefore, I'm thankful that there's a service like Copyscape. It's really a laudable project, and a very useful tool for writers and bloggers. Copyscape is a website that helps you discover if your content has been copied without your permission. It works like a search engine. Just type in your URL and Copyscape searches for websites that have copied your content, including those that have the same sentences as yours. Pretty neat, huh?

One cool thing about Copyscape is that it provides free plagiarism warning banners that you could post on your website. Of course, you should only post such banner if the content is originally yours. The banner may not totally protect you from "copycats", but hopefully it decreases the chances of your content being copied without your permission.

Copyscape's free service allows you up to 10 searches a month, while a premium account provides you with thousands of searches and an unlimited number of results.

So plagiarists, beware. The next time you attempt to plagiarize someone else's work, there's Copyscape to track you down and expose you.

Free Jigsaw Puzzles

2008-06-08T21:41:00.015-04:00

My high school best friend got me hooked into this: Jigzone, a free online jigsaw puzzle website where you can solve puzzles ranging from the easy 6-piece to the difficult and dizzying 247-piece triangle-shaped puzzle.

As mentioned on its website, Jigzone is truly a jigsaw paradise as it has got thousands of puzzles to choose from. Every day, the jigsaw website features a puzzle of the day. If you don't like the day's featured puzzle, you can view the puzzles from their gallery, which are categorized according to their theme.

Registration to the jigsaw puzzle site is not required, as you can just play instantly. However, it's still best to sign up for a free account so you can compete with your friends and share your "solve times" with them. But the best part of having a account is on this jigsaw website is that you can upload your pictures, and turn them into your own jigsaw puzzles, which you can post on your website, or send as a puzzle postcard to your loved ones. Here's a picture jigsaw puzzle I made with my husband's baby picture:

Like real jigsaw puzzles, Jigzone can be truly addicting. I'll bet once you've tried a jigsaw, you'll never be content with solving just one puzzle.

Free Online File Storage

2008-06-07T22:06:00.005-04:00

It often bothered me that in order to open some of my files from another computer, I had to save them on to a USB disk drive or e-mail them to myself. It took up so much time. Well, 4Shared freed me from doing that whole process.

4Shared is an online file storage hosting site that lets you store files online, and share them too. Upload documents, pictures, music, or even videos, and access them anywhere without having to worry about using a different computer.

4Shared is easy to use file storage. You don't need to download or install any software, just register to sign in. It's like creating a folder in a "My Documents" folder since the layout is similar. It also doesn't take too long to upload your files, even if you select the "multi-upload." This online file storage website also provides a link for each folder or file to share to your friends or colleagues.

The maximum online storage space for a free account is 5GB! Not bad considering that the storage website can serve as an online data backup for your important files. You may upgrade to a paid account if you want more space.

From the 4Shared website:
"4shared provides its users with high-quality free online file hosting and sharing services. Our staff is a team of highly qualified specialists in the sphere of programming, web-design, and marketing."

Free Snapshots Of Your Website

2008-06-06T21:31:00.007-04:00

Forget about pressing the "Print Screen" when taking a picture of your website. Instead, try SnapCasa, a web application that takes a free snapshot and thumbnail of any web page without much delay.

I like how SnapCasa encourages its visitors to try their service. You don't feel pressured to sign up just to know how the website works. Just input the website's URL and SnapCasa gives you a screenshot of the website in four sizes. Here are the thumbnails of this blog when I tried the website's service:

Signing up for an account is free. Once you've signed up, you need to post a special IMG code into your website to link it to SnapCasa so that the screenshots can be updated regularly.

From SnapCasa website:

"Snapshots appear with no delay if they have been captured before. Depending on server load new snapshots may be processed in realtime or are placed in a queue. Snapshots are updated periodically depending on how often the site being captured is updated and the demand for the particular snapshot."

Free Money Management for Kids (and Parents)

2008-06-05T23:44:00.009-04:00

Who says money management is just for adults? Through Zefty, children learn to manage their money for free, using a virtual money and a virtual bank account. Zefty is a website where parents can help their children learn how to spend their money wisely, and responsibly.

Zefty lets the parents set up a virtual bank account for their children by depositing an a virtual amount of "money" as their allowance. Parents may add more, or withdraw some money from it as desired. A "ZeftyCalc" assists in calculating an estimate allowance for the kids by basing it on the household income, child's age, difficulty of the chore, and frequency of giving the money.

Once the virtual bank account has been set up, the parents may then sign in their children to the site and guide them on how to spend their money. The kids may add or subtract money depending on how much they want to spend. For example, if a child wants to spend some money on a video game, the ZeftyCalc can estimate the number of days (or months) the child needs to save so he/she can have the money to buy that game.

The website also has a cool feature on teaching children how to sign a check. Through its "ZeftyCheck," children can generate a check with the amount of money that they want, download it, and print it for free.

Zefty may not involve real money, but it does serve as a great Internet-bonding-moment between parents and their children, as well as teach children how to manage their money (now and in the future) wisely. Definitely something invaluable, and cannot be measured by real money.

Build your own online library for free

2008-06-04T12:04:00.007-04:00

I love reading books, and I've always dreamed of having my own library. But because limited, I've decided to build my library online for free at Shelfari.

Shelfari is a website where you can build lists of books that you've read, and rate them as well. I like the visuals on Shelfari. They provide the cover page of the books, and are literally displayed on a shelf. You can also add more information about a book, write a review, or include the date that you read it. You can put as many books as you want for free. And you don't have to own the book to add it to your shelf, but if you do, whether you read it or not, you can add it. My husband added every book he owns to his Shelfari book shelf.

Since Shelfari is also a social network, you can make friends with other book lovers worldwide and exchange notes on books that you like or dislike. Let others know if you're reading the book now or if you already have read it, or if you would like to read a certain book. There are also book interest groups that you may join, as well as receive updates from your favorite artists who have Shelfari book shelves (and many do!).

On a not-so-good side of Shelfari though, I’ve read some articles about the site using all your contacts to invite them to sign up without your knowledge, so please be careful.

Free Online Freelancer Portfolio

2008-06-03T19:42:00.008-04:00

Being a freelancer can be a challenge, for you constantly need to look for clients and ensure that they keep you. But what's more challenging is marketing your freelance service and being discovered by organizations that need your service.

Created by Brian Konradt, a freelancer-turned-Internet-entrepreneur, FreelancePortfolios lets freelancers create free portfolios online so that they can advertise their freelancing services and get clients locally and internationally. On the homepage, you can view the featured freelancers, as well as the newest and most popular freelancers on the site. A typical portfolio on the website shows a person's specialty, his/her e-mail address, location, summary of qualifications and sometimes, the rate for the services.

Since the website also has a section on Writing Jobs, most of the members are writers. But it does also cater to freelancers of many disciplines such as, photography, graphic designing, and marketing.

FreelancePortfolios' website is maintained by webmasters of Freelancewriting.com.

Free Name Tag Creator

2008-05-31T22:48:00.014-04:00

If you're like me who depends on name tags to remember people's names when in a gathering, then you'll enjoy Big.first.name, a web application for creating free name tags.

True to its website's name, the sizes they provided for the name tags are really BIG, thus making it easier for people to read and recall names. This is an ideal tool for any event such as seminars, conferences, or product launches.

To create your big name tags, you must first register on the website. Once logged in, add an event title then click on "Add Nametags" and start encoding your guests' names. If you don't feel like typing and already have a file of your guests' names, you can upload them onto the site. They provide an instruction on the file format, although I think your file should be in spreadsheet.

After you're done with the names of your guests, you can preview the layout of your tags in PDF format. If you still want to adjust the size of the tags, you can choose another layout for them. A preview of the available tag layouts are available by clicking "Avery Templates" on the homepage. You can also make your name tags colorful by assigning different colors for the big first name, full name and details, and the footer. Don't forget to customize the footer because the default footer is the website of Big.first.names. When you're finished editing your tags, click on print.

Big.first.name provides examples of real nametags created from their website.

Related Links:
Free ID card maker
Free brochure maker
Free certificate templates
Free scrapbooking kits

Free Travel Checklists

2008-05-30T21:19:00.012-04:00

Let's see, vacation list: remembered the milk, took out the garbage, turned off the lights, remembered the sunblock, unplugged the computer, locked the door...did you forget anything? Are you sure? Oh wait, DontForgetYourToothbrush!

DontForgetYourToothbrush is a UK-based website that helps you plan the things you need for your travel or vacation. It serves as a free personalized travel checklist by giving you planning and packing lists depending on the type of travel you're planning, whether it's a beach vacation or a European driving vacation. The website's planning list contains recommended activities you will need to do from months before your vacation, up to the day you leave your place. The list is very extensive, from checking the validity of your passport to unplugging your computer and TV in case of lightning strike during your travel. To personalize your planning list, check the boxes beside the activities that you want added to your list.

Once you're planning list is done, the website then takes you to its list of recommended things to pack. The list is categorized by clothing, cosmetics and medication, documents, etc. There's also a packing list for your baby or your pet. When you've finalized all your lists, you can then print them and/or choose to receive e-mails, reminding you of your checklist items.

As traveling can be stressful, DontForgetYourToothbrush helps you keep your sanity when planning for travel. The website's name may sound funny, but it's no laughing matter when you forget your favorite swimsuit on your way to a vacation in Bahamas, or your toothbrush on a romantic getaway.

Free Brochure Maker

2008-05-29T16:04:00.010-04:00

Here's a useful tool for small businesses and organizations that have little or no budget in producing company print collaterals.

My Brochure Maker is a free web-based application that makes it available for everyone to create professional-looking brochures and flyers. It is simple and easy to use even if you don't have any knowledge on desktop publishing.

Click on the "Get Started" button to begin. A new window will appear where you'll be creating your brochure. Select the type of brochure you want to create, and then choose which theme you want. Do not worry if the theme you like is not in the selection. You can always replace the stock photos with your own and customize it according to the brochure theme you want. Each theme has already been laid out. All you need to do is provide the text for the spaces available. I strongly advise that you finalize your text before you start doing your brochure or flyer, because it is difficult to edit them on the website.

After you're done with the text and have reviewed everything, click "Next" to print your brochure. There will be instructions on how you can print it properly. In case you cannot yet finalize your brochure, you can save your work without having to create an account. Just give your e-mail address, and the website will provide a link for you to retrieve your project.

My Brochure Maker might not have any of the advance editing tools that other professional design software have, but it's got the basic tools needed which are simple and easy to follow. And best of all, it is free! Students and non-profit organizations might also find this application useful for their projects, campaigns, or events. It's a great tool for everyone who does not know how to use Adobe Photoshop, does not like MS Publisher, or have the budget to buy expensive desktop publishing software.

Here are some more resources to help you create a great and readable brochure:

A stylish way to advertise your blog for free

2008-05-28T14:09:00.011-04:00

I never realized that there are so many websites to advertise your blog until I joined several forums. Although most are free, some require certain conditions before they advertise or include your blog in their list. BlogUpp is an easy way to advertise your blog for free.

Launched in March 2008, BlogUpp was created to provide real value for the online community. It's got a unique way of promoting your blog by linking it to other blogs with the same category. It's also very easy to use. You don't need to register, sign up, or participate in forums. Just enter your blog's URL, copy the code for the widget, and wait for their approval which doesn't take too long. You may already put the widget on your blog page while your blog is being approved.

Perhaps one of the great things about this blog promoting service is that for every 10 readers of your blog, BlogUpp will show it to 9 other readers. This increases more traffic for your blog without any efforts on your part. What they do is take a picture of your blog and read your RSS on a regular basis. The number of blogs varies from language to language, and they are not mixed while sharing. Right now, the number of blogs on BlogUpp is rapidly increasing, which means more exposure for your blog. If you want to know how it works, you can check the widget on the right side of this blog.

According to the authors of the site, BlogUpp service will remain free and quality-content oriented. They said that they will soon be introducing, along with stats, the possibility for everyone to buy additional impressions for extra promotion. I hope when they said "buy additional impressions" they don't mean we will have to begin to pay for it.

With a lot of blog advertising venues to choose from, BlogUpp is definitely one worth trying.

Get free recipes based on ingredients that you already have

2008-05-27T21:27:00.010-04:00

I admit, I'm such a lazy cook. Oftentimes, I find myself staring blankly at our pantry or the inside of our refrigerator and I'll still be clueless on what food to cook. We would have meat, pasta, veggies, and spices, but I still wouldn't know which would go best with what ingredient. But now, I've found a new savior to help me during those what-can-I-cook-today moments.

RecipeMatcher is a website that helps you generate free recipes based on ingredients that you already have. Just enter your available ingredients and RecipeMatcher will come up with tons of recommended free recipes based those ingredients. The free recipes are ranked based on the ingredients that you already have. They also show you the additional ingredients you may need.

With RecipeMatcher, you may either sign up for a free account or just go directly to the "What's in your pantry?" area and input your ingredients. One good advantage of having a free account on the website is that you can have an ePantry where you can keep an inventory of all your groceries and ingredients that you have at home.

Aside from free recipes, RecipeMatcher can also generate alcoholic drinks based on what's in your bar.

Free Online Video Editor

2008-05-26T21:49:00.007-04:00

UPDATE: As of June 2009, Yahoo has decided to discontinue Jumpcut.

Yes, you can edit your videos online for free. Jumpcut is a free online video editing tool that makes it easy for you to create/edit a video whether or not you are knowledgeable on video editing.

What makes Jumpcut easy to use is its drag and drop feature. Upload a photo, video or music and automatically adds a template for you. You can also add titles, transitions or cool effects. It may take a while though for some videos or music to load or when you want to preview your work. I strongly recommend a fast and reliable internet connection when you're working on your video on this website.

Some videos on are public and are remixable, that is, you can edit them in whatever style you want. But if you want to keep your video private or final, you can choose to label it "not remixable."

I discovered Jumpcut in 2007 after my then boyfriend (now husband) and I got engaged. I wanted to surprise him with a short video of "our story," but I didn't have any video editing software in our PC, nor do I have any video editing skills. I searched online for any free video editing tool and saw. The website can be a little slow, but I was satisfied with the results.

With its many great features, there's only one thing that disappoints me. The website doesn't allow you to download your video. You can only share it by e-mail or posting a code to your website.

Free Fonts

2008-05-25T16:21:00.010-04:00

They say fonts help establish the identity of a brand. That's why it is important to choose carefully what font to use when designing a logo. However, if you're someone who wants something more than the limited standard fonts, then check out Dafont.com, a website of free fonts.

DaFont.com is a great font resource for graphic designers and anyone who wants unique and personalized fonts. As of today, they have more than 8,000 fonts available, most of which are free as long as they're not for commercial use.

For easy selection, Dafont.com has categorized their fonts alphabetically, or grouped by its author. But the best way to search for their fonts is through themes. They have font themes that are: Fancy, which has fonts for cartoon, comic, stencil, horror or old school; Foreign Look, such as Arabic, Mexican, Chinese, Japanese and Greek-looking fonts; Techno; Gothic; Script; Dingbats which has animals, aliens, bar code and even sexy type fonts instead of the alphabets.

Dafont.com also makes it easy for you to view the fonts before download. Just click on the font you like and it'll show the rest of the individual letters or characters. When you want to download the font, click on the download icon and the font will be sent to your desktop in a zip file. Instructions are available for both PC and Mac users.

Registration to Dafont.com is optional but not necessary to download their fonts, unless you want to submit your own fonts or leave comments.

Free Online Highlighter

2008-05-24T21:38:00.008-04:00

My husband and I love highlighters. We have almost every color of it - pink, blue, orange, purple, green, and the very common yellow. They're very useful, especially when reading a very interesting book. My husband even uses highlighters to color code sentences that he likes. So imagine our joy when we learned about Awesome Highlighter, a tool to highlight things you think are important on the web. Finally, we can highlight text not just on paper, but also those on the web (and without having to own one of those fancy tablets)!

Awesome Highlighter is a free tool that you can use when you want to highlight a text on a webpage. It helps you show others the important messages you want them to see on a particular webpage. Like the other web applications I've featured on this blog, Awesome Highlighter is easy to use.

Type in the address of the website where you want to highlight some text, and Awesome Highligher will then take you to that website. Using your mouse, start highlighting the text that you want to emphasize. Click "Done" when you're finished. Awesome Highlighter then shows you a summary of the text you've highlighted and the highlighted address. If you're not yet sure about the text you've highlighted, you can also go back by clicking "edit highlights" for any changes you want to make. When you're done highlighting, you have the option of either sending the page by e-mail or copying the highlighted address onto your blog or website.

I like how the website provides a summary of the highlighted text. It makes it easy for the recipient to understand why you're sending them a particular website. You could also make a note on the highlighted webpage for your personal message.

As my husband and I were trying the highlighter application, he couldn't help but say, "awesome!"

From the website:
"The Awesome Highlighter makes it easy to show your friends, co-workers, or the annoying person on the message board the important parts of any web page. By highlighting text, you help the reader focus on what you want them to see."

Free: Appear on a Magazine Cover

2008-05-23T15:26:00.010-04:00

Who says only stars can be magazine covers? With MagMyPic, everybody gets a chance to be on the cover of a (fake) magazine.

MagMyPic has 20 realistic fake magazine covers with the font styles of real and well-known magazine covers. Land on the cover of Vague, Sports Celebrated, or Natural Geography. Whatever title you choose, you grace its cover for free.

The site is very direct and easy to use. You don't have to register or download anything. Just upload a picture you want as a magazine cover. The site then generates a selection of all their fake magazine covers with your selected picture as the cover. Choose which magazine you like and the size, whether small or medium. The website then finalizes your selection and gives you a code to paste onto your sites like My Space, Facebook or Friendster. You can also just right click on the image to save it directly to your desktop.

I had a fun time with this website, especially in putting my dog's picture on their magazine covers. I never thought being on a magazine cover can be this addicting! :)

Free Lecture Notes

2008-05-22T18:10:00.008-04:00

With vast resources readily available online, the Internet has truly become a virtual classroom for all of us. One such site that proves this is Varsity Notes, a website where professors can share their lecture notes to the world. As written in its homepage, it claims to have the "world's largest directory of free lecture notes."

Read a lecture on Corporate Finance from a professor of New York University; learn more about Geophysics from a professor of Cornell University. Enhance your knowledge about Organic Chemistry from a professor of University of Toronto, and get more techniques in Probability and Statistics from professors of Imperial College of London.

Varsity Notes contains lectures ranging from Accounting to Sociology (Biology has the most number of entries). They are available either in pdf format, MS Powerpoint or HTML. College professors and students might find this site useful, although I've noticed that most of the lectures came from professors from universities in North America.

Whatever field you want to study, Varsity Notes shows us that learning knows no boundaries. So go ahead, make your learning "world-class" and maybe a gaining a little knowledge might not be dangerous at all.

Free Online Task Manager

2008-05-21T13:39:00.015-04:00

If you're going bananas over task delegation for your team, then you might need a little help from a monkey. Monkey On Your Back is a simple and very easy-to-use website of to-do lists for other people. Let me explain:

Once you've registered, Monkey On Your Back lets you create a monkey for each task you want to assign to somebody. You may include a brief note about the task and the specific date for its deadline. The website then sends through e-mail a "highly trained, super-intelligent monkey" to let that person know about his/her assignment. Monkey On Your Back will also send e-mail reminders about the task or its deadline. Once a task has been done, you may "kill" the monkey and move on to giving new assignments.

The free basic account lets you send up to five monkeys to remind your people of their task. You can upgrade your account for only $20/year if you enjoy sending more monkeys. I only wish the developers of the program would make the monkeys more colorful or animated to make reading a work assignment more fun and enjoyable.

The next time you're faced with a task, stop monkeying around and get on with your (hopefully not a monkey) business.

Free Online To-Do List Manager

2008-05-20T16:09:00.019-04:00

I am such a "to-do list" person. Call me obsessive-compulsive, but oftentimes, it's only after I've written down the list of things I need to do that I feel organized and ready to start my day. And I get a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction whenever I cross out or check a task on my to-do list. So when I've read about Remember the Milk, I couldn't help but sign up and try this free online task manager.

With the website's cute name, Remember the Milk helps you organize your tasks and categorize them into Personal, Study and Work lists. If you want more than a simple list, you could add more info about a certain task such as its due date, time estimate, location, or simply just add notes about it. There's also a color coding guide to label a task according to your priority.

Remember the Milk is not just for your computer alone. You can take your to-do list with you and be reminded via e-mail, SMS and instant messenger.

With a cool to-do list like that, who wouldn't forget the milk?

Related Links:
Free Travel Checklist
Free Online Task Manager
Free Birthdays & Events Reminder Tool

Other tools to help you keep organized:

Free Website Templates

2008-05-19T16:21:00.006-04:00

If you're aiming for a professional design for your website, but don't have the budget to hire a website designer, then Free Website Templates is a great start for you.

As the name suggests, the website offers totally free website templates. Although there's not much of a selection in terms of designs, the website does have available templates for almost any industry. Plus, the best thing about it is you can modify the templates to suit your style. Their only condition is that you state that you used a template made by them.

Aside from the free downloadable templates, the website also offers a free service called "request a template", provided you already have an existing website. There's also a forum where you can discuss and learn more about website designing.

Free Website Templates is easy to use. No need to register. Just click on the download button and you get the template of your choice in zip file.

Free Web Creation Made Easy

2008-05-18T19:56:00.010-04:00

Now you can create your own website that looks like it has been designed by a pro. True to its slogan "web creation made easy," Weebly is simple and straight forward. It's easy for you to customize and personalize your website. It has a variety of themes and gives personalized subdomain based on your site's name.

I believe that one of the greatest features about Weebly, besides their drag and drop interface, their lack of cost, their free hosting, the 70+free professional designs to customize your website, their blogging features, and ability to publish your domain, is that they don't force advertisements onto your site. Sure you could add them yourself, but you don't HAVE to have them with your free account.

So if you're like me who is kinda ignoramus about HTMLs, CSSs and other Internet codes, then Weebly is a great start for you to try your hand on website creation.

Publish Your Child's Story Online for Free

2008-05-18T10:12:00.008-04:00

If you think your child is the next JK Rowling, then Tikatok is a must-visit website for you.

Tikatok is a community for children to showcase their story writing skills and have their stories published. The site lets budding literary artists become published authors as they show off their original stories and illustrations.

Book creation is made easy with the website's StorySparks feature. It assists your child from choosing a theme to naming characters. It gives hints at the bottom of each page on what your child should write next. Illustrations, which are also made by kids, are also available to support the story.

Registration to the site is free, but there's a $20 fee if you want to purchase a hard copy of your child's work. I think this fee is just nominal compare to the invaluable joy of seeing your child's printed work with his/her name on it.

I'm a big fan of children's books, and I think they are more fun to read when they are written by kids themselves. I congratulate the website creators for making a venue for children to enrich their skills and showcase them to the world. But I wonder how they came up with the name Tikatok.

From Tikatok website:

Tikatok is a free creative community for kids under 13 where they can write, illustrate, and share their original stories, and have them printed out into real hardcover and paperback books. It was developed by two mothers to encourage the imagination and creativity of their children and children everywhere.

Free Sheet Music & Lessons

2008-05-16T20:11:00.015-04:00

Have you always wanted to learn how to play a musical instrument? Or if you already know one, have you been wanting to get free sheet music for your favorite songs?

Then you might find 8notes.com useful. 8notes.com has free music lessons on almost any musical instruments, from string instruments like piano, guitar, and violin, to brass like flute, saxophone, and trumpet. It also has a collection of thousands of sheet music files that you can download for free!

I find the website very organized and easy to navigate. Sheet music files are grouped according to its category and genre: classical, pop music, rock, jazz, traditional and film, and TV. They also have songs for children, wedding, and funeral, plus audio sound bytes for each song.

Joining the site is free and becoming a member gives you unlimited access to the database of resources and links to other sites that offer free sheet music.

Free Wedding Help

2008-05-15T18:15:00.010-04:00

Getting married can be stressful, especially when you start putting together all the details needed for a perfect wedding. Hiring a wedding planner is ideal, but what if you and your fiance/e are just working on a limited budget and couldn't afford one?

Mywedding.com is an ideal place for you to plan your dream wedding, as it offers a wedding website where you can post all the details of your special day. It is extremely useful in keeping friends and relatives up-to-date about your wedding. The best thing about this is, your wedding website is totally FREE! I wish I'd known about mywedding.com when my husband and I were preparing for our wedding. We used another site which gave us only one month to utilize all of its feature for free. As a result, we lost the site once the trial period expired. :(

From the reviews I've read on a number of wedding forums, mywedding.com has one of the best wedding templates to fit your style and match the theme of your wedding. There's a page to tell your love story and how it led to the engagement, a section to create picture galleries for you and your bridal entourage, and a site to keep a blog where you can express your excitement on getting married or vent frustrations on some vendors. There's also an online RSVP and guestbook to help you manage your wedding guest list. And the option to upload music to your site adds the perfect drama needed to boost the mood of your wedding site.

Free PDF converter

2008-05-14T18:53:00.007-04:00

Saving your file using Adobe's PDF format is a surefire way to share your files exactly the way you wanted them to appear. However, it costs Adobe PDF software can cost so much, and copying it without a license could get you in trouble with the law.

Good thing there's PDF Online, a website which allows you to upload any document or pictures, and converts them into PDF, for free! The PDF website's service is real easy to use. It doesn't require any registration, you don't need to sign up, and you don't need to think up any new usernames or passwords. All you need to do is upload your file, provide a file name for the soon-to-be-converted to pdf file, and enter the e-mail address where you want the converted file sent. The recipient will receive the pdf file within minutes as an attachment. I've used their service a number of times and so far and it worked perfectly for me. My files turned up to be exactly the way I wanted them, and all in pdf format.

PDF Online supports a number of file extensions for conversion: DOC, RTF, PPT, PUB, XLS, TXT, JPG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, PNG, EMF and WMF. The maximum size for uploaded files is 2MB.

Free Digital Scrapbooking Kits

2008-05-13T10:51:00.012-04:00

Even scrapbookers are now going digital, turning to the Internet for ideas, new designs and unique embellishments. Indeed, digital scrapbooking is the new trend!

I think digital scrapbooking is part of the "evolution" of photo books as creative people clamor for more control of their photos, designs and layout. One of the interesting websites I found on this ever-growing popular hobby is Shabby Princess which features free scrapbooking kits to download (as long as it's for personal and non-commercial use). Their designs vary from holiday-themed kits to seasonal and occasional themes to everyday fun activities. There are classical designs, nature-inspired, and funky themes (which I like best!) to choose from.

If you're new on digital scrapbooking, Shabby Princess has a tutorials section to help you get started. I've noticed though that most of the how-to's are on using Adobe Photoshop, which can be extremely useful for non-artists.

As we become more empowered by our digital cameras, I will not be surprised if digital scrapbooking becomes more popular than paper scrapbooking. Plus, it solves some of the problems that traditional scrapbookers face such as creating space for scrap tools like papers, die cutters and scissors. But most of all, you say goodbye to paper cuts! :)

You Send It Free

2008-05-12T10:26:00.007-04:00

If your e-mail account prevents you from sending files that are larger than 10MB, it's time to use YouSendIt, which allows you to send large files easily and instantly. I've been using YouSendIt since a friend recommended it 3 years ago. I use it to email videos and presentations that are too big for my normal e-mail account.

I find YouSendIt very easy and simple to use. Just go to the site, enter the e-mail address of your recipient/s, enter your e-mail address, upload the large file you want to email, and press "Send It". The recipient will receive an e-mail notification about the file with the link where he/she can download it.

YouSendIt is free for sending large files that are up to 100MB.

From YouSendIt Website:
"YouSendIt is the No.1 digital delivery company serving business and individuals on the Web today. Our innovative service enables users to send, receive and track files, on-demand. YouSendIt provides a trusted, convenient and smart solution for transferring large files over the Internet, replacing the need for FTP transfers, overnight couriers and unreliable email attachments. YouSendIt's technology platform provides developers and partners the resources for integrating YouSendIt services into the applications people use for creating and communicating. When it has to be there now- just YouSendIt!"

Free Online Invitations

2008-05-10T12:21:00.008-04:00

With almost everything now online comes a faster, easier and chic way of sending invitations to any event: Evite, which lets you send free invitations to your friends anywhere in the world (as long as they have Internet access of course) be it a birthday, a wedding, shower, or even a class reunion.

Evite lets you personalize a free online invitation and customize it depending on your style. Guests are sent an e-mail which provides the link to the invitation. They can RSVP by just a click of a button.

A wedding invitation for instance, is time consuming, from finding a cheap yet good printer, to sending out the wedding invitations, and keeping track of the guests. Evite helps you easily manage and keep track of your guests as it provides real time status of the invitees - who are coming, who have declined and who are still undecided (the maybe group). There's also a space for invitees who want to leave a comment to the host.

My friend used this service for the baptismal of her son. I was impressed at how detailed the list of information was included in the online invitation, including a call-out if you need to carpool.

So toss those envelopes and stamps and go green instead, utilizing those free online invitations.

From Evite Website:
"Evite.com is the top online destination for invitations. A free service, Evite.com estimates it saves party planners millions of dollars in paper invitations and postage each month. With party-planning tools and content, the site helps hosts be more successful while saving even more money and time."

Instant Message Me for Free

2008-05-09T15:39:00.014-04:00

Instant messaging programs are definitely free. But what if you're using a computer with no IM program installed and need to chat with a friend at that moment? Or maybe you're using somebody else's computer who doesn't want the program on their hard drive. OR, maybe you just don't want the spyware that often accompanies the download of some of the popular IM programs out there. Good thing there's a website where you can instantly log on to your IM without having to download it.

Meebo sure knows how to put to use the word "instant" into instant messaging. It offers free IM access to the most popular IM services: Yahoo! Google Talk, MSN Messenger and AOL's AIM. No need to through the hassle of downloading an instant messenger software to your computer. Instead, you just simply go to the site, enter your username and password to an IM service of your choice, and within minutes, you can already start chatting with your friends.

From Meebo Website:
"You can keep in touch with friends you know on any instant messaging network (AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, Google Talk, ICQ, and Jabber) at meebo.com, or reach out and have live conversations with anyone at any website with Meebo Rooms and Meebo Me. Instant messaging from absolutely anywhere, no downloads or installs required, and free!"

Watch TV shows & movies for free

2008-05-08T23:26:00.007-04:00

Missed an episode of your favorite television show? Ever been wanting to watch a movie that's no longer being shown in the cinemas?

On SurfTheChannel , you can watch online the TV programs you've missed. And this includes those that you've missed in years! The site features edition of current and past TV shows dated as far back as the '70s and '80s such as M*A*S*H, Punky Brewster and 21 Jump Street.

As for the movies, the selection is vast, from the first Friday the 13th movie to the recently-shown Horton Hears A Who. Yes, even movies that are not yet out on DVD are already available on the site. But what makes it more interesting is that movies which are currently being shown in the cinemas are also already available on the site. Oooh...do I smell a copyright infringement issue? According to the website (under Legal Disclaimer), "SurfTheChannel is a simple resource site. All content visible on this site is located at 3rd party websites." That makes them not a host of the videos, but a link to the websites that has the videos of the movies and TV shows.

Channels in SurfTheChannel include movies, TV, cartoons, anime, music, docus and sports.

Yes, I like them free!

2008-05-08T20:24:00.009-04:00

The Internet has been my constant companion ever since I've become a bum. It's such a big, big world out there! But what got me more interested are the tons of free online resources available. So I decided to create this blog and share the Internet freebies I've discovered and will discover to all the Internet users worldwide.

This blog is about free online resources - anything from free digital images to free website templates, from free online games to free online television shows, from free online invitation to free software.

Just a disclaimer: The sites that will be listed do not mean I am fully endorsing them. They are listed to provide you with available or alternative resources without spending a penny.

Hmmm...maybe there's such a thing as free lunch after all.