This article will show you:
1. How to avoid wasting your time with FREE stuff!
2. How to identify real bargains!
3. Some top FREE programs and services

Entering "Free Stuff" in Alta Vista will yield a colossal
521,442 results. Over half a million web pages! Here are
some guidelines to sift the wheat from the chaff.

1) Beware of programs written by amateurs and enthusiasts
unless you particularly enjoy experimenting with your
computer. If you are running a business you probably don't
have the time. Any program with very basic readme files or
little or no support files I avoid like the plague.
Experience has taught me they waste time trying to work out
how to use them, they jam up the registry files on the
computer and don't uninstall properly if at all. This kind
of FREE stuff can turn your computer into a mess, degrading
the performance of other programs. If you do want to try
them out, keep a separate partition on your hard disk
dedicated for that purpose.

2) Don't get side tracked with shareware. If you are
prepared to pay for programs, fine, look at shareware. After
a brief trial period you will often be expected to pay for
the full version. Personally, I don't spend time on these
unless I am looking for something specific, or the shareware
program is particularly good.

3) Subscribe to one or two good lists to keep you informed
of FREE stuff. I get these delivered to my mailbox every
week, spend about two minutes looking through the headings
and if something really catches my eye, I investigate using
the criteria above. A good one is: http://www.jumbo.com

How to identify REAL bargains? If the program comes from a
professional, well established company you are on to a
winner. A 30 second look at their web site will tell you
what kind of outfit it is. If a generous help file is
supplied or if regular updates are published, you know the
program is here to stay and it is worth investing time and
energy in learning it. An example is Pegasus Mail, mentioned
in the top FREE programs below. I was tempted to buy Eudora
Pro. I had used the free Lite version and really liked it.
Fortunately, just before I parted with the cash, I
discovered Pegasus. This program does everything Eudora Pro
would do for me and it is FREE. An unbelievable bargain. It
is now my default mail handler.

Take a look through this list of top FREE programs and
services. There is gold here:

EMAIL HANDLER
Pegasus Mail is an excellent email program. Multiple
signature files, multiple filters, various identities for
multiple email accounts, spell check, it is all here in one
easy to use program.
http://www.pmail.com

EMAIL MERGE
WorldMerge sends personalized messages to mailing lists. A
brief advertisement is included at the foot of the message
when using the FREE version. Unless that is a major problem
for you, this program is an absolute bargain!
http://www.coloradosoft.com/associate-jump.cgi?ID=2085

TRAFFIC ANALYSIS
A very comprehensive report is emailed to you every day
giving a complete breakdown of the visitors to your web
site, their movements through the site and where they are
coming from. This information is essential for a successful
marketing campaign.
http://www.websitetrafficreport.com

KEYWORD SUGGESTION TOOL
GoTo.com has a great tool to help you see what search words
and phrases are being used on the internet. Use this in
combination with Alta Vista as explained in the next section
and you have a powerful method for optimizing keywords on
your web pages.
http://www.goto.com/d/about/advertisers/othertools.jhtml (1.
Search Term Suggestion List)

MARKETING TUTORIALS
FREE marketing tutorials are usually designed to lead you
into purchasing the main product. The two listed below are
no different in this regard. However, they are different in
another way. Both offer substantial content which is very
valuable on its own, even without purchasing the main
product. Both come from Ken Evoy so they really overdeliver,
in keeping with the style of his Make Your Site Sell.
(MYSS review: http://www.vitalstop.com/ebr-myss.htm)

1) Infoproducts
In this five day course you learn how to create your own
information product from scratch. Excellent suggestions are
given for brain storming. Get a step by step guide on how to
actually market your own product. The rewards from this
program are immense as you market a product you have
complete control over.
mailto:timsvitalstop.com@sitesell.net

2) Affiliate Masters
This five day course in my opinion is brilliant. Learn how
to combine the free keyword suggestion tool at GoTo.com
along with searches at Alta Vista to find keywords which
have maximum effect in the search engines. This suggestion
alone is like gold! I've used it ever since.
mailto:tamsvitalstop.com@sitesell.net

JPEG WIZARD GRAPHICS CONDENSER
Reduce the size of your GIF or JPEG graphics files and super
charge the loading time for your web pages. This free tool
is another gem from the folks at Pegasus.
http://www.jpegwizard.com

AUTORESPONDER
There are many free ones out there, but many liberally
sprinkle their own advertisements around your message.
GetResponse keeps its own advertising to a bare minimum. The
easy to use interface is crammed with features.
http://www.getresponse.com

WEB SITE MONITORING
Check for dead links, link popularity, browser
compatibility, load time, keywords, HTML accuracy and
spelling accuracy to ensure your web site is giving top
performance. This free service allows for a one page check
per submission.
http://websitegarage.netscape.com

WEB HOST MONITORING
Do you really know how what kind of service your web host is
giving you? Use the FREE trial service at HostWatcher to
alert you whenever your web host is down, or the speed is
slow. Also see how long it takes for your pages to load.
http://hostwatcher.com

Yes you can mine gold from FREE stuff. You can also waste
huge amounts of precious time if you are not selective.
Follow the suggestions above and get the best of the best
from FREE stuff.



About the Author
Mike Jones
Mike.Jones@khi.breeze.net.pk