42 Fabulous Free Web Tools

July 27, 2009 · 42 comments

Here are 42 free web tools guaranteed to make your web life easier.

Need a feedback form? Survey? Registration form? Head on over to Icebrrg.com and get one for free.

No technical expertise needed. They will even store your information in a database and allow you to export the info to Excel.

You can create up to 3 forms for free.

2) Picnik

Rotate, crop, re-size images and photos right from your browser. A much easier alternative than GIMP, in my opinion. (Thanks for the suggestion, Lisa)

3) Image-Maps.com

Need to turn parts of your image into clickable links? Image-Maps.com will take on the task for free. All you do is upload your image, complete a few fields, get your code and you’re ready to go.

I just used this site to image map my new YouTube channel banner.

Note: I don’t usually endorse Internet Explorer, but I had trouble using this tool in Firefox, so this is one of the few times I will recommend using Internet Explorer instead.

4) SXC – Free Stock Photography

Looking for some royalty free photograhy? SXC has a nice selection, especially for a free site.

5) 123-Banners.com

This site has been around forever! I remember stumbling upon it as a web newbie over 11 years ago. It’s still going strong and now allows you to create Flash and sound banners.

Normally free banner creation sites are pretty cheesy, but their templates aren’t bad for a free site.

6) HTML Basix Javascript Banner Rotator

Everyone always asks me about my rotating/refreshing banner script at the top of my blog. I used to use Magic Image, but I recently switched to HTML Basix’s script because it doesn’t require an external file.

I like these kinds of banner rotation scripts because the banners change without needing to refresh the page.

Note: I wish I could find one like this that shuffles the banner order. Please comment if you know of one or how to tweak the code.

7) Free Hand-Written Fonts

I’m somewhat of a font junky. I like to use different fonts for images I create in Photoshop. This blog has a good list of hand-drawn fonts you can download.

Just download the fonts you want and go to the Fonts section in your PC’s Control Panel to install.

8) My Live Signature

Use this tool to create a graphical version of your signature you can use on your site or any electronic document. (Thanks, Elaine)

9) e-Book Cover Templates for PhotoShop

If you own Photoshop, you can use these Actions to generate e-covers for your e-books, software or any other digital goods. All you do is load the Actions (templates) into your PC’s Photoshop directory and they’re ready for use!

I used these Actions to create the cover for my free e-book, ThePerfectSiteGuide.com. As a matter of fact, I use them for all my e-books.

10) Firefox

I joked about a Firefox mandate on Twitter a while back, but it really would be nice.

While later versions of IE are much better at handling CSS, nothing compares to the speedy, safe Firefox browser with all the cool add-ons.

If you are a webmaster or blogger still using IE, shame on you.

P.S. Google Chrome is great too. If it ever supports an add-on feature like Firefox, it will be a close rival.

11) FireFTP

A very handy Firefox browser add-on.

I love being able to FTP files to my host without having to shut down my browser and open another application. FireFTP works right inside Firefox and simply opens a new tab.

12) FileZilla

If you don’t use Firefox or don’t like FireFTP, FileZilla is another great FTP option.

13) BrowserShots.org

Just because your site looks fabulous in Firefox 3.0, don’t assume it looks so hot in other browsers. This site will give you a preview of your site in virtually every relevant/current browser and multiple versions.

14) IETab

Want a quick preview of how your site will look in Internet Explorer without having to fire up the browser? Install this Firefox add-on and all you have to do is right-click your mouse on the page and select IETab.

15) Twitterfeed

Manually announcing your blog posts on Twitter is sooooo 2006. Let Twitterfeed automate the process for you.

16) OpenOffice.org

An open-source software suite for spreadsheets, word processing, presentations, databases and more. Hard to believe that it’s really free… but it is!

17) Toodledo

Organize your day, keep track of deadlines, set goals and be more productive. That’s what this free app will help you do.

It’s even fun to say…. Toodle-lee-doo. There’s also an iPhone app. (Thanks for mentioning this one, @retireat21.)

18) DropBox

This is a great tool for synching, saving, backing up and sharing files online. What a handy site. (Thanks @Oceanlugano!)

19) Instapaper

Save web pages to your computer or phone for later reading. Works for iPhone and iPod Touch too. (Thanks for the recommendation, @TamiaS)

20) SearchStatus

There are many tools that report a site’s PageRank, Alexa Rank, backlinks, etc. But this plug-in also tells you whether or not a site is using no-follow or do-follow links. (So does SEOQuake.)

Nofollow means a link from that site will not transfer any PageRank to your site. So Google ignores it as a potential backlink to your website. Many blogs use no-follow in the comments area.

I don’t obsess much over dofollow or nofollow links/sites, but I know it’s important to a lot of you. I still believe that if you spend more time focusing on writing quality content, you will eventually get enough quality dofollow links that count.

21) Google AdWords Keyword Tool

Numerous keyword tools have surfaced over the years, but this is still my favorite. Anytime I want to check keyword search demand, I come here.

22) Joomla & Drupal

Want an interactive site but don’t want to learn how to program or hire anyone? These two content management systems lead the pack in their category. You can usually install them on your domains for free through your web host control panel.

23) Ning

Setup your own social networking site in seconds. No fuss, hassle or programming involved. Just understand this script is remotely hosted, meaning your site sits on Ning.com’s servers. (Always somewhat of a risk when you use a 3rd party to host your content.)

You can still buy a domain name and redirect it to your Ning site for branding and to make your site’s web address more concise and easy to remember.

24) Elgg

The self-proclaimed “leading social engine.” Unlike Ning, you can install this social networking script on your own domain and have much more control over the design and customization. Yes, it’s open source.

25) Kompozer

A free, WYSIWYG HTML editor for creating web pages. I know a lot of people that use it and love it. Just be warned, it can do some odd things with your CSS files so make sure you read the documentation.

26) HTMLDog.com

This is the place to go for learning about HTML and CSS. Start here.

27) FireBug

Another nice Firefox add-on. It allows you to edit any site’s CSS code right from your browser. It’s a great way to test updates/changes before going live.

This plug-in is also great for figuring out how other sites use CSS to develop cool layouts and designs.

Note: Of course, you cannot actually edit anyone’s site. The changes will only be seen on your browser.

28) FreeCSSTemplates.org

Quality CSS templates you can download and use for your site’s design. They also do a great job of adding new templates on a regular basis.

29) ColorZilla

Yet another handy Firefox add-on that allows you to retrieve the HTML hex color code, by simply pointing the eyedropper tool to any place on your browser.

30) Hex Color Scheme Generator

This handy, little tool has made this page one of the most popular pages on my site. Not only can you get the hex color code from the color wheel, but you can generate a color scheme for your site as well.

31) Google Analytics

This is without a doubt the best and most comprehensive stat package on the web. I love that you can integrate stats from AdSense, your shopping cart, AdWords, Google Custom Search and more right into the reports to get a complete picture of how your site is doing in multiple areas.

32) Google Reader

This online content aggregator continuously scans your favorite sites and blogs for new content and feeds it to you so you never miss an update. (Can’t believe I forgot about this one. Thanks for the reminder, @socialarts!)

It also looks great on the iPhone and many other smart phones.

33) Google Voice

Get your own Google number and forward it to any number.

You can also choose where calls are forwarded based on who’s calling. You can even listen in before taking a call or direct chosen calls to voicemail automatically.

34) Google Custom Search

Need an internal search engine for your site? Installation is easy. Just copy and paste a few lines of code and you’re ready to go.

And if you’re an AdSense member, you can also make money when users click the contextual ads that appear next to the search results.

You can even opt to show the results on your own site so your visitors never have to leave your domain.

35) WordPress Theme Generator

Create your own custom WordPress theme with this free generator. No HTML, CSS or PHP knowledge needed.

Of course, if you’re not familiar with CSS, that means you will be limited when it comes to your design. However, using this tool may encourage you to learn more about CSS and blog design. (Thanks for the link, @KenmonPittman.)

36) WordPress Database Backup

A must-have plug-in for WordPress users that will automatically back-up your blog’s database using the time interval you specify. I have it setup to send a backup file to my e-mail once/week.

People often backup their posts, but neglect to backup their databases — which is equally important. (Thanks, Paul from TechnicallyEasy.net)

37) Thesis OpenHook Plug-in

If you use the WordPress Thesis Theme, you will fall in love with this plug-in. It makes an already cool theme, even cooler.

You can overwrite and customize almost any section of your blog’s design (header, footer, sidebars, etc.) by simply pasting your custom code in the appropriate sections of the plug-in. No need to open or edit the actual source code.

Note: This plug-in is only compatible with the Thesis theme.

38) Tell-A-Friend Form

Make it easy for your audience to tell their friends about your site. No programming needed. Just sign up and SocialTwist.com will give you the code to create the tell-a-friend form on your site.

39) XML Sitemap Generator

A sitemap keeps the search engines updated on all your content. This site will crawl your site and generate the code for your sitemap. All that’s left to do is submit it to the major engines.

Most blog platforms create XML sitemaps automatically, but this is good for static, HTML sites.

Note: If you use WordPress, just install the All-In-One SEO Plugin and it will create and submit your sitemap automatically.

40) CutePDF

Create PDF files from virtually any printable document using this free app. A great alternative if you don’t want to shell out $450 for Adobe Acrobat Professional.

41) Feedburner

If you own a blog, this is a must-use tool. Feedburner reports, tracks and helps you promote your blog’s RSS feed. It’s not just for blogs, however. You can use it for any site that has a feed.

For example, I use it to display the latest posts from my forum’s Blogging & RSS category at the bottom of this page.

Read a more detailed explanation of how Feedburner works.

42) CubeStat

CubeStat estimates any website’s worth, ad revenue and much more. These tools are always fun to play with. Just don’t take the data too seriously.

What are some of your favorite free tools?

Tagged as: html editors, stats, thesis, web software, web tools, wordpress

{ 2 trackbacks }

Weekly round-up of web-building freebies: 1: August 2, 2009 at 11:06 am
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{ 40 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Mikey July 27, 2009 at 7:23 am Follow on Twitter: @catchmikey

thanks for taking the time to put together this list. I’m really enjoying reading your blog. I would also suggest TweetDeck (AIR) to really get into the Twitter game and Skitch when needing to mark up images (for mac users). Keep rocking!

2 Greg Ellison July 27, 2009 at 7:28 am Follow on Twitter: @gregee

Very awesome list of free tools and applications. I use some of these also because they are free. Thanks for sharing. Greg Ellison
Greg Ellison´s last blog … John Chow’s Website is down

3 Tamia July 27, 2009 at 8:00 am Follow on Twitter: @TamiaS

Thanks for the great list! Some tools I knew about, some I did not. I now have a lot of bookmarked items to read later…
Tamia´s last blog … Tagged: Six Little Things I Love

4 CraigB - Fatblastzone July 27, 2009 at 9:28 am Follow on Twitter: @fatblastzone

This is such a comprehensive list of tools. I don’t know what I’d do without Firebug. I switch back and forth between Firefox and I.E. and I have to say that when I’m in I.E. I feel really crippled. Firefox offers so many different add-ons to make the life of any webmaster 100 times easier.

And if there’s anyone out there not using BrowserShots.org, you need to start. You really need to know how your site is being seen and PERCEIVED by all of your users and BrowserShots.org will enable you to do just that. It can get frustrating though because the wait time can be pretty long and you have to keep telling it to keep you in the queue. But it’s worth it.

Thanks for such a wealth of great information Lisa!
CraigB – Fatblastzone´s last blog … Getting Enough Sleep May Help With Post-Pregnancy Weight Loss

5 Carla July 27, 2009 at 6:53 pm Follow on Twitter: @carlarose

Thank you for posting this list. I am in the process of doing a little house clenaing on my websites, computer, etc and can use a few “new” web tools.
Carla´s last blog … Dont forget your pets: Natural Pet Care Products

6 Darren Scott Monroe July 27, 2009 at 8:11 pm Follow on Twitter: @darrenmonroe

Excellent post! PS I like the twitter ID you have on here I may need to add to my site as well!
Darren Scott Monroe´s last blog … You Tube Says Put it Anywhere You Want

7 Roseli A. Bakar July 27, 2009 at 10:15 pm Follow on Twitter: @EzyBlogger

This is a very useful lists !
Roseli A. Bakar´s last blog … List of Wordpress Thesis Theme Tutorials, Tips and Hacks

8 Mark J July 27, 2009 at 11:12 pm

Great post, thanks!
another terrific tool I recently found is “new tab king” – a firefox extension that gives handful dashboard of visited sites and recently closed tabs when you open a new tab.
Worth a try, IMHO.

Mark

9 Muhd July 28, 2009 at 12:22 am Follow on Twitter: @techpertz

Really a nice collection. Keep it up.

10 Colby July 28, 2009 at 12:47 am Follow on Twitter: @Tanhak

This is one of my favorite posts! I just got google voice today. If you don’t have a blackberry you have to get an invite. It is still in the basic form, but I like it. You can even send text messages from your computer!
Colby´s last blog … Oklahoman History pt. 2

11 John Salamon July 28, 2009 at 2:31 am Follow on Twitter: @dablufox

Nice collection of web tools Lis, a few that I havn’t heard of before. Will check them out, thanks!
John Salamon´s last blog … Success and Relationships in Online Marketing

12 Kajar July 28, 2009 at 3:03 am Follow on Twitter: @kajarkase

If you find Joomla or Drupal too complex there’s also a bunch of easier-to-use website creation tools out there: I happen to work for Edicy(http://www.edicy.com), but there are also Weebly, Yola, Webnode etc. they won’t give you as much possibility for specialization, but if you just need to put up a quick site I’d recommend checking them out.
Kajar´s last blog … Edicy adds Finnish to its languages

13 Wayne Farley July 28, 2009 at 5:58 am Follow on Twitter: @atcblog

Thanks Lisa….great resources as usual. I’ve been in this business for a while and haven’t come across some of these. I’ll give some of these a try.

What The Font (http://new.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/) is a cool tool as well, if you’re into fonts.

14 David Moore July 28, 2009 at 11:31 am Follow on Twitter: @DaveMoore1

Great List Lisa… I even found something in there to expedite my pod casts.

Don’t you just love making list posts?

I think they take forever compared to just a regular 4-500 word written post.

Well, I ran into something a couple nights ago that I think Rocks. It’s basically a firebug times 10 on steroids and allowed me to redesign my entire site in a few hours, mind you not as purdy as yours.

The best part is, like firebug you can edit on the fly see it live, but unlike firebug you can do your entire site live until you have every last detail just they way you like it.

Then it allows you to save your work to your hard drive or upload the updated .css file to your server.

Yeah it does come with some other frills too that make it a nice all in one instead of having 5 tools to do one job.

So here’s the info for your clan: www dot skybound dot ca

There’s no affiliate program that I know of for the software, there’s a 14 day free trail, a free version that’s missing some of the advanced features and the best part is the Mack Daddy version is only $79

Check it out and let Lisa know what you think.
David Moore´s last blog … Turbo Charge Your CSS Skills With This…

15 lisa July 28, 2009 at 12:19 pm: Sounds very cool, Dave! Will check into this. Thank you.

Reply

16 Tarik July 28, 2009 at 1:09 pm Follow on Twitter: @tarikpierce

Great list Lisa. Had to share these on Twitter. I had no idea about Google Voice. G Voice + Skype = no cell phone or landlines! yay!
Tarik´s last blog … Are Blog Commenting Services Taking SEO Spam to the Extreme?

17 Shelley Munro July 28, 2009 at 3:50 pm

Thanks for the wonderful list. I haven’t heard of most of them so I’m off to play…

18 nkolika anyabolu July 29, 2009 at 7:55 am Follow on Twitter: @nkolika

Great list……..as always. Was aware of some but discovered several here. Couldn’t resist the twitter feed though. Will try the others asap.

Thanks.
nkolika anyabolu´s last blog … Oil painting of an Elephant: Step 2

19 jT. July 29, 2009 at 8:15 am Follow on Twitter: @jtnlv

I use Resizr (http://resizr.lord-lance.com/) when I want to resize my images for the web quickly rather than opening Photoshop or SnagIt.
jT.´s last blog … Use Your iPhone As A Heart Monitor

20 GamTrak July 29, 2009 at 10:00 am Follow on Twitter: @gamtrak

Thanks for the great tools Lisa! I’m glad that I’ve subscribed to your RSS so that I don’t miss anything!

If you use wordpress then here are some great plugins you should be using.

—— Auto Social Poster – Get traffic and backlinks from Social Bookmarking sites. (cost)
—— HeadSpace2 – One of the best TWO SEO plugins + many other features
—— Platinum SEO – Another of the BEST TWO SEO plugins.
—— Redirection – Redirect your 404 pages, or redirect your posts to your affiliate sites/links.
—— SEO Automatic Links – Cross-links your blog posts (within a blog)
—— StatPress Reloaded – best Real-time Tracking plugin for your traffic
—— WP-affiliate – automatically create affiliate links inside your posts, or generate CB links for your keywords on-the-fly.
—— WP Database backup – This is MOST Important. If you lost your database, you are finished.

Hope it helps someone.
Robin
GamTrak´s last blog … Are you a frustrated website seeker?

21 lisa July 29, 2009 at 7:17 pm: Great list! Thanks for posting.

Reply

22 Kelly K July 29, 2009 at 10:35 am

Lisa,

You continue to amaze. Some of these tools I’ve been needing forever. Thanks for all you do for us.

23 @takuya_hikichi July 29, 2009 at 1:56 pm Follow on Twitter: @Takuya_Hikichi

Your blog really raises the bar… wow, I am blown away by the quality of this post.
@takuya_hikichi´s last blog … A Friendly Reminder Is Worth Ten Thousand Words

24 Christian July 31, 2009 at 10:49 am Follow on Twitter: @christiantjr

This is a pretty sweet list…I also totally dig joomla and drupal. But I wouldn’t say they require no experience. Either that or I’m a TOTAL dunce! I found they are both very robust, but if you want to really put something useful together, you’ll need some programming experience or to hire someone who does. My two cents…
Christian´s last blog … How to Use Twitter Professionally

25 singh August 1, 2009 at 2:35 pm Follow on Twitter: @apnalink

You have great knowledge , keep it up

26 Sarah August 4, 2009 at 6:36 am

Thanks for the great list. Billeo is another firefox add-on that can be added to the list. It’s a handy tool that manages passwords, auto fills forms and saves receipts. It also tracks your expenses to help you make a better budget every month. Billeo is VeriSign secured and keeps your personal info safe.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/12715

27 Ms. Freeman August 12, 2009 at 2:46 pm Follow on Twitter: @freemanlegacy

Thanks Lisa:)
This is going to be of great value to me as I start-up my blogging website. Talk about your timely post offering the reader value from start to finish; you hit the nail on the head.
Ms. Freeman´s last blog … How To Create an Online Business in a Poor Economy

28 Jacob Kennedy August 16, 2009 at 8:09 am Follow on Twitter: @jacobkennedy

Hey Lisa,
I just found it odd that when mentioning Drupal and Joomla you didn’t also mention Wordpress. I know that this site is Wordpress and you mention a couple of Wordpress tools but with each revision Wordpress gets closer and closer to a full blown CMS. Most of the time I find that Wordpress can get the entire job done.

A couple of tools that are invaluable to me:
– Pure Text (Windows): allows you to copy text from anywhere and paste it, removing any crazy formatting without first having to go through Notepad
– Color Selector: a little tool that allows you to pick the color of any pixel on the screen (most image software locks you into their window)
– Pixel Ruler: a pretty useful little tool for measuring things on the screen
– Windows Live Writer: this is a free tool from Microsoft that allows you to write blog posts without actually going to your site (works with Wordpress, supports categories and tags and does a good job with minor image editing – very handy)

Hope someone finds them as handy as I do.

Jacob

29 Joomla Content Management System August 17, 2009 at 1:20 am

Big collection at one place. Nice to have people like you for such a nice work.

30 LA August 31, 2009 at 1:36 am Follow on Twitter: @Tanhak

Fab list!
For my add: I have to say I LOVE Foxit Reader for just reading/opening PDFs.. I used to cringe when I’d click on a link and wait forEVER to open one tiny page (With Adobe opening the file). I set Foxit as my default PDF reader, and now PDF files come up almost as fast as an html page would. So much love for this!

31 Karthik Kumar September 7, 2009 at 9:21 pm Follow on Twitter: @karthikkumar11

#24 Elgg seems like it could be the future of blogging… or even direct opt-in marketing!

32 Jane September 15, 2009 at 8:10 am Follow on Twitter: @toshopoholic

This is a fantastic list, so many things to try out. Loving #4 & #5!!
Jane´s last blog … Sep 15, Old Navy two for tots Baby sale!

33 g.a September 16, 2009 at 3:39 am

Hi! You should also consider http://www.estimix.com They provide a nice summary of the website performance. I trust that you’ll find this very useful cause it seems to use the Alexa traffic information quite well and provides much better traffic information.

34 John G September 20, 2009 at 2:13 am

Notice on your 6) that you need code to “shuffle” your rotating banners. Your only code change to your page would be to change the index into your banner and image arrays to: Math.floor( Math.random() * ( imgCt1 + 1 ) ) to select a “random” banner from the arrays. This may not be what you want but is the easiest to implement without adding another function to your code!

35 Thierno September 21, 2009 at 3:00 am Follow on Twitter: @Tanhak

Hi liza I just want to start a informational websites about the politique of my country. How much space do I need in minimum when I am hosting my website. 10gb, 150, or more?

36 Jane September 21, 2009 at 6:31 pm Follow on Twitter: @toshopoholic