But if you’re like many new online entrepreneurs, you’re
probably curious about various free tools and resources you
may have heard about or discovered yourself when surfing the
’Net for information. And you may be wondering if it’s worth
your while giving them a try.

My first word of advice on free tools and resources is this:
Always be cautious. Free tools can be unreliable or come
with hidden "catches," like requirements that you display
certain advertisements.

However (now that I’ve told you the downside), there are a
number of very good (and reliable!) tools and resources
available on the ’Net that are FREE.

And these can be excellent ways to complement your existing
tools at no cost, helping you to make your site stickier
and more user-friendly, make your keywords more effective,
keep an eye on your competition, find potential business
partners, and more...

Of course, you should still take care in the "free" world,
and always be aware of what you may have to give up (like
reliability) or give over (like advertising space on your
site -- and potential customers).

But the following 12 tools and resources can be effectively
used to give your online business that extra edge you need
to stay ahead of your competition.

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1. Free link partner evaluation tool
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http://download.alexa.com

The Alexa toolbar is one of the most useful tools around for
businesses on the ’Net. Alexa provides a free, downloadable
toolbar that opens in your web browser whenever you’re
online.

The most useful feature is a "site info" option. When you
click on this button, Alexa lays out all the details of the
site you’re on, including...

* The traffic ranking of the site (this is also listed
right on the toolbar itself)

* A list of related links (two or three of the most
popular links also appear on the toolbar)

* The number of other sites that link to the site

* The contact information of the site owner

* All site/user reviews

This is the exact information you need when you’re
researching high-traffic sites in your industry and
considering link partnerships or joint ventures. Use this
information to...

* Decide how much you’re willing to pay for advertising

* Make educated decisions about the worth of a joint
venture partner

* Determine the credibility and the perceived value of the
site

The list of related links -- which also has its own button
on the toolbar -- is an excellent way for you to find other
popular or similar sites that might be good linking partners
or joint venture partners.

Use this list to determine other popular sites that your
target market visits -- start by looking at your own site
with Alexa’s toolbar, and see what related links are
suggested!

The toolbar also contains a Google search option, so you can
jump directly into a search without having to leave the page
you’re on.

If you prefer not to download the toolbar, you can still
take advantage of these features right from Alexa’s site:

http://www.alexa.com

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2. Free market research tool
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http://www.google.com/toolbar

(Make sure to check the "Enable Advanced Features" option
when you download it to enable all the options.)

When you’re building a successful online business, you’ll
probably need to spend hours at a time researching your
competitors and your target market, and looking for new
product ideas.

The good news is that there are some nifty free tools
available on the Google Toolbar that can make this whole
process faster and a lot more productive:

* "Google Groups" search: This is great for product or
market research, as you can search for your keywords
within the thousands of Google Groups online and find
forums relevant to your web site.

By checking these forums regularly, you’ll get to know
what’s important to the people in your target market.

* "Search News": This feature lets you find news stories
relevant to your web site, e-zine, or blog within news
pages indexed by Google. It’s great for sparking
content ideas or just keeping up with the latest
developments in your market or industry.

* "Web Directory" search: This option lets you search
Google’s directory for sites that match your search
terms. It’s ideal for finding out how many competitors
you may have for a new product, and for seeking out
potential linking partners.

* "Search Froogle": Froogle lets online shoppers search
for products and compare prices. It displays pictures,
prices, and links to online stores in the results, so
you can use it to quickly research how the pricing of
your products or services compares with other offerings
across the Web.

If you have an idea for a new product, Froogle is a
great place to check out your potential competitors.

Once you get the hang of them, these powerful tools can
become a great asset to your business because they can save
you hours spent on research -- leaving you more time to
concentrate on developing new products, new marketing
strategies, and other ways to boost your profits.

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3. Free image-reducing tool and free "tool kit" trials
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http://www.marketingtips.com/netmechanic

NetMechanic is a "tool kit" resource, offering a number of
free trials that are great for easily locating potential
problems with your site and repairing them quickly. Address
problems such as...

* HTML code errors

* Browser display problems

* Lengthy load times

* Broken links

* Site downtime

Some of these tools will even give you a free monthly
update! However, you’ll get a limited version of each tool
unless you’re willing to pay the fee. But NetMechanic’s
image-reducing tool, GIFbot, is totally free and is a
particularly useful resource.

Using GIFBot is an excellent way to reduce the file size of
your images so that your web pages load faster -- and you
don’t lose those impatient surfers.

Image files can be reduced by as much as 50% - 85% in many
cases, and it’s so easy to do that nowadays you’ll look
totally unprofessional with huge, lagging image files that
take forever to load on your site.

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4. Free HTML editor and HTML tutorials
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http://www.nvu.com

You don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars on HTML editors
and web design software to create your own web site. Nvu is
a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) HTML editor that’s
similar to FrontPage or Dreamweaver -- but completely free
to download!

The software allows you to create and manage a
professional-looking web site without any knowledge of HTML
programming, and includes the following features:

* WYSIWYG editing of pages, meaning you can see what your
web page will look like as you’re creating it

* Integrated file management via FTP, so you can upload
your pages to your web host

* Easy-to-use interface

* Free tutorials

If you are interested in learning how to code HTML yourself,
here are a couple of excellent tutorial and resource sites
where you can learn everything you need to know:

* http://www.davesite.com/webstation/html/

* http://www.echoecho.com

And, for those of you who are a little more technically
inclined, you may want to check out some of the many free
CGI script resources out there. Two good places to start
include...

* http://www.scriptsearch.com

* http://www.cgi-resources.com

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5. Free-trial keyword service
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http://www.marketingtips.com/wordtracker

Using a service such as Wordtracker allows you to easily
discover which keywords are frequently searched by your
target market -- but are not being used by your competition.

Wordtracker has compiled a massive database of terms that
people search on, so all you have to do is enter your
keyword, and Wordtracker tells you how often people are
searching that term, how many competing sites are using that
particular keyword, and how much they are bidding for the
pay-per-click search engines.

A tool like this will help you optimize your search engine
ranking by targeting keywords and phrases that are
frequently searched by your best potential customers, but
that few (if any!) of your competitors are competing under.

Capitalize on the streams of neglected and missed traffic
that are passing your competition by -- and even discover
misspellings of your keywords that may be drawing traffic!

The free trial version of Wordtracker, however, will only
compare your keywords with MSN, while the paid version
compiles results from the top search engines, directories,
and pay-per-click engines.

If you’re happy to limit yourself to MSN, you can use the
free trial as many times as you like. Otherwise, the paid
version is available for $8.04 per day or $26.81 per week,
with monthly and yearly subscriptions available as well.

You might also want to try out Yahoo! Search Marketing’s
Keyword Popularity and Suggestion tool, available free at:

http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

Yahoo! Search Marketing’s keyword service will give you a
list of related searches that include your term and tell you
how many times those terms were searched in Yahoo! Search
Marketing (formerly Overture) in the last month.

This is a good way to find out the popularity of your keyword,
but the tool doesn’t list bidding amounts. If you’re looking
for great deals on your keywords, your best bet is to search
in both Yahoo! Search Marketing and Wordtracker to gauge
popularity, then use Wordtracker to determine your bidding
strategy.

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6. Free browser compatibility service
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http://www.anybrowser.com

The browser compatibility experts, AnyBrowser, offer every
tool you’ll need to make your site viewable, as the name
suggests, in any browser. The most useful tool is the
"SiteViewer," which allows you to see your web pages as
surfers will see them on multiple browsers.

For example, your site may look different in Netscape
Navigator than it does in Internet Explorer -- images may
be broken, tables may shift, and so on. With AnyBrowser you
can ensure you meet the needs of every browser.

You can also make sure your coding checks out and your links
aren’t broken, and view an example of how your listing will
appear in the search engines (what description will be used,
what the title will be, etc.).

AnyBrowser is also a great resource directory, pointing you
toward a variety of really useful free tools. It’s a great
place to find online HTML tutorials, banner exchanges, CGI
scripts, and a ton of free resources, including HTML editors,
classifieds, fonts, graphics, Java scripts, message boards,
and more.

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7. Free search tool
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http://www.answers.com

1-Click Answers is a downloadable search tool available from
the Answers.com search engine. It allows you to search
multiple information sources and find instant answers
containing concise information on the topic you’re searching
for.

After you’ve downloaded the personal (free) version, you’ll
have a search bar right on your desktop. When you search on
an item, you’ll get results from some or all of the
following resources, depending on your search term:

* Dictionaries

* Thesauruses

* Atlases

* Glossaries

* Encyclopedias

... All in just one step! No more messing around with
multiple search tools; 1-Click Answers consolidates them in
one source to save the precious time of the busy
netrepreneur.

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8. Free content
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http://www.freesticky.com/stickyweb

This resource is a good place to find free (or cheap)
content for your site, so you can keep your site fresh and
interesting for your visitors -- and keep them coming back.

Find articles, news briefs, headlines, tickers, tips of the
day, and more. The broad variety of topics range from
financial advice to hip hop headlines, from travel guides to
lottery results. You can also give away free software
applications directly from your site, many of which are
available for co-branding.

Another good source for articles is www.EZineArticles.com,
which offers free content designed for both web sites and
e-zines.

Watch that you don’t just load up your site with a lot of
stuff that you think is interesting. The material you
provide has to be relevant to your business and your
customer base.

Also be aware that the sponsorship information that is
usually included can pull your readers’ attention away from
your purpose -- and, most importantly, the sponsors’ links can
draw traffic away from your site.

It is always a good idea to have quality content on your site,
but use discretion and make sure it’s worth the risk involved.

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9. Free e-mail campaign ROI calculator
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http://www.marketingtoday.com/tools/roi_calculator.htm

A very cool tool... Marketing Today’s ROI calculator is an
easy-to-use little device that allows you to accurately
estimate what kind of return on investment you can expect
from your upcoming direct mail or e-mail campaigns and
promotions.

The most accurate way to operate this tool is to use the
response rate you received from your previous mailings to
calculate your ROI for future mailings.

All you have to do is enter the numbers: the number of
mailings you’ll be doing, your total costs, the response
rate you expect, the conversion rate you expect, and how
much you expect each buyer to spend (i.e., the cost of your
product or service).

Hint: If you do not have previous response rates and
conversion rates to base your figures on, you should
estimate much lower than you think necessary. If you guess
too low, you’ll just end up with more profits; guess too
high, however, and you’ll be making a costly mistake.

The ROI calculator is a simple tool that acts as an
excellent reality check when you’re determining your
marketing costs.

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10. Free web design tool
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http://www.colormatch.dk

Most Internet entrepreneurs have very little, if any, web
design knowledge. However, this doesn’t have to be a barrier
to creating a professional-looking web site.

One of the hardest tasks for someone with no design
experience is choosing the color scheme for your site. Well,
this easy-to-use free tool allows you to create a complete
color scheme at the click of the button.

It also gives you the HTML codes for the colors you choose
(every web color has a code, e.g., black is #000000) -- so you
can use them on your site and not have to worry if that pink
really does match that orange.

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11. Free site search tools
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http://sitelevel.whatuseek.com

SiteLevel can set you up with effective, free search tools
for your web site. If your site is more than a couple of
pages and doesn’t have a good internal search tool, you’re
probably losing many a frustrated visitor.

While appeasing your visitors, a site-level search engine
also enables you to find out what your users want and need.

SiteLevel’s search tools allow you to track what your
visitors are searching for and see what they are finding or
not finding, so you can adapt to their agendas and increase
visitor satisfaction -- and the stickiness of your site.

SiteLevel also lets you customize your own search results
page to make it suit the look and feel of your web site.

The basic (free) version has more than enough "oomph" for
the average small-business web site, allowing you to index
up to 1,000 pages and incorporate a variety of search
strategies.

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12. More free marketing tools
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http://www.thefreesite.com

You got it... The Free Site is free stuff! And lots of it!

Not everything on this site is e-business related, but you
can find plenty that is. Probably the most useful section
for e-businesses is the "webmaster" section at:

http://thefreesite.com/Webmaster_Freebies/

Here you’ll find the "Internet Seer" site monitoring tool
that provides downtime alerts so you don’t lose valuable
customers. You’ll also find...

* Tools to help you check your keywords and your link
popularity

* Suggested methods of winning awards for your site

* Scripts, banners, and polls

* Guestbooks, message boards, and more...

The Free Site also lists free technical support and online
tutorials, free personal management tools, plenty of Java
script resources, free fonts, clipart, graphics, icons, and
buttons, plus much, much more.

Again, be wary of freebies that ask for advertising space in
return... but you might want to bookmark this page!

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Final thoughts
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One of the great advantages of starting an online business,
as opposed to taking the more traditional "bricks and
mortar" approach, is that costs are SO much lower. Hosting
fees are your main overhead, but these are nowhere near the
rent you’d pay for office space for an offline business.

And when it comes to creating and building your web site --
as well as marketing it -- you can further reduce your costs
by making use of some great free tools and resources.

The tools I’ve recommended are personal favorites, and I know
you’ll find them incredibly useful. But when you’re choosing
free services or software, always proceed with caution and
stay in control with each decision you make. Find out
whether any advertising will be included and whether you
will be bound by any restrictions or obligations. "Free" can
sometimes mean only that there’s no charge -- not no
consequences.