Getting a new laptop is fun and exciting with all the new software the manufacturer loads. The excitement soon gives way to an understanding that two weeks of McAfee Anti Virus or one month of Earthlink does not really serve any purpose. Most of the programs may not be useful and can even slow down the computer. Who needs them?

A wise thing would be to uninstall whatever is not required and clean up the hard drive and start installing stuff that is useful. Most people are under the opinion that installing new software means spending more money. However, it does not have to be that way.

A lot of applications are available free of charge and are open source, which means that people have the option to alter the program to suit their needs it they possess the skill or have the inclination to.

Here are a few things that many people find useful and all of them can be installed without spending a penny.

Firefox - The Firefox web browser is what most people use on their laptops. Many people are of the opinion that it is better than Internet Explorer; however, it is a personal preference. Firefox gives the option of adding new features with the use of extensions, which are add-ons to Firefox that allow the user to do anything they wish to, such as saving chunks of any website to their Google Notebook. One of the most favorite extensions are, PicLens, which gives any photo site the feel of Flickr or even MySpace, and makes scanning and scrolling photos fun and easy. There is a whole lot more to Firefox, which can only be experienced. (more…)

We love free stuff. Marketers world-wide know this. In the olden days, we could anticipate the occasional free sample coming in the mailbox, but today postage costs prohibit the mass send-off of free stuff. Instead, parties interested in acquiring something free can find any number of things online.

Online Marketing

Marketing online is no different in essence than traditional marketing. The best way to get a potential customer to use the product is to put that product in his hands. Once someone has used and enjoyed a product, it is much more likely that he will begin to purchase the product on an ongoing basis. To get a person to buy it, you must get a person to try it.

Postage prices keep increasing, which makes it too difficult to send small packages of products through the mail. Other products are hard to give away inside grocery stores or shopping malls. Services can be offered free, but you must make customers aware of them. The internet has become the one true medium of free stuff. (more…)