Enter to win now!

We’re giving away three Advance Reader Copies of Upgrade to Free on Wednesday. Enter to win now!

PS — Did you know Upgrade to Free is available for pre-order at a great price? Love those bargains!

We’re giving away 10 copies of the book on Goodreads, complete with a cupcake magnet and other goodies!

Enter to win the chance to be one of the first reviewers: bit.ly/U2Fgoodreadsgive

In the year 2000, people sent about 12 million daily emails. In 2010, the number of emails per day is 247 billion — an increase of about 20,000%! If you want your email to be noticed in all that mess, you have to do something different.

Give Paperless Post a try. Sign up for an account and you get 25 free “stamps” that allow you to send a cool, attention-getting email as an invitation, announcement or thank you. Your recipient receives an elegant email with an envelope they click to open. The invitations themselves are fun to open, and they have tons of templates and realistic-looking textured papers that look as handsome as something you get in the mail.

Paperless Post is not free, and there are several things about the system and the pricing that have made me hesitate to recommend it for business use. First, it’s a clumsy way to manage contacts and responses. Second, all their little extras (like envelope liners and your logo) can really add up. But I just had a great response when I sent a promotion about my speaking services to my professional association contacts, so I thought I’d share.

Watch this quick video to see how it works:

Online Invitations, Stationery, Announcements, and Save the Dates by Paperless Post

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This month’s giveaway centers on my main business: Avenue Z Writing Solutions. I’m rebranding the company and updating the look.

Vote for the best logo here….

Need a quick button for your site? I love this free tool. Cool Text creates simple logos and buttons in a few minutes. I’m more fond of the buttons than I am the logos, but they’re both worth a few minutes of experimentation.

Sample Logo:

Sample Button:

Cool Text: Logo and Graphics Generator.

Two of the respondents in last month’s Giveaway mentioned RoboForm as their favorite free tool, and I agree it’s pretty darn cool.

RoboForm allows you to create an account that autofills passwords and other forms when you visit a website. It’s downloadable software (not sure if it works on PC and Mac), with a web-based edition as well.

I actually have this functionality with my Norton software, and I LOVE it. With this type of program, you’ll never have to fill out NAME, ADDRESS, CITY, STATE, etc again. RoboForm promises it keeps everything secure, and, like I said, it comes highly recommended by two regular readers of the Cheapskate Freelancer.

• Online Version
• Pro Version ($29.95 per license)
• Another cool tool: Password Scanner to see which of your passwords are unencrypted and potentially swipeable

RoboForm: Password Manager, Form Filler, Password Management.

This month, tell me the name of a tool you use that is worth the cost. Three winners will receive gift certificates to Amazon.com!

Bookmark the Giveaway Page to enter each month!