Webinar Recording: 5 Great Graphics Tools

The first Cheapskate Freelancer webinar just ended, and I have to say the webinar platform, Dimdim, did what it said it would do. I’ll post a review of Dimdim in the near future.

In the meantime, enjoy the webinar recording. I covered five great (and free!) graphics tools: Picnik, GIMP, FotoFlexer, Aviary and SignGenerator.org.

The goal of these webinars is to cover a handful of tools in 30 minutes or less. Next month’s topic coming soon!

Paperless Post: Classy emails for thank yous and invitations

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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Upcoming Web Event: Join the Cheapskate Freelancer at the 24/7 Association Conference

Webinar alert!

Next week I’m doing a presentation on the best free and low-cost online tools to help run a small-staff office. It’s part of a multi-day series of webinars called the 24/7 Small-Staff Association Online Conference for American Society of Association Executives.

My session is Wednesday, July 14 from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. EST. I’ll be presenting for an hour, then we’ll open the phone lines for an energetic discussion of favorite tools.

Here’s a brief description of the session:

Free and Low-Cost Tools You Can’t Live Without
Join us for an entertaining, lightning-fast tour of tools, gadgets and services you never thought you could afford!

Identify your fave five during the session, and leave with the full list to share with your colleagues. As a closet
computer geek and veteran cheapskate, Speaker Beth Ziesenis of Avenue Z Writing Solutions has been
collecting resources for many years, and her presentation will open your eyes to new ideas and thrifty time
savers.

Registration is still open! Check out the full series here….

(PS — Want to share the free tools presentation with your group? Contact me for availability or read more about Speaking Services here!)

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