Free Image Editing with Canva: " For people and teams wanting to design absolutely anything, from logos and social media content to documents, prints and more. Tons of free templates, photos and fonts to bring your vision to life."
Stock Photos from Fotosearch: Looking for stock photos and don't mind paying for them? If you can't find what you want in my free stock images, check out Fotosearch for a huge selection of stock images. Photo prices vary depending on size and resolution, or you can save by purchasing "credits" starting at $1.50 per credit. Photosearch.com is operated out of Waukesha, Wisconsin, USA.
Web graphics from GoGraph: "GoGraph offers flexible royalty free stock photography, vectors, illustrations, graphics, and stock footage at low prices. Purchase and download stock images immediately."
Resources For Artists
TURN YOUR ART/PHOTOS INTO PRODUCTS: Redbubble is a print-to-order service, using a global network of 3rd-party manufacturers and shipping services to create products ranging from coasters to posters and t-shirts to iPhone skins from your original images. Visitors don't need to sign up for a Redbubble account in order to order your products. Find out more details, including a selection of available products, on my Redbubble Page.
GRAPHIC ARTIST'S GUILD'S HANDBOOK: PRICING & ETHICAL GUIDELINES: " the industry bible for communication design and illustration professionals. A comprehensive reference guide, the Handbook helps graphic artists navigate the world of pricing, collecting payment, and protecting their creative work, with essential advice for growing a freelance business to create a sustainable and rewarding livelihood."
ESSENTIAL TOOLS FOR ARTISTS: "Here is a list of a dozen things we think every artist—whether they work in traditional media, in a less conventional medium like light (think James Turrell), or in installation or performance art—should keep on hand, along with our with our recommendations for specific products culled from past reviews."
5 SURPRISING TOOLS FOR ARTISTS I NEVER THOUGHT I NEEDED: "… regardless of what's on my easel, there have been a few tools over the years I've used that initially I never knew would become staples in my workflow."
THE VIRTUAL INSTRUCTOR: "Art instruction anyone can understand". Besides video lessons and e-books, Matt Fussell offers free modules to give you a taste of what you can learn, plus very informative free blog posts like "The #1 Secret To Drawing" and "How To Correct Mistakes In Pen and Ink Drawings". Courses are very reasonably priced ($17 to $37 for anything from 7 to 26 lessons), or access all courses for the price of membership ($20/month or $97/year). Courses include things like "25 Days To Better Drawings", "The Colored Pencil Course", "The Watercolor Workshop", "Oil Painting Master Series", and even "Basic Photoshop For Artists".
Resources for Authors
Self-Publishing Resources from Lulu.com: Besides providing self-publishing services for authors, Lulu.com also offers free resources for authors, including a New User Guide, links to professional services like editors and cover designers, and a Book Pricing & Planning Tool.
Canadian Authors Association. "Canadian Authors Association is—and always has been—a membership-based organization for writers at all stages of their writing careers: aspiring, emerging, and professional." Check out their FAQs and Writers' Organizations pages. Regular membership is $175/year. (Note: I've found these links to be a little slow loading, so be patient!)
Small Business Resources
Sell Your Own Digital Products With PayHip: Sell digital downloads, courses, and more from one simple platform. PayHip includes an online store builder. There are three pricing tiers, all of which include all features, unlimited products, and unlimited revenue: Free Forever, $0/month with 5% transaction fee, Plus, $29/month with 2% transaction fee, Pro, $99/month with no transaction fee. You would pay through PayPal or Stripe (which charge their own transaction fees). Your customers can pay with PayPal or credit card. Find out more on my Stock Images page. Support for Women Solopreneurs: This Facebook group, Productive Women Solopreneurs, offers support to women who run a one-person business. The group offers daily production goals and lots of support - essential for someone who works alone! I joined this group recently and find them very helpful! (NOTE: if you are an author or an artist, you are - whether you know it or not - a solopreneur. Check this out!)
Short URLS from Bitly: Create and track your own short links - especially good for posting on Twitter. Another great free tool.
No-Hype Marketing with Marcia Yudkin: Marketing For Introverts and Other Under-Appreciated People and Companies. Marcia offers great marketing services and resources, including resources aimed specifically at introverts. Marcia operates out of Goshen, Massachusetts, USA
Email Marketing with Mailchimp: MailChimp provides you with an Email marketing tool similar to Constant Contact, but with a viable free level - up to 2,000 subscribers, up to 10,000 sends per month, proper opt-in features and more.
Accept Credit Cards With Paypal: I have been using PayPal Payments Standard for years to give me the capability of accepting both credit card payments and PayPal payments. I have always found them to be reliable, and there's no better - or easier - way to get into e-commerce. Setup is free, and there are no regular monthly charges. You simply pay a percentage of each sale (2.9% plus $0.30) to PayPal - which means you only pay when you make money. The only other fee is a charge of $0.50 when you transfer money from PayPal to your bank account.
Canadian Payroll Tool - Payroll Deductions Online Calculator: This is an extremely handy tool for any Canadian small business that has to handle a small payroll and doesn't want to pay the extra for the payroll module in Sage or QuickBooks. Completely free, and provides you with printed reports.
Website Stats From Statcounter: An excellent and very detailed statistics-tracking service for your website, and it's free for up to 250,000 pageloads per month. Gives you not only recent visitor activity, but tracks keyword activity, visit length, browser stats, resolution stats, and more. I have used StatCounter for years and find it an extremely useful tool.
Website Hosting from Hostpapa: Dustwood Media's webhost of choice. Their "Start" plan offers one website, 10 email addresses, 100gB of SSD storage, free domain registration, free standard SSL Certificate, cPanel control panel and more for $8.95/month or less; the "Plus" plan offers 10 websites, 100 email addresses, free standard SSL Certificate, 100GB SSD storage, free domain registration, cPanel control panel and more for $10.95/month or less; and the "Pro" and "Ultra" plans include even more advanced features. I've used HostPapa for years and found them very reliable.
Free Email Accounts
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Google's Gmail is my top choice for a free online email provider, powerful and reliable. Just go to www.google.ca and click on "Gmail".
You may have an email account available through your ISP (Internet Service Provider). Check out your ISP online and see if email addresses are included in your package.
If you have your own website, very likely you have the option to create one or more email addresses through your cPanel. This is the best choice for a business email address.
You can also get a free email address at Yahoo, Hotmail, and other places, but many servers treat email from these locations as junk mail. If you are using the email for business (and don't have an email address through your website host), do NOT use a Yahoo or Hotmail email address - choose Gmail instead.