Whatever type of freelancing you do, here are three tools you should check out right now. As a freelance writer and editor, I have tried many tools – most of them cost money and aren’t worth the price. These three tools for freelancers are FREE!

DROPBOX

Another tool I won’t do without! You’ve heard the motto, “Back up your work” over and over again. So many people ignore that advice until it is too late. The Dropbox shows up on your computer (you download it) just like all your other main files (my documents, my pictures, etc.) Save your important files to the Dropbox file. When you work on a doc and save it to the Dropbox, you can then access the file from your computer (offline) or at the website (online). Note: This is not like Carbonite – Dropbox does not pull docs and files from your computer on its own – you save only what you want in Dropbox. And did I mention? It is FREE.

Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring all your photos, docs, and videos anywhere. This means that any file you save to your Dropbox will automatically save to all your computers, phones and even the Dropbox website. Dropbox also makes it super easy to share with others, whether you’re a student or professional, parent or grandparent. Even if you accidentally spill a latte on your laptop, have no fear! You can relax knowing that Dropbox always has you covered, and none of your stuff will ever be lost.
https://www.dropbox.com/

REMEMBER THE MILK

I love this calendar. So easy to use – I can arrange my lists (Personal, Work, School) in color coded priorty, I can add notes to each item in the list, and I can review my completed items. This calendar is open on my laptop 24-7.

More than just a to-do list manager, Remember the Milk acts like a full-blown calendar, but without the row-and-column display. Separating your life into Personal, Study, and Work tasks (categories you can change), you enter task reminders as you would in any other calendar.

http://www.rememberthemilk.com/

ZAMZAR

Clients actually will pay me to convert their pdf’s to docs or docs to pdf’s. When they ask me to do this, I tell them about Zamzar. Why pay me when they can do it themselves for free? My gift to them. And they come back to me for other work because they appreciate the tip! The conversion works great – unlike other pdf converters, Zamzar will deliver your pdf converted to any form you want. And it is FREE!

This is a free (for 100M or less) conversion service to turn PDF’s into other types of files. I use it to convert PDF’s to doc files that can be edited. It is fast and easy and delivers a perfect translation of the PDF 99% of the time!

http://www.zamzar.com