Top 10 Free Products for the Thrifty Virtual Assistant
Here’s my top 10 list of invaluable free tools and software for the Virtual Assistant.
Express Scribe
Express Scribe is FREE audio player software for PC, Mac or Linux. It will play most digital audio file formats (including encrypted dictation files)
It’s really easy to download.
It can be controlled using a transcription foot pedal or using the keyboard (with ‘hot’ keys). As I don’t do much transcription I use the ‘hot’ keys. It would obviously be quicker to use a foot pedal but don’t feel I do enough transcription to warrant purchasing one.
SendThisFile
Sending large files via email can take a long time and sometimes they never arrive.
SendThisFile allows you to put a free upload box on your website that allows your clients to send large files, one at a time to you.
MyHours.com
myHours.com is a time management, timesheet and time tracking solution. It enables you to track your work time, projects you work on and tasks you perform. It is web based and can be used from any location at any time. myHours.com is free at the time of writing but states on their website “when we will start to charge for the use of myHours is still unknown”.
I did find this program to be very useful but it was a bit frustrating that I had to keep adding a task. As my tasks changed quite frequently I decided I needed it to be a bit more flexible.
I ran a report and was then able to export the report into an Excel spreadsheet. It maintained all the time formatting and I was able to use it in Excel instead.
PDF995
Pdf995 offers three products Pdf995, PdfEdit995 and Signature995. These are all free to download but will display a sponsor page in your web browser each time you run the software. You can pay for the software and the sponsor page will not appear.
If you wish to combine a number of PDFs together then watch this video on how to do it with Pdf995.
Filezilla FTP
Filezilla FTP is a software program that you use to upload files to a server. Filezilla is one of the best FTP programs I have used and it’s free. It’s easy to use and only took me a couple of minutes to download.
Jing
Need some screenshots for your posts/articles then Jing is the software to have. It has been created by the makers of Camtasia, Techsmith so you know it’s going to be good 
CamStudio
If you are serious about marketing your business then you should have some video on your website or on video sharing sites.
I have created a number of videos now and I have to say before I started I was terrified. It really does grow your confidence and makes you think about your business.
I started off using CamStudio and edited the videos in Windows Movie Maker, which comes free with the Microsoft Office Suite, XP SP2 or later.
I started to have a few quality issues when I dragged the videos into Windows Movie Maker so I signed up for the free version of Camtasia.
I am now hooked on Camtasia and have purchased it.
CamStudio is really good though and is a good starting point.
GIMPshop
GIMPshop is a free program intended to replicate the feel of Adobe Photoshop.
I’ve not really had much of a chance to use this, as I have PhotoImpact on my PC and that works fine for me. Try it out and let me know if it’s any good.
WordPress
I believe that WordPress is no longer just a blogging platform.
I have used it to create websites and even an e-commerce website.
Having a blog has so many advantages:
People can learn all about you.
People can engage with you.
People can learn from you.
Your website will have fresh content and be ranked better.
Need some advice on setting up WordPress check this article out 8 must dos for a successful WordPress blog
Want to learn about WordPress check out my free WordPress course.
OpenOffice
OpenOffice is opensource (free) software created by Sun Microsystems with the following products:
WRITER is a fully equipped word processor or desktop publisher software.
IMPRESS is a tool for creating effective multimedia presentations.
MATH is a tool for creating equations and formulae for your documents.
DRAW is a drawing package.
CALC is the spreadsheet program.
BASE is the database software.
You can save the documents in numerous formats and OpenOffice has the facility to export your documents as PDFs.
There is going to be a learning curve if you are used to Microsoft Office. As I have Microsoft Office I have only used it to export PDFs, as it maintains all the hyperlinks in the document.
A lot of the above software has been invaluable to me and I hope it is to you.
Please feel free to add a comment below and let me know what is your favourite totally free software.
