Free Business Tools Can Be Costly

Sunday, January 9th, 2011 at 11:19 am

There are a wide variety of online free business tools that are available, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t have a cost. While there are a variety of free business tools that are very useful, like a keyword research tool, trending tools, and communication/project management tools. However, there are some tools that, even with a free price tag, can end up becoming very costly. If you’re looking to run a successful online and/or work from home business, then you should understand what these costs are. Some people feel that these costs are acceptable, while others find them to be extremely damaging to their overall business. Here’s a quick look at some of the most costly free business tools online.

1.Website/Hosting/Domain

There are a number of free business tools related to creating and maintaining a website which are offered for free, but can carry an extremely high cost to your business and your reputation. One such common resource is website hosting and creation services. For example, you can get a free website or blog at websites like Blogger.com or WordPress.com. While some of these website can serve a objective, such as link building, they can be a poor choices for your primary website. This is because the companies which are hosting your website will place a variety of restrictions on what you can do and how you can monetize your site. While this may not matter in the short term, it can cause lots of problems in the long run. Furthermore, if you do finally get a domain of your own, then you will not be able to redirect your old website to your new one. This means that you will have to start the website building/traffic generation process over for the new site, instead of leveraging the work that you have already done. Additionally, they have the power to shut down your site at any time, which means that you could wake up one day and find out that all of the work you have done is totally gone.

2.Auto Responder Services

Another of the common free business tools are auto responder services.While many of these are commercial, they are still very affordable. However, you can find still some free versions available and can be very tempting to use. However, it is important to remember that these free services still have to make money somehow and it is usually done by placing ads at the top and/or bottom of every message which you send. These advertisements could not only potentially distract your readers from what you are saying, but could also irritate your readers because the offers are likely to be unrelated to the topic that you are discussing with your list. Another problem is that many of these free services may limit the size of your list. While this may not have any real effects in the short term, it could have severely limit your income potential in the future. Finally, many of the free services don’t have an export function, which means that whenever you do change to a commercial autoresponder, it could take several days to get all the data form one place to another.

It is important to make sure that you have enough control over your online business assets so that you can do whatever you want. While some free business tools will give this to you, there are others which will severely limit your freedom. It is important to remember that there are most costs than just financial ones. By keeping that in mind, you will be able to make the best decision with regard to which free services are worthwhile and which ones could hurt your business in the long run.