We understand that small businesses are the lifeblood of our communities. And we know that this has been a difficult time for many. We are here to help you survive this situation and thrive once the economy is back on track.
In these challenging times, a few extra resources go a long way. If you are managing a small business or nonprofit, the following free online tools are available to help you build your brand, improve your internet presence, and be more productive. Please note that AccuData has no affiliation with any of the resources below.
BUILD YOUR BRAND
Images, Graphics, and Vectors
FreePik: “Graphic resources for everyone”. FreePik offers thousands of free, and royalty-free, vectors, images, icons, and PSD files; access to their hundreds of designers on staff; and a premium option with even more selection. Whether you are new to the game or a professional artist – this site has something for everyone!
www.freepik.com
Pexels: “The best free stock photos & videos shared by talented creators.” Search the site’s ever-growing number of diverse, creative, royalty-free images available for commercial use.
www.pexels.com
Unsplash: Powered by creators everywhere, explore high-quality images in a variety of filters, moods, and settings. Search collections, artists, and categories or submit your own work.
www.unsplash.com
Ionicons: Features outlined, filled, and sharp icons ready for use in web, iOS, Android, and desktop apps. Supported for SVG and web font, open-sourced, and MIT-licensed.
www.ionicons.com
Videos and Audio
Life of vids: Collections range from Drone, Food, Nature, People, Office, and more. This site is about as simple as it gets – search and download with no copyright restrictions, just keep your redistribution to under 10 videos per site.
www.lifeofvids.com
Motion Places: Travel the world in 60 seconds with a visit to this home page. This site features videos from around the world at hot-spot locations in The States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. Filter by themes and colors if you are looking for something specific.
www.motionplaces.com
Mixkit: Mixkit bundles stock video, music, and Premier Pro templates in a variety of categories, including Nature, Lifestyle, Business, Animals, Food, Transport, and more. With a huge inventory and lots of searchability ease, it is a top contender in the creative asset world.
www.mixkit.co
Videvo: Videvo features a variety of free and premium clips that you can use for websites, social posts, emails, and more. Easily sort through video, music, and sound to find the clip perfect for you. Only want to see the free clips? No problem. When you go to All Videos, select “Only free clips” in the filter. options.
www.videvo.net
Coverr: For abstract footage, check out Coverr. The site is easy to navigate and features beautiful videos that are not overpowering. Sort by moods, angles, or types of video and download raw footage, HTML, CSS, or JavaScript for your video use.
www.coverr.co
Fonts
Font Squirrel: “A Free Font Utopia” is the slogan you’ll see upon visiting Font Squirrel’s website, and there’s plenty to explore. Search through hot fonts, recent fonts, or even use their Font Identifier to find a font based on an uploaded image.
www.fontsquirrel.com
Emotype: Looking to inspire a certain emotion with your font? Check out Emotype. This site groups fonts based on the tone they inspire such as Confidence, Welcoming, Unique, and Neutral.
emotype.webflow.io
Simple Design
Canva: Canva is a fun and easy-to-use tool that allows you to create your own graphics or modify prebuilt templates for a variety of platforms, events, and needs. With built-in logos, illustrations, photos, and more, as well as your ability to upload your own graphics, Canva’s vast features make it a favorite among all skill levels.
www.canva.com
LunaPic: LunaPic is a free online photo editor, offering photo, sketch and paint effects. This easy-to-use tool requires no registration so getting started is simple!
www.lunapic.com
Complex Design
Gravit Designer: Gravit Designer is a free, full-vector graphic design app. It includes a world for creating shapes, lines, and precision vectors. If you are more interested in creating a fantastic UI design, including styles, symbols, anchors, and pages, you’ve also found yourself in the right place. The tool doesn’t stop there, though! It also includes an image and photo editing software, allowing edits from lighting adjustments to filters and blending. There is a PRO version for $49/year that features the ability to work offline, advanced export options, and version history.
www.designer.io/en
Video Editing
Kapwing: Edit videos and gifs up to 7 minutes long with no water marks and a 500MB file limit using the Kapwing tool. The platform is fast, simple, accessible, and modern. There are a variety of tools, collections, and resources available.
www.kapwing.com
Mockups
Mockupworld: Mockupworld boasts that they are the biggest source of free, photo-realistic mockups online and features a section for those who do not have Photoshop software. With a variety of categories to choose from and an easy to navigate platform, it is an easy way to amp up your image.
www.mockupworld.co
Shotsnapp: If you’re designing apps, this tool makes mockups easy. While there is a pro version ($24 for annual access) you can use the free basic version, which includes a variety of phones, computers, smartwatches, and tables ready to display your work!
www.shotsnapp.com
SCORE YOURSELF (or your clients!)
Website Graders
HubSpot Website Grader: Get a scored result for your website’s performance, mobile-accessibility, SEO, and security from HubSpot’s Website Grader. Easily identify areas in which your website can improve, critical errors that may be holding your website back, and even review a list of recommendations for things to do next.
website.grader.com
Nibbler: Nibbler gives an in-depth analysis of a website, analyzing printability, popularity, internal links, amount of content, twitter, images, mobile, server behavior, analytics, page titles, headings, incoming links, meta tags, url format, freshness, domain age, and more.
nibbler.silktide.com
SEM Rush: Get an overview of your organic presence with SEM Rush. There is a paid version, but the free version offers quite a bit of information. You can get a domain overview, traffic analytics, organic research, and a variety of keyword research in addition to setting up rank-tracking alerts to your email.
www.semrush.com
Text Graders
Clarity Grader: Grade your text for an email, document, or on each page of your website for the number of words, run-on sentences, the use of passive voice, and more. Each registered email address is allotted 10 free scans.
www.claritygrader.com
Grammarly: Grammarly goes above and beyond traditional text graders by using artificial intelligence and natural language processing in text grading. It offers suggested word replacement, tones, weekly reviews, and can be embedded into Office 360 as well as Google Chrome.
www.grammarly.com
STAY PRODUCTIVE
Project Management
Airtable: Airtable features a variety of views and styles for you to manage your projects. The tool comes with a variety of layouts, including spreadsheet and calendar views, and features the ability to assign projects and tasks to individuals. Stay organized with tabs, colors, and email reminders.
www.airtable.com
Asana: Asana is another project management tool featuring a variety of views, including list, board, timeline, calendar, progress, forms, and more. Their basic plan is free and includes the ability to collaborate with up to 15 teammates and integrate with your favorite apps.
www.asana.com
ClickUp: ClickUp pulls together all of your apps and profiles, creating a universal inbox for ultimate teamwork. The platform has over 100 proprietary features to help you choose what you want to accomplish and allows you to hide everything else. You can also customize the color scheme for a personalized experience.
www.clickup.com
Trello: This platform features unlimited personal boards, cards, and lists. Their free version offers 10MB per file attachment and 10 team boards, a power up for the board, automations, and more. It is certainly a fun, flexible, and rewarding way to organize and prioritize your projects!
www.trello.com
Todoist: Regain clarity if you’re feeling overwhelmed by organizing your tasks in todoist. Add tasks quickly, customize your view, and set up recurring due dates. You can also prioritize your tasks to help you focus your energy on the right things.
www.todoist.com
Automate
Zapier: Zapier automates a variety of tasks for more than 2,000 apps and processes. While some are premium features, you can use this app to automate up to 1,000 processes, or ‘zaps’, for free each month. Zaps can be used for lead flow, emails, calendar events, and more.
www.zapier.com
Tab Snooze: We snooze our calendar reminders and our alarm clocks; why not snooze our browser tabs? With this Chrome extension, do more than bookmark by snoozing tabs until tomorrow, next week, or a specific date.
www.tabsnooze.com
We hope you find these resources helpful!
We would love to hear from you – please contact us for a free strategy session so we can learn more about your needs.