Never underestimate the magic of the word free. It has inspired so many political speeches and so many half-hour infomercials that its place in the pantheon of words is assured. But the trouble with free is that all too often it's a step down from cheap--both in cost and tackiness. Free stuff is often junk that you use once, if at all, and then designate to garage sales.

Nevertheless, I'm still entranced by the idea of getting stuff without paying for it--as my fine collection of Happy Meal toys and gas station tumblers shows. But I don't tolerate junk for long, so whenever I'm pitched with free software or services for my business, I usually check it out and chuck it out in short order. But this didn't happen to two freebies I worked with recently. I'm now the proud owner of a free Net domain from NameDemo (something that hasn't been possible since the early 1990s), and also of a word processor, spreadsheet, and photo-editing suite that came gratis from Software602. Neither of these offerings is perfect, but they are both strong enough to recommend.

Stake your domain

As the great Internet land-grab continues, you hardly need any encouragement to stake your claim on a domain. Whether it's your name, nickname, company name, or a product or service you offer, it's useful to have exclusive use of the .com, .net, or .org version of it (preferably all of them). But if you happen to have a few dozen of these, the cost of keeping the doma...

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