Business Opportunities Weblog

February 19, 2008 by Rich Whittle | 6 Comments

RealSimple.com:

Sometimes you get what you don’t pay for. Here are nearly two dozen of the best freebies and — most important — how to score them.

Free education
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Get your geek on: MIT offers a far more comprehensive selection of free online courses than other universities — nearly its entire undergraduate and graduate curriculum. Downloading materials takes minutes. A newsletter highlights new offerings, from Quantum Physics to American Women Authors. What’s the Catch? Users can’t enroll, take classes on campus, or earn degrees. Find Out More: http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html

• BBC, FrenchPodClass. The BBC offers top-notch online and MP3 lessons in languages familiar and obscure, including French, German, Portuguese, Mandarin, Greek, and Urdu. FrenchPodClass has easy-to-use, enjoyable podcasts that allow you to learn French while you do errands or go for a run. What’s the Catch? Classes are one size fits all, which fast learners may find sluggish (and slow learners may find difficult). Find Out More: http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html, http://www.frenchpodclass.com/

Free classes
• U.S. Small Business Administration. Learn how to write a business plan, register your company, and deal with the tax details of running a home business at your local Women’s Business Center evening classes (men are welcome, too). What’s the Catch? Novices and more advanced learners share the same classroom. Find Out More: http://www.sba.gov/localresources/index.html (click on “Local Resources” for a nearby center and for financial and marketing information).

• Apple Stores. Apple gives excellent classes on business and entertainment software, music programs, and computer basics, all remarkably free of sales pitches. There are also classes on how to use Apple hardware, like iPods. Most of the company’s stores — there are more than 170 — offer several classes a day. What’s the Catch? All classes relate to (often pricey) Apple products. Find Out More: http://www.apple.com/retail/ (click on “Visit an Apple store”).

Free phone services
• The Popularity Dialer. Want to flee that meeting? Get out of lunch after an hour? The Web-based Popularity Dialer can place one of five fake calls: the boss call, the cousin-in-need call, the male-friend call, the female-friend call, or the affirmation call (reminding you that you’re wonderful). Each recording includes convenient pauses for your side of the conversation. What’s the Catch? You need to know beforehand that you’ll want rescuing and you have to be willing to break social graces by taking a phone call in the middle of a meeting or lunch. Find Out More: www.popularitydialer.com.

• 800-FREE-411. Instead of dialing 411 and being charged 50 cents to $1.50, call this service, from a cell or a landline, for free nationwide directory assistance. What’s the Catch? You have to listen to a 20- second ad before receiving your number. Find Out More: 800-373-3411 (800-FREE-411).

• Skype. Download and install free Skype software and call other Skype users, computer to computer, at no charge, anywhere in the world. If you have a webcam, you can see whom you’re chatting with, too. What’s the Catch? If you don’t have DSL or a cable modem, it may be more cost-effective (money- and sanity-wise) to dial up the old-fashioned way. Find Out More: www.skype.com.

For more go here.

Photo by MSDesigns.

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Tags: Free, Internet, Productivity