Free Internet Tools and Resources the Steptoe (Sanford & Son) Way

Today I was just about to get into the shower when I heard a once familiar call and the clip clop of a horse. I couldn’t believe what I heard and had to look out of the window to check that I was hearing right. I saw a sight which I haven’t seen for many years – a scruffy man with horse and cart collecting other peoples junk from which he was planning to make money – a rag and bone man.

It reminded me of Steptoe and Son (Sanford and Son in the US) the popular sit com from the sixties and seventies, the rag and bone man even looked like Harold Steptoe from a distance. Harold and his father Albert ran a scrap yard and the rag and bone men went out on their rounds daily collecting junk, some free some paid for, the junk was recycled for profit proving the saying that one mans rubbish is another mans treasure.

I used to love watching Steptoe and Son and I’ll never forget the phrase “You dirty old man” said by Harold to his father in such a despising way. The humor probably wasn’t politically correct, but sometimes I think that PC has gone too far anyway.

Seeing the rag and bone man made me think about entrepreneurship and Internet marketing in a roundabout way. It made me realise that just as he collects free products for resale you can use free products and free tools and resources to help build your Internet business and there is no better time to start than now.

We keep hearing about the recession and how it has affected the lives of millions. When recessions hit many people lose their jobs and struggle to find other employment, but it is also a time when entrepreneurs rise from the ashes of high unemployment. Some create empires from real world businesses like my rag and bone man. Others get involved with business opportunities on and offline. Many don’t succeed but some do and it is because of those success stories that so many try.

New businesses need different levels of start up capital depending upon the type of business that is being launched. Real world businesses generally need more start up capital. For instance the rag and bone man would need a horse and cart and somewhere to store his ‘stock’. He would also need the know how to renovate or recycle his ‘stock’ and where to sell his goods.

An Internet business can be started with nothing except a computer, an ability to search and learn, a commitment to hard work and patience and little or no investment capital – but that could weaken your chance of success. However, there is no need to throw your life savings into Internet marketing because there are an awful lot of free products and free tools and resources waiting out there for you to make a start, learn or make money with providing that you realise that it takes time and that you have a lot of patience.

Once you have acquired enough knowledge and confidence in what you are doing then is the time to spend money, but with caution. Throwing money at programmes with claims of high earnings is generally a mistake. Those who make the high earnings are usually those who start the programmes up, but we are talking about tools and resources and it costs nothing to learn using them, a way of earning while learning.

I have a penchant for software, but the majority of what I have paid for I use on a regular basis and most of my purchases have come from profits. The only mistake that I’ve made was spending hundreds of pounds in 2007 on the Memberspeed software. It just didn’t work out for me for various reasons. I’ve still got access to it and may try again but I know that I can use WordPress and free plugins to build a membership site and probably more easily.

Following you will find a list of the types of low cost or free tools of resources available on the internet to help you to build your internet business:

Read More Free Internet Tools and Resources the Steptoe (Sanford & Son) Way Patricia's Planet