Five Online Services Worth Paying For

I love free things (doesn’t everyone?) The internet offers a slew of services for free that we’ve all come to love, while some, require you to shell out some coin.

These online services offer something that will make your life a little easier, for a price that isn’t free, but it’s well worth it.

Lynda.com – Over 25,000 video tutorials on the latest design softwares and web programming languages. You can pay by month for $25 or sign on for the whole year. Get a taste of what they have to offer with their 3,000+ free online tutorials, and the Lynda.com Podcast (click here to subscribe via iTunes.)

Freelance Switch: Job Board – Over the last few months, Freelance Switch has become my favorite blog. This site is a resource to any creative making their way through the freelance trenches. Amidst the gems of knowledge and support on the Switches (that’s what I like to call it.) you’ll find a blog, forums, podcast, resources pages and a job board with leads to all kinds of gigs. Freelance Switch tries a new approach for making a top-notch job board by allowing employers to post ads for free, and subscribers to the board pay just $7 per month to have full access to leads contact information. Even if you don’t land a job off this board, your supporting an awesome site that’s totally worth it.

Tubesnow.com – Get a 1GB account for free, which could be all you need. This service allows you to share content with others, no more large email attachments, no handing out your ftp login to clients.

Litmus – Just what they say, “painfully test your email and web designs.” This service allows you to test your web-based designs in a multitude of platforms and browsers, manage the results and even share those results in a comprehensive way to your client. With single-user web testing plans starting at nearly $60 per month, it ain’t cheap, but if you do a fair amount of web design or development this service could save you a ton of time and headaches. Not sure it’s for you? All accounts start with a free 30-Day Trial.

Word Press – Yes I know, Word Press is a free blogging service. They offer great tools, a clean and simple interface and a ton of templates, but if you want to make your blog your own, it’s worth the $15 fee to have full access to customize you CSS.