In order to run a business online or be a successful internet marketer, there are a few tools you're going to need. The cost for brand name software tools are often too expensive, especially when every dollar counts. Fortunately, there are alternatives to the big software names. These alternatives will fill your needs, and they are absolutely free.

FTP Utilities

Everyone needs an FTP program right? FireFTP is a free, secure, cross-platform FTP client for Mozilla Firefox which provides easy and intuitive access to FTP servers. It's an add-on for your Firefox browser. It starts as a new tab within your Firefox browser and you FTP right from your browser.

addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/684

AutoMailer

Marketers need to manage their email lists. Rather than pay a monthly fee to a service like aweber.com, here is a free (GNU license) PHP script you can install. poMMo is versatile Mass Mailing software. Add a mailing list to your website, or organize stand alone mailings. Unique features such as the ability to mail subsets of your subscribers set it apart from alternatives.

sourceforge.net/projects/pommo/

Antivirus Software

You really can't afford to work online without some virus protection. ClamWin is a Free Antivirus program for Microsoft Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/2003 and Vista. ClamWin Free Antivirus comes with an easy installer and open source code. You may download and use it absolutely free of charge.

clamwin.com

ZIP Utility

You absolutely needed a ZIP utility to work online. 7-Zip is open source ZIP utility software. Most of the source code is under the GNU LGPL license. You can use 7-Zip on any computer, including a computer in a commercial organization. You don't need to register or pay for 7-Zip.

7-zip.org

Spreadsheet and Word Processing

You'll always use Spreadsheets and Word Processors. OpenOffice.org 3 is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It's a replacement application for Microsoft Office, and can even use Microsoft Office files.

openoffice.org

Adobe PDF generator

The Adobe PDF format is everywhere online. PDFCreator easily creates PDFs from any Windows program. Use it like a printer in Word, StarCalc or any other Windows application.

sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator

Video Capture Utility

Do you need to create a video? These days more and more tutorials are in video format. Jing is free program that lets you record video of what you do, or what you see. The concept of Jing is the always-ready program that instantly captures and shares images and video...from your computer to anywhere.

jingproject.com

Graphics Editor

Would you like an alternative to the very expensive PhotoShop? Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.

getpaint.net

Photo Editor

GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages.

gimp.org

Encryption

Free open-source disk encryption software for Windows Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux.

truecrypt.org