Free � and Massive � Online Storage

4Shared

Every now and then you come across a site that you really, really like, and I love these guys. This is 4Shared.com, an online storage provider. They will give you access to 10 gigabytes of storage right now for free — not a problem. You can also store a ton of things here. They have special programs for music sharing, photo sharing and video sharing.

They offer full video support for just about every kind of movie that you can imagine. And — this is pretty cool — you can actually upload your movies, you can share them with friends, you can actually make a DVD collection of your own movies and set up your own account.

So the ability to have all this for free is pretty good, but then you begin to wonder what these guys are really trying to sell here. This is where it gets very, very interesting. Imagine that you need a lot of storage. With the premium program, you can have up to 100GB of storage, and they’ve got even more than that if you have a special need.

4Shared.com (Click for larger image).

Let’s assume that you have a project that you need to store for a short period of time, and you want to make sure that you’ve got it backed up everyplace in the world. For five dollars you can have 100GB of storage for five days. Now, if you want it for a year, it’s typically only $78 (but right now they’ve cut the price to $55).

So what a great opportunity to have a place where you can store something for a  long period of time. I don’t think you can even get 100GB of storage for $78, but, in any event, what a great place to store things. Go over to 4Shared.com and take a look at these solutions. They’re remarkable, easy to use and very flexible.

UpRight Instant One-Click Upload

I like this handy little tool from Otaku software. It’s called Upright, a small piece of software that you can download at TryUpright.com. Now once it’s installed, it allows you to right-click on any file or collection of files in Windows Explorer and upload them instantly to your Web site FTP address, to Amazon S3 storage or any other networks that you might use.

TryUpright.com (Click for larger image).

It’s easy, fast and reliable, and it’s a tool that I use everyday.  You can download a trial version for free, and the software usually costs around $20.

Product Dashboard

A lot of people ask me for a resource to help them create new information products that they can sell online or to make money. An information product is simply one like “How to” something or other…whatever it is. Here’s the resource I recommend because I use it myself and it’s excellent. So visit TryInfoProductDashboard.com.

It’s an online dashboard, and it was created by a friend of mine, Marlon Sanders. It guides you step-by-step through the process of creating a new product over the course of six weeks. Or you can do it faster if you like. Literally everything is covered in depth — from choosing the right market and doing a survey to see what customers really want, to creating audio and video elements, creating the sales Web site and so on.

Even if you’re not an expert in anything, which I find hard to believe, you can still use this system. The investment is $97 dollars, I think, and to prove just how good the training system is, there’s even a quadruple money-back guarantee. As you know, I only endorse products and services that I personally use and benefit from, so you can try Product Dashboard at zero risk.

You’ll find lots more marketing tips and resources from Andrew Lock in our Small Business Essential series, Lock in Your Marketing Resources.

Andrew Lock is a self-described maverick marketer and the creator and host of Help! My Business Sucks, a free, weekly Web TV show full of practical marketing tips, advice and resources to help small businesses “get more done and have more fun.”