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Help yourself to some free downloads. You don't need to participate in surveys to get use out of them, but if you do they can sure help.
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RoboForm
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If you've read the Tips page, you know that I think pretty highly of RoboForm. And why not? It doesn't have any pesky adware or spyware, it comes highly recommended by such reputable institutions as The Wall Street Journal, PC World, and CNET, and the free version is loaded with features. It's a great tool for anyone who uses the internet, but for those of us who are constantly signing up for sites and filling out surveys it can potentially shave hours off of the time you would normally spend filling out forms. Since the going rate for the use of our time is about $20/hour, I'd say it's a great deal for the Pro version and an absolute steal for the free version.
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OpenOffice.org defies logic. It is a fully functional, community supported, 100% free office suite, comparable to MS Office or a similar package. Whether you need to write an essay or build a database, OO.org can do it. It comes in a variety of languages for whatever platform you have, and like RoboForm it comes in a portable version that you can install on a thumb drive. Due to bandwidth and hard drive limitations I can't host every possible permutation of language and operating system, but you can download the English version for Windows using the link above. You can find the portable version here and the different English versions here. For international versions, pick your language from the list here and go from there.
Using certain parts of OpenOffice.org requires the installation of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). As long as you don't plan on using the database component, the accessibility features, or certain wizards you should be fine. However, if you notice that certain elements that you need aren't functioning, download the JRE for free at Java.com to get them working properly.
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The Google Pack is great. In one software bundle you get the Firefox web broswer, Norton AntiVirus, AdAware spyware remover, RealPlayer media player, Adobe Reader 7, Picasa photo organizer/editor, and much more. Not only that, but you can pick and choose what you want before you download, so there's no need to waste time on the stuff you don't want or already have. And best of all, it's completely free! Everyone benefits from this package, but we need some of this software just to do our "jobs". For example, JuryTest (as seen on the Earn More Money page) requires RealPlayer to participate in a mock jury. Some of the mystery shopper sites here require Adobe Acrobat Reader to view important documentation. And chances are, in looking for all this information elsewhere you've run across some unscrupulous sites that may have done things to your computer, so it never hurts to have anti-virus and anti-spyware programs protecting you. What have you got to lose?
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| Earnings spreadsheet
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I've been using a spreadsheet to keep track of my earnings for several months now, and I figured you guys might benefit from it too. It's nice to be able to look and see just how much you've earned over time. There are instructions with it that tell you how it's set up and how to use it, but if you have any questions that it doesn't answer or if I've made it too confusing, let me know and I'll try to help you out. In order to use it you will need a program that can read spreadsheets, such as MS Excel or OpenOffice.org (see above). It's saved in XLS format so either should work fine.
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