The web can be a wonderful place. Services like Wikipedia have put the entirety of human knowledge up onto the web for free. Just because people are nice. It doesn’t cost you a penny more than the price of your broadband contract. But there’s far more than that at your disposal.
We’ve had a look around some of the web’s lesser-known corners and found a raft of experts and have-a-go heroes willing to offer you help, tools, services and actual things for free. It’s all there – you just need to know where to look…
1. Free professional photo editing
Head to the ‘picrequests’ sub-section of online aggregator Reddit. While much of Reddit revolves around people posting photos of their cats, here you’ll find a room full of people willing to help you out if you’ve got some picture problems.
Found an old, torn photo of your grandparents? Someone from picrequests will run it through Photoshop, iron out all the creases and even add colour to it if you like. Similarly, if you’ve got your thumb over a part of the lens on a prime holiday snap or want someone to jazz up a wedding shot, you’re in luck.
2. Free private tutoring
You don’t use YouTube to its full potential. We can tell this because you don’t know kung fu, or how to lay a new carpet, or how to apply manga make-up, or how to do degree-level maths, or how to solve a Rubiks Cube.
Bottom line is this: there are plenty of people out there with a desire to share their knowledge, and it’s turned YouTube into a portal full of private teachers. Ever fancied learning a language? Here’s a series of videos to get you started.
3. Free personal training
Similarly, you don’t need to hand over your hard earned for a personalised fitness plan. The thing about really fit people is that they like people to look at them, which is why YouTube’s full of instructional fitness and exercise vids. After an all over body plan for the new year? Try this one.
You should also check out Udemy, a website full of free and paid online lessons in everything from fitness to games, to test preparation and business.
4. Mobile phone hacks …or beer
The XDA Developer forum is mecca for anyone serious about mobiles. Most of its 5 million members are developers who continually push to see what hoops smartphones can be made to jump through next.
Android is a hot topic, but the XDA forums work with iPhones, Windows Phones and everything in between. The joy is in the sense of community here. Developers put their hacks, mods and jailbreaks up to download for free, but usually provide a Paypal link that lets users ‘buy them a beer’.
This obviously works two ways; if you yourself have a decent app, tool or shortcut to upload, you’ll find yourself rewarded.
5. Free furniture
Freecycle is a UK-based online commuity that lets people give their unwanted stuff away for free to anyone in the local area. Sign up to your town or borough’s Freecycle group and you’ll receive email digests from your neighbours.
Of course, most of the time it’ll be people giving away power cords and leaflets, but every now and then there’ll be a genuine find.
6. Free pizza
Back to Reddit for this one. The kind people of the interwebs have set up a sub-Reddit by the name of ‘RandomActsOfPizza’, which does what it alludes to. State your case and someone might just see fit to order you a large with pepperoni.
There are two caveats to this: most of the action seems to be in the US, while the lucky recipients tend to be so down on their luck that it should make you feel bad about asking for free food if you can genuinely afford it. Still, it’s a fine resource for if times ever get tough.
While you’re at it:
- 5 blogs that’ll change your life this year
- 10 websites to lose your life to
- The best Tumblr blogs in the world
