Personal Branders - Good Tools #5

50+ zero-cost tools to make your personal brand shine, visible and appreciated.

The author - 2008

Hello, and welcome to issue n.5 of Good Tools.

In this issue you will find tools, apps and browser extensions that are uniquely useful to indie entrepreneurs, bootstrapped startups, authors and small publishers alike.

For this specific edition, I have gone after personal branding tools and apps.

These are free apps that help you build and support the growth of your personal brand, in the following categories:

• Personal Profile Pages

• Personal Portfolios

• CV and Resumes

• One-Page Websites

• Personal Logos

• Professional Email Signature

• Avatar Picture

• Personal Brand Monitoring

• Online Publishing

• more…

The filtering criteria I use for the tools I select are:

• 100% free (or have very generous free plan)

• Not popular, not well-known

• Tested and verified by me (Robin Good)

If you find tools that are truly useful for you inside this issue, please consider supporting this work with a paid subscription.

That’s the best way to reward and encourage my work and to make sure I keep on doing it.

Robin Good

Personal Branding Tools

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1) Personal Profile Pages

• Bento.me
  100% free
  example
  

• Muralapp.io
  Free version
  example
  

• Peerlist.io
  100% free

  example
  

• Solo.to

  Free version - up to 25 links
  example
  

• Nano.site
  100% free for personal use
  

• Google About Me
  100% free
  little-known but quite important

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2) Personal Portfolios

• Google Sites

  100% free - unlimited pages and images

• Flickr
  100% free version - up to 1000 photos/videos

• xTiles
  100% free version - max 1000 items
  Web, desktop, iOS and Android
  examples
  

• Adobe Portfolio
  100% free for subscribers of Adobe Creative Cloud

• Journo Portfolio
  100% free version - max 10 items
  examples

• Readymag
  Free version - allows one portfolio with unlimited content items
  examples

• Clippings.me
  Free version - allows clipping up to 10 articles

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3) One-Page Websites

• Canva Website Builder
  100% free plan - up to 5GB of uploadable content
  1M free photos - 250K templates

• Limey
  Free plan - up to 3 pages
  

• Tilda.cc
  Free plan - 1 website

• Mobirise
  100% free website builder software for Mac and PC
  Hostable (freeì on mobirise sub-domain) - Exportable

• IMCreator
  100% free plan for artists and non-profits

• Strikingly
  100% free plan - Unlimited sites on Strikingly.com domain

  5GB Bandwidth / 500 MB total storage per site

  up to 5 pages per site

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4) Profile Picture Generators

• Picsart Profile Picture Maker
  100% free - top tool - fully featured

• ProfilePicture.AI

  100% free - automatically eliminates background
  (pricing says you need to pay, but it works also without)
  tens of variants ready to be downloaded in .PNG
  

• PFP Maker
  100% free - automatically eliminates background

• TinyWow Profile Photo Maker

  100% free - automatically eliminates background

• Pixlr PhotoMash
  100% free - automatically eliminates background

• NewProfilePIC
  100% free - automatically eliminates background
  *little watermark at the bottom
  

• Personas
  100% free - for those who prefer to remain a bit in the shadow
  generates customizable profile avatars without needing a photo

---

5) Pro-Looking eMail Signatures

• Hubspot eMail Signature Generator
  100% free - multiple templates
  No registration required

• SignatureHound
  100% free - fully featured
  

• Reply.io Email Signature Generator
  100% free - 5 alternative layouts - unlimited signatures
  

• Email Signature Generator
  100% free - one style only - photo/avatar supported
  

• HTMLsig

  Free version - one style only - photo/avatar supported
  

• Mailbum
  100% free - basic styles

• Signature
  100% free - edit for 30 days

• MySigMail
  Free version - one sig + unlimited exports
  *small link to original brand
  

• WiseStamp
  Free plan - PRO design and features
  *small link to original brand
  

• SignatureLab
  100% free version - one signature - forever editable
  *small link to original brand

---

6) Logo Makers

• Adobe Free Logo Maker
  100% free - fully featured
  large library of icons, symbols and images
  download resolution 500x500p

• Shopify Logo Maker

  100% free - fully featured
  download in full resolution - favicon and social media logo variants included

• Printful Logo Maker
  100% free - fully featured
  download in full resolution
  

• Logo.com
  100% free - high-res downloads - unlimited edits

• NameCheap Logo Maker
  100% free - requires registration
  Download full resolution logo in .PNG
  

• Fotor Logo Maker
  free - lots of editable logo templates - requires registration
  Download full resolution logo in .PNG / PDF

• Free Logos
  100% free
  for open-source projects and NGOs

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7) CV Builders

• FlowCV
  100% free for one resume - all features available
  unlimited downloads

• INeedaResume
  100% free - 4 basic designs
  unlimited PDF downloads and edits

• GoodProfile.me
  100% free while in Beta
  free plan available afterwards
  web-based CV
  

• CVLogin
  100% free - requires registration
  multiple templates - fully featured
  unlimited PDF downloads and edits

  import from LinkedIN and FB

• ResumePro
  100% free - requires registration
  multiple templates
  unlimited PDF, HTML, PNG downloads, prints and edits

• CakeResume
  Free version - one resume max
  PDF download

• SwiftCV
  Free version - unlimited items and projects
  PDF download
  *watermark + small link to original brand

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8) Personal Brand Monitoring

• Google Alerts
  100% free - provides email alerts and RSS feeds
  sources: Web, news, video, blogs, books
  

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9) Personal Publishing

• Medium
  100% free - publish short & long content
  create publications, lists, collections, newsletters

• Substack
  100% free - publish short & long content
  create newsletters, publications, podcasts
  social media network
  

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10) Merchandise

• Printful
  100% free - add your brand to physical products and sell them online
  pay a commission when you sell to your clients
  fulfilment and distribution included
  

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11) Personal Branding Resources (100% free)

• New Personal Branding Canvas
  (2023) (PDF)

• Personal Branding Canvas
  (2022) (PDF)

• Original Personal Branding Canvas
  (2014) (PDF)
  ideal tool for defining your personal branding strategy.

  

• Personal Brand Workbook
  (PDF) 42 pages
  

• LinkedIN Personal Branding Checklist
  (PDF) 3 pages

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Poll

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From me to you

Thank you for being a reader and sticking around.

My name is Robin and I love supporting indie entrepreneurs looking for alternative money-saving alternatives.

It takes a lot of time (nearly 12 hours) and work to identify these tools, try them out and organize them in ways that can provide immediate value to you.

But this is what I truly love. I have been searching, testing and sharing great rare-to-find tools for indie entrepreneurs since March 2000 when I started to publish my first newsletter Mastermind Explorer.

I do this because I get a kick out of searching and finding hard-to-find gems and useful resources.

I also feel it is my mission not to keep these just for me but to share them with anyone who may need them.

I am part of a growing number of people who have in their genetic code the drive to organize the vast amount of information and resources that are already available online, but are impossible to find via Google search.

If you feel that what I do is useful for you and for others please do support this newsletter with a paid subscription so that I, and others, can continue to fulfill our mission of sharing the best of what we find with you.

from sunny Holbox island,

Robin Good