Free is good … free is great!   With times as rough as they are for small businesses, we need to save money wherever and whenever possible.   This week on Startup BizCast Ken Colburn from Data Doctors and I run down some of the best FREE resources on the `net for your small business!

Also, in BizCast Brief, the top five and bottom five small business-friendly states in the U.S.

A word from our sponsor:

Here’s the list of links mentioned in this week’s episode, along with a great tip from Data Doctors that will speed up your Firefox browser.   I tried it and it works great!

Google Alerts:

Google Docs:

Google’s Gmail:

Google’s Translate:

Business Advice:

Search Engine Education

Free Anti-Virus / Anti-Spyware:

Free Alternative to Microsoft Office:

Data Doctors Free Weekly Newsletter:

Data Doctors Weekly CNN.com video advice:

Firefox web browser:

Small Business Advice Podcast

The Data Doctors Tip for making Firefox even faster (for high-speed Internet users):

1. Type “about:config” into the address bar and hit return. Scroll down and look for the following entries:

network.http.pipelining

Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time. When you enable pipelining it will make several at once, which really speeds up page loading.

2. Alter the entries as follows:

Set “network.http.pipelining” to “true”

Set “network.http.proxy.pipelining” to “true”

Set “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” to some number like 30. This means it will make 30 requests at once.

3. Lastly right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it “nglayout.initialpaint.delay” and set its value to “0”. This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives.

If you’re using a broadband connection you’ll load pages MUCH faster now!”

Startup BizCastâ€s theme music is “Entranced” by Blake Emrys. The full version of the song, along with other music by the same artist, can be downloaded at Podsafe Music Network.

Startup BizCast is produced by BizPodz, the corporate podcast production service from EndGame Public Relations, LLC. For more information on how your business can take advantage of the social media revolution, please visit www.endgamepr.com/podcasts.