Yeah, the only way to get free shipping is if an item is marked that way.
But I think if add one item with free shipping you can get free shipping on your entire order. I know this worked in the past but I'm not sure if that's still the case. I used to add this $.59 book that had free shipping and using that, I got a power supply shipped free. Used it again to have Sin City Collectors Edition (or something) shipped free as well. But this was over a year ago.