theskywaspink

This morning I was reading my news feeds and came across this one from Web Worker Daily.

I’m a big user of open source, freeware and royalty free type content. If it’s there why not use it? It can save me time and money, so I thought I’d list out 3 areas I go to regularly for resources I might need. Being Website Templates, Stock Images, and Other Resources (photoshop brushes, actions, various other bits).

Free/Open Source Web Templates

OpenWebDesign
OpenSourceTemplates
OSWT
Free CSS
OpenSourceTemplates
StyleShout

Stock Image Sites

stock.xchnge – Free Stock Images
Fotolia – Royalty Free Stock Images. You pay for the image but there’s no restrictions on using it.
StockXpert – Royalty Free Stock Photos
DeviantArt – A lot of the stock images here require you to talk with the author. Some allow use for personal, some don’t allow commercial use, check with the notes on each image you think you may use.

Blogs & Websites

FreelanceSwitch – Everything you need to know about freelancing, you’ll find a lot of useful sites.
DeviantArt – Besides having a lot of stock images, it also has a mass of photoshop resources to choose from. I go there mainly for my photoshop brushes
Snapfiles – Full of freeware and shareware, some great applications around that can replace the ones we buy and do just as good at their job, all files are scanned for spyware and malware before being made public
MakeUseOf – This site is full of usefull websites and links to applications for anything you can think of, it’s only just made it into my news feeds and it’s become one of my favourite sites at the moment.
WebWorkerDaily – This is a regular in my readings of a morning. Usefull articles, sites and applications that pop up.
LifeHack – This, along with LifeHacker, while not affiliated with eachother. Provide various articles to techies, home based workers and bloggers. Sites, applications and more news.
LifeHacker – Sites, Applications and more.
AppsMania – This site is pretty much a database of web based 2.0 applications, they link to the site and are categorised. So you can take them for a test drive when you’re looking for something in particular.

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The process is quite simple to do this. What we are doing is making a static front page on WordPress, then having another menu link at the top to your blog.

1. Login to your administration panel

2. Click Manage > Pages > Create a New Page.

3. Name this page, in our case “Blog” and then publish this page.

4. Create a page for your static Front Page if you haven’t.

4. Next, click Options in the administration menu, then Reading.

6. On the top section titled Front Page/Front Page Displays, select A Static Page.

7. Select the page you want as the static front page, and select “Blog” as the Posts Page.

8. Update the options, and your page will be static on the front and a menu at the top called Blog with your blog posts in it.

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My Moo Cards arrived today, along with the keychain card holder. They look fantastic!

I’m going to be handing these out to prospective clients, and also sending some to previous clients and friends who recommend me on for work at times. I haven’t had a business card before, but I do now!

One thing I noticed, which is my fault but I couldn’t tell until I had them printed in my hands to check. The image used on the background comes out a little fuzzy and no definition. So I’m going to try and fix that for the next lot I order. Hopefully I’ll have my VOIP line going then so I’ll have a fixed line contact number to go on there as well.

They also have that silky, wax feel to them as well as I like. I think not only should a business card look good, it should feel good the moment it’s put in someones hands for the first time.

Click the thumbnail below to view my Moo Cards.

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